The Role of Individual Differences in the Prediction of Cooperation, Deviance, and Performance
- The present dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding about the effects of individual differences on three outcomes crucial for social and organizational functioning – cooperation, deviance, and performance. Chapter 1 describes the use of individual differences in predicting these behaviors in more detail, explains the most important individual difference (i.e., personality) and its conceptualizations, and provides an overview of the remaining chapters. In Chapter 2, it is shown that the relation between social value orientation (SVO) and cooperation is partially mediated by expectations of others’ behavior. In Chapter 3, the predictive validity of SVO for deviant behavior is demonstrated, whereas Chapter 4 meta-analytically examines the relations between broad personality domains and workplace deviance and shows that HEXACO Honesty-Humility is the strongest predictor out of all Big Five and HEXACO personality domains examined. In Chapter 5, it is demonstrated that the negative relation between age and workplace deviance is mediated by personality and negative affect. As such, findings of this chapter for the first time test the mechanisms underlying the negative relation between age and workplace deviance. The last empirical chapter of this dissertation examines how another important demographic characteristic – gender – relates to firm financial performance. Female representation on corporate boards and firm financial performance are neither positively nor negatively related. Together, these five empirical chapters provide valuable insights into the study of individual differences as predictors of behaviors that crucially determine social and organizational functioning. Chapter 7 summarizes the main findings, discusses theoretical and practical implications, and deduces directions for future research.
