Linking the Big Five personality factors and career commitment dimensions: A study of the Indian organizations

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and intellect/openness to experience) with career commitment measured in terms of three factors as career identity, career resilience, and career planning.

Design/methodology/approach

The study included 363 managers from public and private sector organizations in North India.

Findings

The authors found that in the Indian context, openness to experience/intellect is the Big Five personality dimension that acts as the significant predictor of all the three dimensions of career commitment (career identity, career resilience, and career planning). Further, conscientiousness was found as the significant predictor of only career identity, which indicated Indian managers who are focused identify well with their career line. In addition, the Big Five personality dimension of agreeableness was found to have a positive significant influence on career planning. From this, the authors inferred that tendency to get along well with others helps Indian managers in enhancing their career planning.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the existing literature on personality and careers in the South-Asian context.

Citation

Arora, R. and Rangnekar, S. (2016), "Linking the Big Five personality factors and career commitment dimensions: A study of the Indian organizations", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 35 No. 9, pp. 1134-1148. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-10-2015-0142