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Purpose – Past literature suggests that the performance and turnover of the subordinate are affected by the support, abuse, and feedback provided by the supervisor. In this study, we posit that support, abuse, and feedback in an accounting firm, are in turn, affected by the supervisor's personality, as defined by the Big Five personality factors.

Methodology/approach – We conducted a web-based study with 115 accountants from a top 100 US accounting firm. The accountants completed questionnaires related to the personality of their supervisors along with questionnaires related to the support, abuse, and feedback they received from their supervisors. We analyzed the data using factor analysis and multiple regression.

Findings – We hypothesize that Openness and Agreeableness increase support; Neuroticism increases abuse, but less so if the supervisor is an Extravert; and Extraversion and Conscientiousness increase feedback. Among the hypothesized relationships, all are supported except the relationship between Openness and support. Additional findings are that Extraversion and Conscientiousness increase support; Agreeableness and Conscientiousness decrease abuse; and Agreeableness increases feedback.

Research implications – Our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the relationship between the personality traits of supervisors and their behavior toward subordinates in an accounting setting. The results of our study can be used in identifying the supervisors who have the right personality for the position, which will likely improve the work environment and reduce turnover.

Leaders’ emotional intelligence (EI), personality, and empowering behavior have been heavily studied in the organizational behavior literature. To date, the majority of research on EI and personality has shown their significant influence on personal outcomes. It has also been suggested that empowerment is a fundamental psychological mechanism underlying follower outcomes. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team outcomes and the potential mediating effect of team leaders’ empowering behavior. In this study, we developed theoretical rationale and empirically tested the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team climate and the mediating role that team leaders’ empowering behavior plays in this relationship. The results supported most of our hypothesized relationships, that is, the positive effects of team leaders’ EI and agreeableness on team climate were mediated by team leaders’ empowering behavior, whereas team leaders’ openness to new experience was not related to empowering behavior and team climate. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

From an online survey of 114 participating accountants at staff, senior staff, and supervisor levels from a top-100 U.S. accounting firm, we investigate the effects of the Big Five personality traits (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness) on the ethical decision-making process of accountants. Within the framework of Rest’s (1986) Four-Component Model of Ethical Behavior, we focus on Component III, the formation of an intention to act upon one’s best ethical judgment. Based on the limited extant literature on the connection between personality and ethical behavior, we expect that accountants high in Conscientiousness and Openness will tend to form an intention to act ethically despite pressure in an ethical dilemma. We develop more tentative hypotheses about the remaining three factors. Controlling for age, gender, education, sole earning status, and experience, we find clear positive statistical effects of only Conscientiousness and Openness. These findings have implications for the human resource departments of accounting firms, as well as contributing to a basic understanding of the relationships between Big Five personality factors and ethical intention.

Not all pressured, greedy, and opportunistic individuals actually commit white-collar crime. So what exactly is the common denominator for individuals to commit white-collar crime? This study investigates the propensity of an individual to commit white-collar crime and advances personality as an explanatory factor. Questionnaire survey data is collected from 357 undergraduate accounting students in a later year accounting course at a large university in Australia. Personality is measured using the Big Five Inventory. Support is provided for the view that individuals scoring lower in agreeableness and lower in conscientiousness have a higher propensity to commit white-collar crime. While no significant main effect associations emerged for extraversion, neuroticism, or openness to experience, inspection of individual parameter estimates revealed a significant negative association between neuroticism and propensity to commit white-collar crime but only in certain circumstances.

Despite the undoubted role of family firms in the economy, some main factors challenge their attempts for business internationalisation. These drivers are varied from organisational and environmental to individual attributes. This study tries to recognise and explore the impacts of the personality traits of managers, founders, and owners of family firms in their business internationalisation. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 204 managers, founders, and owners of small- and medium-sized family firms to consider the relationship between personality traits: conscientiousness, openness, extroversion, neuroticism and agreeableness, and business internationalisation (BI). The hypotheses were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) using Lisrel. The results suggest different impacts of personality traits on facilitating the internationalisation process. According to the finding, extroversion and openness have a significant positive and agreeableness and conscientiousness have positive, less significant impacts on the tendency towards business internationalisation. Moreover, neuroticism impacts negatively significantly. Therefore, managers, founders, and owners of small- and medium-sized family firms who are extrovert, open, and non-neuroticism (tranquil) are more encaustic to making strategic decisions for extending their business to international markets.

In this study, we use the well-researched and validated Big Five model of personality traits to examine accounting students’ career interests in auditing. Using the person-job fit literature as a springboard for our study, we investigate the influence of accounting students’ personality traits on their career interests in auditing using a research survey. We uncover a general “trait gap” (i.e., lack of fit) between accounting students’ own personality traits and their perceptions of the ideal auditor, which presents implications for workplace readiness. Additionally, analysis focusing on students who particularly want to work in auditing indicates that those with more auditing work experience are more likely to identify auditing as their preferred job. Furthermore, results indicate that accounting students higher on openness to experience tend to view auditing jobs as more desirable. Finally, accounting students who prefer the auditing career path perceive the ideal auditor as extroverted, agreeable, and open to experience. We extend prior findings in the accounting education literature surrounding personality traits and their impact on student career choices. Because advising students for a career path suiting their traits and talents is important for each student and the accounting profession, our study’s insights into the “matching process” add value to career advising.

The modern workplace contains many physical and interpersonal hazards to employee physical and psychological health/well-being. This chapter integrates the literatures on occupational safety (i.e., accidents and injuries) and mistreatment (physical violence and psychological abuse). A model is provided linking environmental (climate and leadership), individual differences (demographics and personality), motivation, behavior, and outcomes. It notes that some of the same variables have been linked to both safety and mistreatment, such as safety climate, mistreatment climate, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

This chapter provides an overview of affect, personality, and job satisfaction, focusing on library employees. A reliable and valid measure for each construct is suggested, and an assessment model is provided. The purpose of the study conducted was to examine the three constructs among library employees, how these constructs relate to each other and to work experience, and whether they differ based on library type or department. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Big Five Inventory, and Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction were administered at the various libraries of a research university. Data were analyzed using statistical software. Library employees scored high in positive affect and job satisfaction, and low in negative affect, and were introverted, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and open to experiences. Across all libraries, public services employees had higher positive affect and job satisfaction, and lower neuroticism, than technical services employees. In both service areas, positive affect was positively correlated with extroversion and job satisfaction, and negative affect with neuroticism. Work experience was correlated with positive affect only among technical services employees. The assessment model may be applied at libraries of any type and size to assess staff and customize resources for employees to meet their unique needs. Several ideas and applications are provided. This study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring how affect, personality, and job satisfaction are all related among library employees. The free measures may be used in any work setting, facilitating intra- and inter-professional comparisons.

This chapter examines aggression at work perpetrated by individual insiders by bringing together streams of research that have often been examined separately. A comparison of the similarities and differences of aggression toward individuals, such as verbal abuse or physical attack, and aggression toward organizations, such as embezzlement or work slowdowns, is shown to provide important insights about the causes and consequences of workplace aggression. We propose a comprehensive model based on the integration of prior theoretical treatments and empirical findings. The model attempts to offer a framework to systematically examine psychological and organizational mechanisms underlying workplace aggression, and to explain the reasons why workplace violence policies and procedures sometimes fail. A set of research propositions is also suggested to assist in achieving this end in future research.

This chapter provides a contemporary view of state-of-the science research and thinking done in the areas of selection and classification. It takes as a starting point the observation that the world of work is undergoing important changes that are likely to result in different occupational and organizational structures. In this context, we review recent research on criteria, especially models of job performance, followed by sections on predictors, including ability, personality, vocational interests, biodata, and situational judgment tests. The paper also discusses person-organization fit models, as alternatives or complements to the traditional person-job fit paradigm.