2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

22
Personality as predictor of job attitudes and intention to quit
Simon P. Gutknecht
Military Academy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
STEINACHERSTRASSE 101B, 8804 AU
Switzerland
simon.gutknecht@milak.ethz.ch
Introduction
The Swiss Army is going through a time of change. There is, in addition, a radical change
in process at the moment which goes along with the reduction in size of the army also brings
with it the establishment of new functions. The uncertainties with respect to future positions and
functions are felt especially strong among professional and non-commissioned officers. The
question of how the affective commitment to the establishment and job satisfaction (job
attitudes) is influenced has to be raised. This is to be taken seriously since these variables have
been important predictors concerning intention to quit or absenteeism (Lum, Kervin, Clark, Reid
& Sirola, 1998; Michaels & Spector, 1982; You, 1996).
Besides the general questions about factors which influence attitudes toward work such
as for example salary, job security as well as leadership quality, it is especially in times of
change, interesting to see if there are people who due to their disposition suffer less or more
under the process of change. A question related to this aspect is to what extent do certain
personality dispositions (e.g. extraversion) have an effect on work related attitudes as well as on
intentions to take action.
The consideration of personality traits is not only interesting from the point of view of
basic research but carries a certain relevance to practice. In addition to the traditional AC
exercises done within the framework of the “assessment center for professional officers” a
personality test (to assess the Big 5: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism
& culture) has also been introduced. The results of this test have so far only been used for
research purposes and therefore no weight within the selection process has been attributed to it.
However it is important for the people responsible at the Assessment Center to know what
further pieces of additional information are contained in this test. Although the relationship
between personality variables and job performance have mainly been of interest (cf. Barrick &
Mount, 1991; Day & Silverman, 1989; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) organisational attitudes such as
affective commitment or job satisfaction can also be used as external criteria to assign the
criterion validity of this test. In the end one wants to select people who are also in times of
difficulty committed to the organization. While collecting data on the topic job satisfaction and
affective commitment within the framework of a study for validation purposes the scale for
assessing the Big 5 was also used.
Findings concerning personality and job attitudes
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003