2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

There are not many studies with the sole aim of looking more closely at the connection
between affective commitment and personality. There are, however, elaborate studies with
reference to job satisfaction which deal with the influence of traits such as general self-esteem,
general self-efficacy, locus of control as well as neuroticism (emotional stability) (cf. (Judge,
Locke, Durham & Kluger, 1998; Judge, Bono & Locke, 2000). These studies point out that these
traits have an influence on the perception respectively the judgement of the work situation and in
this way have an indirect influence on the construct job satisfaction. Direct effects even though
present are weaker.
As to the results of the influence of the Big 5 there are isolated references. Judge, Heller
and Mount (2002) observed with the help of a meta-analysis that only the factors “neuroticism”
and “extraversion” were significantly connected to general job satisfaction. On the other hand
Tanoff (1999) could demonstrate that all the factors of the Big 5 with the exception of culture
were related to job satisfaction. It must be added that the variable neuroticism played a decisive
role. Seibert and Kraimer (2001) ascribe the Big 5 factors in connection with the variable job
satisfaction a prognostic validity as well but the effects are rather minor. In this study the
variable extraversion was of importance. Day, Bedeian and Conte (1998) also found an influence
of the variable extraversion on job satisfaction, but the coefficient .10 is rather modest.
As mentioned above there are only very few studies that deal directly with the relation
between the Big 5 and commitment. In a recent study done by Naquin and Holton (2002) the
variables neuroticism, conscientiousness as well as agreeableness show a relation to the variable
affective commitment. Otherwise there are no findings in this respect.
These results are interesting and show that in the debate over increasing job satisfaction
or commitment the hypothesis that personality disposition is relevant seems justified. On the
basis of the above mentioned results concerning traits and job satisfaction where the variable
neuroticism is mainly of an indirect nature, the question has to be asked to what extent is this
true for the other Big 5 traits. Especially job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task
significance, autonomy and feedback) as introduced by Hackman and Oldham (1980) in the job
characteristic model (JCM) must have a significant mediating role between personality features
and job related attitudes. This can be assumed in the context of the studies done by Judge et al.
(1998, 2000).
The question to be asked is in what way beside the content aspect, the so called context
factors (satisfaction with salary, colleagues, job security & leadership quality), as listed in the
JCM, serve as mediators. It seems that these factors are in correlation with job satisfaction and
especially so with affective commitment. Context factors have a not to be underestimated role
especially in times of change and its related uncertainty.
In the following it will be shown what kinds of personality traits influence the job
attitudes of the Swiss professional military. To test the direct as well as the indirect influences
the personality factors, affective commitment, job satisfaction and personality traits, as well as
job characteristics and context factors were considered in the calculations. These variables were
put into a relationship with the variable intention to quit.
Method
Setting and Participants
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003
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