Ingo Zettler

Political skill construct and criterion‐related validation: a two‐study investigation

Purpose – Political skill is measured with the political skill inventory (PSI), and the construct is composed of four distinct dimensions. Previous validation studies of the PSI found evidence in support of the four‐factor structure, but only using self‐reports. Furthermore, no efforts have been made to also identify a single, higher‐order factor solution through second‐order factor analysis. The present research aims to expand on prior work and report on a two‐study investigation of both the construct validity and antecedents and consequences of the political skill construct.Design/methodology/approach – To test construct validity, Study 1 combined self‐ and other reports of political skill from 467 employees in a confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 used longitudinal data from 202 employees to constructively replicate Study 1 results and to test hypotheses regarding the antecedents and consequences of political skill.Findings – The results of Study 1 confirmed both a four‐factor and a single higher‐ord...

Honesty–humility and a person–situation interaction at work

Person–situation interactions have attracted researchers’ attention for decades. Likewise, the current work focuses on the interaction of honesty–humility and situational conditions in bringing about counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). As such, we introduce perceptions of organizational politics as a situational construct representing an opportunity for CWB. In a sample of N = 148 employees we found that particularly individuals low in honesty–humility were affected by situational circumstances. By contrast, those high in honesty–humility reported practically the same (lower) amount of CWB independent of the level of perceptions of organizational politics. In other words, employees low in honesty–humility were especially likely to condition their behaviour on environmental factors, a result that mirrors previous findings. Copyright

Personality, Punishment and Public Goods: Strategic Shifts Towards Cooperation as a Matter of Dispositional Honesty-Humility: Personality, punishment and public goods

Contributions in the public goods game—a classical social dilemma situation—have been shown to depend strongly on the presence versus absence of punishment or sanctions for free riders. Also, there appear to be noteworthy individual differences in the degree to which decision makers cooperate. Herein, we aimed to bring these two lines of research together. Firstly, we predicted that both presence of punishment and high dispositional Honesty–Humility (as conceptualized in the Honesty–Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience model of personality) should yield higher contributions. Secondly, and more importantly, we expected an interaction, such that only those low in Honesty–Humility would condition their behaviour on the presence versus absence of punishment, thus employing cooperation strategically. In line with the hypothesis, the results of two experiments (one of which comprised a longitudinal design) corroborated that the degree to which decision makers shift towards higher contributions when punishment is introduced depends on their dispositional level of Honesty–Humility. Copyright

Rethinking Trait Conceptions of Social Desirability Scales: Impression Management as an Expression of Honesty-Humility

Numerous researchers have noted that, instead of response sets or styles, most social desirability scales seem to measure personality traits instead. In two studies, we investigated the substantive interpretation of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding in terms of the HEXACO model of personality. Because of its focus on honesty and integrity, the Impression Management (IM) scale was hypothesized to be mainly related to HEXACO Honesty-Humility. In the main study among 1,106 students and well-acquainted others (friends, family, or partners), positive self–other agreement correlations were found for both IM (r = .45) and Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE; r = .34), supporting a trait conception of IM and SDE. In both self- and other ratings, the most important predictors of SDE were (low) Emotionality, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. IM was associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, but Honesty-Humility was by far its most important predictor. In a subsample (n = 465), Honesty-Humility and IM were unrelated to GPA.

Tracing the Path from Personality — via Cooperativeness — to Conservation

Ecological behaviour is often conceptualized as an instance of cooperating in a social dilemma situation. Thus, it has been argued to relate to dispositional tendencies of moral virtue and pro–social orientation. To embed such notions in models of basic personality, we herein predicted that the recently proposed sixth basic personality factor, Honesty–Humility — which specifically pertains to individual differences in cooperativeness — is linked to environmental attitudes and ecological behaviour. Results from two studies (N = 137 and N = 531, respectively) supported these hypotheses and showed that Honesty–Humility explains incremental variance beyond the remaining, more classical five factors of personality. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that Honesty–Humility exerts part of its influence via individual differences in pro–social value orientations. Individual tendencies to cooperate in social dilemma situations could thus be shown to form a bridge between basic personality dimensions and ecological behaviour. Copyright

Measure invariance of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) across five cultures

This research expands the study of political skill, a construct developed in North America, to other cultures. We examine the psychometric properties of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) and test the measurement equivalence of the scale in a non-American context. Respondents were 1511 employees from China, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The cross-cultural generalizability of the construct is established through consistent evidence of multi-group invariance in an increasingly stringent series of analyses of mean and covariance structures. Overall, the study provides systematic evidence that political skill can be treated as a stable construct among diverse cultural groups. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that translated PSI measures operationalize the construct similarly. With some exceptions, the item loadings and intercepts are invariant for the US and non-US responses, suggesting partial measurement equivalence. After verifying the accuracy of item translation, we conclude that any differences can be explained by variation in the cultural value of uncertainly avoidance and cultural differences on a low-to-high context continuum. Detected dissimilarities are addressed, and some suggestions regarding the correct use across borders of the instrument by managers and researchers are provided.

Implicit motives, explicit traits, and task and contextual performance at work.

Personality psychologists have long argued that explicit traits (as measured by questionnaires) channel the expression of implicit motives (as measured by coding imaginative verbal behavior) such that both interact in the prediction of relevant life outcome variables. In the present research, we apply these ideas in the context of industrial and organizational psychology and propose that 2 explicit traits work as channels for the expression of 3 core implicit motives in task and contextual job performance (extraversion for implicit affiliation and implicit power; explicit achievement for implicit achievement). As a test of these theoretical ideas, we report a study in which employees (N = 241) filled out a questionnaire booklet and worked on an improved modern implicit motive measure, the operant motive test. Their supervisors rated their task and contextual performance. Results support 4 of the 6 theoretical predictions and show that interactions between implicit motives and explicit traits increase the explained criterion variance in both task and contextual performance.

Not Enough of a 'Dark' Trait? Linking Machiavellianism to Job Performance

Machiavellianism is typically considered to encompass rather negatively connoted characteristics such as being ruthless, deceitful or self–centred. Concerning its influence on job performance, there have been notions about a positive linear association as well as a negative one. Somewhat reflecting these different views, a recent meta–analysis regarding this link indicated both large variability in respective empirical investigations and no substantial linear association. Herein, we aimed to integrate the theoretical underpinnings of both perspectives of a linear link by proposing an inverted U–shaped relation between Machiavellianism and job performance. Using data from n = 235 dyads of self–rating and colleague rating, results supported this hypothesis with regard to the three dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour, whereas no support was found with regard to task performance. More precisely, intermediate levels of Machiavellianism yielded the highest organisational citizenship behaviour as compared with both lower and higher levels—although employees with lower levels had outcomes nearly as high as those of employees with intermediate levels. Further, tenure was found to moderate the curvilinear relation between Machiavellianism and organisational citizenship behaviour directed at individuals. In sum, this investigation might help to disentangle different understandings of the effects of Machiavellianism in organisational life and beyond. Copyright

Truth Will Out Linking Personality, Morality, and Honesty Through Indirect Questioning

Individual differences in morality and honesty are inherently connected such that individuals more likely to engage in immoral behavior will typically be less likely to admit to it. Indeed, this is a central prediction of the Honesty-Humility (HH) factor of personality, recently proposed as part of the HEXACO Model of Personality (Honesty-Humility [H], Emotionality [E], Extraversion [X], Agreeablenes [A], Conscientiousness [C], and Openness to Experience [O]). However, this very link between morality and honesty necessarily limits the conclusiveness of typical investigations—especially those relying on self-report data for both constructs. Herein, we apply an indirect questioning technique to overcome such limitations and provide evidence for individual differences in trait honesty and morality in line with the HH factor of personality. Specifically, results show that individuals low in (self-reported) HH are indeed more likely to engage in immoral behavior although less likely to be upfront about it when directly questioned.

On Measuring the Sixth Basic Personality Dimension A Comparison Between HEXACO Honesty-Humility and Big Six Honesty-Propriety

Recent developments in personality research led to the proposition of two alternative six-factor trait models, the HEXACO model and the Big Six model. However, given the lack of direct comparisons, it is unclear whether the HEXACO and Big Six factors are distinct or essentially equivalent, that is, whether corresponding inventories measure similar or distinct personality traits. Using Structural Equation Modeling (Study 1), we found substantial differences between the traits as measured via the HEXACO-60 and the 30-item Questionnaire Big Six (30QB6), particularly for Honesty-Humility and Honesty-Propriety (both model’s critical difference to the Big Five approach). This distinction was further supported by Study 2, showing differential capabilities of the HEXACO-60 and the 30QB6 to account for several criteria representing the theoretical core of Honesty-Humility and/or Honesty-Propriety. Specifically, unlike the indicator of Honesty-Humility, the indicator of Honesty-Propriety showed low predictive power for some conceptually relevant criteria, suggesting a limited validity of the 30QB6.