Jeffrey M. Conte

Validity Evidence Linking Polychronicity and Big Five Personality Dimensions to Absence, Lateness, and Supervisory Performance Ratings

This study developed criterion and construct validity evidence for polychronicity, which is the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks or activities at the same time. Hypothesized relationships between polychronicity and lateness, absence, and supervisory ratings of performance were developed and tested in a heterogenous field sample of 181 train operators. Results indicated that polychronicity was significantly related to absence (r = .25), lateness (r = .19), and supervisory performance ratings (r = -.17). Hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) were also significantly associated with absence, but not lateness. Specifically, absence was significantly related to Conscientiousness (r = -.23), Extraversion (r = .15), and Neuroticism (r = .19). In addition, polychronicity accounted for variance in absence and lateness beyond that accounted for by hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions, cognitive ability, and demographic characteristics. Future research directions for work on polychronicity are discussed.

A construct‐oriented analysis of individual‐level polychronicity

This paper provided construct validity evidence for polychronicity in two related studies. Study 1 assessed the relationship between individuals’ stated polychronicity preferences and peer ratings of polychronicity in a multitrait‐multimethod design, which indicated that different raters were able to agree about an individual’s polychronicity. Additional construct validity evidence was provided by linking polychronicity to several potentially related constructs such as achievement striving, impatience/irritability, stress, and performance. In study 2, hypothesized relationships between polychronicity and both time urgency and time management behavior dimensions were supported. In addition, similar relationships between polychronicity and time urgency dimensions were identified across French and US samples. Together, these two studies provide a clearer understanding of the correlates and potential outcomes of polychronicity. Directions for future research are also discussed.

Individual Differences in Attentional Strategies in Multitasking Situations

This study compared attentional strategies in prioritized and unprioritized multitasking situations using individual differences in the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) as predictors. The study expanded previous studies by using a triple task situation that presented two visual tasks and one auditory task simultaneously. One hundred and eighteen undergraduate students were utilized. One group received instructions for all tasks and their relative importance to each other for achieving a full performance score. The other group received instructions for the visual tasks only, and no information about their relative importance was given, creating ambiguity about priorities among the tasks. Global TABP and its subcomponents (i.e., time urgency, achievement strivings, impatience or irritability, polychronicity) were utilized as predictors of task performance. Significant correlations were found between the TABP subcomponents and different performance indexes, but such a relation was not found between global TABP and performance. Applied implications of these findings and directions for the future research are discussed.