Kathleen Boies

A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages.

Standard psycholexical studies of personality structure have produced a similar 6-factor solution in 7 languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish). The authors report the content of these personality dimensions and interpret them as follows: (a) a variant of Extraversion, defined by sociability and liveliness (though not by bravery and toughness); (b) a variant of Agreeableness, defined by gentleness, patience, and agreeableness (but also including anger and ill temper at its negative pole); (c) Conscientiousness (emphasizing organization and discipline rather than moral conscience); (d) Emotionality (containing anxiety, vulnerability, sentimentality, lack of bravery, and lack of toughness, but not anger or ill temper); (e) Honesty-Humility; (f) Intellect/Imagination/Unconventionality. A potential reorganization of the Big Five factor structure is discussed.

The structure of the French personality lexicon

The structure of the French personality lexicon was investigated. Self‐ratings on the 388 most frequently used French personality‐descriptive adjectives were obtained from 415 French‐speaking people. The scree plot of eigenvalues indicated six large factors. In the varimax‐rotated six‐factor solution, the four largest factors, in order of size, corresponded fairly closely to the Big Five dimensions of Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. The fifth factor was similar to the Honesty dimension found in several other languages. The sixth factor was defined by Imagination‐related terms, but not by Intellect‐related terms. Solutions involving one to five factors were also investigated and correlations between the factors that emerged from these different solutions are presented. The results are discussed in relation to other lexical studies of personality structure. Copyright

Structure and Correlates of Spillover From Nonwork to Work: An Examination of Nonwork Activities, Well-Being, and Work Outcomes

Employees today are involved in many different types of activities outside of work, including family, volunteering, leisure, and so on. The purpose of this study was to understand how participation in such nonwork activities can both enrich and interfere with well-being and behavior at work. Four dimensions of nonwork-to-work spillover were examined to better understand this process (i.e., positive emotional, negative emotional, positive behavioral, and negative behavioral). Survey data were collected in 2 waves from 293 staff and faculty members of a large Canadian university (N = 108 matched surveys from both waves). We found that volunteering is associated with increased well-being and work satisfaction, and that it creates positive emotional and behavioral, and negative behavioral spillovers. We also found that sports, recreation, and fitness are associated with improved well-being and positive emotional spillover. Negative spillover is associated with negative outcomes.

Managers’ interest in international assignments: the role of work and career satisfaction

Abstract As business globalizes, organizations need to attract increasing numbers of qualified managers for international assignments. An understanding of the motivation underlying managers’ intention to accept such assignments would therefore be valuable. The purpose of this research was to examine relations between work attitudes and interest in international assignments. Three hundred and fifty Canadian managers responded to a questionnaire assessing their work attitudes as well as their interest in international assignments. It was found that specific facets of job satisfaction (company identification, satisfaction with co-workers, and satisfaction with financial rewards) were negatively related to interest in international assignments. It was also found that the relation between career satisfaction and interest in international assignments was moderated by managers’ general beliefs about such assignments. Finally, the results showed that expected satisfaction with specific job characteristics in a future job (opportunity to use competencies, to travel, and extrinsic rewards) were positively related to managers’ interest in international assignments. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for human resource planning in global organizations making use of international assignments.

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in a Canadian military sample

Three studies examined the role of self-selection and military socialization on the development of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1998) and social dominance orientation (SDO; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). The first study compared students who had applied to join a military officer training program with those who had not applied. The second study, a cross-sectional design, compared first-year and final-year military and civilian university students. The third study was a longitudinal study that examined changes on the measures over a period of 4 years. The results from Study 1 demonstrated that students who applied to join the military had lower SDO scores than students who did not apply to join the military. Study 2 revealed higher SDO scores for 4th-year military students compared to 1st year; no differences were found for the civilian samples. Finally, the longitudinal study revealed increases in SDO for military students. In the three studies, no significant increases were observed with RWA. The findings from this research suggest a renewed examination is required of civilian and military differences regarding RWA and SDO. Furthermore, military socialization, and not self-selection, can potentially explain why the military score high on SDO. These results suggest that military and/or educational training experiences could increase SDO scores.

Validity Studies Psychometric Properties of Scores on the French and Korean Versions of the Hexaco Personality Inventory

Recent lexical studies of personality structure suggest that there are six independent major dimensions of personality. TheHEXACOPersonality Inventory (HEXACO-PI), a new questionnaire that measures these six lexically derived personality constructs, was examined in two different cultural contexts using samples of 149 Francophone and 211 Korean respondents. Scores on the scales of the French and Korean versions of the HEXACO-PI were shown to have acceptable psychometric properties, including appropriate score distributions, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and low scale intercorrelations. In addition, the HEXACO-PI variables showed the expected pattern of correlations with markers of the Big Five and of lexical Honesty-Humility.

The legitimacy of absenteeism from work: a nine nation exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which work centrality, locus of control, polychronicity, preference for gender‐role differentiation, and perceived social support were expected to vary between nations and to be associated with general perceptions of absence legitimacy and self‐reported absenteeism.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 1,535 employees working in ten large multinationals organizations, mostly in the consumer products and technology sectors located in nine countries.Findings – The explanatory variables differed significantly across countries, as did perceived legitimacy, responses to absence scenarios, and self‐reported absence. The variables of interest, as a package, partially mediated the association between country and one dimension of legitimacy and country and the scenario responses.Research limitations/implications – Although absenteeism from work is a universal phenomenon, there is very little cross‐cultural research on the subject. This s...

Evidence of Reliability and Validity for the Universal Orientation Scale

The relationships of Universal Orientation with Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation were examined in two studies. Undergraduate students from various universities completed three measures. 314 participated in Study 1 and 461 participated in Study 2. Scores on the Universal Orientation scale correlated weakly with those on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale (r = −.14 for both samples) and moderately with the Social Dominance Orientation scale (r = −.50 for Sample 1 and r = −.36 for Sample 2). Low Cronbach alphas for the Universal Orientation scale (α = .68 for the first sample and α =.60 for the second sample) suggest the scale requires revision.

Resolving Some Paradoxes of Innovation: A Cross-Level Interpretation

This chapter on Mumford and Hunters chapter “Innovation in Organizations: A Multi-Level Perspective on Creativity” (this volume) describes both its contributions and limitations to the development of a cross-level theory of innovation. To resolve some of the cross-level paradoxes highlighted by Mumford and Hunter, we propose five variables that operate at multiple levels including trust, social identity, mental models, networks, and time, and formulate some new multi-level propositions. Future directions for innovation theory development and research are also discussed.

Seeing the unseen: ostracism interventionary behaviour and its impact on employees

ABSTRACT This article outlines the development and validation of the ostracism interventionary behaviour (OIB) scale. Based on in-depth interviews with employees, leaders, and content experts in addition to 603 survey respondents from Canada and the United States, 3 dimensions emerged to describe the ways in which leaders confront workplace ostracism-related cues and a measure was created to assess them. These refer to the ability for leaders to foster an inclusive workgroup dynamic and enact effective third-party interpersonal interventions through displays of (1) social awareness, (2) proactivity, and (3) harmony-seeking behaviour. In addition to possessing convergent and discriminant validity, the OIB scale demonstrated criterion-related validity through its relation with perceived workplace ostracism and well-being. Furthermore, evidence supported the scale’s test–retest reliability and predictive validity over and above leader–member exchange. Overall, the measure was found to be both reliable and valid, with important implications for the effective management of instances of ostracism at work.