title: Taking it to another level: do personality-based human capital resources matter to firm performance?
abstract: Drawing on the attraction-selection-attrition perspective, strategic human resource management (SHRM) scholarship, and recent human capital research, this study explores organization-level emergence of personality (i.e., personality-based human capital resources) and its direct, interactive, and (conditional) indirect effects on organization-level outcomes based on data from 6,709 managers across 71 firms. Results indicate that organization-level mean emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness are positively related to organization-level managerial job satisfaction and labor productivity but not to financial performance. Furthermore, organization-level mean and variance in emotional stability interact to predict all three organization-level outcomes, and organization-level mean and variance in extraversion interact to predict firm financial performance. Specifically, the positive effects of organization-level mean emotional stability and extraversion are stronger when organization-level variance in these traits is lower. Finally, organization-level mean emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness are all positively related to firm financial performance indirectly via labor productivity, and the indirect effects are more positive when organization-level variance in those personality traits is lower. Overall, the findings suggest that personality-based human capital resources demonstrate tangible effects on organization-level outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with study limitations and future research directions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Resource Management.
authors.forename: In-Sue
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University.
authors.forename: Seongsu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, School of Business, Florida State University.
authors.forename: Chad H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Van Iddekinge
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D000066477:Work Performance