PERSONALITY AND JOB COMPETENCES - THE CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY OF SOME PERSONALITY-VARIABLES

Using a set of 20 validation studies involving the Occupational Person ality Questionnaire (OPQ), the criterion-related validity of some pers onality variables was explored. Twelve criterion areas were developed and practitioners were asked to indicate their hypotheses about the pr edictive value of each personality scale for each criterion area. Meta -analysis techniques were then used to cumulate the results of the stu dies and to assess criterion-related validity. Three different meta-an alysis procedures were used: (i) an average scale method, which estima ted the average validity of the relevant scales for each criterion are a; (ii) a composite scale method, which estimated the validity of a si ngle composite personality variable constructed by combining the score s for the relevant scales in each criterion area; and (iii) an increme ntal method, which estimated the validity for personality scales after ability scores had been correlated with the criteria. On average the results showed mean sample size-weighted validity coefficients of arou nd .20 for the personality variables, with higher values (up to .33) f or criteria such as creativity, analysis and judgement; they also reve aled very little overlap between the criterion variance correlated wit h ability and that associated with personality, with estimates of vali dity derived from the incremental meta-analysis similar in magnitude t o those from the methods using personality alone.