Conscientiousness is one of five dimensions of personality after Model of the Big Five (McCrae & Costa, 1987). It describes a person's tendency to act in a controlled and systematic way rather than spontaneously and pragmatically.
Very strong systematic behavior on the dimension of conscientiousness is equated with perfectionism. Conscientiousness also includes qualities such as order, prudence and sense of duty (Costa & McCrae, 1985).
Whereas it was previously assumed that the pragmatic versus systematic expression of conscientiousness formed a pair of opposites, with a person clearly assigned to one of the two categories, today pragmatic and systematic are considered two poles of a continuum within the dimension of conscientiousness. The value of each person can therefore be located at one point on the following scale:
pragmatically
For people who more pragmatic Behavior and not plan everything down to the smallest detail, the following characteristics, for example, are characteristic:
- slack
- spontaneous decision making
- unsystematic
They prefer to let things unfold. Low conscientiousness correlates, for example, with creativity (Barron, 1981). Due to their tendency not to plan things completely ahead, they also achieve higher performance in an environment in which requirements and tasks can change quickly and often (LePine, Colquitt & Erez, 2000).
systematically
People who rather systematic behavior and striving for accuracy and perfection can be described by the following characteristics:
- organizes
- ambitious
- dutiful
They prefer predictable work environments and conventional occupations, where their structured, careful approach to tasks is most effective (Wilmot & Ones, 2019). For example, they are good for legal, administrative or technical Occupations (Denissen et al., 2017)
Benefits in a professional context
A strong systematic expression on the dimension of conscientiousness is often cited as the best predictor of professional performance among the Big Five (e.g. Barrick & Mount, 1991). However, there is more and more evidence that even people with a more pragmatic version of the dimension of conscientiousness in certain areas of the working world are needed. Intuitively, most people prefer an applicant with a high Sense of duty, order and self-discipline. However, there is more to certain fields Flexibility, creativity and spontaneity People who behave pragmatically rather than systematically score points here. It is therefore important to hire people who fit the vacancy in order to best possible result to achieve.
How do you measure conscientiousness?
Do you want to record the conscientiousness of your applicants? Aivy We are happy to help you with this!
Our mini game “Self-knowledge” offers users the opportunity to brief self-assessment find out their individual value. This not only covers conscientiousness, but also the four other areas of the Big Five:
Sources
- Barrick, M.R., & Mount, M.K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta‐analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44 (1), 1-26.
- Barron, F., & Harrington, D.M. (1981). Creativity, Intelligence, and Personality. Annual review of psychology, 32 (1), 439-476.
- Costa, P.T., & McCrae, R.R. (1985). The NEO personality inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
- Denissen, J.J., Bleidorn, W., Hennecke, M., Luhmann, M., Orth, U., Specht, J., & Zimmermann, J. (2018). Uncovering the power of personality to shape income. Psychological Science, 29 (1), 3-13.
- LePine, J.A., Colquitt, J.A., & Erez, A. (2000). Adaptability to changing task contexts: Effects of general cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Personnel Psychology, 53 (3), 563-593.
- McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52 (1), 81.
- Wilmot, M.P., & Ones, D.S. (2019). A century of research on conscientiousness at work. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (46), 23004-23010.
Conscientiousness is one of the traits Aivy captures in its personality assessment.
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