Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the Big 5 personality factors(Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to experience) and a variety of performance criteria in a variety of settings using a meta-analysis. The results of 15 validity coefficients from 10 single studies were summarized by Hunter and Schmidt(1990)'s meta-analytic procedure. Results indicated that Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness were valid predictors across criteria in a variety of settings. Agreeableness and Openness to experience were not valid predictors because validity coefficients were nearly zero. These findings were consistent with three previous meta-analytic studies conducted in the United States(Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hurtz & Donovan, 2000) and the European community(Salgado, 1997). Based on these results, the usability of the Big-Five personality model for the purpose of predicting performance in a variety of settings, the limitations of this study, and the future research tasks were discussed.