Big Five Personality Traits and Job Performance: The Mediating Effect of Job Attitude

At present, the largest employers are based at the export processing zone. Amidst this economic crisis, competition between people wanting to find the most suitable jobs is becoming more and more intense. Employers are also having a hard time finding the qualified talents. Taking the employees of the Kaohsiung export processing zone as the research sample, we then explore the relationship between the big five personality traits, job attitude, and job performance. Though several studies have shown that there are meaningful relationships between personality traits and performance as well as some attitudinal variables and performance, only a few has attempted to integrate the relationship between the above mentioned variables. This study has the following questions, including whether or not the big five personality traits, job attitude and job performance are significantly related; the impact of the big five personality traits and job attitude to job performance and whether or not job attitude mediates the relationship between the big five personality traits and job performance. Finally, we provide meaningful suggestions and managerial implications to companies at the export processing zone in Kaohsiung. This study found significant relationships between some constructs of personality traits, job attitude and job performance. Also, this study discovered that job attitude, particularly job involvement and job satisfaction, constitutes a partial mediating effect in the relationship of personality traits and job performance.