HR personality traits that influence intrinsic career success in international organizations

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HR personality traits that influence intrinsic

career success in international organizations

Ayoub Chengachi

10002334

Amsterdam, June 13, 2014

Bachelor Thesis Science – Business Studies

Faculty Economics and Business

Supervisor: M. De Haas

Academic year: 2013 - 2014

Semester 2, Block 3

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1. Introduction

“Sometimes the only thing worse than having an HR department is not having one” (Weber & Feintzeig, 2014).

It has been concluded by many empirical and theoretical studies that sustainable competitive advantage can be achieved by having the right people within the organization (Chan et al., 2004). Finding the right people is one of the many fields where Human Resource Management (HRM) comes into play. Highly specialized HRM professionals are now finally having the opportunity to obtain a special

certificate due to an initiative of the Dutch association for personnel management and organizational development (the NVP) (PW de Gids, 2014). This association is aiming at the professionalization of human resource management. A study was conducted about the possible improvement of HRM activities. It turned out that 79 percent of line managers thought that HRM could be improved significantly and even 52 percent of professionals in this field themselves thought that the quality of HRM could be improved (HR Strategie, 2014). From April 2014 onwards HRM

professionals in the Netherlands may choose to be certified as Certified HR Professional (CHRP). It is important to get to know what HRM actually is.

1.1 Definitions of Human Resource Management

It is important to discuss the concept of HRM in order to understand the purpose of this paper. The role of HR within a company has changed immensely over the past decades. HR professionals kept themselves busy in the past doing activities

regarding recruitment, payments, coaching employees and other activities regarding their workforce (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). Over the past years HR professionals became more aware of the importance of their field and the necessity of coordinating HRM with the overall business strategy of the organization. Nowadays they work close together with almost every department of the firm (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). HRM focuses on human resource practices such as recruitment, selection and evaluation (Jackson & Schuler, 1995). It is defined as a strategic activity that manages recruitment and understands and directs people’s capabilities in order to

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create a sustainable competitive advantage, which is achieved by well-designed policies and practices (Bratton & Gold, 2007). Thus HRM focuses on personnel management and building trust, work engagement, involvement and teamwork (Business Essentials, 2010: 12).

Another description of Human Resource Management is that it is concerned creating and implementing policies and activities regarding the human capital of a firm, in order to positively influence the objectives of the organization. It includes recruitment, selection, training and compensating (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 1997). Human capital refers to the workforce’s collective knowledge, skills and capabilities.

1.2 Importance of Human Resource Management

Now having made clear what Human Resource Management actually is, it is

essential to look at the importance of HRM within organizations. It is essential for an organization to keep their competitive advantage in order to gain sustained

performance success. In former times this was mostly done by creating barriers to entry in order to diminish the amount of competitors, applying for patents and by government regulations (Ulrich, Becker, Huselid, 2001). However, due to expeditious (technological) innovation and deregulations those ways of creating competitive advantage are less likely to succeed completely. Currently, it is more important to focus on internal resources and capabilities in order to gain competitive advantage. This includes attracting and coaching a committed, well-trained and high performing workforce (Ulrich, Becker, Huselid, 2001).

Organizations that effectively use HRM are achieving a competitive advantage since their workforce most likely will excel in their performance (White & Bryson, 2013). Thus job performance increases when HRM is applied adequately. According to Gagné and Deci (2005), employees have a higher personal motivation when they are more satisfied, interested and involved with their job. This means that satisfaction increases motivation, which in turn increases job performance. This satisfaction can be strongly influenced by HRM.

A meta-analytical study found that overall job attitudes are a major factor influencing work engagement (Harrison, Newman & Roth, 2006). Overall job attitudes

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refer to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Harrison defined work engagement as delivering great task performance, being on time, not being absent and never giving up. A correlation between overall job attitudes and work

engagement of 0.50 was found. This indicates that HRM can play a major role when it comes to job performance.

Boxall and Steeneveld had some doubts regarding the effectiveness of HRM (1999). They stated that while HRM may give the organization competitive

advantage, there would be little chance of making HRM activities non-substitutable, rare and inimitable. Thus according to them it could be a problem to create a

sustained competitive advantage through HRM. However, when competitors imitate HR activities, they most probably will face a problem of inadequacy of the workforce’s qualities (Wright, McMahan & McWilliams, 1994). The competitors would lack the qualities that the workforce has and the organization would therefore remain with a competitive advantage. Furthermore, copying HRM activities may lead to competitive advantage in theory, but in fact, it is extremely difficult to copy these activities due to the complexity of it (Bae & Rowley, 2002). Hence, to gain a prime mover advantage of HRM it is essential for the organization to focus on recruiting and maintaining a highly skilled workforce (Kamoche, 1996).

1.3 Professional characteristics regarding HRM

It is clear by now that HRM can play an import role when it comes to motivating employees, which in turn increases business performance. Since business

performance can be influenced by HR activities, it is important to look at the factors that are essential for people who function in the HRM field. Six domains, regarding competencies that people who work in HRM should master and demonstrate in order to influence business performance, are determined in a study conducted by Ulrich, Brockbank and Younger (2012). These factors are all related to professional behavior and characteristics. These domains are: Strategic Positioner, Credible Activist,

Capability Builder, Change Champion, Human Resource Innovator and Integrator, Technology Proponent. These six domains concerning the competencies of HRM professionals are also divided into three categories, namely, the context-, the organization- and the individual- category (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank & Ulrich, 2013, p.464-465). However, not only professional characteristics influence the

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success of HR professionals. Personality traits can play an important role on career success as well (Bakker, Van der Zee, Lewig & Dollard, 2006). This study focuses on the personality traits and thus will expand Ulrich’s research of professional

competencies.

1.4 Personality characteristics in general

Besides the professional behaviors and characteristics, there is ample research studying the relationship between personality characteristics and overall job

performance. The Big Five Model was established to describe these personality traits (Bakker, Van der Zee, Lewig & Dollard, 2006). The big five include: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience (Barrick & Mount, 1991). These dimensions will be discussed in the next chapter. This model has been an effective framework to examine the relationship between personality traits and career success in general (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

However, not all studies agree that the Big Five dimensions are sufficient. A sixth dimension was added by the research of Hogan (Salgado, Moscoso & Alonso, 2013). These dimensions are: Sociability, Ambition, Adjustment (neuroticism), Likeability (agreeableness), Prudence (conscientiousness) and Intellectance

(openness to experience). These factors are thus given another label, however they can be matched with the Big Five categories. The difference with the Big Five is that here the dimension of Extraversion is separated into 2 dimensions, Sociability and Ambition (Barrick & Mount, 1991; p.3). Barrick and Mount also added another dimension to it, namely School Success. All of these dimensions will be discussed later in this thesis.

Another model that has been developed for the analysis of personality differences is the HEXACO Personality Inventory (HEXACO-PI). A study had been conducted in a variety of languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean and Polish), which showed that not just five factors (The Big Five) but six factors are essential when it comes to analyzing personal traits (Perugini, et al. 2004). The dimensions of HEXACO-PI are: Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O) (Lee & Ashton, 2004). Hence, it contains the Big Five dimensions

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plus a new category, the Honesty-Humility dimension. All of these dimensions including the sixth dimension will be briefly analyzed in the next chapter.

1.5 Contribution of this research

The contribution of this research will concern the relevance of personal

characteristics of HRM-professionals for the contribution of HRM. HRM can be a way to obtain sustainable competitive advantage (White & Bryson, 2013). An analysis of professional characteristics regarding HRM has been made in the existing literature (Ulrich, Brockbank, & Younger, 2012). Analyses of personal characteristics have also been made in the past. However, there is a gap in the existing literature when it comes to linking personal traits to the specific field of Human Resource Management. It may contribute to our understanding of the relation between HRM and

performance, to investigate what competencies, including personal traits, actually benefit HRM professionals. After all, HRM plays a significant role in organizations. Thus this study extends Ulrich’s study about the professional characteristics.

I will focus my research on multinational firms due to the importance of HR in these particular organizations. Many researchers have emphasized that HR plays an essential part in the corporate strategies of firms that compete globally (Dutton, Dukerich & Harquail, 1994). For more than 20 years, globalization increased

immensely due to changes in trade barriers, diminishing international transport costs and more accessible communication tools (Wiersema & Bowen, 2008). The HR departments of these firms all have a clear and specific strategic contribution to their organization due to this globalization (Bae & Rowley, 2002). The feeling of

connection and belonging, often referred to as ‘Organizational Identification’, within an organization is especially important within multinationals because they operate in different parts of the world with a culturally diverse workforce (Reade, 2001). By sharing the same values and goals the workforce will have a sense of belonging, which is a positive input for positively working together. According to Reade,

organizational identification, which can only be achieved through HRM, increases the chances of organizational success immensely (2001).

Multinationals highly depend on their employees, which can be attracted both inside and outside the country of origin. Any organization highly depends on the

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quality of recruiting and motivating people, activities that belong to the many tasks of HRM professionals (Bae & Rowley, 2002). Obviously HRM is also important to small national companies, but I am focusing on multinational companies in this thesis because multinational firms also play a major, if not the biggest, part in the world economy (Navaretti & Venables, 2004). Thus it is essential to understand how successful HRM can be achieved within these firms. This research will try to yield new insights on the relationships between various personal traits and successful HRM professionals. In this thesis HR success is defined as job satisfaction of HR managers themselves and coworkers’ satisfaction with the HR department.

HRM may use the results of this study, the characteristics of effective HRM professionals, to recruit people who excel in these traits (and of course who excel in other factors as well). My results therefore may contribute to the quality of the

recruitment of HRM professionals and thus the quality of the HR department within organizations.

The next section describes the research method and design, explaining how this research will be conducted. Then I will discuss the theoretical framework. In this section Ulrich’s HRM characteristics, the Big Five model, Hogan’s dimensions and the HEXACO-PI model will be described briefly. After this literature review the

conceptual model follows and the propositions that this research will investigate. The results of the research will then be discussed briefly and will be followed by the conclusion and discussion.

In summary, the following research question will be answered: “What personal

traits/characteristics of human resource management professionals are important for their performance in multinational organizations and intrinsic success?”

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2. Theoretical Framework

Ulrich, Brockbank and Younger (2012) did a study about the professional

competencies that human resource managers should posses in order to do the job successfully. Their research, based on more than 20.000 respondents consisting of HR professionals and co-workers (Chouhan & Srivastava, 2014, p.19), concluded that six professional dimensions/characteristics are essential for successful HR professionals: (Strategic Positioner, Credible Activist, Capability Builder, Change Champion, Human Resource Innovator and Integrator, Technology Proponent). Extending this study, this research will focus on personality characteristics. In this manner, a more general and overall view of competencies that may lead to HR success (professional and personal) can be reached by combining these studies.

2.1 The Big Five personality traits

Experts, in various countries with dissimilar languages, have done research in order to categorize different personality traits (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen & Barrick, 1999). This led to the Big Five personality dimensions. Various studies found that these dimensions are timeless and generalizable across basically all cultures (Pulver, Allik, Pulkkinen & Hamalainen, 1995). This model has been an effective framework to examine the relationship between personality traits and career success in general (Barrick & Mount, 1991). The big five include: extraversion, agreeableness,

conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience (Bakker, Van der Zee, Lewig & Dollard, 2006). Each of these personality traits will be described next.

1. Extraversion

This construct is often linked to a person who is very social, active and intuitive (Watson & Clark, 1997, p. 769). Hence, extravert persons are usually considered very outgoing, companionable, social, assertive and talkative (Komarraju, Karau, Schmeck & Avdic, 2011). Nonetheless, they also tend to be very determined about

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their future (Judge et al. 1999). According to Watson and Clark (1997) these traits are very useful for leadership careers. Furthermore, extraversion is often linked to happiness and positive attitudes (Bakker et al. 2006). This in turn leads extravert people to be more open and accessible to other people (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Due to these positive attitudes there is a higher chance of solving problems more easily (Watson & Hubbard, 1996), and a higher chance of accepting others’ help (Bakker et al. 2006). This dimension has also been called the Surgency dimension because it indicates that these persons are willing to help others (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

2. Agreeableness

This dimension is often thought of as being kind, humble, not self-interested, trustworthy and very flexible (Watson & Hubbard, 1996). Thus cooperation and altruism are important aspects of agreeableness. Agreeable persons are usually very helpful, affectionate, sensitive and sympathetic to others (Komarraju et al. 2011). There has been some evidence that agreeableness is also related to social support (Bakker et al. 2006). The opposite of an agreeable person is someone who is very self-centered and hostile (Judge et al. 1999). This dimension has also been labeled as Likability, Friendliness and Social Conformity (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Being flexible is a requisite of agreeableness since it requires a person to be tolerant to changes and open to ideas of others (Judge et al. 1999).

3. Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is commonly considered the dimension that is most strongly related with job performance in general (Salgado, 1997). It can be divided into three components (Costa, McCrae, & Dye, 1991). The first component is Achievement-Orientation, which indicates dedication and consistency. The second component is Dependability, this means being careful and responsible (Judge et al. 1999). This component indicates that conscientiousness may lead people to complete

assignments quicker and successfully (Bakker et al. 2006). Finally, the third component is Orderliness, which indicates being organized and planning ahead

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(Judge et al, 1999). Due to the first component, Achievement-Orientation, several researchers linked conscientiousness with problem solving, since it indicates that conscientious people are consistent in their work and are very dedicated (Bakker et al, 2006). Thus due to the high consistency and dedication level of this trait there is higher chance of conscientious people solving problems than non-conscientious people. Being disciplined, organized and focused on results are also elements of this personality trait (Komarraju et al. 2011). This personality trait has often also been called Conformity, Will to Achieve and Dependability (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

4. Neuroticism

Neuroticism can be separated into two factors (Judge et al, 1999). The first indicating anxiety, which means the predisposition somebody has to get stressed out and their instability. The second factor indicates the well-being of someone, which means the predisposition to depression, vulnerability and personal insecurity. This dimension implies that the higher the score on Neuroticism, the higher the chance of someone being emotionally instable (Komarraju et al, 2011). Scoring high on this construct will most probably be associated with problems like fear, irritations and even psychical problems (Judge et al, 1999). People scoring high on neuroticism in contrast to the other personality traits, are most prone to a burnout (Bakker et al, 2006). This has obviously a lot to do with the higher chance of getting stressed. Barrick and Mount relate this construct to keywords like anxiousness, depression, angriness,

embarrassment, low self-esteem and insecurity (1991). Scoring high on neuroticism, and thus low on emotional stability, indicates that one may not be very good in problem solving and participating proactively (Bakker et al, 2006). Heppner, Cook, Wright and Johnson (1995) linked high emotional stability with goal oriented people who want to achieve realistic goals, whereas neuroticism is linked to setting

extremely high goals which are very hard to achieve. The latter leads to insecurity and self-criticism. Being emotionally instable may also lead to physical and mental issues (Komarraju et al, 2011).

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5. Openness to experience

The final construct of the Big Five, openness to experience, indicates being visionary, creative, original, broad-minded and knowledgeable (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

Komarraju et al. (2011) describe this personality trait as a characteristic that allows a person to be innovative, interested in diversity/variety and also very studious (2011). Openness to experience is a great manner to deal with stress, for this reason a person scoring high on this characteristic is less likely to score high on neuroticism (Bakker et al, 2006). In order to be open to new experiences a person has to able to cope with stress and fear. This fifth personality trait has also been called

Intellectence (Judge et al, 1999).

2.2 Hogan’s personality traits

Hogan conducted a study of personality traits, because he thought that the Big Five dimensions were not sufficient enough (Salgado, Moscoso & Alonso, 2013). The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) was established to determine personality traits that have an influence on professional success (Warren, 2009). He came up with the following six dimensions: Sociability, Ambition, Adjustment, Likeability, Prudence and Intellectance. These dimensions can be placed within the Big Five personality traits, however with one exception, namely extraversion. The construct extraversion has been separated in two by Hogan (Barrick & Mount, 1991; p.3). He divided it into the Sociability dimension and the Ambition dimension. Later on he added the dimension of School Success (Salgado et al, 2013). The other variables are actually similar to the Big Five personality traits but have been labeled differently. According to Salgado et al. (2013), openness to experience falls under the Intellectance dimension,

emotional stability under Adjustment, conscientiousness under Prudence and

agreeableness under Likeability. And thus the dimension of Extraversion is changed into Sociability and Ambition. High scores on the former dimension, Sociability, fit people who are very approachable, outgoing and communicative; they are team players (Warden, 2009). The latter, Ambition, fit people who are very competitive, vigorous and very studious (Salgado et al, 2013).

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2.3 HEXACO-PI

The HEXACO Personality Inventory (HEXACO-PI) has been developed for the analysis of personality differences. The study that led to this model was conducted in different languages, to increase the validity, and it resulted in six dimensions

(Perugini, et al. 2004). Five of these dimensions are similar to the Big Five model, and thus one dimension was added. The dimensions of the HEXACO-PI are: Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O) (Lee & Ashton, 2004). Thus the first dimension, Honesty-Humility, was extended to the Big Five personality traits. The other dimensions are similar to the Five Factor Model. According to

Ashton, Lee and Son (2000) this dimension is the main part of the model that distinguishes itself from the Big Five model. This domain is mainly concerned with being able to create and cope with interpersonal relationships (Lee & Ashton, 2007). To get a high score on Honesty-Humility, it is required to be trustable, modest and generous (Perugini, et al. 2004). Furthermore, a high score on this dimension

indicates that these people are aversive to fraud and corruption (Ogunfowora, Ashton & Lee, 2005). According to Ashton, et al. this dimension is also often called

Truthfulness, Morality, Sincerity, and Integrity (2004). Furthermore, this dimension requires a great amount of fairness as well (Lee & Ashton, 2007). On the other hand, scoring low on Honesty-Humility indicates that someone is very self-centered, mostly interested in money, leisure and social status (Ogunfowora et al, 2005). Thus the lower the score, the more superior people perceive themselves (Perugini, et al. 2004).

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3. Methodology & Research Design

The goal of this thesis is to identify the main personal traits that are relevant for a successful career in human resource management. The main research question is: “What personal traits/characteristics of human resource management professionals

are relevant for their performance in multinational organizations and intrinsic

success?”This research combines an analysis of current literature and interviews. In order to answer this research question and gain new insights about these personal characteristics, a qualitative study will be conducted.

3.1 Qualitative study

A qualitative study is a research that is aimed at finding answers to specific questions by collecting evidence and producing results that were not determined beforehand (Bricki, 2007). This kind of study has been chosen because it is needed for this particular research to acquire descriptive and in depth answers from the interviewees that would otherwise not be obtained when doing a quantitative study. The most efficient way of finding out the inner experiences of the respondents is by using interviews (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). A quantitative study, for example by using a survey, would contain structured questions that should be answered by

pre-determined possibilities of answers. This would waste much useable information and restrict the extensive answers that could be given by respondents. Furthermore, due to the time limitation of this research there would be little chance of successfully conducting a quantitative research regarding the research question since it would be necessary to find, contact and interview many HR professionals who are willing cooperate. In contrast to quantitative data, that exist of numbers, frequencies and scales, qualitative data are related to characteristics and values of the variables that are being researched, in this case personal traits. Qualitative data are suited to identify specific behaviors, characteristics and/or the social context (Lindeman & Reulink, 2005). Thus these qualitative data are most appropriate when researching everyday behavior of people (Silverman, 2013). This study focuses on researching everyday personality characteristics of HRM professionals. Therefore a qualitative

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approach, preceded by theory-driven literature study is used, since this study is most appropriate to study everyday personality characteristics of HRM professionals. This thesis is providing insights in the personal traits that are considered important for HRM professionals.

3.2 Data collection and respondents

This research will be conducted by doing interviews. These interviews will be held with three HRM professionals and three (line) managers. As mentioned in the introduction this study will focus on professionals in multinational organizations in order to cope with the impact of today’s globalization on HRM. By interviewing both HR professionals and managers it would be possible to compare their answers and reduce biases. The goal of interviewing is to obtain information from the people who are being interviewed, in order to answer the research question (Lindeman &

Reulink, 2005). Letting the interviewees talk about their profession and giving them the freedom to discuss their profession is an effective way to obtain detailed

information about their own experiences and their personalities.

Nevertheless, it is important to have some kind of structure to be sure to obtain answers to specific questions, which are critical for the research. These specific questions/themes have to be answered/discussed during the interview. The meetings will be semi-structured, since this is the best way to gain as much

knowledge as possible. The questions will be based on the descriptions of all the personality characteristics that will be discussed in the following section. Another advantage of semi-structured interviews is that it allows some preparation in contrast to unstructured interviews and it allows respondents to articulate their perspectives on their own pace and comfort (Cohen & Crabtee, 2006). For this reason a topic list will be made to have some structure. Furthermore, the conversations will be held in a comfortable/informal setting to make the respondents feel calm and this will help them to open up. However, in order to reduce distractions it will not be an overly crowded area.

Compared to quantitative methods, the flexibility of qualitative research is better suited to obtain valuable qualitative data (Lindeman & Reulink, 2005)

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At the end of the interviews the respondents will fill in the International

Personality Item Pool (IPIP) questionnaire, which measures the Big Five personality traits. The use of this questionnaire has increased immensely over the past years; it has been translated into twenty-five other languages due to its popularity (Goldberg, Johnson, Hogan, Ashton, Cloninger & Gough, 2006; Goldberg, 1999). By using this questionnaire some extra information can be collected and analyzed in order to get clearer and more profound data.

After the interviews, the audio-recorded materials will be transferred into written documents, thus the data will be transcribed. I will analyze and code these interview transcripts by assigning the answers.

3.3 Data Reporting

After the establishment of the transcripts a thematic analysis will be used. Thus identifying the overall themes that include the perspectives of the interviewees (Bricki, 2007). Furthermore a coding scheme will be developed. After the first interview an analysis will be conducted in order to shape the other interviews in a more efficient manner. Relevant citations will also be presented to make the results more clear.

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4. Conceptual Framework

4.1 Career success

First of all in order to answer the research question it is important to understand the meaning of career success in this study. Career success is defined by Sturges as a situation wherein an employee develops a feeling of personal achievement and recognition (1999). Career success can be divided into two components, namely objective success and subjective success (Heslin, 2005). The former consist of success that can be measured in numbers and recognized immediately by others, examples are salary, promotions and status. The latter form of success can only be recognized by the person involved and consists of his or her experiences of career and job satisfaction (Nicholson, 2000; Freund, Wiese & Baltes, 2002). These two forms of success are obviously related since a higher salary, higher rank and promotions increase job satisfaction to a certain degree (Abele & Spurk, 2009).

This research focuses on subjective success, which is also often called intrinsic success (Judge et al., 1995; Gattiker & Larwood, 1988). Thus this study focuses on the career satisfaction of the HR managers. Success is also measured by the satisfaction of other managers about the HR professionals of the organization they work in. Many studies, including a study conducted by Hall and Chandler (2005), have shown that having objective success, thus measurable success, and not having intrinsic success is usually perceived as not having a successful career. However having intrinsic success, and not having objective success is often perceived as having a successful career (Colakoglu, 2011). Employees with high intrinsic success tend to have more positive attitudes, which in turn might lead to a more productive workforce (Nabi, 1999).

4.2 Predictions

Now that the meaning of career success in this particular study is clear, the next step is to make predictions about the personality characteristics that might have an impact on career success of HR professionals. According to a meta-analysis conducted by

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Salgado, neuroticism is negatively related to intrinsic success (1997). Thus in order to have a high intrinsic success it is important to be emotionally stable. This is probably especially important for HR professionals since they have to manage

employees within the guidelines of the organization’s overall strategy, which requires being highly structured. In order to be able to cope with different working conditions and problems it is essential to score low on neuroticism (Seibert & Kraimer, 2001). Hence, it probably is difficult to solve problems of the company’s employees if the HR managers are not emotionally stable. The first proposition is that Neuroticism is negatively related to the career success of HR professionals.

Another personality trait that is expected to have an influence on intrinsic career success is Extraversion (Watson & Slack, 1993; Watson & Clark, 1997). Extravert persons tend to face problems and solve them as soon as possible, also concerning their career (Komarraju et al. 2011). This is a result of ambitiousness. If extravert persons are not happy with their position they immediately try to fix it and start looking for another position/job. Thus they are focused on following their own wishes and following the goals of the organization; they create a fit between their needs and the needs of their organization. This eventually leads to job satisfaction and thus to intrinsic success. Over the past years HR professionals became business partners, working closely with general managers and managers in sales, marketing and manufacturing (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). This requires HR professionals to score high on the dimension of sociability. Thus according to Hogan’s Personality Inventory both Sociability and Ambition have a positive influence on intrinsic career success. The second proposition is that Extraversion, and thus both Sociability and Ambition, are positively related to the career success of HR professionals.

Agreeableness is also expected to have an influence on the subjective success of HR professionals. A HR manager has to be unbiased in order to recruit the right people and assign the right rewards to the employees of the organization (Komarraju et al. 2011). If HR professionals score high on this dimension, they are more likely to be manipulated and employees could take advantage of their

sensitiveness (Seibert & Kraimer, 2001). This leads to the third proposition, namely that Agreeableness is negatively related to the career success of HR professionals. The dimension Conscientiousness is often related to career success. Scoring high on this dimension appeared positively related with work performance (Kern, Friedman, Martin, Reynolds & Luong, 2009). HR professionals focus on the training

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of the employees of the organization among many other things (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). This obviously requires a lot of discipline and the ability to organize effectively and plan ahead. These are aspects of conscientiousness (Komarraju et al. 2011). Some researchers related Conscientiousness with the ability to solve problems as well (Bakker et al. 2006). This is a major attribution of HR within an organization, since it focuses on using and changing its human capital in the most efficient way regarding the firm’s strategy and goals (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 1997). The fourth proposition therefore is that conscientiousness is positively related to career success of HR professionals.

As mentioned before, HR professionals kept themselves busy in the past doing activities regarding recruitment, payments, coaching employees and other activities regarding their workforce (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). Over the past years HR professionals became more aware of the importance of their field and the

necessity of coordinating HRM with the overall business strategy of the organization (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). This all requires creativity and originality since every situation and problem calls for an authentic solution. Thus openness to experience is expected to be an important characteristic for a HR professional. This personality trait in turn requires the person to be very studious considering that creativity and

originality comes from learning form past experiences (Komarraju et al, 2011). The fifth proposition is that openness to experience, thus including School Success, is positively related to career success of HR professionals.

The final construct, Honesty-Humility, is expected to be negatively related to HR career success. An effective HR manager should focus on the organization goals and be aimed at results, that is the main task of HR professionals (Barrick & Mount, 1991). According to Ogunfowora, Ashton and Lee (2005) scoring low on this

dimension indicates that someone is very results-oriented. This is expected to be an essential characteristic of a successful HR professional. Furthermore, scoring high on Honesty-Humility implies that there is somewhat less commitment to their own job (Zettler, Friedrich & Hilbig, 2010). In order to be highly satisfied with ones career, and thus have intrinsic success, there has to be a full commitment to their own job. Thus the final proposition is that Honesty-Humility is negatively related to career success of HR professionals. This leads to the next conceptual model.

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4.3 Conceptual Model Personality Traits Extraversion (+) Ambition (+) Sociability (+) Neuroticism (-‐) Agreeableness (-‐) Conscientiousness (+) Openness to Experience (+) Honesty-‐Humility (-‐) Job Satisfaction HR Managers HR Satisfaction of other Managers HR Career Succes

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5. Results

The results of each interview will be discussed separately since the results are all about very personal experiences, believes and values. By this manner the interviews can be summarized briefly while directly being linked with the personality traits that can be found in the conceptual model. Therefore it gives us an overall and clear understanding of the linkage between their experiences and the personality traits.

5.1 Summary and evaluation interview 1:

The interviewee started at a small organization that just started operating. This person had to build the entire human resource department of this firm. After learning a great deal about the HR field, this person felt that there was not much challenge left and decided to look for another job. Thus self-development was a key element for her career. She decided to work at an organization that focuses on recruitment, consultancy and the interim field. The interviewee found this job especially interesting because of the development opportunities and education it offered. This indicates that the person has a highly ambitious and studious attitude:

“Gaining new experiences is extremely important for me, and the complexity of an

international organization therefore is very appealing. Having global headquarters challenging us to implement their plans and ideas within the firm in the Netherlands. It is up to us to make that work even though that their ideas might be really hard to implement. It makes our work very challenging and dynamic”.

Furthermore, especially within the field of interim management, it is essential that you create relationships by communicating in the right manner and position yourself within the company you work for. Being open and transparent to others in the organization is also essential to produce high quality work. This can only be achieved by effectively communicating and by being easily approachable. Thus sociability is also of great importance according to his interview. Hence, both ambition and sociability (extraversion) are positively related to performing at full potential.

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Another characteristic that this person put an emphasis on was sensitivity, because this could increase the chances of being approached by the workforce if problems occurred. This creates a feeling of trustfulness, modesty and more

importantly sincerity. It makes others in the organization feel that the HR professional is there for them, to help them in the best way that they can and has a sincere affinity with both the employees and the organization. Sensitive people are usually not willing to fraud and corrupt others; this increases the level of trust from employees toward the HR professionals. Therefore it is positively related to honesty-humility. However, HR professionals should always have the organizational goals in mind and work very results- and organisational- oriented.

“Many people believe that HR professionals work for the people within the

organization. However, in order to be a successful HR manager, you should be able to implement the organization’s policies and make these policies work fluently within the workforce. Thus always being results-oriented, but in a sensitive and people-oriented manner.”

The interviewee started working at her current employer in a position that did not fit her ambition. Eventually she did get the position that fit her ambition due to her perseverance, determination and consistency. The interviewee preferred an open organizational culture wherein everybody can give their input and have a voice. A prior experience with a highly structured organization, thus very hierarchical, made the interviewee realize that in order to give full potential it was essential for her to have some space for creativity. It is therefor essential to focus on what you desire as a person, how to get there and being aware of every step that you take. If you are not aware of the context and culture of the organization there might be a misfit between the firm and you as person, which in turn will have a negative impact on job

performance. Thus it is positively related to conscientiousness.

However, she experienced several situations wherein she felt that managers took advantage of her enthusiasm and willingness to work hard and assigned her tasks that actually did not fit her job requirements. A main reason for doing

everything that she got told to do was trying to impress others and also had to do with some lack of self-confidence. The biggest lesson she has learnt over the past years is to work hard, do everything she can to help others but watch her limitations

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and stay true to herself and the HR responsibilities. This indicates a negative relationship with neuroticism and a positive relationship with conscientiousness. It also indicates that a successful HR professional should not score too high on agreeableness, and stay focused on themselves and their personal values and opinions.

This interview highlighted the importance of being able to cope with different problems and a changing environment, especially in international organizations where you have to work closely with people with different backgrounds and cultures from all over the world. Asian organizations for example are usually very hierarchical and when going to a business meeting overseas it is important to adapt to that culture. This requires a great amount of flexibility and being open to new experiences.

The second interviewee worked as an interim HR manager as well, but then got offered a job at an international organization and decided to accept the offer. This decision was made because she felt that the international organization offered enough variety and challenges to keep the work exciting. It is of great importance to her to get new and fresh opportunities and challenges. This organization offers her many growth opportunities. The ability of self-development and the offering of a variety of challenges is a main prerequisite for this interviewee when searching for a job. This demonstrates a highly ambitious personality.

“This organization provides so many growth opportunities. When I first started I only

focused on Europe, but two years later we had 3000 people in Asia. Thus there are a lot of growth opportunities which keeps my work very dynamic and interesting”.

Regarding her career, the interviewee is especially focused on personal development, leadership, talent development, innovation and communication. A major part of her tasks is focused on communication, connecting people world wide in her programs. This requires effectively using social media as a communication tool. Especially in an organization that operates worldwide, it is essential to have some technological knowledge to build and sustain those (virtual) relationships. This

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requires a great amount of communicative skills and being approachable.

Stakeholder management appears to be extremely important as well. This consists of building relationships with stakeholders and helps the organization with obtaining its goals, which in turn keeps stakeholders satisfied. Communication is an important tool in order to understand their expectations, and hence that requires building

relationships. Thus both sociability and ambition (extraversion) are positive related with HRM. In order to build and sustain those international relationships virtually it is crucial to be studious. This personality trait would allow a HR manager to cope with technological changes.

“Relationships and communication skills are extremely important within HR, from

listening to others, asking questions to stakeholder management. It is crucial to have a good relationship with the most important people of the organization. This also means building virtual relationships worldwide”.

Furthermore she emphasized that it took a lot to get where she it right now. Some moments were very difficult to get through, but because of her commitment, dedication and perseverance, she overcame those moments. She actually felt that those moments were highly educational and had a positive influence on her. It is also important as a HR manager to always keep the organization in mind and try to

improve the organization as a whole. In order to do so it is extremely important to score high on conscientiousness.

Looking at her tasks in the company, it was surprising to see that many of her tasks did not fit the traditional HR role, thus it requires a great amount of flexibility. According to the interviewee flexibility is especially crucial in international

organizations, since HR professionals in these firms have to work closely with people all over the world. An example given was that this person went to the Philippines for business and had to adapt to the top down, hierarchical, structure that Philippines’ organizations have. This requires a great amount of both flexibility and cultural awareness. It is important to learn about the organizations context and culture. Hence, it is positive related to both honesty-humility and openness to experience.

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The interviewee has abundant working experience regarding the human resource field in different kinds of organizations, for example international law firms,

international consultancy, IT and health care organizations. He found that working in a simple organization did not challenge him sufficiently and that he was consistently looking for new challenges. One thing that he has learnt over the past years is that it is extremely important to get to know yourself, your own ambitions and preferences. He lead a session with six top leaders who all emphasized the importance of HR managers to have involvement with the organization that they work for and a passion for the products and/or services it delivers.

“I often ask HR professionals what would you do if you become the director

tomorrow? Usually they already have a list of possible things they would want to do, and that has everything to do with having affinity with the organization you work in. To be successful in what you do it is important to love your job, your career en your organization. Work should be fun”.

This simply means that for example you should only work in a hospital if you have affinity with curing ill people. This implies being passionate, trustable and sincere about your work. Thus it has a positive relationship with both ambition and honesty-humility.

This also indicates that a HR manager should do a little research concerning the organizational culture before working in that specific organization. The

interviewee explained that someone who is highly creative and needs to express this creativity should not work in an organization with a strict hierarchy and a top down structure. That person should choose an organization with a very open structure that allows imagination and gives HR managers the space that is needed to express that creativity. Thus it is important to make a conscientious and very well thought of decision regarding the organization someone is applying to work for. This requires knowing exactly who you are and the ability to be confident about yourself.

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“If you found out who you are and are able to formulate exactly what your want, then

you can prevent yourself from getting in the wrong position or organization. It is not a prison; you are choosing for it, if you do not like it, then leave!”

However, it is also important that you develop yourself in order to reach the level of your ambition, thus this demands persistency and curiosity. He mentioned that HR professionals are very service minded and enjoy helping others with their problems. This increases the risk of being taken advantage of by for example managers, thus becoming a servant in some way and an increasing risk of stress. This is also a reason to be strong and highly confident about yourself and your responsibilities, which indicates a negative relationship between HR professionals and neuroticism.

“What I often get to see is that HR teams become so caught up by the demand of the

organization, that they forget to take care of themselves. My car needs a touch every once in a while as well. Thus it is essential to make time for yourself and your HR team and put an effort to focus on your own wishes”.

Another aspect that the interviewee was highly concerned about is to understand the context of the organization, thus becoming a valuable business partner of the firm. This necessitates HR professionals to look together with managers at the entire business and translate these obtained findings into HR activities. According to the respondent becoming a truly successful HR professional requires first to research the context and then focus on HR based on that context, thus being very aware of the organization’s context. He gave an example of a manager that looked closely with his HR manager to the context of his organization. Because he did this together with him, he believed that his HR manager knew the context sufficiently enough to make his own decisions in favour of the company. Therefore he trusted him and gave him the complete freedom for creativity and to do what he thinks is best. Thus due to studying and understanding together the context of the organization, a relationship based on trust is built between managers and HR professionals. This makes a HR manager a true business partner that can translate his obtained knowledge into HR activities. Therefore honesty-humility and

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“Human resource management is more than only HR. It is also about knowing and

understanding what is happening in the market, in politics, in the changing economy and so on. Its my job subsequently as a HR manager to translate that understanding to HR. HR professionals should first be involved in getting to know the context and only then being involved with HR within that context”.

Considering that looking closely with managers to the context is extremely important, the interviewee finds it paramount to be able to build and sustain

relationships and to be highly studious. Thus sociability has a positive influence on HR quality. His experience in international organizations made him realize that being flexible and having cultural awareness is extremely important for a HR professional. He has worked in many different countries with all very distinctive cultures, and he realized that adapting to cultures is essential to work closely and successfully with them. Due to the flexibility that is required for being successful it is important to be open to new experiences. Lastly the interviewee emphasized the importance of being objective and always keeping the organizational goals in mind.

The interviewee, an account manager who works in an international organization, had a positive experience with the selection procedure at his current employer positively. However, he thought that the HR professionals could be more clear and specific about the job itself and what was expected from them. He indicated that in prior selection procedures he experienced the interviews as more personal and informal. At his current employer it was quite formal and impersonal. He preferred the former interview methods, because he experienced it as a more natural conversation. Thus this indicates the importance of building relationships by HR managers and focus on sociability skills. After entering this international organization he became very satisfied with the HR department of the organization.

The satisfaction with the HR department of the organization that he is active in, has mainly to do the fact that the HR professionals are very easily approachable. The organization for example has a special HR phone line and an intranet website that can be used anytime for any problem that one may have. The interviewee even

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compared the phone line to a call centre, where you may ask questions regarding anything.

“I really appreciate the fact that when I am struggling with something I can always

contact HR to give me advice and help me, they are very easily approachable. I find that very important, that you can always count on HR managers”.

In order to be that approachable online it is essential to gain some technological knowledge, thus willing to learn about various communication tools and how to use them most appropriately. For this reason sociability and studiousness are positively related to the quality of HR work.

Another element that was experienced by the interviewee as extremely positive is that the organization’s HR department give the managers a learning roadmap. This roadmap explains every step that needs to be taken in order to get further and grow to another position. Thus for example in order to become a medior account manager it is required to follow and complete three different courses

successfully. This gives a clear image about what to do when a manager wants to follow his or her ambition. The interviewee found that this distinctness motivated him to be more studious and develop himself more. He started as a junior account

manager, but due to this roadmap he decided to follow the three courses in his first year and completed them successfully. Therefore he got promoted and became a medior account manager. Thus being transparent, clear and distinctive as a HR manager may lead managers to challenge themselves more. This will most probably result in a higher job quality of these managers, which is a major goal of HRM. However this requires working very conscientiously and being actively involved with everyone in the organization.

“I find it really important that people like HR managers, who have an influence on all

employees, should be actively involved with those employees. Thus HR managers should be walking around on the workplace, so to speak”.

The interviewee mentioned his prior work experiences, and found that one of his employers had a highly dissatisfactory HR department. The main reasoning for this viewpoint was that HR in this organization was not well organized, for example the

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contract had a lot of mistakes, there was a lack of development opportunities and the HR department was not very approachable and open. He considered it important that human resource professionals deliver very consistent work and are conscious of everything that goes on in the organization.

The interviewee also thought that it is highly important for a HR manager to have sympathy for employees. This signifies that HR managers should be able to understand what managers and other employees aspire and help them to achieve their ambitions. Thus scoring high on agreeableness is important in order to do so. Agreeableness has been described as being kind, humble, not self-interested, trustworthy and very flexible. For this reason agreeableness is an important characteristic of good HR managers. For example, the respondent was highly satisfied that HR offered a variety of courses in order for the managers to be able to develop themselves. This indicates a trust and generosity; thus a positive relationship with honesty-humility and the quality of HR work.

“A good HR manager should be able to turn wishes of the employees into reality.

Thus if a manager want to grow within the company and let HR managers know what he is desiring, I believe HR should be able and willing to help that person achieve his wishes. It sounds very basic, but I have had experiences where HR managers did absolutely nothing with those wishes”.

Summary of the interview results

According to the respondents success in HRM is positively linked to conscientiousness, ambition & sociability (extraversion), school success

(studiousness), openness to experience, honesty-humility and negatively linked tot neuroticism. When it comes to agreeableness it is important to find the right balance with helping others, being humble towards them and also focusing on your own career and wishes. It is also important to solve problems and that does not always allow a HR manager to be agreeable, sometimes a HR manager has to be strict and harsh. The most important personality traits that were emphasized in all interviews were conscientiousness, sociability, studiousness and honest-humility. Thus especially these four characteristics appeared to have a very positive influence on HR success.

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5.5 International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) questionnaire:

The International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) measures the Big Five personality traits. The HR managers who were interviewed finished this questionnaire. These completed questionnaires and their analyses can be found in the attachment. Each question measured a specific personality trait. For example at the end of the first question/situation a number 1+ was denoted. This indicates a positive relation (+) to extraversion (which was number 1) if the respondent agreed with the situation, thus that means that the person scores high on extraversion. After adding up the total scores for every personality trait of the Big Five, similar results to the interviews emerged. The only dimension of the Big Five that these HR professionals scored significantly low on is neuroticism. Extraversion turned out to be the most appearing personality trait in all three questionnaires. The actual results obtained and the completed IPIP questionnaires can be found in the attachment.

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6. Discussion

6.1 Predictions and results

According to the results of this study success in HRM is positively linked to

conscientiousness, ambition & sociability (extraversion), studiousness, openness to experience, honesty-humility and negatively linked to neuroticism. When it comes to agreeableness it is important for a HR professional to be very open, trustworthy, humble, not self-interested, flexible and to focus on being helpful and sympathetic with employees. However, a HR manager should also be able to point out to someone if that person is not productive enough or if someone makes a mistake. Thus in order to be successful in human resource management a HR manager should be able to play both roles, to switch between high and low agreeableness according to the situation. These findings are also supported by the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) questionnaire. Each prediction about the personality traits that was made in the conceptual model will be discussed next.

6.1.1. Extraversion (Sociability and Ambition)

The prediction was made that this personality trait would have a positive influence on HR intrinsic career success. Extravert persons tend to face problems and solve them as soon as possible, also concerning their career (Komarraju et al. 2011). This is a result of ambitiousness. Thus they create a fit between their needs and the needs of the organization they function in. This eventually leads to job satisfaction and thus to intrinsic success. This prediction is highly confirmed by this study since all

respondents believed that ambition is extremely important in HR. As to sociability, building and sustaining relationships is one of the most important tasks of HR managers. Not being able to do so would lead to failure in your work, and thus intrinsic dissatisfaction. Over the past years HR professionals became business partners, working closely with general managers and managers in sales, marketing and manufacturing (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). Working closely with these people and departments requires high social and communicative skills.

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6.1.2. Neuroticism

According to a meta-analysis conducted by Salgado (1997), neuroticism is negatively related to intrinsic success. In order to be able to cope with different working

conditions and problems it is essential to score low on neuroticism (Seibert &

Kraimer, 2001). HR managers are constantly trying to solve problems and especially in international organizations that require coping with different cultures and

structures. Hence in order to have a high intrinsic success the prediction was made that neuroticism is negatively related to intrinsic career success. The results confirm this prediction; a HR manager should be able to help others in stressful situations and give structure to the employees. It is impossible to deal with everyone in the organization when someone stresses out easily. Thus having anxiety, the first factor of neuroticism, would have a negative impact on HR quality. From the interviews it can be concluded that the second factor of neuroticism, one’s well being, and thus lack of confidence, would increase the chances of being a servant for other

managers who might take advantage of that insecurity. Hence, a neurotic HR

manager would probably perform tasks that are perceived as unenjoyably and this in turn would lead to intrinsic dissatisfaction. It is therefore essential that a HR manager can stand up for him or her self and have a clear idea of the requirements of their job in combination with their personal interests.

6.1.3. Agreeableness

A HR manager has to be unbiased in order to recruit the right people and assign the right rewards to the employees of the organization (Komarraju et al. 2011). If HR professionals score high on this dimension, they are more likely to be manipulated and employees could take advantage of their sensitiveness (Seibert & Kraimer, 2001). This theory led to the third proposition, namely that agreeableness is

negatively related to the career success of HR professionals. This proposition is only partly confirmed. Success in HR requires on the ability to switch between highly agreeable and less agreeable behavior. All the respondents agree with the fact that HR managers should be able to understand what managers and other employees aspire and help them to achieve their ambitions. The results also indicated that HR professionals should be easily approachable, flexible, kind and helpful towards the employees of the organization. Thus scoring high on agreeableness is important in order to do so. However, it is also important to keep the organization’s goals in mind.

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Hence, if an employee causes problems, makes many mistakes or even more dramatic situations arise wherein for example an employee commits fraud, it is crucial that HR professionals put aside the humbleness, kindness and helpfulness and respond strictly and if necessary dismiss those employees. Besides this, the interviews indicated that managers may have the tendency to take advantage of HR professionals, thus a HR manager should be confident and should be able to say no. This requires having a low score on agreeableness. Hence, overall a good HR manager should score high on agreeableness. This is supported by the results of the IPIP questionnaires. HR managers should be helpful, very flexible, approachable and kind. These are all characteristics of being highly agreeable. However, a good HR manager should be able to switch to less agreeable behaviour when problems occur. This in turn requires HR managers to cope with these problems, and be emotionally stable: scoring low on neuroticism.

It is defined as a strategic activity that manages recruitment and understands and directs people’s capabilities in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage, which is achieved by well-designed policies and practices (Bratton & Gold, 2007). Thus HRM focuses on personnel management and building trust, work engagement, involvement and teamwork (Business Essentials, 2010: 12).

6.1.4. Conscientiousness

Bratton and Gold (2007) define HRM as a strategic activity that manages recruitment and understands and directs people’s capabilities in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage, which is achieved by well-designed policies and practices. This requires a lot of discipline and the ability to organize effectively and plan ahead. These are all elements of the personality trait conscientiousness (Komarraju et al. 2011). Some researchers described conscientiousness as the ability to solve problems (Bakker et al. 2006). This is an important attribution of HRM in an

organization, since it focuses on using and changing its human capital in the most efficient way regarding the firm’s strategy and goals (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 1997). Only conscientious HR managers are able to develop and sustain a unified workforce of high quality. This in turn will lead to organizational success and profitability. The interviewees emphasized that HR managers should establish a

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satisfied workforce consisting of people who fill a position that fits them best. The people in the organization should be able to trust the HR manager and know that he or she will only do things that are good for them and the organization, and thus not be self-centered and only caring about him- or her-self. The fourth prediction therefore is that conscientiousness is positively related to career success of HR professionals. This prediction is confirmed in this study. All the respondents thought it is crucial for HR managers to score very high on this dimension. What stood out in these interviews was that HR managers should be very aware about everything they do and that goes on around the organization, thus also about the context it operates in. Only then can a HR manager can become a valuable business partner. The challenge for HR managers is being able to translate knowledge and understanding of the context into HR activities. This would allow the HR manager to optimally do his or her work. According to the respondents, without knowing and understanding the context, a HR manager is not able to maximize his or her work performance.

6.1.5. Openness to experience

HR managers focus on coaching employees in an efficient manner (Barrick & Mount, 1991) and coordinating HRM with the overall business strategy of the organization (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). HR managers should be able to see and understand the overall picture of the organization, and should try to maximize performance of the workforce. Openness to experience is expected to be an important characteristic for a HR professional. Openness to experience consists of being a visionary, creative, original, broad-minded and knowledgeable (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Komarraju et al. (2011) describe this personality trait as a characteristic that allows a person to be innovative, interested in diversity/variety and also very studious. The interviews confirm this prediction. All of the HR interviewees needed to be free in making their own decisions; they did not appreciate hierarchical structures. They need this freedom to bring out their creativity. Being knowledgeable is especially emphasized in the third interview. This interviewee found it crucial to know the context before starting with HR activities. He found that having this knowledge would make a HR professional a valuable business partner. To obtain this knowledge it is essential to be open to learn and understand everything that goes on around the organization. This requires being emotionally stable (Bakker et al. 2006). Thus especially within the HR field it is essential to learn about every aspect of the organization; learning about

HR personality traits that influence intrinsic career success in international organizations