A comparison of work-specific and general personality measures as predictors of work and non-work criteria

Previous studies on frame-of-reference effects have focused on domain-specific personality measures as predictors of performance. The current study expands on this research by comparing work-specific and general personality as predictors of non-performance work criteria. Using self-report data collected from 239 workers employed in a variety of different organizations, we found evidence that work-specific personality yielded stronger relationships with job satisfaction, work frustration, turnover intention, and absenteeism than did general personality. Furthermore, we found several instances in which work-specific personality predicted incremental variance in these criteria after general personality was controlled. Contrary to our hypothesis, general personality did not have stronger relationships with general criteria than did work-specific personality. In sum, these findings suggest that the use of work-specific personality measures can increase predictive validity when work-specific criteria are used without sacrificing one’s ability to predict general criteria.