1. Big 5 Personality Dimensions
B102 Organisational Behaviour :::::: OB01

2. BIG 5 PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS
The personality dimensions/traits are:
•Conscientiousness
•Agreeableness
•Neuroticism
•Openness to experience
•Extroversion
Everyone possesses all 5 traits but to different extent. In other words,
the personality traits exist on a continuum (see diagram below).
Example: Two people could be described as ‘Agreeable’ but the degree
to which they are agreeable could be different.
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Note:
It is important to ignore the positive or negative associations that these words have in
everyday language. None of the five traits is in themselves positive or negative. They
are simply characteristics that individuals exhibit to a greater or lesser extent.
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness to experience
Extraversion
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness to experience
Extraversion
Low HighMediumMediumLow High

3. Conscientiousness
People high on conscientiousness tend to:
• Be organised and live according to routines
and schedules
• Be responsible and achievement-focused
• Take time to think through issues carefully
• Have a strong sense of duty / obligation
• Be self-disciplined / perseverant
• Be careful / meticulous in doing work
People high on this dimension could possibly:
• Not perform well in situations where quick
decisions / spontaneity is important
• Be too single-minded and obsessed with
work (might suffocate subordinates with
constant demands and close supervision)
• Be overly concerned with little details and
miss the big picture / living life fully
People low on conscientiousness tend to:
• Find rules and regulations confining
• Have lower need to seek achievements and
hence more content with themselves
• Be more spontaneous
• Be flexible / easy-going
People low on this dimension could possibly:
• Procrastinate or show poor follow-through,
failing to complete tasks
• Be disorganised and scattered with work
• Make poor decisions (too quick to decide)
• Be content with a minimal amount of work,
resulting in low achievements
Tendency to be dutiful and seek competence and achievement
Description Possible Work Behaviour Issues
HighLow 3

4. Agreeableness
Highly agreeable people tend to:
• Trust that people are good by nature
• Be candid / sincere in communication
• Be tender-hearted and compassionate
• Find helping other fulfilling
• Be modest
• Avoid confrontations (even deny their own
needs to get along)
People high on this dimension could possibly:
• Be easily taken advantage by others
• Compromise too much with others
• Lack competitiveness
• Be too concerned with approval of others
and not be able to make tough or objective
decisions
Those low on this dimension tend to:
• Be objective in making judgements (not
influenced by feelings / sympathy)
• Willing to challenge others and be critical
• Be more guarded / sceptical (less willing to
trust others or openly reveal everything)
People low on this dimension could possibly:
• Be unsympathetic to needs of others
• Be seen as uncooperative and difficult to
work with
• Be unwilling to compromise or accept
alternative views
• Be manipulative in communication
HighLow
Tendency to defer to others and seek social harmony
Description Possible Work Behaviour Issues
4

5. Neuroticism
People high on neuroticism tend to:
• Be more realistic about bad situations (not
be over-confident)
• Worry more and feel anxious
• Be more emotionally reactive (e.g. get angry
/ frustrated / sad / discouraged quickly)
• Be self-conscious of how others view them
• Experience panic / helplessness under stress
People high on this dimension could possibly:
• Be easily stressed out by work or personal
demands
• Be overly sensitive to criticisms
• Behave awkwardly with others as they are
overly self-conscious
• Behave unpredictably (emotional) especially
when under pressure
People who score low on neuroticism tend to:
• Be generally calm and collected
• Not feel anger or other negative emotions
often or easily
• Be secured with who they are
• Have a positive outlook
• More poised and confident under stress
People low on this dimension could possibly:
• Be overly optimistic and not see potential
problems
• Not have a sense of urgency to solve issues
Tendency to easily experience unpleasant emotions
HighLow
Description Possible Work Behaviour Issues
5

6. Openness (to experience)
People who are high on openness tend to:
• Be more imaginative / creative
• Be eager to learn / try new experiences
• Be open-minded to new / unusual ideas
• Like to debate intellectual issues
• Challenge traditions / conventions
• Appreciate beauty in nature and art
• Be more aware of their own emotions
People high on this dimension could possibly:
• Explore ideas but not be very grounded in
reality  seem idealistic / impractical
• Take a long time to turn ideas into action
• Be easily bored with mundane / operational
duties
People who are low on openness tend to:
• Be more practical / down-to-earth
• Enjoy working with facts and numbers
• Prefer dealing with people and things
(concrete things) rather than ideas
• Prefer the security and stability in keeping to
tradition and routines
• Be less self-aware of how they are feeling
People low on this dimension could possibly:
• Not think creatively in doing work
• Be resistant to change
• Not want to try new ways of doing things or
consider new ideas to improve work
Fascination with novelty and tendency to enjoy diversity
Description Possible Work Behaviour Issues
HighLow 6

7. Extroversion
Extroverts tend to:
• Enjoy the excitement of crowds
• Be sociable / make close friends easily
• Be energetic / action-oriented / active
• Speak out, take charge, and direct the
activities of others (assertive)
• Often experience positive emotions
• Get bored without high levels of stimulation
(e.g. loud music)
People high on this dimension could possibly:
• Spend more time than necessary on social
activities at the workplace
• Get bored easily where social stimulation is
lacking (e.g. working behind a desk)
Introverts tend to:
• Be self-reflective (seeking stimulation from
within rather than outside world)
• Be more independent workers
• Be reserved (greater need for privacy and
personal time)
• Follow a leisurely pace of life (not thrill /
excitement seeking)
• Dislike noise / commotions
People low on this dimension could possibly:
• Be inhibited and have problems handling
situations involving strangers
• Not speak up in teams / meetings
• Appear to lack energy / exuberance
• Have difficulties in building professional
networks
Tendency to seek stimulation and engage with external world (people, etc.)
HighLow
Description Possible Work Behaviour Issues
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8. Someone who scores medium is neither high nor low. One advantage is
that it is easier for them to switch between tasks that require high and
low levels of that dimension. However, they might not be able to exhibit
the same level of characteristics that a high or low person might.
Example:
A job has 2 tasks: Task A requires high extroversion and Task B requires
low extroversion. Person X has high extroversion. Person Y has medium
extroversion
 Person X fits Task A 100% but does not fit Task B. Person Y fit Task A
80% and Task B 80%.
Note:
Ignore any positive or negative connotations that words like conscientiousness have
in everyday language. The 5 traits, in themselves, are not positive or negative. They
are simply characteristics that all individuals exhibit to a greater or lesser extent.
Adapted partly from: The ‘Big 5’ aspects of personality. (2009). Retrieved and summarised January 25, 2009, from the Psychometric
Success website: http://psychometric-success.com/personality-tests/personality-tests-big-5-aspects.htm.
Scoring ‘Medium’
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