The proactive personality: bright-side trait correlates

Abstract

This study set out to establish to what extent demographic, ideological, self-esteem and work-related personality traits are correlated with the Proactive Personality (PP)? In all, 389 working adults completed a number of questionnaires including the well-established PP measure and a work-related, six trait measure. They also indicated whether they were junior, middle, senior or non-managers. Correlations and regressions showed that neither demography (sex, age, education) nor ideology (political and religious beliefs) were related to PP while many of the traits were strong correlates (Conscientiousness, Curiosity, Courage, Competitiveness). In all the traits accounted for 45% incremental variance over demography, ideology, self-ratings of optimism and self-esteem. The results highlight two traits hitherto not examined in this literature namely Tolerance of Ambiguity and Risk Approach (Courage) both related to PP. With Management Level as criterion variable, PP added only 1% variance above age and education, but the six traits added 11%. This suggests established personality traits are better predictors of Management Level compared to the PP measure. Implications and limitations, particularly sample diversity, are discussed.