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PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

AND ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOR

Brent W. Roberts

ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an overview of a new theoretical framework that

serves to integrate personality psychology and other fields, such as organizational behavior. The first section describes a structural model of

personality that incorporates traits, motives, abilities, and narratives, with

social roles. The second section describes basic patterns of continuity and

change in personality and how this might be relevant to organizational

behavior. The third section describes the ASTMA model of person–

organization transaction (attraction, selection, transformation, manipulation, and attrition), which describes the primary transactions between

personality and organizational experiences across the life course. The

goal for the chapter is to build a bridge between modern personality

psychology and organizational behavior, such that the two fields can better inform one another.

Research in Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays and Critical Reviews

Research in Organizational Behavior, Volume 27, 1–40

Copyright r 2006 by Elsevier Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 0191-3085/doi:10.1016/S0191-3085(06)27001-1

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BRENT W. ROBERTS

The goal of this chapter is to present a new model of personality psychology.

This new model has grown out of a program of research in which both

persons and organizations have been studied over long periods of time

(Roberts, 1997; Roberts & Chapman, 2000; Roberts, Caspi, & Moffitt,

2003; Roberts & Robins, 2004). What is clear in reviewing the findings from

these studies is that existing models of personality, which tend to be dispersive and non-integrative (Mayer, 2005), are inadequate for understanding personality, personality development, and the interface between

personality and organizations. My hope is that this model can provide a

focal point through which a more fruitful and productive integration can be

made...