Distinctive personality traits of quality management personnel

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in personality and career satisfaction between quality managers and workers in other fields based on Person-Environment Fit theory.

Design/methodology/approach

Field study: personality and career satisfaction data for 965 quality managers were compared with those for a sample of over 85,000 individuals in many different occupations and employment settings using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and t-tests.

Findings

Quality managers were higher than other occupations in intrinsic motivation, tough-mindedness, and conscientiousness, but lower in career satisfaction, optimism, and assertiveness.

Research limitations/implications

This paper does not contain any longitudinal study; there is also a lack of some demographic variables, including race/ethnicity, job tenure, and career tenure.

Practical implications

The findings carry implications for career planning, recruiting, pre-employment testing, training, and helping quality managers navigate through their organizations and careers.

Social implications

Overall, the authors provide a personality profile of quality managers and show that many quality managers have lower career satisfaction than other occupations.

Originality/value

These findings provide an occupational profile of salient personality traits of QC managers which can be used in occupational classification, field identity, and career planning.

Citation

W. Lounsbury, J., M. Loveland, J., W. Gibson, L. and J. Levy, J. (2014), "Distinctive personality traits of quality management personnel", The TQM Journal, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 510-521. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-06-2013-0071