Personality characteristics and occupational success in senior managers of a governmental organization

Some personality characteristics have been associated with success orientedness and may play a role in eliciting, organizing and perpetuating behaviors which pave the way toward success. Also personality characteristics have been found to influence in tendency to and capacity of group directorship and management. Little is known about those relationships in our socio-cultural background. This study aimed to examine the relationship between personality characteristics and occupational success in the managers of a governmental organization. Method & Materials: Eighty managers were selected among senior managers of a governmental organization through simple randomization. Occupational Success Scale were administered and based on their scores on this scale, participants were then assigned to two 30-person groups of namely successful and unsuccessful managers. Cattle Personality Scale as well as Occupational Success Scale was administered to all participants.

The mean age of participants was 40. Most of them had a bachelor's degree of education. No correlation was found between demographic characteristics and occupational success. Successful managers had a significantly higher mean score of self-control and nonsignificantly higher mean scores of warmth, emotional stability, superego strength, social assertiveness, delicacy & self-efficiency. They also had a significantly lower mean score of dependence. Both groups of managers had high mean scores of extroversion and this was nonsignificantly higher in successful managers. Both groups had also low mean scores of anxiety.

Some personality characteristics like self-control and lower levels of dependency are associated with occupational success in managers. These factors can be considered in the process of managers' employment and also in their continuous education programs.