Finding what is alike among the personalities of creative people has been a dream of many researchers. No single personality type has been discovered as prototypical, yet the promise of common attributes among creative people remains enticing. This study examines one of these promising characteristics - Openness to Experience, a personality factor from the Five-Factor Model. This factor has been shown to correlate positively with creativity in past studies. In the present study this relationship was partially confirmed in a sample of employees whose jobs require technical problem solving, by correlating the employees self-rated Work-specific Openness to Experience and NEO PI-R Openness with supervisory ratings of their creative work performance. The Work-specific Openness scale demonstrated a significant correlation with supervisory ratings of creativity, whereas the NEO PI-R Openness scale did not. Although none of the NEO PI-R facets were significant predictors of criterion, four Work-specific facets were significant predictors based on zero order correlations. These facets are Openness to Ideas, Fantasy, Values, and Actions. However, although individual facets of Openness were expected to differ in validity, the magnitude of their correlations with creative performance scores did not differ significantly. Convincing results showing incremental validity of the Work-specific scale over the NEO PI-R scale are also discussed.

The relationship between mean team Agreeableness and team performance has not been shown definitively. The present study was performed looking at archival data from a study that assessed team performance from 62 two person teams using the DDD and involving two types of training and two types of information probes during the computer task. In addition, each of the participants took a personality test based on the IPIP with an emphasis on Agreeableness and its 6 facets. Using HLM analysis, it was determined that Agreeableness does not have a significant effect on team performance for a problem solving tasks (delta chi square 2.04, p=n.s.), however it did significantly effect how an individual performed (delta chi square=18.06, p=.001) on the problem solving task. Intelligence had a significant effect on team performance (delta chi square=569.08, p=.001) and this may have washed out any personality effects. In addition, a linear regression indicated than none of the six facets of Agreeableness had a significant effect on team performance on a problem solving task.

The focus of this dissertation is exploring personality factors that impact performance within a small insurance agency. The primary research question is, what is (or are) the best personality factor(s), sub-facets, or constructs, that contribute to increased performance within an insurance agency. Three of the Five-Factor Model dimensions, extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience along with grit and hardiness were examined, as well as their sub-facets. Grit and hardiness were not found to add additional explanation of the variance while five of the sub-facets were found to better explain the variance over the composite dimensions.

For decades, there has been substantial research showing that ability tests effectively predict what people can do, but it is only in the last fifteen years that it has come to be generally accepted that personality is a useful predictor of what they will do. Much of this change in appreciation of the role of personality in predicting performance has been attributed to the application of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality to personality-performance research. The FFM was developed on the basis of the lexical hypothesis, which states that it is advantageous for people to be able to accurately describe the behaviour of others, and therefore the most important dimensions of personality will be encoded in natural languages. An associated premise is that natural language descriptors refer to an individual's surface appearance or reputation (i.e., their observable behaviours), rather than the underlying processes or genotype of personality (i.e., people's cognitive and affective processing). This reasoning was used as the basis for most of the factor-analytical studies of personality descriptors within the English language, and one of the most robust factor solutions was the FFM. The FFM contains the personality dimensions Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Emotional Stability. Although the FFM continues to evolve, particularly in response to cross-cultural research, the five basic dimensions appear to be remarkably consistent, and at least the core of each of these has been identified in the first six or seven factors found in every language considered to date. Of the five factors, Conscientiousness has been the one most reliably associated with workplace performance. Workplace performance itself has undergone a major reconsideration over the last fifteen to twenty years. Prior to that time, formal job roles and responsibilities were typically considered the start and finish of performance, but formal job requirements are now recognised as only one aspect of performance, which is increasingly referred to as Task Performance. Task Performance tends to change substantially from job to job, but there are other aspects of job performance, most notably Citizenship Performance, which appear to be consistent in most jobs. Citizenship Performance includes activities undertaken by an employee which facilitate Task Performance, such as making greater effort, complying with rules and procedures, and assisting others. Whereas Task Performance appears to be closely related to an individual's abilities, Citizenship Performance was originally proposed as an aspect of performance which is influenced by attitudinal and personality variables. Thus it has been proposed that Citizenship Performance largely mediates the relationship between personality variables, such as Conscientiousness, and Task Performance. However, this predictors of performance model has previously only been investigated in workplace settings. Yet performance is a relevant construct not only within workplace settings, but also within academic settings. In addition, the FFM dimension of Conscientiousness has been observed to be a reliable predictor of academic performance, just as it is a reliable predictor of workplace performance. Within educational settings, performance is typically tied to assessment measures, such as marks and GPA, which appear to measure academic Task Performance. However, no previous research appears to have considered whether Citizenship Performance mediates the relationship between Conscientiousness and Task Performance within an academic setting. Study One of this dissertation was designed to test this proposition. Participants in this study were 175 students enrolled within an introductory management subject. Participants provided assessments of their own personality using the Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), while Citizenship Performance ratings were provided by students' peers, at the end of a three-week group project. The hand-scored version of the Computerised Adaptive Rating Scales (CARS: Borman, 1999; Coleman & Borman, 2000) was used to assess Citizenship, but unfortunately the three scales of the CARS did not demonstrate good internal reliability. Consequently, a factor analysis was conducted to establish a new scale using the CARS items. This new scale, which was labelled Active Support, used six of the twelve CARS items and had satisfactory internal reliability. It was observed that the resulting scores on this Citizenship Performance scale were positively correlated with both Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance (as measured by grades). As predicted, Citizenship Performance entirely mediated the relationship between Conscientiousness and academic Task Performance. Therefore, the results of Study One were consistent with the predictors of performance model. It was concluded that Citizenship Performance is an important component of performance within academic settings, just as it is within workplace settings. Despite the fact that the relationship between both workplace and academic performance, and Conscientiousness, is reliable and well-established, correlations between Conscientiousness and performance tend to be moderate at best. Previous research has observed that other-rated measures of Conscientiousness have higher correlations with academic performance than do self-rated measures. Consequently, Study Two explored whether other-rated Conscientiousness improved the prediction of academic Citizenship and Task Performance, using a similar design to that utilised in Study One. One hundred and twenty-two students participated in Study Two while undertaking the same course as the students who had participated in Study One. Most of the results of Study Two were consistent with expectations, but there were some unexpected outcomes. Other-rated Conscientiousness was found to be a significantly better predictor of both academic Task and Citizenship Performance than was self-rated Conscientiousness. However, contrary to previous ideas, the relationship between other-rated Conscientiousness and Task Performance was not mediated by Citizenship Performance. In contrast, it was observed that the correlation between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Citizenship Performance was .61 if both ratings were obtained from the same raters, and .44 if the two ratings were obtained from independent raters. When corrected for measurement unreliability, these estimates approached unity, which is consistent with the idea that, for the other-raters, Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance were measuring the same construct. However, this study had several limitations, including its small sample size, the use of an unusual measure for Citizenship Performance, and the fact that it had been conducted in an academic setting. Therefore, there was a need to replicate Study Two before accepting that Conscientiousness and Citizenship Performance are actually much more strongly associated than previous research has indicated. In order to replicate Study Two, while addressing some of its limitations, a third study was conducted within a workplace setting. In Study Three, general staff supervisors within a public university were asked to rate their staff on measures of both personality and Citizenship Performance. In addition to Active Support, the measure used in Studies One and Two, two additional measures were included, which assessed the aspects of Citizenship Performance referred to as Individual Initiative and Helping Behaviour. The FFM dimension of Agreeableness was also added, because previous research indicates that, while Conscientiousness may be a better predictor of Individual Initiative, Helping Behaviour should be more closely associated with the FFM dimension of Agreeableness. However, using multiple ratings derived from the same raters can create common method bias in correlations, and so, in line with previous recommendations (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to control for this. The resulting correlations confirmed that there were strong relationships between the measures of Citizenship Performance and personality. Helping Behaviour had a strong relationship with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.81), while Individual Initiative was significantly correlated with supervisor-rated Agreeableness (.44) and supervisor-rated Conscientiousness (.32). Active Support had strong correlations with these measures of personality (.57 and .55 respectively). The results of Study Three indicate that, for the participating supervisors, the Helping Behaviour dimension of Citizenship Performance is largely the same as the Agreeableness dimension of personality. Unlike Study Two, Active Support appeared to be not so closely associated with Conscientiousness, but instead seemed to occupy a position halfway between other-rated Conscientiousness and other-rated Agreeableness. Individual Initiative occupies a similar position, but is not so closely linked to these other-rated personality variables. Although these results suggest that, when compared with the students in Study Two, the supervisors in Study Three had a slightly different view of Active Support, it remains clear that much or most of the variance in each of these measures of Citizenship Performance is accounted for by these other-rated measures of personality. In order to understand why the strength of the relationship between the other-rated personality dimensions of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and the performance construct of Citizenship Performance, has been overlooked by previous researchers, it was necessary to reconsider the basic reasons for disagreement in ratings. Agreement between raters tends to vary considerably, depending on who is rating whom. Self-other agreement on ratings is typically modest, other-other agreement tends to be higher, but alternate-form and test-retest agreement are typically higher still. The reasons for this appear to be related to the extent to which ratings are produced using similar observations, and integrating these in similar ways, as well as the extent to which ratings are affected by specific aspects of individual rater-ratee relationships. Previous research has provided estimates for these effects which can be used to correct correlations for resulting biases. When these are applied to correlations between ratings of measures, such as performance or personality, which are provided by different other-raters, these correlations approximate unity. This includes the correlations, reported in this dissertation, between other-rated personality and other-rated Citizenship Performance. In conclusion, the results of the research reported in this dissertation are consistent with the idea that measures of Citizenship Performance are largely accounted for by other-rated measures of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. It is argued that this conclusion is consistent with the lexical hypothesis which underlay the development of the FFM, as well as with the theoretical basis for the construct of performance. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of this conclusion, for a range of fields, including understanding the relationship between personality and performance, methodological consequences for future research, and practical implications for staff selection and performance appraisal systems.

<p>Tidigare forskning har visat att individers omgivning (klimat, natur) har relativt stor inverkan för hur pass stor vemodet blir vid byte till en ny omgivning. Omgivningen anses även påverka och forma individens personlighetsdrag. Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka individtyper som är mest villiga till att byta ort för ett lämpligt arbete, i relation till deras huvudsakliga uppväxtort. Undersökningen bestod av 250 deltagare. Resultatet redovisade signifikanta samband mellan både uppväxtort och attityd till att arbeta i stora och mindre städer. Inget signifikant samband erhölls mellan de olika personlighetsdragen i relation till flyttbenägenhet. Det personlighetsdrag som starkast påverkar individens flyttbenägenhet var öppenhet. Män rapporterades vara mer flyttbenägna än kvinnor, och generellt tenderar de att vara uppvuxna i glesbygd.</p>

<p>Date: 2008-06-08</p><p>Program: International Marketing</p><p>Course: Master thesis in International Marketing (EF0705)</p><p>Author: Xiongyu Zeng (780925) Yang Du (820830)</p><p>Tutor: Jan Löwstedt</p><p>Title: A Study of Marketing Strategy in Chinese Software Market – A Case Study of UFIDA Software Co., Ltd</p><p>Strategic Question : What should be an Effective Marketing Strategy for UFIDA in order to Increase its Market Shares and Support its Market Leadership Position?</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the current Chinese financial management software market conditions as well as competitors and to utilize the knowledge from the investigation to consider a better application of marketing mix for UFIDA.</p><p>Theory and Method: Two theories, five forces and marketing mix, were applied in this thesis. The authors collected primary data by interview and questionnaire to learn company’s marketing operation and feedback of customers on the marketing mix. The authors also collected reliable secondary data with the guideline of five forces framework to learn the marketing situation. The analysis was conducted according to the selected theories and the collected data. Based on the analysis, the authors presented a relevant conclusion.</p><p>Target Audience: The target audience is the market managers of UFIDA. The researchers wish the result of the paper could bring some benefits for them in the market performance. UFIDA can make use of the research result to design an effective strategy. The authors believe that the research could provide a general guidance and bring benefit to marketers in similar fields and help them to learn competitive situation.</p><p>Conclusion: From the result of analysis, the authors think the market situation is good for UFIDA. UFIDA has competitive advantages to defend itself against the forces and influence them in its favor. As a consequence, in order to increase market share as well as support its leading position, UFIDA should maintain the existing competitive advantages and improve the disadvantages of marketing operation about marketing mix found from the feedbacks of customer. Through the analysis and recommendation, the authors wish that the investigation result could benefit to UFIDA and bring them some cues for designing an effective marketing strategy.</p>

<p>This thesis presents a five-transistor SRAM intended for the advanced microprocessor cache market. The goal is to reduce the area of the cache memory array while maintaining competitive performance. Various existing technologies are briefly discussed with their strengths and weaknesses. The design metrics for the five-transistor cell are discussed in detail and performance and stability are evaluated. Finally a comparison is done between a 128Kb memory of an existing six-transistor technology and the proposed technology. The comparisons include area, performance and stability of the memories. It is shown that the area of the memory array can be reduced by 23% while maintaining comparable performance. The new cell also has 43% lower total leakage current. As a trade-off for these advantages some of the stability margin is lost but the cell is still stable in all process corners. The performance and stability has been validated through post-layout simulations using Cadence Spectre.</p>

<p>Studien är en begreppsvalidering av personlighetsformuläret Pers Q som utgår från ”Big Five”-teorin. Pers Q relaterades till ett etablerat personlighetsinstrument, CTI, som utgår från Jungs personlighetstypologi. Vidare undersöktes om det i Pers Q dimensionerna fanns förväntade könsskillnader samt förväntade samband med generell intelligens. Data samlades in från sökande till officersutbildning (N=552 varav 58 kvinnor) och analyserades genom korrelationer, regressionsanalyser samt t-test. Resultatet indikerade att Pers Q mäter delar av CTI vilket delvis kan förklaras av testens teoretiska perspektiv. Vidare visar studien att de skillnader och samband som undersöktes inte fullständigt överensstämmer med de förväntade. För att säkerställa Pers Q dimensionernas egenskaper behöver fler studier utföras enär begreppsvaliditet bör uppfyllas i en serie av prövningar.</p>

<p>Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det nya personlighetsformuläret Pers Q fungerar på ungdomar samt studera eventuella könsskillnader i personlighet. Vidare undersöks om bakgrundsvariablerna årskurs, syskonplacering, sociokulturell bakgrund samt självuppskattad skolprestation har samband med personligheten. Studien är ett led i utprövningen av Pers Q som mäter verifierade personlighetsfaktorer med validitet för arbetskriterier. Respondenterna består av 138 killar och 233 tjejer från gymnasiet (n=371). En explorativ principalkomponentanalys verifierade en tidigare faktorstruktur med sju personlighetsfaktorer: Omtanke om andra (alfa ,87), Noggrannhet (,84), Social förmåga (,84), Kreativitet (,82), Humörinstabilitet (,77), Stresstålighet (,76) samt Självförtroende (,72). Resultatet visar signifikanta könsskillnader i fem av sju faktorindex. Slutresultatet visar att Pers Q är ett snabbt och lätthanterligt personlighetsformulär som fungerar väl på ungdomar.</p>

<p>Vissa människor har mer bestämda åsikter eller radikala övertygelser än andra. Den här studien belyser om fenomenet skiljer sig mellan olika grupper och om det har att göra med personlighet. Totalt 90 personer ur grupperna kristna, kriminella och en kontrollgrupp undersöktes avseende dogmatism och Big Five teorins personlighetsfaktorer. En one-way ANOVA visade att gruppen kriminella var signifikant mer dogmatiska än kontrollgruppen och tenderade att vara mer dogmatiska än kristna personer. En regressionsanalys visade att Big Five teorins personlighetsfaktorer predicerar dogmatism och att känslomässig instabilitet (N) är den enda signifikanta prediktorn med störst vikt. Utbildningsnivå kombinerat med känslomässig instabilitet (N) visades öka prediktionen av dogmatism och utbildningsnivå hade den största prediktionsbetydelsen. En one-way ANOVA relaterade låg utbildningsnivå till dogmatism. Motsatt tidigare forskning hittades även höga värden av vänlighet för gruppen kriminella.</p>