Big Five / Five-Factor Model


This depicts a theory that describes personality using five basic traits and shows how the model has been used to assess employee absence, expatriate success, job performance and teamwork.

Technique Overview

Big Five / Five-Factor Model

Big Five / Five-Factor Model Definition

The Big Five Model (also known as Five-Factor Model) is a taxonomy of personality trait: a coordinate system that maps which traits go together (Srivastava, 2012). Although there are some variations across the factor, generally these include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism that are often referred to as OCEAN or CANOE (John, Nauman and Soto, 2008; McCrae and Costa's, 1985).

Big Five / Five-Factor Model Description *

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Business Evidence

Strengths, weaknesses and examples of Big Five / Five-Factor Model *

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Business Application

Implementation, success factors and measures of Big Five / Five-Factor Model *

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Professional Tools

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Further Reading

Big Five / Five-Factor Model web and print resources *

Big Five / Five-Factor Model references (4 of up to 20) *

  • Amelang, M. and Borkenau, P. (1982) Uber die factorielle Struktur und exteme Validitateiniger Eragebogen-skalen zur Erfassung von Dimensionen der Extraversion and emotionalen Labilitat. Z. Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie, Vol. 3, pp. 119-146.
  • Behling, O. (1996) Employee Selection: Will Intelligence and Conscientiousness do the Job? Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 12(1), pp. 77-86.
  • Busato, V.V., Prins, F.J., Elshout, J.J. and Hamaker, C. (1999) The Relation Between Learning Styles, The Big Five Personality Traits and Achievement Motivation in Higher Education. Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 26(1), pp. 129–140.
  • Costa, P.T. Jr. and McCrae, R.R. (1985) The NEO Personality Inventory Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

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