Discrimination validity of the 'Big Five' personality traits in employment settings

The ability of the Big Five personality traits to predict supervisors’ ratings of performance was investigated using the Orpheus personality questionnaire. Orpheus is a broad spectrum work-based personality questionnaire containing 190 items. It generates scores on 16 scales – 5 major scales, 7 minor scales, and 4 audit scales. The major scales are fellowship, authority, conformity, emotion, and detail and are based on the Big Five model of personality. The minor scales are proficiency, work-orientation, patience, fair-mindedness, loyalty, disclosure, and initiative, and are based on the Prudentius model of integrity. The 4 response audits are dis-simulation, ambivalence, despondency, and inattention, and are designed to screen for inappropriate responding. Supervisors’ ratings of 245 participants in a variety of occupations and employment settings were obtained from the Orpheus respondents. All of the Big Five traits were found to have significant correlations with appropriate supervisors’ ratings.