Personality as a Multilevel Predictor of Climate: An Examination in the Domain of Workplace Safety

Jeremy M. Beus, Gonzalo J. Muñoz, Winfred Arthur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Individual and aggregate personality traits are theoretical antecedents of psychological and workgroup climates, respectively. However, empirical research has yet to test whether or to what degree this is true. Consequently, in the domain of workplace safety, we tested emotional stability and locus of control as multilevel antecedents of safety climate. We also tested a series of homology theories to determine the degree to which personality–climate associations are similar across organizational levels. Results revealed that both emotional stability and locus of control were meaningfully associated with safety climate at psychological and workgroup levels. In addition, multilevel homology tests demonstrated that workgroup-level personality–climate associations were more than 2½ times stronger than corresponding individual-level associations, supporting a proportional theory of homology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-656
Number of pages32
JournalGroup and Organization Management
Volume40
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Oct 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • multilevel research
  • organizational climate
  • personality
  • safety climate

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Personality as a Multilevel Predictor of Climate: An Examination in the Domain of Workplace Safety'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this