To answer the question, researchers conducted a survey in Pakistan using two popular personality tests: The Big Five and Conflict Management Styles (CMS) questionnaires. The study found that personality, conflict type, CMS, and job performance are related. First, different personality traits are sensitive to different types of conflict and favor different conflict management styles. For example, people who are outgoing tend to have more relationship conflict, where they frequently end up compromising with others. On the other hand, those who are emotionally stable generally experience more task conflict and deal with it by taking care of the both sides in the conflict. In addition, agreeable compromisers were found to be more likely to perform better than others with different combinations of personality traits and CMS. Across the studies, task conflict and process conflict were both found to negatively impact job performance more than relationship conflict.
Do the results show that personality tests are trustworthy? Not quite. The results of personality tests can be stable or unstable depending on the interaction between a person’s disposition and the situations they are in. In order to increase the accuracy of personality tests, situations such as culture, nature of jobs, personality of colleagues and working environment should also be taken into consideration.
Nevertheless, personality tests are still a good source of information for conflict practitioners, as they can help us to assess our own general tendencies under certain situations. However, such information should always be viewed cautiously.
Ayub, N., AlQurashi, S. M., Al-Yafi, W. A., & Jehn, K. (2017). Personality traits and conflict management styles in predicting job performance and conflict. International Journal of Conflict Management, 28(5), 671-694.