Research has revealed that there are five core personality traits that comprise the big five. Many years of research beginning with Fiske 1949, Norman 1967, Smith 1967, Goldenberg 1981 and McCrea &Costa 1987. The big five are broad categories of personality traits that can be considered for differentiating one person to another. They include Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and Neurotism, hence the acronym OCEAN.
Openness: people score high on openness are open to experience are intellectually curious, open to emotion, sensitive to beauty and eager to learn new things, full of ideas, love variety, focussed on tackling new challenges, like adventure, art, unusual ideas.
they are likely to bloom in situation that require new skill and flexibility and easily adjust to a new job setting. They have excellent ideas and are quick to understand things. People who score low on openness dislike change, do not like new things, resists new ideas and are not imaginative, have difficult in understanding abstract ideas (McCrae, 1996).
Conscientiousness: People who score are thoughtful, organised, pay attention to details, plan ahead, mindful of deadlines, enjoy having a set schedule, achievement driven, dependable, punctual, systematic, display self discipline, act dutifully.
This traits makes it easily to predict performance in different environments. People who score dislikes structure and schedules, makes messes and does not take care of things, procrastinates important tasks and fails to complete necessary tasks (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Costa & McCrae, 1992).
Extraversion: People who score high on extraversion are enthusiastic, action-oriented, have high group visibility, assertive, talkative, sociable, excited, happy in work environment as they enjoy the relationships they build, possess high group visibility, fell energised the presence of people, display inspirational behaviour in leadership roles, build up quick and strong interaction, say things without thinking.
People who score low in extraversion are reserved, prefer solitude, find it difficult to start a conversation, dislike small talk, carefully thinks through before speaking, dislikes being centre of attention, feels exhausted when having to socialize a lot suspicious (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Neuroticism or emotional stability: people who score high on neuroticism are, irritable, anxious, moody, irritable, emotionally instability, experience sadness, anger, depression and mood swings, struggles to come back after stressful events, gets easily upset, worries about many things and easily gets stressed. People who score low in this trait are stable and emotionally resilient, rarely gets depressed, very relaxed, does not worry much and deals will with stress (Watson & Clark, 1997)
Agreeableness: people who score high on agreeableness are Considerate, generous, trusting, willing to compromise, compassionate, cooperative, , altruism, kind, affection, optimistic, friendly, helpful, likeable and build strong bond with others, have potential being effective leaders as well as valuable asset for team as they are able to create a fair environment in a team, cares about others, a great deal of interest in other people, feels empathy and concern for other people, enjoys helping and contributing to the happiness of other people. Agreeable positively correlates with quality of relationships with ones members and predicts transformational leadership skills. People who score low in agreeableness have unconcerned about other peoples wellbeing, unfriendly, uncooperative, less likely to compromise for other people, doesn’t care about how other people, has little interest in other people’s problems, insults and belittles others, manipulates others to get what they want, sceptical of other people motive and suspicious (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Costa & McCrae, 1992) Conscientiousness and agreeableness are very important for success for many jobs. For effective management its important to be aware to employees personality.