Post on 20-Jun-2020
The Influence of Work on Personality
Development and Change through Life:
Implications for Thriving at Work
Pro f . S tephen A . W oods Ph .D. CPsycho l .
Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology
People and Organizations Department, Surrey Business School
University of Surrey, UK
Keynote Address to the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, January 2019
To observe personal i ty change and development effects,
work demands and trai ts must be viewed as dynamic
Understanding the mechanisms of change and
development requires new models and theory: the
Demands-Affordances Transactional (DATA) Model
A dynamic view of personal i ty trai ts at work:
impl ications for practice and thriving at work
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OVERVIEW
I n t r o d u c t i o n
What we know about personal i ty development
and change at work: the evidence base
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STUDYING PEOPLE DYNAMICALLY: UNEMPLOYMENT
I n t r o d u c t i o n
Zhou, Zou, Woods & Wu (in press 2019) The Restorative Effect of Work after Unemployment: An
Intra-individual Analysis of Subjective Well-being Recovery through Re-employment. Journal of
Applied Psychology
Dynamic and personal – within-person, over t ime
From individual differences to individual growth
D Y N A M I C P E R S O N A L
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THRIVING AT WORK
I n t r o d u c t i o n
Personal i ty (the relat ively enduring pattern of thoughts,
feel ings, and behaviors that dist inguish from one another)
Personal i ty is often assumed to be stable and stat ic,
yet studies have shown that personal i ty can change,
even in adulthood
Studying the impact of work requires a fundamental change
in how we treat personal i ty and work variables in research
- (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007; Roberts & Mroczek, 2008; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2005)
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SECTION 1
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT & CHANGE
The val idi ty question
- Trait x, predicting outcome y
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THE DYNAMICS OF WORK ENVIRONMENTS
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THE DYNAMIC NATURE OF JOB DEMANDS
T ho r esen , B r ad ley , B l i ese , T ho resen ( 2004)
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TRAIT ACTIVATION THEORY
Tett & Burnett (2003)
The Dynamic Developmental Model (Woods et al . , 2013)
Personal i ty trai ts are more or less sal ient over t ime based on
short- term dynamics of job demands and long-term career stages
0 9S e c t i o n 1
THE DYNAMICS OF WORK ENVIRONMENTS
1 0S e c t i o n 1
A DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS
11S e c t i o n 1
A DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL
Woods, S. A., Lievens, F., De Fruyt, F., & Wille, B. (2013). Personality across working life: The longitudinal
and reciprocal influences of personality on work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34, S7-S25.
Allan, Leeson, De Fruyt, & Martin (2018).
Bleidorn, Klimstra, Denissen, Rentfrow,
Potter, & Gosling (2013).
Denissen, Luhmann, Chung, & Bleidorn (2018).
Hudson, Briley, Chopik & Derringer, (2018)
Hudson & Roberts (2016)
Hudson & Fraley (2015)
Hudson & Fraley (2016)
Le, Donnellan, & Conger, (2014).
Nies, & Zacher (2015).
Roberts, Caspi & Moffitt (2003).
Roberts & Mroczek (2008)
Roberts, Wood, & Smith (2005)
Sutin & Costa (2010)
Wille, Beyers & De Fruyt (2012)
Wille & De Fruyt (2014)
Woods, Hampson, Edmond & Lievens (2016)
Wrzus & Roberts (2017)
Wu (2016)
Lüdtke, Roberts, Trautwein & Nagy (2011)
Roberts (2006)
Roberts & DelVecchio (2000)
Roberts, Robins, Caspi & Trzesniewski (2003)
Roberts, Wood, & Caspi (2008)
Chapman, Hampson & Clarkin (2014)
Woods, Lievens, De Fruyt & Wille (2013)
Woods, Wille, Wu, Lievens & De Fruyt (2019)
Tasselli, Kilduff & Landis (2017)
Watson & Humrichouse (2006)
Mroczek & Spiro (2007)
I NTERVENTI O N STUDI ES
Roberts, Luo, Briley, Chow, Su & Hill (2017). Meta analyses of 207 clinical intervention samples
NO RM ATI VE DEVELO PM ENT
Roberts, Walton & Viechtbauer (2006) Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies comprising 92 samples
SECTION 2
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR PERSONALITY CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
S e c t i o n 2 1 2
Roberts, Caspi & Moff i t t (2003)
Le, Donnelan & Conger (2011)
1 3S e c t i o n 2
Wu (2016)
KEY STUDIES: JOB DEMANDS
- The corresponsive pathway describes how the traits that select people into
environments are subsequently developed by experiences in those environments
- Job demands-control: effects on development of the Big Five
Will ie, Beyers & De Fruyt (2012) / Wil le & De Fruyt (2014)
Woods, Hampson, Edmonds & Lievens (2019)
1 4S e c t i o n 2
KEY STUDIES: VOCATIONAL DEMANDS
- Investment and participation in career roles
- Holland’s RIASEC vocational environments
- Vocational environments and personality development from childhood to middle age
1 5S e c t i o n 2
THE LONGITUDINAL INTERPLAY OF TRAITS & WORK
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CHILDHOOD TRAITS & OCCUPATIONS
Woods, S. A., Edmonds, G., Hampson, S. E., Lievens, F. (2019). How Our Work Influences
Who We Are: Testing a Theory of Vocational and Personality Development over Fifty Years.
S e c t i o n 3 1 7
SECTION 3
THE DEMANDS - AFFORDANCES TRANSACTIONAL (DATA) MODEL
Demands represent micro and macro features of the work environment
Affordances
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- Job, vocation, group, organization
- Demands call upon personality traits as personal resources – what traits do work demands call for?
- Demand-salience of traits (Judge & Zapatta, 2015; Bartram, 2005; Hogan & Holland, 2003)
DEMANDS & AFFORDANCES
S e c t i o n 3
Psychological exchange between perceptions of the demands
of the work si tuation and the deployment of resources
Guiding mechanism: Person-Environment Fit
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THE TRANSACTION
S e c t i o n 3
Development f lows from an interaction of person - environment – behavior
(Social Learning Theory)
Consistency of Demands and Affordances determines
the development mechanism
2 0
DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS
S e c t i o n 3
2 1S e c t i o n 3
DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS
2 2S e c t i o n 3
DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS
Behaviour change serves to enable development
2 3
BEHAVIOUR & GOALS
Hudson, Bri ley, Chopik, Derringer (2018)
S e c t i o n 3
2 4
THE DATA MODEL
S e c t i o n 3
Woods, S. A., Wille, B., Wu, C. H., Lievens, F., & De Fruyt, F. (2018). The influence of work on
personality trait development: The demands-affordances TrAnsactional (DATA) model, an integrative
review, and research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior.
2 5S e c t i o n 4
SECTION 4
IMPLICATIONS FOR THRIVING
People who are thriving experience…“growth and momentum marked
by both a sense of feel ing energized and al ive (vi tal i ty) and a sense
that they are continual ly improving and gett ing better at what they
do (learning)” (Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson and Garnett (2012) ).
Selection, learning & development and identi fying
the signs of thriving
Selection and person-job f i t
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SELECTION
How do our assumptions change when
aspects of both are treated dynamical ly?
Social ization and adjustment – ensuring
people thrive once recruited
S e c t i o n 4
Passive versus active development: role of intervention
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LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
What are the effective development strategies for work adjustment
- Coaching, goal-setting, behavioural strategies
What about the vol i t ion?
- Aspiration to change
Is development an adaptive process
- Impact on well-being over time
S e c t i o n 4
Vital i ty and learning
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SIGNS OF THRIVING
S e c t i o n 4
Adjustment and personal growth
Impact on wel l -being, engagement and performance
Might personal i ty trai t change and development,
l ike other forms of personal growth, be seen as
a sign of thriving at work?
FOR OCCUPATIONAL & ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
SELECT, ASSESS, MEASURE,
RESEARCH AND DEVELOP
2 9S e c t i o n 4
Thank you
Questions?
s .a .woods@sur rey.ac .uk
Goog le Scho la r : h t t ps : / / t inyu r l . com/y8n9 l8q2
Ar t i c le on DATA Mode l i n JVB: h t tps : / / t inyur l . com/ y9u fn7kp
See a lso Researchgate o r emai l f o r advance copy
Sympos ium: Study ing Peop le a t Work Dynamica l ly :
Exp lo r ing the Long i tud ina l Deve lopment and In te rp lay o f Pe rson
and Work Cr i t e r ia
Thursday 10 th January, 11 .05 , Co rnwa l l Room