Linearity of Personality–Performance Relationships: A large‐scale examination

Abstract

This paper reviews theory and past research concerning nonlinear relationships between personality tests and job performance. We compare linear and nonlinear regression models for each of the 32 Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32i) scales using job performance as the criterion variable. We evaluate linear, quadratic, and cubic relationships between personality and job performance by calculating changes in R (Δ R ) between the linear and nonlinear models. We use 3 decision rules of varying levels for Δ R and divide a large sample randomly into 2 samples to cross‐validate any nonlinear effects found. Few scales exhibited nonlinearity and the magnitude of the departures from linearity were small.