THE JOINT EFFECTS OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND SELF‐LEADERSHIP TRAINING ON EMPLOYEE SELF‐DIRECTED BEHAVIOR IN A SERVICE SETTING

TLDR

Conscientiousness is strongly linked to supervisor ratings of employee self‑direction in hotel and resort settings. The study investigated how conscientiousness and self‑leadership training influence employee self‑direction. Employees received a self‑leadership training program. While training alone did not change self‑direction overall, it benefited low‑conscientiousness employees more than high‑conscientiousness ones, suggesting training effectiveness depends on personality.

Abstract

This field investigation examined the effects of conscientiousness and self‐leadership training on employee self‐direction. Conscientiousness correlated significantly with supervisor evaluations of self‐direction for employees working in a hotel/resort. Self‐leadership training was then conducted for a group of the employees. Gain score analysis failed to detect an overall effect for training on self‐direction. However, conscientiousness was found to moderate the effect of self‐leadership training in that training group employees who initially scored low on conscientiousness improved their behavior more than their high conscientiousness coworkers. Implications of these findings for the practices of employee training and selection are discussed.