Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Patrick D. Converse

Second Advisor

Jessica Wildman

Third Advisor

Zhiqing Zhou

Fourth Advisor

Deborah Carstens

Abstract

This research addresses two critical aspects of organizational performance: (1) identification of individuals who have the potential to become the organization’s greatest assets and (2) identification of individuals who are likely to be the organization’s greatest liabilities. The greatest assets, contributing the most value to the organization, are proposed to be individuals with a predisposition to engage in a prosocial interaction style referred to as give. The greatest liabilities, engaging in behaviors contradicting organizational goals, are proposed to be individuals with an antisocial interaction style referred to as take. Although both givers and takers can be highly successful as individuals, the difference between the two has been argued to be their altruistic versus egoistic approach to providing value to the organization (Grant, 2013). So far, very limited research has evaluated give and take as a construct and a measure (Utz, Muscanell, & Goritz, 2014), and no research has evaluated the relationship between personality and give and take. Therefore, the current research first evaluates the give and take concept and corresponding measure. Second, the extent to which give and take is related to underlying personality profiles is examined. Lastly, the extent to which the identified personality profiles can be used to predict employee performance is evaluated. Results from the validation study suggest give and take is a construct distinct from yet similar to other existing constructs and that the measure can be used to determine an individual’s social interaction style. Results also suggest givers, takers, and matchers have different underlying personality profiles and that the three styles differentially predict various individual success factors. The implications of the current research are directly related to talent management, as findings can be applied to identification and development of the most beneficial employees as well as to identification of those individuals who may be particularly detrimental to the organization.

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