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

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THE DYNAMICS OF WORK ENVIRONMENTS

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A DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS

S e c t i o n 3

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DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS

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DEVELOPMENT MECHANISMS

Behaviour change serves to enable development

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BEHAVIOUR & GOALS

Hudson, Bri ley, Chopik, Derringer (2018)

S e c t i o n 3

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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.

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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

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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