Longitudinal effects of employees’ Big Five personality traits on internal promotions differentiated by job level in a multinational company

Promotions are central to individual career success. For organisations, it is crucial to identify and develop employees capable of higher-level responsibility. Previous research has shown that personality traits as inter-individual differences predict promotions. However, effects have mostly been examined on a broad factor-level. This study investigated longitudinal effects of Big Five personality traits on both factor- (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and more detailed facet-levels on promotions in employees of a multinational wholesale company (N = 1,774, n = 343 promoted). We also explored how personality differentially impacts promotional likelihood as a matter of target job level (individual contributor vs. first- or senior-level manager roles). Overall, associations with promotions were detected for neuroticism (negative) and conscientiousness (positive). At the more nuanced facet-level, all Big Five factors had at least one personality facet that was significantly related to promotions. Additionally, personality-promotion relationships were generally stronger for lower- rather than higher-level promotions. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that employee personality traits have a meaningful impact on who will be promoted and should hence be considered in organisational personnel selection, personnel development, and performance management practices.