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Research Article

Hire Ambitious People

Bright- and Dark-Side Personality and Work Engagement

Published Online:August 26, 2022https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000380

Abstract

Abstract. Is work engagement, like job satisfaction, primarily a function of personality? In total, 397 working adults completed a short, reliable, three-facet model of work engagement, a short IQ test, various self-ratings, a Big Five (bright-side) personality scale, and a measure of the personality disorders (dark-side). Work engagement was related to age, intelligence, positive self-ratings, and all the personality variables. A regression analysis revealed six variables significantly related to total work engagement: sex, age, IQ, ratings of personal ambitiousness, trait Neuroticism and Cluster A personality disorders. Regressions onto each of the three facets of work engagement showed slightly different findings, yet in each, older people with lower Cluster A scores and who rated themselves as ambitious scored higher on all facets. Over a third of the variance was explained in each regression. In every analysis, the rating of ambitiousness was most strongly related to work engagement. Implications and limitations are acknowledged.

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