The relationship between the Big Five and the WPV
The relationship between the Big Five and the WPV
The Big Five is one of the best-known personality theories in the world and is widely used in psychology to describe and predict personality. The Work-Related Personality Questionnaire (WPV) van Ixly is partly based on the Big Five theory. The WPV has been specially developed to support HR professionals and (assessment) psychologists with selection and advisory issues and includes factors that focus on the work environment. But what are the differences between the factors of the WPV and the factors of the Big Five? We are often asked this question. In this blog, we will answer this question.
What is the Big Five Personality Theory?
- Before we delve deeper into the relationship between the WPV and the Big Five, it's good to know what personality traits make up the Big Five personality theory. The Big Five theory states that personality can be described by five broad factors:
1. Openness: the extent to which someone is open to new experiences and ideas. Employees with a high degree of Openness are often more willing to explore new ideas and experiment with different approaches, which can lead to new solutions and improved processes.
2. Conscientiousness: this factor describes how careful and organized someone is. Employees with a high level of Conscientiousness are often punctual, accurate, and driven to work hard to achieve their goals.
3. Extraversion: the extent to which someone is focused on social interaction and external stimulation. Individuals with a high score on Extraversion often have good communication skills and are comfortable in social situations.
4. Altruism (or Kindness): how much does a person tend to adapt to others? Does someone behave empathically and compassionately? People with a high score on Kindness are often accommodating, tolerant, and helpful. People with a low score are actually a bit cold, distant and uncooperative.- 5. Neuroticism: refers to the extent to which a person is emotionally stable. While some levels of Neuroticism can help pay attention to details and reduce risks, high levels of Neuroticism can also lead to increased stress and anxiety in the workplace. A low score on Neuroticism is therefore not useful in a stressful job.
These Big 5 factors are again subdivided into specific facets (minor personality traits) that are related to a person's personality.
Why was the WPV developed?
You may ask yourself: why was the WPV developed if Big Five personality questionnaires already exist? Ixly's initiative to develop a personality test came from practice: there was a need for a personality questionnaire specifically for use in the HR field. The existing personality questionnaires did not meet the needs of the assessment psychologists. The goal in developing the WPV was to make the most complete list possible that included all aspects of personality that are relevant to the work situation.
In addition, there was a need to replace the relatively time-consuming personality questionnaires with a questionnaire that you can take in a short period of time. As a result, in addition to a normative and ipsative test form also a adaptive version of the WPV developed. This is a smart personality test where not every candidate gets the same questions, but where the questions depend on answers previously given. For example, each talent is offered a unique, personal questionnaire, unnecessary questions are omitted so that testing can be done more quickly.
Conscientiousness: Structure and Drive
The Big Five factor Conscientiousness is one of the most important predictors of success in work. This factor is quite extensive and includes the following facets:
- A meticulous and careful way to act
- Self-discipline, solidity
- Being organized
- Hard work and reliability
- Performance drive, focus and drive for success
In the WPV, conscientiousness is split into two factors: Structure and Drive. Analyses have shown that these two factors are independent (see WPV manual). This is because Ixly has only studied work-related populations and included many facets that assessment psychologists consider important.
This split is useful because in practice, you often meet successful managers and sales people who are highly driven, but not that accurate. You will then see a low score in Structure and a high score in Drive.
Research among a group of account managers, by the way, did show that thinking a little more (deliberate) is beneficial, but too deliberate detracted from the necessary focus on action. Low scores indicated a little too much action orientation; account managers with higher scores showed better performance. In practice, the distinction between Structure and Drive is experienced as very pleasant by our relations.
Extraversion and Altruism: Sociability
The two Big Five factors Extraversion and Altruism have just been merged into the WPV factor Sociability. The facet Dominance, which is part of the Big Five Extraversion factor, is not included in the WPV factor Sociability, but the WPV Influence factor. More about that later.
The top three facets of the WPV factor Sociability (contact need, social relaxation and self-disclosure) can be seen together as the Big Five Extraversion factor, but therefore without dominance. High scores in these three facets are social people who feel relaxed around others, seek a lot of contact and are open about what's going on in them.
The bottom three facets of Sociability (trust, cordiality, and caring) reflect the Big Five factor Altruism (Kindness). However, Ixly's factor analyses, a statistical method used to see whether different items can be merged into a factor, did not defend a separate factor for Altruism.
The WPV factor Influence
As mentioned earlier, the Big Five facet Dominance in the WPV has been disconnected from the Extraversion factor and added to the Influence factor. The Influence factor consists of the following facets:
- Status
- Dominance
- Competition
- Self-display
During the development of the WPV, Ixly collected data from research groups by taking questionnaires. These analyses resulted in the separate Influence factor, which can have a major influence on work situations. Indeed, our study into the success factors of account managers showed that the Influence factor contributes more to success than the Sociability facets that normally come with extroversion.
The Big Five Factor Openness
As you may have noticed, the Big Five Openness factor is not a separate factor in the WPV. There are, however, three facets of the WPV drive factor that indicate Openness, namely: Innovation, Originality and Independence. It is important to know that Innovation primarily indicates the need for new experiences, not the creation of innovation. Indeed, the latter falls under the Originality facet of the WPV factor Driven.
Neuroticism: Stability
There is one factor in the WPV that has remained the same as a Big Five factor: the Big Five Neuroticism factor is the same as Stability in the WPV. This factor is also known as Emotional Stability. In the WPV, however, it was decided to call this factor Stability, so that higher scores on this factor indicate more stability. Because let's be honest, does it also sound better to tell someone that they are less stable rather than neurotic? Especially in the context of work, it is a lot more professional to discuss someone's stability than to label them as neurotic.
