[Music] psychologists have identified literally thousands of personality traits and dimensions that differentiate one person from another but in recent years researchers have identified five fundamental personality traits that are especially relevant to organizations let's take a look at the Big Five framework these traits are commonly called the Big Five personality traits the Big Five personality framework is currently very popular among researchers and managers these five dimensions represent fundamental personality traits presumed to be important for determining the behaviors of individuals in organizations in general experts agree that personality traits closer to the left of each dimension are more positive in organizational settings whereas traits closer to the right are less positive agreeableness refers to a person's ability to get along with others agreeableness causes some people to be gentle cooperative forgiving understanding and good-natured in their dealings with others lack of it results in others being intolerable short-tempered uncooperative and generally antagonistic towards other people conscientiousness refers to the extent to which a person can be counted on to get things done some people for example are organized detail-oriented responsible dependable and plan carefully in order to meet deadlines these individuals can be characterized as being strong on conscientiousness less conscientious people may be prone to missing deadlines overlooking various tasks being unorganized and being generally less dependable the third of the big five personality dimensions is neuroticism people who are relatively more neurotic tend to experience unpleasant emotions such as anger anxiety depression and feelings of vulnerability more often than people who are less neurotic people who are less neurotic are relatively poised calm resilient insecure people who are more neurotic are more excitable insecure reactive and subject to extreme mood swings people with less neuroticism might be expected to better handle job stress pressure in tension this stability might also lead them to be seen as being more reliable than their less stable counterparts extraversion refers to a person's comfort level with relationships extroverts are sociable talkative assertive and open to establishing new relationships introverts are less sociable talkative and sensitive and reluctant to begin new relationships for this particular trait the opposite version is given a name introversion an introvert tends to be less comfortable in social situations finally openness reflects a person's ability or beliefs in range of interests people with high levels of openness are willing to listen to new ideas and to change their own ideas beliefs and attitudes in response to new information on the other hand people with low levels of openness tend to be less receptive to new ideas and less willing to change their minds the big5 framework continues to attract the attention of both researchers and managers the potential value of this framework is that it encompasses an integrated set of traits that appear to be a valid predictor of certain behaviors in certain situations thus managers who can both understand the framework and assess these traits and their employees are in a good position to understand how and why they behave as they do a limitation of the Big Five framework is that it's primarily based on research conducted in the United States thus generalizing it to other cultures presents unanswered questions even within the United States a variety of other factors and traits are also likely to affect behavior in organizations [Music]