2011 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (CHUSER 2011), Dec 5-6 2011, Penang
The Correlation Effects Between Big Five Personality
Traits and Job Satisfaction Among Support Staff in an
Organization
*Liatul Izian Binti Ali Husin, *Noor Ainn Zaidi
*Center of Applied Management, Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam, Malaysia
liatul@puncakalam.uitm.edu.my
Abstract—Job satisfaction among employee is a crucial issue in
an organization and employer plays a vital role to fulfill the
needs. Keeping morale high among workers can be of
tremendous benefit to any organization as happy employees will
be more likely to produce work effectively, loyal to the
organization and would also help to increase the organization’s
performance against its competitors. This paper discussed on the
correlation effects between the big five personality traits and
employee’s job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
Bhd. Selangor. The primary objective of this paper was to
examine whether the big five personality traits as a whole and its
stand alone dimensions have any influence on employee’s job
satisfaction in an organization. The sample was drawn from 90
employees from 7 departments in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. The results
generated from this paper showed that there was a small, positive
and significant relationship between the big five personality traits
as a whole on employee’s job satisfaction in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
Notwithstanding, only two out of the five personality traits
dimension on its own portrayed a significant positive relationship
on employee’s job satisfaction. They are the openness to
experience and extroversion.
Keywords – big five personality traits; job satisfaction;
employee turnover; extroversion; agreeableness; conscientiuosness;
emotional stability; openness to experience
I. INTRODUCTION
Up to date, there are many researches done on big five
personality traits. Starting with the research done by [1] the
theory has been growing over the past 50 years and later
expanded upon by other researchers including [2], [3] and [4].
The big five is a broad category of personality traits. While
there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-
factor model of personality, researchers do not always agree on
the exact labels for each dimension.
Notwithstanding, according to [5] and [6], in previous
studies there has been limited use of personality dimensions as
a variable of interest but instead were focused on employee’s
attitudes. [7] asserted that there has not been any extensive
research on the significant part of the individual personality
towards their job satisfaction. A related study on this topic,
978-1-4673-0020-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
conducted by [8] and the researcher was focused in the
hospitality setting but not in the health care environment.
There are important reasons why people should be
concerned with job satisfaction. Previous research has found
that, job satisfaction is also an important element that
contributes to the success of an individual’s career besides job
performance. According to [9], job satisfaction can lead to
employee behaviors that affect organizational functioning and
performance. Moreover, [10] considers job satisfaction either
as a related group of attitudes about various aspects or facets of
the job or as a global feeling about the job.
Job satisfaction can be measured through many ways to
show its relationship with personality. The nine facets of job
satisfaction developed by [11] are pay, promotion, supervision,
fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions,
coworkers, nature of work and communication.
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Employee turnover has become a large problem in many
organizations which leads to an investigation into the cause for
this problem. [12], [13], [14] and [15] stated that some of the
reasons cited for this turnover are low compensations,
inadequate benefits, poor working conditions, poor working
morale and job attitudes and inadequate recruitment.
In addition, previous research done by [16] stated that the
study of personality dimensions is to ascertain the individual’s
fit within an organization. For this research, it correlates job
satisfaction with personality traits. The reason for this is
because according to [17], it has been suggested that
personality dimensions may mediate the effect of job
satisfaction and one’s intentions to quit which leads to
turnover. [7] also supports that one’s personality has been
linked to his or her job satisfaction.
The study of these variables should help in human resource
recruitment in the delineation of personality characteristic that
predicts higher satisfaction with the organization. Therefore,
this paper attempts to determine the relationship of personality
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 2011 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (CHUSER 2011), Dec 5-6 2011, Penang
traits and job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
Bhd.
III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this paper is to identify the
correlation between the big five personality traits and
employee’s job satisfaction at PM Care Sdn. Bhd in Subang
Jaya, Selangor. The specific objectives will be to:
1. examine the relationship between the big five
personality traits and job satisfaction among support
staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
2. study the correlation between all personality traits
dimensions towards job satisfaction among support
staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
In order to accomplish these objectives, a set of research
questions have been formed as per stated below.
1 Is there any relationship between the big five
personality traits and job satisfaction among support
staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
2(a) Is there any relationship between extroversion and
job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
Bhd.?
2(b) Is there any relationship between agreeableness and
job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
Bhd.?
2(c) Is there any relationship between conscientiousness
and job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare
Sdn. Bhd.?
2(d) Is there any relationship between emotional stability
and job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare
Sdn. Bhd.?
2(e) Is there any relationship between openness to
experience and job satisfaction among support staff
in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
A set of hypotheses were also formed in order to test the
correction of the variables towards employee’s job satisfaction.
The hypotheses are as follows.
H0: There in no significance relationship between the big
five personality traits and job satisfaction.
Hı: There is a significance relationship between the big
five personality traits and job satisfaction.
H2: There is a significance relationship between
extroversion and job satisfaction.
H3: There is a significance relationship between
agreeableness and job satisfaction.
H4: There is a significance relationship between
conscientiousness and job satisfaction.
H5: There is a significance relationship between emotional
stability and job satisfaction.
884
H6: There is a significance relationship between openness
to experience and job satisfaction.
IV. METHODOLOGY
Research design consists of the label that characterizes the
general blueprint of the design. Research designs that were
used in this study are descriptive and correlation design. For
the purpose of this study, this correlation design was used to
identify the relationship between the big five personality traits
as well as each dimension in the big five personality traits and
job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.,
Subang Jaya, Selangor. This study also uses the quantitative
approach which includes primary and secondary data. Primary
data was collected through surveys which consist of a set of
questionnaire. On the other hand, the secondary data was
extracted through the writing of previous researchers who have
done a similar study.
The list of respondents as at 1st January 2010 was gathered
from Human Resource Department of PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
directory.
This study involved respondents who work under the
management of PMCare Sdn. Bhd. The population for this
study consists of 150 employees of PMCare Sdn. Bhd., Subang
Jaya, Selangor which comprising of various departments. The
sample of the employees will not be limited to any of particular
position or background since it will contribute to biases on the
chosen sample.
A. Data Collection Method
The researcher used a set of questionnaire to collect data.
The questionnaires were distributed by hand to the
respondents. The researcher had given one week to the
respondent in order to complete the questionnaire. The
researcher then, gather all completed questionnaires one week
after.
This study is based primarily on the Quantitative data
collection methods which rely on random sampling and
structured data collection instruments that fit diverse
experiences into predetermined response categories. They
produce results that are easy to summarize, compare, and
generalize.
B. Survey Instrument
Questionnaires
Paper-pencil-questionnaires can be sent to a large number
of people and saves the researcher time and money. To deeply
understand the issues and to find the answer of the research
question, the questionnaire is distributed individually to the 90
respondents at PMCare Sdn. Bhd. in Subang Jaya Selangor.
The questionnaire was used as a method to gather data in
order to fulfill objectives of this study. The questionnaire was
designed to get specific information research. The
questionnaire was divided into three separate parts which
 2011 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (CHUSER 2011), Dec 5-6 2011, Penang

consists of 92 questions. A rating scale is more useful when a RQ 2(a): Is there any relationship between extroversion
behavior needs to be evaluated on a continuum. According to and job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
[18], the rating scale is also known as Likert scales. This Bhd.?
research uses Likert Scale by using five anchor of strongly
disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree and strongly agree for the TABLE III. CORRELATION BETWEEN EXTROVERSION AND EMPLOYEE’S
JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
questionnaires beginning with strongly disagree which is
represented by the value 1. The contents of the questionnaires
are: Employee’s Job Satisfaction
Part A: Demographic Profile of the respondents
Extroversion .229*
Part B: Personality Traits
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
i. Extroversion / Introversion

ii. Agreeableness Table III explains the relationship between extroversion

and employee’s job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare
iii. Conscientiousness Sdn. Bhd. It was found that, there was a small, positive and
significant relationship between the two variables [r=.229,
n=86, p<.005]. Therefore, the researcher has proved and
iv. Emotional Stability
accepted the second hypothesis (H2), whereby there was a
significance relationship between extroversion and job
v. Openness to Experience satisfaction.
Part C Employee’s job satisfaction
RQ 2(b): Is there any relationship between agreeableness
and job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn.
V. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Bhd.?
TABLE I. SUGGESTED GUIDELINE BY [19]
TABLE IV. CORRELATION BETWEEN AGREEABLENESS AND EMPLOYEE’S
JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
r = .10 to .29 small
r = .30 to .49 medium
r = .50 to 1.0 large Employee’s Job Satisfaction

RQ 1: Is there any relationship between the big five
personality traits and job satisfaction among support staff
in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
TABLE II. THE LEVEL OF EMPLOYEE’S JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
Employee’s Job Satisfaction
Personality traits
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
Agreeableness .134
Table IV explains the relationship between agreeableness
and employee’s job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare
Sdn. Bhd. It was found that, there was no relationship between
agreeableness and employee’s job satisfaction [r=.134, n=86,
p<.005]. Therefore, the researcher has proved and rejected the
H2, whereby there was no significance relationship between
.299* agreeableness and employee’s job satisfaction.

RQ 2(c): Is there any relationship between

The relationship between personality traits and employee’s conscientiousness and job satisfaction among support staff
job satisfaction was explored by using the Pearson Product in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
Moment Correlation Coefficient. Table II explains the
relationship between personality traits and employee’s job TABLE V. CORRELATION BETWEEN CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND
satisfaction among support staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. It was EMPLOYEE’S JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
found that, there was a small, positive relationship between the
two variables [r=.299, n=86, p<.005], whereby the higher
Employee’s Job Satisfaction
combination of Personality Traits Dimension that exist among
support staff associated with higher level of employee’s job
Conscientiousness .169
satisfaction at the workplace. Therefore, the researcher has
proved and accepted the second hypothesis (Hı), whereby there
was a significance relationship between the big five personality
traits and job satisfaction and rejected the first hypothesis (H0). Table V explains the relationship between
conscientiousness and employee’s job satisfaction among

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 2011 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (CHUSER 2011), Dec 5-6 2011, Penang
support staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. It was found that, there was
also no relationship between conscientiousness and employee’s
job satisfaction [r=.169, n=86, p<.005]. Therefore, the
researcher has proved and rejected the H4, whereby there was
no significance relationship between conscientiousness and
employee’s job satisfaction.
RQ 2(d): Is there any relationship between emotional
stability and job satisfaction among support staff in
PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
TABLE VI. CORRELATION BETWEEN EMOTIONAL STABILITY AND
EMPLOYEE’S JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
Employee’s Job Satisfaction
Emotional stability .173
Table VI explains the relationship between emotional
stability and employee’s job satisfaction among support staff in
PMCare Sdn. Bhd. It was found that, there was also no
relationship between emotional stability and employee’s job
satisfaction [r=.173, n=86, p<.005]. Therefore, the researcher
has proved and rejected the H5, whereby there was no
significance relationship between emotional stability and
employee’s job satisfaction.
RQ 2(e): Is there any relationship between openness to
experience and job satisfaction among support staff in
PMCare Sdn. Bhd.?
TABLE VII. CORRELATION BETWEEN OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE AND
EMPLOYEE’S JOB SATISFACTION [N=86]
Employee’s Job Satisfaction
Openness to experience .246*
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
Table VII explains the relationship between openness to
experience and employee’s job satisfaction among support staff
in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. It was found that, there was a small,
positive and significant relationship between the two variables
[r=.246, n=86, p<.005]. Therefore, the researcher has proved
and accepted H6, whereby there was a significance relationship
between personality traits and job satisfaction.
Based on the analysis, the big five personality traits were
found to have significant relationship with employee’s job
satisfaction in the company. The five big personality traits
consist of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extrovert,
agreeableness, and emotional stability/neuroticism. Based on
table I, researcher had found that, there was a small positive
relationship between the big five personality traits and
employee’s job satisfaction as a whole. It can be said that, in
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general the big five personality dimensions (OCEAN) play
roles in order to boost and generate the satisfaction level of
employee towards their work and the company.
Notwithstanding, further exploration of the relationship of
each and every dimension towards employee’s job satisfaction
revealed another findings. It was found that only two out of
five variables in the big five personality traits determined the
positive relationship towards employee’s job satisfaction in
PMCare Sdn. Bhd. The two are openness to experience and
extroversion. The remaining three variables that are
agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were
found to be having no relationship towards employee’s job
satisfaction.
Analyzing all the raw data, it was realized that each
dimension of personality traits cannot stand alone in
contributing employee’s job satisfaction or even in contributing
to the significant relationship towards employee’s job
satisfaction. Instead, it was shown that combination of big five
dimensions in personality traits was directly associated with
employee’s job satisfaction among support staff in PMCare.
Based on the analyzed data, combination of big five
dimensions in personality traits has a significant relationship
with employee’s job satisfaction with small, positive
relationship between the two variables [r=.299, n=86,
p<.005]. Moreover, based on table I, it is proved that there was
a small, positive and significant relationship between the big
five personality traits and job satisfaction among support staff
in PMCare.
These findings are also supported by [20], as it was found
that personality traits do not have a particularly strong or
consistent influence on what individuals believe is important in
their job environment or on their levels of job satisfaction.
As [21] has listed many reasons why personality variables
do not predict behavior or job satisfaction at work. One of them
is systematic errors or biases related to self-report. This is to
say that some respondents may not provide the accurate data on
what they perceived to be their own personality resulting in the
potential for faked answers as people would prefer to present
themselves in a positive manner. It seems that what you write
may not be the same as what you do.
Another reason stated by [21] is that in his research
personality traits should acts as moderators rather than as direct
predictors. Most people are a combination of several
personality traits. An individual will most likely fall
somewhere in between the bipolar personality traits. Lastly, is
that the crucial fact that job-related cognitions and behavior are
subject to the influence of other variables unrelated to
personality. This means that some people may exert different
personality at their workplace compared to when they are at
home.
It is essential for the company to concern about the positive
emotion of the employee especially their satisfaction by using
effective plans and strategies for the purpose of improving the
company performance and maintaining the company reputation
among the customers. When employees are happy to provide
the best services for the company, this will directly influence
their emotion towards the company customers.
 2011 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (CHUSER 2011), Dec 5-6 2011, Penang
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper is primarily concerned with examining the
relationship between the big five personality traits as well as all
the personality trait dimensions and employee’s job satisfaction
among support staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. The issue of
employee’s job satisfaction is widely recognized as being of
critical importance for the success of most organizations in
today’s competitive marketplace. Not surprisingly,
organizations are competing each others to provide the best for
their employees including adjusting the compensation and
benefits program and investing a lot in order to tackle the
emotion and emotional loyalty of the employees. The
implementation of new methods and systems for increasing
employee satisfaction is essential. This is because, in turn, the
company will get more profits and benefits for what they have
invested.
Based on the findings, the researcher had proved that,
combination of big five personality which consist of dimension
openness to experience, conscientiousness, extrovert,
agreeableness, and emotional stability had a significant
relationship with employee’s job satisfaction among support
staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd. Researcher had proved that, there
was a small, positive relationship between the two variables.
The researcher had also proved that openness to experience and
extroversion had a significant relationship with employee’s job
satisfaction. On the other hand, the researcher had proved that
agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability
revealed to have no significant relationship with employee’s
job satisfaction.
Notwithstanding, previous researches by other researchers
agreed that the personality traits do not have a particularly
strong or consistent influence on what individuals believe is
important in their job environment or on their levels of job
satisfaction. Therefore, it is satisfactory that the findings of
this research in which there is only small positive relationship
between personality traits and employee’s job satisfaction
among support staff in PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researchers would like to express special gratitude to
the management team and support staff of PMCare Sdn. Bhd.
for invaluable cooperation. The researchers also would like to
convey their special thanks to the Center of Applied
Management, Faculty of Business Management, UiTM Puncak
Alam for providing us the supports and facilities.
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