Cognitive ability, personality, and experience: evidence for differential impact on job performance factors

Abstract

Using a sample of 443 participants employed in a variety of jobs, the interactions between cognitive ability, conscientiousness, agreeableness, task experience, and task and contextual performance were explored. Results suggest that task experience is a better predictor of task performance than contextual performance; that agreeableness is associated with greater levels of contextual performance, but only for those lower in cognitive ability; and that conscientiousness moderates the interaction between cognitive ability and task experience on task performance. Specifically, it was found that for higher levels of conscientiousness, task performance converged for those of different cognitive abilities when task experience was high; likewise, for lower levels of conscientiousness, task performance diverged for those of different cognitive abilities when task experience was high. The impact and limitations of these results are discussed.