The joint relationship of conscientiousness and ability with performance: Test of the interaction hypothesis

This study investigated whether conscientiousness and ability interact in the prediction of job performance, Although few studies have directly addressed this issue, there is limited evidence that ability moderates the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance. Specifically, it has been reported that the relationship of conscientiousness to performance is positive for high ability and near zero or negative for low ability. Results in the present study provided no support for the interaction of GMA and conscientiousness, Moderated hierarchical regression analyses for three independent samples of participants (146 managers in sample 1, 103 sales representatives in sample 2, and 121 managers in sample 3), showed that the interaction did not account for unique variance in the prediction of supervisory ratings of job performance beyond that accounted for by GMA and conscientiousness. These findings indicate that ability does not moderate the relationship of conscientiousness to job performance. Practical implications for employee selection practices, and theoretical implications for models of job performance, are discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.