A Portrait of the Artist as an Employee: The Impact of Personality on Career Satisfaction

Although there is a long history of research showing strong evidence that artists differ from the general population along personality dimensions related to creativity, there has been little investigation of the impact of personality on job and career satisfaction. Research has focused on attributes related to creativity and on the vocational interests of those who choose a career in art. To address this gap in the literature, the authors conducted an analysis of personality and job/career satisfaction among a sample of 566 artists employed in a variety of work settings. The personality traits of optimism and emotional stability were substantively correlated with career satisfaction. Other traits, such as teamwork orientation, work drive and customer orientation, were correlated as well, though not as strongly. The findings provide some important implications for how artists should be managed. These implications are discussed, along with some suggestions for future research.