Are the effects of conscientiousness on contextual and innovative performance context specific? Organizational culture as a moderator

Abstract

We argue that conscientiousness is a context-specific disposition and its relationship with contextual and innovative performance will be activated in certain organizational cultures. We hypothesized that the relationship between conscientiousness and contextual performance would be higher in outcome-oriented cultures and the relationship between conscientiousness and innovative job performance would be higher in innovation-oriented cultures. These two hypotheses were not supported. We further hypothesized and found support that conscientiousness and contextual and innovative performance relationships are stronger in combined outcome- and innovation-oriented cultures. Our results indicate that these two cultural values complement each other in facilitating positive outcomes for conscientious employees. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.