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Personality And Situations In Co-Worker Preference: Similarity And Complementarity In Worker Compatibility., R. P. Tett, Patrick J. Murphy

Patrick J. Murphy

Guided by fit-oriented personality theories, we asked with whom people prefer to work, given their own and others’ personality traits and in light of trait-relevant work situations. Participants (N = 185) completed the Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1989) and rated preference for hypothetical co-workers at opposite poles of Dominance, Affiliation, Autonomy, Defendence, and Abasement in simulated job settings varying in work proximity and supervisory status. As expected, judges preferred co-workers providing opportunity for trait expression (e.g., affiliative judges preferred affiliative co-workers), especially when expecting to work together and in light of who would be in charge (e.g., low-autonomous judges preferred …