Personality as a Predictor of General Job Performance and Sales Performance

Hans Marius Norbom; Helene Tronstad Moe; Martin Frank Strand; Bryndís D. Steindórsdóttir

doi:10.16993/sjwop.386

Personality as a Predictor of General Job Performance and Sales Performance

Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

Volume 11 (2026): Issue 1

By: Hans Marius Norbom , Helene Tronstad Moe , Martin Frank Strand and Bryndís D. Steindórsdóttir

Open Access

|May 2026

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between personality, general job performance, and sales performance. Five Factor Model (FFM) traits were used to predict performance in sales and advisory roles. The distribution of performance indicators was also investigated to further understand individual performance contributions. Two hundred eighty-eight participants completed an FFM-based personality measure. General job performance was evaluated based on managerial ratings, and sales performance criteria were measured by the number of sales completed through inbound and outbound sales channels. The results indicated low to medium correlations between personality and both performance domains. Support for conscientiousness and extraversion in predicting general job performance was found. Interestingly, extraversion showed a negative relationship with inbound sales, contradicting some earlier studies. Analyses of sales performance data indicated that a power-law distribution provided a better fit than a normal distribution. The findings have implications for organizations’ personnel selection practices.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/sjwop.386 | Journal eISSN: 2002-2867

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Language: English

Page range: 8 - 8

Submitted on: Feb 20, 2025

Accepted on: Apr 14, 2026

Published on: May 26, 2026

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

personality,

performance,

performance distributions,

individual differences in performance,

general job performance,

sales performance

© 2026 Hans Marius Norbom, Helene Tronstad Moe, Martin Frank Strand, Bryndís D. Steindórsdóttir, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 11 (2026): Issue 1