Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2017) © 2017 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com Original article Aggregate personality and organizational competitive advantage Benjamin Schneider 1 * and Dave Bartram 1,2 1 CEB’s Talent Management Labs, Arlington, Virginia, USA 2 Consultant, Thames Ditton, UK Based on attraction–selection–attrition theory, human capital resources theory, person-organization fit theory and organizational climate/culture strength theory we hypothesize that (1) Big 5 aggregate conscientiousness, emotional stability and agreeableness will be significantly related to organizational financial performance (only conscientiousness is significant), (2) that interaction effects of Big 5 means and SDs will be reflected in organizational financial performance (not supported), and (3) that Big 5 strength (variance) alone is a significant correlate of organizational financial performance (supported for all but extraversion). In addition, an aggregate of strength across the Big 5 facets is also a significant correlate of organizational financial performance. Limitations and implications of these findings for future research on aggregate personality and practice are discussed. Practitioner points  Selection on the basis of conscientiousness will yield not only effective individual performance but may also be reflected in organizational financial performance as well.  Firms should be attentive to the variance in the attributes of those hired because smaller aggregate variance on all but extraversion Big 5 attributes is significantly reflected in organizational financial performance. This article concerns the relationship between aggregate individual personality attributes in organizations and organizational performance. We build on the recent emphasis on human capital resources that arises from aggregates of individual differences in organizations (Ployhart, Weekley, & Ramsey, 2009) and the now-confirmed relationship (Oh, Kim, & Van Iddekinge, 2015) between human capital resources as aggregated individual personality and organizational performance. We test Schneider’s (1987) homogeneity hypothesis as a consequence of the attraction–selection–attrition (ASA) cycle and show that it is valid even when taking into account country and industry sector attributes. We test the hypothesis that such aggregates of personality will be reflected in organizational financial performance in two ways: (1) the level of the aggregate Big 5 *Correspondence should be addressed to Benjamin Schneider, 1001 Genter St., Suite 2C, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA (email: benj262@outlook.com). The research described here was carried out when the authors were working in CEB’s Talent Management Labs. The first author retired from CEB in February 2016 and is now affiliated with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California and the second author retired from CEB in July 2016 and is now an independent consultant. DOI:10.1111/joop.12180 1