SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 1999, 27(1), 99-108 © Society for Personality Research DOI 10.2224/sbp.1999.27.1.99 DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY OF THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS IN EMPLOYMENT SETTINGS JOHN RUST Goldsmiths College, University of London, United Kingdom The ability of the Big Five personality traits to predict supervisors‟ ratings of performance was investigated using the Orpheus personality questionnaire. Orpheus is a broad spectrum work-based personality questionnaire containing 190 items. It generates scores on 16 scales – 5 major scales, 7 minor scales, and 4 audit scales. The major scales are fellowship, authority, conformity, emotion, and detail and are based on the Big Five model of personality. The minor scales are proficiency, work-orientation, patience, fair-mindedness, loyalty, disclosure, and initiative, and are based on the Prudentius model of integrity. The 4 response audits are dis- simulation, ambivalence, despondency, and inattention, and are designed to screen for inappropriate responding. Supervisors‟ ratings of 245 participants in a variety of occupations and employment settings were obtained from the Orpheus respondents. All of the Big Five traits were found to have significant correlations with appro- priate supervisors‟ ratings. Keywords: Big Five model of personality, discriminant validity, supervisor ratings. Studies of the relationship between job performance and personality have been summarized in two meta-analytic studies carried out by Barrick and Mount (1991) and Tett and Jackson (1991). In both these studies the most striking finding was that the Big Five personality trait of conscientiousness is the only consistent predictor of job performance. The other Big Five dimensions of extraversion, neu- roticism, openness-to-experience, and agreeableness do, however, provide some predictive power in particular circumstances. Sackett and Wanek (1996) argue that the general predictive power of conscientiousness is due to the close conceptual relationship between conscientiousness and integrity. They further suggest that a combined trait representing high conscientiousness, low neuroticism, and high __________ John Rust, PhD, Psychology Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Appreciation is due to anonymous reviewers. Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: John Rust, Psychology Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, United Kingdom. Email: J.Rust@Gold.ac.uk 99