EVALUATION OF PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: A STUDY IN PHARMACEUTICAL KNOWLEDGE PROCESS OUTSOURCING COMPANIES

Aim The paper examines the relationship between Personality Characteristics and Employee Performance. It also captures the perception of the employees for the effectiveness of considering personality types while recruiting an employee and during evaluation of employee performance. Methodology The study included 120 employees working at various levels of the three Knowledge Process Outsourcing Companies (KPO's- Evaluate, Evalueserve, Smart Analyst). Personality Characteristics was measured with the help of Five-Factor model and Job performance was assessed in the Task and Citizenship Performance with a structured questionnaire. Simple random sampling was used. Findings The study findings suggest a significant positive association between Personality Characteristics and Job performance. The Extraversion and Conscientiousness dimensions of personality were observed to have considerable influence on employee performance. Implications The findings of the present study would provide valuable insight for management to adopt various and effective practices to consider the management of employees having different personality characteristics in their workplace. Originality/Value The study tests the relationship between Personality Characteristics and Job performance in the market research industry. A significant positive relationship between some Personality Characteristics and Job performance has been established. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, this study is the first of its kind undertaken for this industry. Limitations The study was limited to KPO's in Gurugram only which may limit the generalizability of the results to the other industries and geographical locations. The self- reported measures of the constructs were used which can lead to the natural or single-source bias that influences the results.