Personality trait inferences about organizations and organizational attraction: An organizational-level analysis based on a multi-cultural sample

Abstract

Research has shown that people make inferences about the personality traits organizations possess, and that these inferences affect their perceptions of organizational attraction. The nature of the relationship between personality trait inferences and organizational attraction is unclear, however, as the results of prior studies have been somewhat inconsistent, have had several distinct limitations, and have only been conducted using US samples. We present new evidence regarding the nature of this relationship, with data on a much larger number of firms, using a multi-cultural sample. Our exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses find a seven-factor structure of personality trait inferences that includes the five factors identified by previous researchers, suggesting that while the five factors have some generalizability outside the US, there may also be important differences. Our results also provide additional support that personality trait inferences are related to perceptions of organizational attraction.