The association between the six HEXACO personality traits and motives of organizational citizenship behaviour: an Omani study on employees from the public sector

Abstract

This research endeavoured to examine the relationships between the six HEXACO personality traits (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience) and the three motives of organizational citizenship behaviour (Impression Management, Prosocial Values and Organizational Concern) within an Omani context. The Omani context was chosen to provide an insight into the relationship between the two variables of interest from an Arabic perspective, and eventually contribute to the literature of the organizational citizenship behaviour and the HEXACO personality model. The research, specifically, aimed to find out which of the three motives were most strongly associated with each personality trait. Participants were 278 employees from various work fields of the Omani public sector. Their data were obtained through a self-report survey that included items from the HEXACO-60 and OCB Motives scales. Statistically, a Spearman rho correlation was used to analyse the data that appeared to be non-normally distributed and were measured on ordinal scales. Expectedly, the research’s findings showed that the Honesty-Humility dimension was the strongest predictor of the impression management motive, while the Conscientiousness and Extraversion dimensions were the strongest predictors of the organizational concern motive. Conscientiousness also predicted positively and strongly the prosocial value motive. While the personality traits of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience had small and positive relationships with prosocial values and organizational concern motives, Emotionality did not relate significantly to any of the OCB motives. These main results have applicable implications within the organization, specifically, to the human resource procedures of recruitment and selection.