ABSTRACT
A commonly used definition of personality traits is that they are the relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that reflect the tendency to respond in certain ways under certain circumstances (Roberts, 2009). A key component of this definition is that personality traits are “relatively enduring.” This is often translated to mean that traits are unchanging or unchangeable and personality traits are generally treated as such. However, an increasing amount of research indicates that personality traits do change significantly over an individual’s lifetime. Moreover, many of these changes appear to coincide with work-related activities and may be partially a result of an individual’s experiences on the job. Thus, work may change personality traits, and this change can have implications for organizational behavior. This chapter describes the evidence for personality trait change, the mutual influences of the organization and the individual, the implications for organizational behavior, and methodological issues with studying this topic.
