Ability–personality interactions when predicting job performance.

The general proposition that performance is a multiplicative function of ability and motivation has a long-standing history. Three recent studies have reported results that suggest that shifting from an additive model to a multiplicative model may improve efforts to predict performance. This article represents an extensive examination of this multiplicative proposition when motivation is conceptualized in terms of personality characteristics. The Project A database, the Management Continuity Study database, and 2 additional data sets were brought together to facilitate a systematic investigation concerning whether ability and personality interact when predicting performance. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that ability-personality interactions are not detected at above chance levels.