The Big Five in Action: An Interactive Approach to Exploring Personality at Work

Personality reflects relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, though trait expression can vary across situations and over time. As organizations increasingly incorporate personality testing into personnel selection, professional development, and other processes, business students should learn how to interpret and apply these tools. In this exercise, students apply their knowledge of the Big Five personality framework to analyze an example employee profile and identify potential strengths and challenges. They later discover the profile belongs to the instructor—a twist intended to facilitate discussion about navigating personality at work and set the stage for a reflection assignment in which students take a personality test and evaluate their own results. The exercise promotes critical thinking and self-awareness, and can be adapted across various teaching contexts, levels, and modalities, making it a versatile tool for exploring the role of personality in organizational behavior.