An empirical investigation of group acceptance using the Big Five personality domains

In this paper, we examine task-based and relationship-based group acceptances of a newcomer from the perspective of personality theory. We used policy-capturing with an MBA student sample for our study. As predicted, our findings indicated that task-based group acceptance was affected by a newcomer's perceived conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and extraversion, while relationship-based group acceptance was influenced by his/her perceived openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness. However, we failed to find support for the effect of perceived extraversion on relationship-based group acceptance. The implications for groups and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.