A Multilevel Investigation of the Relationships Between Personality and Team Role Adoption

Abstract

There is a plethora of team composition and personality research, but limited research incorporating the influences of team context or teammate behaviors for a multilevel examination. Using secondary data from a pre-existing study consisting of 86 teams and 430 total participants, we investigated the multilevel relationships of personality and team role adoption. We predicted hypotheses at three levels. At the individual-level, we predicted personality traits would predict role adoption. At the team-level, we predicted team personality composition (measured as mean) would predict role composition (measured as density). We also predicted cross-level interactions, such that team personality composition would moderate relationships between individual personality and role adoption. We utilized Density scores to calculate team role composition, which captures mean ties per group member where a tie is being perceived as adopting a leadership role. At the individual-level, we found support that extraversion levels predicted adoption of all roles. At the team-level, mean conscientiousness predicted density of all team roles. We found no support for any cross-level moderations that team personality composition influenced individual-level personality to role predictions.