Compatibility is one of five dimensions of personality after Model of the Big Five (McCrae & Costa, 1987). It describes a person's tendency to seek social harmony rather than to strive for individual results. Conscientiousness includes qualities such as Altruism, Humility, and Kindness (Costa & McCrae, 1985).

Whereas it was previously assumed that the Objective versus relationship-oriented expression of compatibility To form a pair of opposites and a person can be clearly assigned to one of the two categories, is considered today subject-oriented and relationship-oriented than two poles of a continuum the dimension of compatibility. The value of each person can therefore be located at one point on the following scale:

Subject-oriented

For people who more subject-oriented Behavior and, above all, strive for individual results, the following characteristics are characteristic:

• competition-oriented
• skeptical
• unyielding

They are perfect for jobs that are either more individual results as aiming for teamwork or a certain amount of dominance require. If the position therefore focuses on individual performance rather than on teamwork, subject-oriented people are often suitable, such as at police or in the Clerical processing (Denissen et al., 2017).

Relationship-oriented

People who more relationship-oriented Behavior and, in particular, strive for harmonious relationships, can be described by the following characteristics:

• sympathetic
• sympathetic
• In need of harmony

So you're the born Team player. This is also noticeable at work, where strong relationship orientation is the best predictor of performance in occupations involving a lot of teamwork (Mount et al., 1998). Jobs that require strong relationship-oriented behavior include teachers, or psychologists (Denissen et al., 2017).

Benefits in a professional context

A person's professional success therefore does not depend on their compatibility as the sole predictor, but rather on the A fit between the person and the characteristics of the vacancy. Does a job require a high level of cooperation and social skills, a relationship-oriented person is the best choice. In turn, is it primarily a matter of To stand up to the competition, a subject-oriented person performs the task better.

How do you measure compatibility?

Do you want to record the compatibility of your applicants? Aivy is happy to help you with this!

Our mini-game “Self-Knowledge” offers users the opportunity to play through a brief self-assessment find out their individual value. This not only covers compatibility, but also the four other areas of the Big Five:

• Extraversion
• Openness to experience
• Emotion control
• conscientiousness

Sources

• Costa, P.T., & McCrae, R.R. (1985). The NEO personality inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Denissen, J.J., Bleidorn, W., Hennecke, M., Luhmann, M., Orth, U., Specht, J., & Zimmermann, J. (2018). Uncovering the power of personality to shape income. Psychological Science, 29 (1), 3-13.
• McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52 (1), 81.
• Mount, M.K., Barrick, M.R., & Stewart, G.L. (1998). Five-factor model of personality and performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions. Human Performance, 11 (2-3), 145-165.