Estimating Work Motivation Through Person-Environment Fit in Occupational Personality Traits

Research and practice aimed at enhancing state motivation through job assignments that align with workers' trait motivations have demonstrated significant benefits. "Occupational personality traits" refer to Openness to experience (O), Extraversion (E), and Agreeableness (A) factors, which are associated with personality traits and occupational preferences. These traits facilitate the assessment of motivation and enable comparative analyses of the effectiveness of personality versus preference, as they share core semantics (i.e., O, E, or A) but differ in situational characteristics (i.e., broad everyday personalities versus occupation-specific preferences). This study examines occupational personality traits as indicators of an individual's trait-like motivation. We asked workers to rate both the person (i.e., their trait motivation for various jobs) and the environment (i.e., their actual occupation) using occupational personality traits and their current work motivation state. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis revealed that the motivational state was highest when person and job ratings aligned across the O, E, and A factors. This alignment effect was independently significant for O personality, E preference, and A preference, suggesting that specific factors dominate depending on the situation's breadth or occupational specificity. Our findings lay the groundwork for developing job assignments that align with employees' inherent motivational orientations, utilizing factor-specific constructs to foster a more motivated workforce.