The Influence of Personality Traits on Salary Negotiation: Women's Descriptions

Summary

Julie Rockefeller's 2023 dissertation, "The Influence of Personality Traits on Salary Negotiation: Women's Descriptions," is a qualitative descriptive study that delves into how women perceive the impact of their personality traits on salary negotiations. The research aims to illuminate one aspect of the persistent gender wage gap by focusing on the self-described experiences of women regarding the Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The study is rooted in McCrae and Costa's Big Five personality trait theory. The methodology involved a sample of 22 women employed within the federal government sector. These participants were asked to articulate their perceptions of salary negotiations and how their self-described personality traits played a role in these experiences. The data collected from these descriptions were then analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis approach to identify significant themes. The findings revealed that certain personality traits were notably influential. Specifically, conscientiousness and confidence were identified as impacting women's perceived ability to negotiate their salaries. Furthermore, extroversion and openness were found to be significantly predictive of a positive salary negotiation experience. A key overarching finding was that the women participants generally considered personality to be a more significant predictor of their negotiation experience than other factors, such as their work experience. The study concludes with recommendations for future practice, suggesting that organizational leaders should work towards mitigating the effects of individual personality differences to ensure more consistent and equitable salary negotiation outcomes.