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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN OUTPLACEMENT SUCCESS.

PERBEZAAN INDIVIDU

Executives in particular suffer a tremendous sense of loss of professional status, social


support from colleagues, and self-worth when terminated. As a consequence, of the
negative psychological effects of termination, there is a clear need to support displaced
persons and to help them cope with job loss.

Coping strategies can significantly impact an employee’s well-being and future


employment potential. Outplacement is thought to be a useful tool to help employees
cope with job loss.

One approach has been thought to explore the role of individual differences.

Personality traits influence an individual’s ability to cope with job loss. Personality
factors are thought to affect employment outcomes, in part, through their influence on
the expectations people have for their future performance.

The “Big Five” framework includes five dimensions of personality: extraversion,


agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (emotional stability), and openness to
experience and has been established as an important predictor of behavior across
numerous cultures. Wanberg et al. (2000) found that each of the Big Five personality
traits was significantly correlated with one or more aspects of search behavior

Barrick and Mount (1991) found that conscientiousness had consistent and positive
relationships with job performance across a variety of occupational groups. Likewise,
extraversion was related to job proficiency for occupations involving social interaction,
such as managers. Salgado (1997) confirmed many of the relationships between the
Big Five factors and various job performance criteria and found openness and
agreeableness to be valid predictors of training proficiency.
While this research did not focus on executives and did not consider performance
following outplacement, it is reasonable to expect executives who are more extraverted,
agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable will secure higher quality
reemployment. Therefore, we hypothesize that executives who score higher on
extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and stability should find new positions
that are more satisfying, where they perform well, and can advance.

To assess these hypotheses, the study considered the outplacement experience of 53


executives who had been displaced from their positions in a large urban center in the
northeastern USA. These executives were outplaced for a variety of reasons including
redundancy caused by mergers, closing or relocation of facilities or divisions, a
reduction in force, lack of fit with existing employer, and change in senior management.
They held titles such as chief executive officer, president, senior vice president, vice
president, director, and general manager. All held a middle-management rank or above.
The sample included 37 men and 16 women and the executive’s former employer
engaged the outplacement firm. A few measures and procedures have been taken into
account to complete the assessment.

To measure personality traits, each executive completed the occupational personality


questionnaire (OPQ). The OPQ was chosen by the outplacement firm for use in
counseling because of the type and variety of traits assessed, ease of administration
and scoring, and the availability of norms appropriate for the type of clients served.

Composite measures of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism,


and openness to experience were created using the factor solution recommended by
the OPQ’s authors (SHL, 2000). In addition, the instrument’s authors have developed
normative (n) and ipsative (i) versions of the OPQ. The ipsative form was used in this
study.

For outplacement success, an instrument was developed for use in this study designed
to measure several dimensions of outplacement success. The instrument focused on
two broad aspects of success: client progress during the transition and quality of
employment following the transition. Four aspects of progress during the transition were
identified based on interviews with outplacement professionals in the host firm. These
aspects were labeled personal growth, resilience, optimism, and achievement.
Growth measured the degree to which the client experienced personal growth during
the transition, put forth his or her best effort to make positive changes, and was open to
ideas and suggestions from their counselor.
Resilience considered how well the client coped with emotional stress and tension, felt
they were in control of the process, continued to express anger at their former employer
(reverse scored), remained in denial of their circumstances (reverse scored), and
worked to improve their health and physical well-being.
Optimism assessed the degree to which the client was focused on and committed to his
or her outreach effort, had feelings of self-worth at the end of the engagement,
rebounded psychologically from their initial separation, and maintained their energy
level during the transition.
Achievement measured client accomplishment during the transition including whether
they achieved the objectives they set at the beginning, how well they managed the
transition, how proud they were of what they accomplished while in transition, whether
they secured a new position in a timely manner, and how well suited they were for their
next position.

Quality of employment following the transition considered three dimensions: job


performance in the new position, satisfaction with the new position, and probability of
advancement with the new organization.

The procedure taken was that each executive was involved in an extensive
outplacement program that included various assessments, counseling, training and
coaching, office support, resource assistance, and follow-up activities. Although multiple
counselors were employed by the firm, each used a similar outplacement protocol.
Based on the results of this and other studies, it is clear that individual differences
should be assessed and carefully considered in the outplacement process. The results
of this study point to the richness of information that is available to the outplacement
professional through personality assessment. This study also suggests that
outplacement counselors should tailor counseling to meet individual needs. The
primary managerial implication of this study is that client personality has a significant
impact on outplacement outcomes both during the transition and after reemployment
and counselors should understand and be willing to accommodate these individual
characteristics.

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