conscientiousness

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between HEXACO personality traits and Iranian EFL learners’ speaking ability. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, among all the language institutes (fifteen institutes) in Amol, Mazandaran Province, 8 were selected randomly (four institutes for female and four institutes for male language learners). Then, two classes were selected randomly from each institute. Among all the language learners in these eight institutes and classes, 250 learners (125 male and 125 female learners) were selected using a random cluster sampling method. The participants were asked to complete the HEXACO personality traits questionnaire. Speaking ability of all the learners was checked via scored interview to examine the relationship between HEXACO personality traits (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) and their speaking performance. Speaking ability of the learners were evaluated by three interviewers (the researcher and two trained raters) based on IELTS speaking bands in four areas: 1) Fluency and Coherence 2) Lexical Resource 3) Grammatical Resource 4) Pronunciation. The interview was scored out of 9 in this study. To analyze the collected data, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regressions with stepwise method were used in the study. The findings of the study showed a positive and significant relationship between HEXACO personality traits and speaking performance of the learners. Extraversion, conscientiousness and altruism could predict 90.3 percent of variance of speaking ability.

Background: Each of ethical dimensions of leadership which influence employee behavior and organizational trends has a unique importance. Hence, in this research, we aim at studying the characteristics of leaders as potential predictors of an ethical leaderchr('39')s behavior. Method: The present study was descriptive and a correlational one. The total statistical population of this research was 660 managers of industrial centers and production centers of industrial towns in Hamadan, of which, using simple random sampling based on the Morgan table, the sample size of 248 people were selected. For collecting data, two standard questionnaires of personality traits and ethical leadership were used. And the proposed model was analyzed using structural equation modeling with Smart PLS 2 software. Results: The results of the research showed that the relationships between conscientiousness and agreeableness variables with ethical leadership were meaningful and positive. And the relationship between neuroticism and ethical leadership is significant, but this is a negative one. And the relationship between extraversion and openness with ethical leadership is not meaningful. Also, the results of structural equation modeling indicated that using conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism, 67%, 45%, and -47% of ethical leadership can be predicted, respectively. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, by identifying and determining practical measures related to those personality characteristics of the leader which are in tandem with the ethical behavior of the leaders, it is possible to identify and select the potential ethical leaders to improve the performance of the organizations. Organizations can also choose leaders who are more likely to behave fairly, share power, and clarify roles based on employee personality abilities. The selection and development of managers who have ethical behavior is very important, because ethical misconduct can be costly and damaging to the reputation of leaders and organizations.

Considering the body of research on the intersection of psychology and assessment that suggests assessment is not only under the influence of the model against which a translation is assessed, the present study aimed to investigate the role of raters’ personality traits in their assessment. It was also intended to see if the application of an agreed-upon unified assessment tool could change the way evaluations are made, and if this possible change is the same among raters with different personality traits. To this end, seven raters were asked to score an English text translated by 23 students twice with an interval of at least two weeks. In the first scoring, they were asked to assess the way they usually did with no specific guidelines. However, the second assessment was done through the application of an agreed-upon model. Moreover, the raters were scored on the personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness as it is believed that these two traits are predictors of leniency. The data analyzed revealed (1) a significant correlation between the raters’ score on agreeableness and the scores they assigned to the translations, and (2) a significant negative correlation between the raters’ score on conscientiousness and the scores they assigned to the translations. This proved that more agreeable less conscientious raters are prone to be more lenient. The value of Cronbach alpha also revealed that more conscientious less agreeable raters were more consistent in their assessments in both rounds of scoring. This, however, turned out not to be the case for less conscientious raters.