Relationship between Team Member Personality and Team Cohesion

Abstract

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between personality characteristics of team members and two distinct aspects of team cohesion: ( i) task cohesion and ( ii) social cohesion. Information technology professionals were assessed on a broad range of traits organized around the framework of the Big Five personality factors. Across the set of Big Five traits, agreeableness was positively related to task cohesion and extraversion to social cohesion. As expected, neuroticism was negatively related to both task and social cohesion. Contrary to the expectations, one other personality construct, conscientiousness, was unrelated to task cohesion at the individual level. The implications of these findings and future research needs are discussed.