Topic: Job Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology
Article: How the Rich (and Happy) Get Richer (and Happier): Relationship of Core Self-Evaluations to Trajectories in Attaining Work Success.
Blogger: Rob Stilson
OK, the scope of this article is beyond this blog (or perhaps the blogger), but I will give you the highlights and let you learn the rest for yourself. The focus of the article is essentially the Matthew Effect which says scientists who have success early tend to continue to do better throughout their careers. The authors wanted to determine if this applied across the career spectrum as well as to scientists.
Participants in this mammoth longitudinal study were measured on different areas including job satisfaction, pay, occupational status, educational attainment, health problems interfering with work, and core-self evaluations. So, what did they find?
It turns out that people with high core-self evaluations probably have box seats. Nice box seats. The results indicate that people who feel good about themselves tend to have higher job satisfaction and that their career progresses faster than those with average core-self evaluations at double the rate. Mediators of this effect are education and health problems. And what is very interesting is those with high core-self evaluations tended to gain education quicker and have health problems relating to work later than those with lower core-self evaluations.
What we learned from this study is that you should check your core-self evaluation level, and you should check it often. There is no reason not to. Those with high levels will live long and, uh, fare well.
P.S. I would like to point out the irony of Dr. Judge writing an article involving the Matthew Effect. If I had to guess, I would say that Dr. Judge has published more articles than I have read, and I have read enough articles to make people considering graduate school take the early leap into the workforce. Anyway, thank you, Dr. Judge, for all of your contributions to our science. I always enjoy reading your articles!
Judge, T. A., and Hurst, C. (2008) How the Rich (and Happy) Get Richer (and Happier): Relationship of Core Self-Evaluations to Trajectories in Attaining Work Success Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), 849-863