The Big 5 at Work Part 5: Extraversion
Extraversion is one of the most widely recognized domains of personality, often associated with sociability and outgoing behavior. However, its impact in the workplace extends far beyond these common perceptions. This article explores the structure of Extraversion, addresses key misconceptions, and examines its impact on important work outcomes such as leadership effectiveness, employee engagement, and adaptability.
Key Takeaways on Extraversion at Work
- Extraversion reflects how strongly individuals are motivated by and responsive to rewards, which shapes behavior and performance in the workplace.
- The domain includes two primary aspects, Assertiveness and Enthusiasm, along with additional facets such as Excitement/Sensation Seeking, each contributing differently to work outcomes.
- Extraversion exists on a continuum, meaning most employees fall somewhere between extraverted and highly introverted.
- A common misconception is that extraverts “gain energy” from social interaction; in reality, energy is a core facet of the trait and not dependent on social context.
- Positive emotions are strongly associated with employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and can help protect against burnout.
- Assertiveness is a key driver of leadership effectiveness, particularly in roles that require influence, visibility, and decision making.
- Extraversion is also linked to success in dynamic environments, including expatriate assignments and roles requiring adaptability.
- While generally beneficial, certain facets such as Excitement/Sensation Seeking may be associated with lower safety performance and higher procrastination.
- To make effective hiring and development decisions, Extraversion should be assessed at the aspect and facet level and interpreted alongside other personality traits.
What is Extraversion?
As far as The Big Five are concerned, Extraversion easily wins the popularity contest. It would be hard to find someone who doesn’t have a general sense of what makes extraverts different from introverts. And to most people, what makes them different is a preference for being in the company of others as opposed to a preference for being alone.
However, Gregariousness is just one of several narrower facets that fall under the broader domain of Extraversion (personality is organized hierarchically). Moreover, several misconceptions still exist that are based on Carl Jung’s outdated conceptualization of Extraversion, which has unfortunately been popularized and brought to the masses by the pseudoscientific MBTI.
In the most general sense, Extraversion is currently conceptualized as the domain of personality that reflects differences in how sensitive people are to rewards. Those higher on the domain are more intrinsically motivated to approach situations in hope of receiving rewards, and they get more enjoyment from those rewards when they are attained. It just so happens that for humans, many rewards are social in nature; hence the relationship of the trait with the motivation to socialize with others.
Assertiveness Aspect of Extraversion
Similar to the other four domains of The Big Five, Extraversion consists of two aspects that exist at the level beneath the broader domain. The first of these is commonly referred to as Assertiveness and reflects having an inner drive towards social status, leadership, and rewards more broadly. This occurs through at least two narrower facets that exist at the level beneath the aspect: Energy and Assertiveness/Dominance.
Those higher in Extraversion tend to be more naturally energetic than those who are toward the introverted end of the pole. They move quickly, like to stay busy, and have a lot of stamina; all of which greatly aid in their pursuit of rewards.
They also tend to be more assertive/dominant, speaking up readily in group situations to share their opinions and take the initiative in their efforts to influence others’ behavior. This helps them to emerge as leaders, and they find holding such roles to be very rewarding.
Enthusiasm Aspect of Extraversion
The second aspect is Enthusiasm, which reflects motivation to socialize with others, as well as the enjoyment experienced when either receiving, or even simply imagining, a reward. It is comprised of at least two facets: Gregariousness and Positive Emotions.
Gregariousness reflects a preference for interacting with others to performing solitary tasks and, for people very high on it, the more the merrier.
Positive Emotions reflect tendencies to be happy, cheerful, and optimistic. Those high in Extraversion tend to laugh easily and get excited about things readily. Those low in Extraversion tend to be more subdued in their demeanor.
The Excitement/Sensation Seeking Facet
Unlike the other four domains, however, Extraversion has another facet that doesn’t fall directly under either aspect. Commonly referred to as Excitement/Sensation Seeking, those high in Extraversion tend to prefer highly stimulating environments. Because of this, bright colors, as well as environments that are noisy and have a lot of action tend to be appealing.
Correcting Misconceptions
Extraversion Is Not Categorical
Similar to the rest of the Big Five, Extraversion as a personality trait is not a categorical variable but a continuous one that is normally distributed in the population. So, relative to others, an individual can fall anywhere from the 1st percentile to the 99th percentile. For simplicity purposes, those who score significantly higher than most people are referred to as Extraverts. Similarly, those who score significantly lower than most people on the domain are referred to as Introverts; however, the behavior between an Introvert at the 30th percentile, and an Introvert at the 1st percentile will likely look quite different. Moreover, most people will fall in the middle of the domain in the average range and won’t be classified as either.
It’s also important to note that while the aspects and facets of Extraversion tend to be correlated, they each have a unique component to them. Thus, scores between the two aspects and a larger number of facets may be significantly different. This allows for considerable variability in what Extraversion looks like from person to person, even among those with similar scores on the broader domain.
Extraverts Don’t “Draw Energy” From Others
In addition to the misconception that Extraversion is a categorical variable, another is that Extraverts “draw their energy” from being around others, whereas Introverts draw their energy from being alone. While Extraverts will certainly enjoy being around others (assuming they are not low on the gregariousness facet), Energy is a core facet of the broader domain and exists regardless of whether a person is in the presence of others. And the mistaken belief that introverts draw energy from being alone likely stems from the fact that interacting with others for extended periods is taxing for them. This is because they are required to engage their reflective processing system to override how they are naturally wired and display outgoing behavior. Using this part of the brain requires a lot of effort and, thus, depletes their internal resources. As such, being alone in and of itself is not going to increase an introvert’s energy, but it may help them conserve it relative to interacting with others. It also may aid in recuperation immediately after extended social interactions.
Low Extraversion Is Not Focus Turned Inward. It’s Detachment.
A final incorrect notion is that those who are more introverted are “inward facing” and somehow more reflective and introspective. Those types of tendencies are unrelated to the domain of Extraversion and instead related to the Big Five domain of Openness/Intellect. In fact, rather than introversion, a more accurate description for those who fall low on Extraversion would be detachment. In other words, “they are less engaged, motivated, and energized by the possibility for rewards that surround them” (p. 11).
Extraversion and Work Outcomes
Positive Emotions, Engagement, and Burnout Risk
One of the variables that many organizations are most interested in trying to measure and increase is employee engagement. As part of these efforts, these organizations would generally be very well-served by selecting for those high on Positive Emotions, as it has an unusually strong relationship with employee engagement (.62). Organizations hiring such individuals will also get the benefit of having more committed employees (.40), as well as ones who are more satisfied with their jobs (.33). Overall, hiring those who tend to be naturally upbeat can go a long way towards helping to create a positive and motivating work environment for others.
Positive Emotions also serve as a very strong protective factor against components of burnout (-.47 with depersonalization; .43 with emotional exhaustion), making it something to consider if selecting for high-stress roles or work environments where resilience will be important. Even in the absence of those things, identifying individuals who are low on it could benefit them and the organization considerably. Specifically, they may be at increased risk for burnout, and proactively creating a structured development plan can help them avoid it.
Assertiveness, Leadership, and Expatriate Success
In considering individuals for leadership roles, organizations would be well-served by selecting individuals who are high on the Assertiveness Aspect, as it is a very potent predictor of leadership effectiveness (.48). In addition to selecting candidates for leadership roles, organizations need to consider their internal talent for expatriate assignments. Here too, they would benefit considerably from measuring Extraversion, as it is a strong predictor of expatriate adjustment (.30), surpassing the rest of the Big Five.
Plasticity, Adaptability, and VUCA Environments
More broadly, Extraversion, along with Openness/Intellect, forms the meta trait Plasticity. As the name suggests, individuals high on this trait are flexible and can display the agility needed to function effectively in startups and other VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) environments. And Plasticity may be a good part of what is being measured by Learning Agility, making it a case of the jangle fallacy. If adaptability is an important competency for specific roles in an organization or part of the company’s values more broadly, they would be well-served by measuring Extraversion.
It’s Not Just Work
In addition to predicting many critical outcomes in work, Extraversion matters in life more broadly. Perhaps most notably, it is a very potent predictor of what many would consider to be one of, if not the, most important outcomes: Happiness (.47). And it also has a moderately strong relationship with life satisfaction (.26).
It’s Not All Positive
While Extraversion is overwhelmingly a good thing overall – it has effects in a desirable direction for 90% of variables in the most comprehensive research review to date – there are still some drawbacks to at least one facet of it. Excitement/Sensation Seeking tends to be related to undesirable outcomes and behaviors. For example, it has a moderately strong, negative relationship with safety performance (-.27) and a moderate relationship with procrastination (.21).
It’s also important to consider that some “desk jobs” that do not have a lot of social interaction could be poor fits for someone who is especially high on the Gregariousness and Energy facets of Extraversion.
Considerations for Leaders
Knowing where your direct reports fall on the domain of Extraversion, especially the facets, can be very helpful in terms of knowing how best to motivate and support them. For those who are high on the domain, job titles that reflect greater status, as well as having opportunities to get increased face time with senior leaders or work on high-profile projects will likely be motivating. The same will probably be true of other extrinsic factors, such as having the opportunity for bonuses based on performance. Those things will probably be less important to those lower on the domain, so you will have to look at the rest of the personality to find things that are intrinsic motivators.
It’s also a good idea to encourage those who are more introverted to take time to themselves to “recharge” after extended interactions with others. Also, if they are low on positive emotions and energy, you will want to monitor their workloads and stress levels closely, encouraging them to fully detach from work after hours. Holding off on sending emails during this time would likely help reinforce the message that this is what is normal and expected. This may help them avoid burnout.
Why a Holistic View Is Essential
Because aspects and facets of Extraversion predict some outcomes better than the broader domain, and since one of the facets is even associated with negative behaviors, it is important to measure Extraversion using a comprehensive Big Five/Five-Factor Model personality survey. This measure should fully sample from all of the five domains and provide scores for all of the narrower aspects and facets beneath them. It’s also important not to look at any single trait in isolation, as the presence of other traits may either mitigate or exacerbate certain tendencies.
In the case of Extraversion, for example, a low Positive Emotions score would be even more concerning, in terms of burnout risk, if the individual were also low on the domain of Emotional Steadiness. Alternatively, if an individual was high on Excitement Seeking, but also high on Conscientiousness, especially the Methodicalness Aspect, there would be much less of a concern over them acting unsafely at work. Similarly, a high score on the Industriousness Aspect, and the Self-Discipline Facet in particular, would lessen concerns related to procrastination.
The Importance of Thoughtful Application
A Big Five/Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality measure is a critical component of any well-designed and comprehensive selection and development system. And, when used properly, it can lead to powerful, positive results for both the individual and the organization.
¹This, and all Extraversion correlations, were taken from: Extraversion Advantages at Work: A Quantitative Review and Synthesis of the Meta-Analytic Evidence.
²Strength of all relationships classified according to Evaluating Effect Size in Psychological Research: Sense and Nonsense.
Keith Francoeur, Psy.D.