Employees High in Personal Intelligence Differ From Their Colleagues in Workplace Perceptions and Behavior

ABSTRACT

Personal intelligence (PI) involves the ability to recognize, reason, and use information about personality to understand oneself and other people. Employees in two studies (Ns = 394, 482) completed the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI; e.g., Mayer, Panter, & Caruso, 2017a) and assessments of workplace perception and behavior. Higher PI was associated with higher perceived workplace support and lower counterproductive work behavior. These relationships continued to hold after controlling for other key variables. The results indicate the TOPI, although still in research trials, shows promise as a screening device for selecting employees and targeting individuals for training.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mariah Moore who participated in the early stages of this research and who generously made her undergraduate thesis data available for Study 1. The authors also thank Victoria M. Bryan for assistance in reviewing the tables and Dr. Peter Gordon and Dr. David Thissen for their comments on the research.

Additional information

Funding

The Gump Family Undergraduate Research Fund, administered by Honors Carolina, provided funding to Mariah Moore. The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program of the University of New Hampshire and the third author's research funds from the University of North Carolina provided funding to Brendan Lortie.