Personality characteristics of engineers

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to investigate the personality characteristics of a group of engineers with a variety of years of experience. It was executed to remedy shortcomings of the literature concerning this issue and to produce suggestions for a postgraduate training programme for engineers. A total of103 engineers were tested with the five-factor personality inventory (FFPI), a ‘big five’ personality test of Dutch origin. The engineers were shown to score lower on the factor agreeableness, and higher on the factors extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and autonomy than a national comparison group. The older the engineers, the more conscientious and autonomous they were. In addition, engineers with lower degrees were more conscientious than engineers with higher degrees. A practical implication of the findings for the postgraduate training of engineers is that more attention should be paid to the development of interpersonal skills.

Keywords:

• Personality characteristics
• Five-factor model
• Engineers
• Interpersonal skills training

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the engineers who have been participating in this study. We are also grateful for the comments of the four anonymous reviewers of the manuscript.