Personality diversity in the workplace: A systematic literature review on introversion

Figures & data

Table 1. A summary of the definitions and personality measures used to evaluate introversion among the included studies.

Measurement category	Measurement sub-category	Personality measure	Reporting studies
Eysenck-based Measurements (n = 9)	Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) (n = 7)	EPQ (H. J. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975)	Furnham & Bradley, 1997; Parkes, 1986
		EPQR-Short (S. B. Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985)	Chay, 1993
		EPQ-R (H. J. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975)	Kirkcaldy, Thome, & Thomas, 1989
		EPQ-N and EPQ-E, two scales of the EPQ-RSC (Mingyi, Guocheng, Rongchun, & Shen, 2000)	Yao et al., 2018
		EPQR-A (Francis, Brown, & Philipchalk, 1992)	Jung et al., 2012; Topi et al., 2002
	Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI) (n = 2)	EPI, Form A (S. B. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1964)	Cox-Fuenzalida et al., 2006
		EPI (S. B. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1964)	Heaton & Kruglanski, 1991
Five Factor Model-based Instruments (n = 8)	International Personality Item Pool (n = 3)	Mini IPIP (Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006)	Rogers & Barber, 2019
		IPIP reverse-coded extraversion, which was measured by averaging the 10-item IPIP scale (Goldberg, 1999)	Zhang et al., 2017
		Openness and Extraversion domains from IPIP, 5 NEO Domains (Goldberg et al., 2006)	O'Connor et al., 2016
	Five-Factor Personality Inventory (n = 2)	All six items from the extraversion subscale of the shortened version of the FFPI (Hendriks, Hofstee, & Raad, 1999)	Regts & Molleman, 2016
		FFPI-shortened version, Extraversion scale 5 items (Hendriks et al., 1999)	Dijkstra et al., 2005
	Other Five Factor Models (n = 3)	100-adjective unipolar five factor instrument personality assessment (Goldberg, 1992)	Barry & Stewart, 1997
		Big Five Factor Markers Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1992)	Walker, 2007
		Mini-markers extraversion scale 10 items (Saucier, 1994)	Erez, Schilpzand, Leavitt, Woolum, & Judge, 2015
Other Measurements (n = 4)		TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003)	Naylor et al., 2013
		HEXACO-60 extraversion measure (Ashton & Lee, 2009)	Baer et al., 2016
		PROSCAN (Houston & Solomon, 1977); social boldness (Factor H) was taken from 16PF (Cattell et al., 1970)	Eastburg et al., 1994
		Self-conceptions/extraverts-introverts: self-rating questionnaire (Markus, 1977)	Kulik & Mahler, 1986

16PF: Sixteen Personality Factor H Questionnaire; EPI: Eysenck Personality Inventory; EPQ: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire; EPQ-E: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire Extraversion Scale; EPQ-N: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire Neuroticism Scale; EPQ-R: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire-Revised; EPQR-A: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated; EPQ-RSC: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire-Revised Chinese Version; EPQR-Short: Short version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire; FFPI: Five-Factor Personality Inventory; HEXACO-60: Short Form Version of the Personality Inventory on Honesty-humility, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Emotionality, Conscientiousness, and Openness; IPIP: International Personality Item Pool; Mini IPIP: 20-item short form of the 50-item International Personality Item Pool-Five-Factor Model; NEO: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness; PROSCAN: Professional Dynametric Program system; TIPI: Ten Item Personality Inventory.

Table 3. Summary of proposed strategies to better accommodate introverts in the workplace.

Category	Strategy	Key conclusions/practical implications for managers and organizations	Studied population (number of participants)
Strategies to Increase Performance (n = 2)	Group Work with both Collaborative and Individual Components	- Group work should be structured to accommodate different personality types (e.g., combination of collaborative and individual work) (Walker, 2007).	Undergraduate-level students (172)
	Varied Team Composition	- Attention to the personality composition of a team may help to overcome potential process losses (Barry & Stewart, 1997).	Graduate-level students (289)
Strategies to Increase Creativity (n = 2)	Challenging Tasks	- Increase manager awareness of employee personalities and tolerance of introverts who are more likely to be drained by high guanxi (relationships) management. - Allocate high complexity tasks to challenge introverted colleagues and enhance creativity. - Acknowledge different employee personalities to harness creativity of introverts (Zhang et al., 2017).	Bank employees and professionals in a large coal manufacturing and transportation company (840)
	Relaxation Training	- Relaxation training (e.g., stretching, breathing, freeing the mind from negative thoughts) is more beneficial for introverts for increasing creativity, whereas idea generation training is more beneficial for extraverts. - Personality differences should be considered when designing/implementing creativity training programs (O'Connor et al., 2016).	Undergraduate-level students (163)
Strategies to Reduce Burnout and Increase Work Engagement (n = 2)	Psychological Help; Social Support	- Strategies to enhance individuals’ general self-efficacy (e.g., psychological help, social support) should be implemented to reduce burnout in those with introverted personalities (Yao et al., 2018).	Nurses (860)
	Boundaries; Sufficient Time to Recharge	- Employers should encourage boundaries around information and computer technologies that may increase conflict, and reduce workplace norms that encourage employees to be continuously accessible instead of taking sufficient time for recovery (Baer et al., 2016).	Crowdsourcing marketplace employees (509)

Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram.

Table 2. Summary of factors affecting performance, creativity, burnout, engagement, and well-being/stress response of introverts in the workplace.

Category	Factor	Key conclusions/practical implications for managers and organizations	Studied population (number of participants)
Factors Affecting Performance (n = 3)	Being Connected to Others in a Network	- Job performance benefits most from being connected to others in a network for introverts who are high on neuroticism and extraverts who are low on neuroticism. - Organizations and researchers should consider how social network position and interactions between personality traits combine in influencing employee work outcomes (Regts & Molleman, 2016).	Nurses (299)
	Sudden Changes in Workload Level	- Introverts had a smaller reduction in performance scores on an auditory vigilance task than extraverts in response to sudden changes in workload level (Cox-Fuenzalida et al., 2006).	Undergraduate-level students (71)
	Distracting Stimuli	- Introverts performed significantly poorer on a recall task in the presence of a distracting stimulus (pop music) compared to extraverts (Furnham & Bradley, 1997).	Undergraduate-level students (20)
Factors Affecting Creativity (n = 1)	Distracting Stimuli; Computer-mediated Groups	- Extraverts generated more unique and diverse ideas than did introverts in moderate- and high-stimuli conditions. However, introverts and extraverts performed similarly under low- and extreme-stimuli environments. - Computer-mediated groups seems a less productive technique for introverts compared to extraverts (Jung et al., 2012).	Undergraduate-level students (75)
Factors Affecting Burnout, Work Engagement, and Well-being/Stress Response (n = 5)	Social Support	- Introverts require less social support than extraverts to avoid burnout. - Interventions to reduce burnout should be multifaceted to better serve different personality types (Eastburg et al., 1994).	Nurses and their supervisors (148)
	Separation between Work and Home Life	- Lack of separation between work and home life can result in increased work burnout and reduced work engagement for introverts (Baer et al., 2016).	Crowdsourcing marketplace employees (509)
	Stress	- Those with unstable introverted personalities feel stronger burnout when they face stress (Yao et al., 2018).	Nurses (860)
	Workplace Conflict	- Workplace conflict adversely affects well-being, especially for introverts. - Conflict should be considered as a contributing factor to employee well-being in organizations with high rates of turnover, sick leave, and absenteeism (Dijkstra et al., 2005).	Nursing and ancillary staff (481)
	Workplace Intrusions	- Introverts were less stressed in response to workplace intrusions (unexpected interpersonal contact that disrupts workflow) compared to extraverts. - Practitioners and managers should structure office environments to maximize employee health and well-being based on individual personalities and preferences (Rogers & Barber, 2019).	University faculty and staff (897)

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