How Personality Traits Mediate the Relationship Between Flow Experience and Job Performance

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1 How Personality Traits Mediate the Relationship Between Flow Experience and Job Performance Li-Chuan Chu, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, Taiwan Chen-Lin Lee, Corresponding author, Ph.D Student, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, Buddhist Dalin Tzu-Chi General Hospital, Taiwan Kuo-Chung Huang, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, Taiwan Jin-Hung Lin, ChungWha TeleCom Co., Ltd., Taiwan ABSTRACT This study shows the importance of positive work-related experience, positive mood, and health psychology by examining their relationships. Thus, the study builds and tests an integrated model to investigate the relationships among flow experience, personality traits, and job performance. This article explores these relationships using structural equation model (SEM) with data from 326 primary school teachers in Taiwan. The findings show that extraversion and conscientiousness partially mediate the relationship between flow experience and job performance. Results of moderated-sem analyses generally support the hypotheses. The article concludes with theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings. Keywords: Flow Experience, Job Performance, Personality Traits INTRODUCTION One of the main goals of nearly every country is improving educational quality.however, educational policy and the education system is not the only basis for quality improvement. More attention should also focus on teachers in teaching absorption and work intrinsic motivation. This study discusses whether different personality traits have an effect on flow experience and job performance. Although the literature has repeatedly shown that personality measures can predict job performance (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003; Linz & Semykina, 2011), Hurtz and Donovan (2000) have argued that personality is not a promising predictor of job performance and may have a multiplicative effect on performance when combined with motivation (Barrick & Mount, 2005) or flow (Demerouti, 2006). Interestingly, studies have shown flow more often at work than in leisure settings (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989). Researchers have identified flow experiences during many different activities, including sports (Jackson, Kimiecik, Ford, & Marsh, 1998), and music performances (O Neil, 1999; Byrn, MacDonald, & Carlton, 2003). Thus, organizational psychologists have become interested in flow at work (Bakker, 2005; Demerouti, 2006). Knowledge about this phenomenon has been limited until now. This study first examines whether flow is beneficial for job performance, following the suggestion of Hurtz and Donovan (2000) to build models that are more explanatory of the personality-job performance relationship. The second goal is to investigate whether personality traits play a mediator or moderator role in the relationship between flow experiences and job performance. Following the introduction, Section 2 discusses the literature review and the research hypothesis. Section 3 presents the study design and tests the model and findings. The last section discusses the managerial and academic implications of the study, its limitations, and recommendations for future research. The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April,

2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS Flow Experience Csikszentmihalyi (1975) argued that a person in flow is completely focused; there is no consciousness of distracting thoughts and irrelevant feelings. Self-consciousness disappears, yet one feels stronger than usual. The sense of time is distorted; hours seem to pass by in minutes. The flow metaphor is one that many people have used to describe the sense of effortless action they feel in moments that stand out as the best in their lives. Athletes refer to it as being in the zone, religious mystics as being in ecstasy ; artists do very different things when they reach flow, yet their descriptions of the experience are remarkably similar. These exceptional moments are called flow experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Subsequently, research has described flow as a temporary and subjective experience, and it plays a vital role in determining why people continue to repeatedly perform the same activity (Webster & Martocchio, 1992; Webster, Trevino, & Ryan, 1993; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). According to flow theory, the activity inducing flow becomes autotelic (worth doing for its own benefit), an effect later found in the work setting and connected to work satisfaction (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989). What are the possible causes of flow? Csikszentmihalyi (1997) proposed that when goals are clear, feedback is relevant, and challenges and skills are in balance, attention becomes ordered and fully invested. Because of total demand on psychic energy, a person in flow is completely focused. Researchers generally agree that the occurrence of flow is most likely to occur when people perceive a balance between the challenge of a situation and their own skills to deal with this challenge (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Ellis, Voelki, & Morris, 1994; Clarke & Haworth, 1994; Bakker, 2008). Bakker (2004) defined flow as a short-term peak experience at work, characterized by absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. Absorption refers to a state of total concentration, where employees are totally immersed in their work (Bakker, 2008; Demerouti, 2006), and it is also found to improve job performance. Work enjoyment indicates that employees who enjoy their work and feel happy make positive judgments about the quality of their working life (Veenhoven, 1984; Demerouti, 2006; Bakker, 2008). Intrinsic motivation refers to performing a certain work-related activity with the aim of experiencing inherent pleasure and satisfaction in the activity (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Demerouti, 2006; Bakker, 2008). Some evidence suggests that flow can lead to better performance in specific domains such as sports (Jackson et al., 1998) and music performance (O'Neil, 1999; Byrn et al., 2003). Thus, this work tests the following hypothesis: H1: flow experience will positively affect job performance. Relationships between the Big Five Traits and Job Performance Personality characteristics mainly describe and predict human behavior, not behavioral changes or development (Liao & Lee, 2009). McCrae and Costa (1989) defined personality as enduring emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal, and motivational style that explains individual behaviors in different situations. A review of industrial or organizational psychology literature suggests that the sum of all personality characteristics can be categorized into five traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism). These five traits have been subsequently labeled as the Big Five Personality. Researchers agree that most personality measures can be categorized according to the big-five model of personality traits (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Tett & Burnett, 2003; Flaherty & Moss, 2007; Liao & Lee, 2009; O Connell & Sheikh, 2011). This paper investigates the relationships between personality traits and job performance from a trait 34 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013

3 perspective. The first dimension, extraversion, relates to a heightened level of sociability, including traits of assertiveness, activity, and talkativeness, and is found to be a valid predictor of job performance characterized by social interaction, such as job performance found in sales personnel and managers (Bing & Lounsbury, 2000; Rothmann & Coetzar, 2003). Openness to experience appears to be a personality trait that reflects individual habitual willingness to try new ideas, including traits of active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, and attentiveness to inner feelings. Research has shown that openness to experience is related to success in consulting (Hamilton, 1988) and training (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Vinchur, Schippmann, Switzer, & Roth, 1998). Rose, Ramalu, Uli, and Kumar (2010) investigated the effects of the Big Five personality traits and their dimensions on expatriate job performance. Those with greater openness to experience performed better in their task, contextual, and assignment-specific performances. McCrae and Costa (1991) argued that agreeableness is related to happiness, because agreeable individuals have greater motivation to achieve interpersonal intimacy, which should lead to greater levels of well-being. Laursen, Pulkkinen, and Adams (2002) suggested that the agreeableness trait is related to higher levels of social compliance, including sympathetic and altruistic traits, and could be a valid predictor of performance (Tett, Jackson, & Rothstein, 1991). The fourth dimension, conscientiousness, refers to individuals who are generally well-organized, careful, thorough, goal oriented, deliberation, and hardworking (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Petrou, Kouvonen, & Maria, 2011). Followed by general intelligence, conscientiousness should be one of the valid personality predictors of performance for most jobs (Demerouti, 2006). Finally, neurotic individuals tend to have relatively negative core self-evaluations, leading to emotional distress and associated behaviors (Rusting & Larsen, 1998). Neuroticism is also related to a person s general tendency to experience negative effects such as fear, sadness, embarrassment, anger, guilt, and disgust (Dalton & Wilson, 2000). Strong evidence of the five personality traits (except neuroticism) will predict positive job performance. Linz and Semykina (2011) indicated that personality traits enhance performance. Thus, this study tests the following hypotheses: H2a: The extraversion trait positively affects job performance. H2b: The openness to experience trait positively affects job performance. H2c: The agreeableness trait positively affects job performance. H2d: The conscientiousness trait positively affects job performance. Concepts and Definitions of Job Performance Job performance is a multi-dimensional construct, which indicates how well employees perform their tasks, the initiative they take, and the resourcefulness they show in solving problems (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). Theoretically, individual job performance is a function of knowledge, skill, abilities, and motivation directed at role-prescribed behavior, such as formal job responsibilities (Campbell, 1999). Job performance consists of the task dimension (as in-role) and the contextual dimension (as extra-role) (Goodman & Svyantek, 1999; Borman & Motowidlo, 1993). Within the work context, job performance, particularly in-role performances, are defined as those officially required outcomes and behaviors that directly serve the goals of the organization (Motowidlo & Van Scotter, 1994; Demerouti, 2006). Extra-role performance is defined as organizational discretionary behaviors that do not necessarily directly influence employee productivity (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Fetter, 1991; Demerouti, 2006). The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April,

4 Mediators between Flow Experience and Job Performance Within the last ten years, organizational researchers have become increasingly interested in the influence of employees positive moods on organizational outcome. Positive mood has been associated with increased extra-role performance in employees (Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch, & Rhoades, 2001; George & Brief, 1992; Eisenberger, Jones, Stinglhamber, Shanock, & Randall, 2005). According to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001), certain discrete positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, pride, and love, all share the ability to broaden people s momentary thought-action repertoires and build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. This theory can also be applied to enjoyment and intrinsic motivation (two of the three flow components), which differ from joy and interest in that the object of the former emotions is the work task (Demerouti, 2006). Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988) suggested that affective disposition is composed of two facets: PA (positive affectivity) and NA (negative affectivity). High-PA individuals are predisposed to experience positive emotionality (joy and excitement), whereas high-na individuals are predisposed to experience negative emotionality (anger, guilt, fear). Some scholars have argued that PA and NA can integrate into the five-factor model such that PA is synonymous with extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and NA is synonymous with neuroticism (Brief, 1998; Watson, 2000; Judge, Heller, & Mount; 2002). O Connell and Sheikh (2011) also found conscientiousness and openness with some evidence of a mildly positive role. Schneider (1999) and Vinchur et al. (1998) concluded that extraversion and conscientiousness could predict job performance in various occupations.in sum, empirical findings are consistent with theory and provide evidence that support the positive relationships between flow and positive personality traits. However, these findings are not conclusive, because their samples and measures for both flow and personality traits are very diverse. Therefore, more research is warranted. Thus, the hypothesis accounts for the theoretical arguments and findings of empirical research. H3a: The extraversion trait mediates between flow experience and job performance. H3b: The openness to experience trait mediates between flow experiences and job performance. H3c: The agreeableness trait mediates between flow experience and job performance. H3d: The conscientiousness trait mediates between flow experience and job performance. Moderator Role in the Relationship between Flow and Job Performance Although there is good reason to believe that four of the big five traits are related to job performance across studies (with the exception of neuroticism), this study considers possible moderators of the relationship. Neurotic individuals tend to have relatively negative characteristics, such as fear, sadness, embarrassment, anger, and guilt. A neurotic employee does not have positive attitudes toward work and may lack confidence and optimism, resulting in less ambition and focus on career goals (Liao & Lee, 2009). Not surprisingly, neuroticism is one of the personality traits that cannot be a valid predictor of performance for most jobs. The present study assumes that neuroticism will damage the flow-job performance relationship and act as a moderator. Therefore, the following hypothesis states that H4: The relationship between flow and job performance is moderated by neuroticism. Compared to teachers with low neuroticism, those with high neuroticism show the relationship between flow and job performance. 36 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013

5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Measurement A questionnaire was used to measure teacher perceptions of the research constructs using multiple-item scales that were adapted from previous studies that reported high statistical reliability and validity. The scale for measuring flow experience was that of Bakker (2008), which considers three dimensions: absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation. The scale for personality traits (NEO-PI-R) was adapted from Costa and McCrae (1992), including five dimensions of extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. The scales for measuring job performance were derived from the instrument of Goodman and Svyantek (1999), including two dimensions of in-role and extra-role performance. Because this survey was conducted in Taiwan, the original items were translated from English into Chinese, followed by a back-translation process to ensure accuracy. The Work-related Flow Inventory (WOLF) was assessed with the instrument developed by Bakker (2008). This instrument includes 13 items measuring absorption (4 items), work enjoyment (4items), and intrinsic work motivation (5 items). Examples include, When I am working, I think about nothing else (absorption), My work gives me a good feeling (work enjoyment), and I get my motivation from the work itself, and not from the reward for it (intrinsic work motivation). The participants were asked to indicate how often they had each of the experiences during the preceding weeks (1= never, 2= almost never, 3= sometimes, 4= regularly, 5= often, 6= very often, 7= always). The instrument shows good factorial validity, satisfactory internal consistencies, and good test-retest reliability (Bakker, 2008).The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was explicitly designed according to the FFM (five-factor model) and comprises 240 items, facets (30), and domains of the five broad dimensions commonly referred to as extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992).Job performance was assessed with the instrument developed by Goodman and Svyantek (1999). A distinction was made between in-role and extra-role performance. In-role performances are defined as those officially required outcomes and behaviors that directly serve the goals of the organization (Motowidlo & Van Scotter, 1994). In-role performance was assessed with nine items, such as Exhibits attendance at work beyond the norm, for example, takes fewer days off than most individuals, or fewer than allowed. Bakker (2008) defined extra-role performance as actions that go beyond stated informal job descriptions and that increase organization effectiveness. Extra-role performance was assessed with seven items, such as Volunteers to do things not formally required by the job. The participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they found each statement characteristic of the participants (1= not at all characteristic, 7= totally characteristic). The questionnaire was refined based on a pilot study conducted with 40 teachers, and items were revised before finalizing the main survey content. The study evaluated results were using an item identification analysis procedure that combined descriptive statistics with the identification of extreme values and tests of homogeneity into an acceptability index score that should not exceed 2 (Chang & Chen, 2009). The final 30 measurement items obtained from the pilot test were then used for this study. Data Collection and Sample The research subjects were primary school teachers in Taiwan who had at least one year of teaching experience. Before filling out the questionnaires, the respondents were informed about the confidentiality of their responses and the academic purpose of the study. This procedure ensures an effective response rate and quality control for the data. After excluding 22 invalid respondents, the total number of valid The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April,

6 samples was 326, yielding a response rate of 35.2%. Demographically, 68% of the respondents were women; 42% were aged between 31 and 40; and 26% were aged between 20 and 30. Eighteen percent of the respondents had a Master s degree, and most respondent education levels were at the university level. All items among the constructs were evaluated against demographic controls (gender, age, level of education), and a t test or ANOVA was used. The results show that the two or three groups were not significantly different (p >.05), suggesting the sample collection was valid. DATA ANALYSIS Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Table 1 shows the mean values, standard deviations, and correlations for all the measured variables in this study. The correlation results show low correlations among the variables. However, this multicollinearity problem should not significantly influence the estimated stability of the parameters (Hung, 2011). Table 1: Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Table Variables Mean S.D Absorption Work enjoyment ** 1 Intrinsic motivation * 0.50** 1 Agreeableness Conscientiousness Extraversion Neuroticism Openness * * ** ** ** ** In-role performance Extra-role performance ** 0.37* ** 0.28* 0.28** 0.31** ** 0.30** * p<.05 ** p<.01 S.D=Standard Deviation Measurement Model Data analysis applies a multi-step approach. This study first developed the measurement model by conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The models were assessed by the maximum likelihood method using AMOS17.0. A structural equation model was then developed to test the hypotheses. To evaluate the model fitness, a chi-square with degrees of freedom, goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI), normal fit index (NFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) were employed. A good fitness is normally deemed to exist when GFI and NFI are greater than 0.9, AGFI is greater than 0.8, and RMSEA is less than As Table 2 shows, flow covers three factors, and the measurement model indicates that factor loadings of all items range between and The composite reliability (CR) ranges from to 0.813, and average variance extracted (AVE) ranges from to For all measurements, both indices are higher than the evaluation criteria, namely 0.6 for CR and 0.5 for AVE (Bagozzi & Yi, 1998). As in Table 2, measurements are fully acceptable when the absorption and intrinsic motivation construct have an AVE value very close to that norm (Liao, Chuang, & To, 2011). Flow was measured as a single construct, and the measurement model was estimated by AMOS in this study. The results suggest a good fit of the second-order (χ 2 = , df= 32, GFI= 0.964, AGFI= 0.938, NFI= 0.950, RMSEA= 0.053), which indicates an acceptable fitness. The personality traits measurement model indicates that factor loadings range between and The CRs range from 38 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013

7 0.606 to 0.905, and AVEs range from to A personality trait was measured as a single construct; it was composed of the five behavioral dimensions of this process and the AMOS measurement model used in this study. The results suggest a good fitness of the second-order (χ 2 = , df= 55, GFI= 0.970, AGFI= 0.951, NFI= 0.962, RMSEA= 0.020). Lastly, job performance was measured, and the measurement model indicates that factor loadings of all items range from 0.33 to 0.89 in this study. The CRs range from to 0.799, and AVEs range from to The results suggest a good fitness of the second-order (χ 2 = , df= 19, GFI= 0.979, AGFI= 0.960, NFI= 0.968, and RMSEA= 0.038), which are above acceptable levels. As Table 2 shows, all item standardized loadings and estimates were positive and significant, evidencing convergent validity (Bagozzi & Yi, 1998). Lastly, the chi-square difference test was performed for all constructs in pairs to examine whether the restricted model significantly differed from the freely estimated model. In the restricted model, the correlation was fixed at one for the pair of constructs under examination (Chang & Cheng, 2009). These results support discriminant validity (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Testing the Structural Equation Model In this study, the structural equation model was tested using the maximum likelihood method. As Table 3 shows, a comparison of all fit indices with their corresponding recommended values indicated a good model fitness (χ 2 = , d.f= 17, GFI= 0.983, AGFI= 0.954, NFI= 0.953, RMSEA= 0.039). To examine the hypotheses through the structural equation model, the results in Figure 1 and Table 3 show that flow experience has direct effects on job performance (t = 5.283; p<.001), and indicate support for hypothesis 1. Extraversion and conscientiousness of personality traits have significant effects on job performance (β 51 = 0.253; β 54 = 0.162), providing strong support for H2a and H2d. Unexpectedly, openness and agreeableness traits do not influence job performance (β 52 = ; β 53 = 0.027). Thus, H2b and H2c are not supported. A structural equation model was examined to determine whether extraversion and conscientiousness mediate the effects between flow experience and job performance. As Table 4 shows, these results seem to reflect that extraversion and conscientiousness traits partially mediate the relationship between flow experience and job performance. Thus, the results indicate support for H3a and H3d. The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April,

8 Table 2: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Scale Reliability Item description Loading Standardized t-value AVE SCR Absorption Abs Abs Abs Work Enjoyment WE WE WE Intrinsic Motivation IM IM IM Agreeableness Agr Agr Conscientiousness Con Con Con Extraversion Ext Ext Ext Neuroticism Neu Neu Neu Openness Ope Ope In-role Performance IrP IrP IrP IrP Extra-role Performance ErP ErP ErP ErP Note: t-value is significant at p<.05 when the t-value exceeds SCR= Scale Composite Reliability AVE= Average Variance Extracted Table 3: SEM Path Coefficients Hypothesis Path coefficients t-value Significant Supporting H1 flow job performance (γ 51 ) *** Y established H2a extraversion job performance(β 51 ) ** Y established H2b openness job performance(β 52 ) N no H2c agreeableness job performance(β 53 ) N no H2d conscientiousness job performance(β 54 ) * Y established fit indices: χ 2 =24.993,df=17,GFI=0.983,AGFI=0.954,NFI=0.953, RMSEA=.039 Note: t-value is significant at p <.05 when the t-value exceeds The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013

9 Table 4: Mediating Effect Hypothesis Direct Indirect Total Mediating effect H1 flow job performance H3a flow extraversion job performance (0.374*0.253).045 partial H3d flow conscientiousness job performance (0.280*0.162) partial Testing the Moderating Effect of the Neuroticism Trait Multi-group causal analysis was used to test the moderating effect of the neuroticism trait in this study. Respondents were split into high and low groups based on their perceptions of the neuroticism trait. A structural model linking flow experience with job performance was constrained to force equal loading between the high and low level neuroticism trait groups. The analysis included a two-group comparison to examine the existence of difference in structural parameters between high and low values of the variable. A significant difference between the two tests (chi-square difference) indicated that the variable used for splitting the samples moderates the relationship studied. Table 5 shows the chi-square difference is 4.9(p<.01) for the flow-job performance link, exceeding the critical value of 3.8 for one degree of freedom. The findings show that the positive effect of flow on job performance is lower for the group of teachers with high levels of the neuroticism trait. These results are consistent because a highly neurotic employee probably does not have positive attitudes toward work and may lack confidence and optimism, which would result in less ambition and less focus on career goals (Liao & Lee, 2009), reducing work efficiency and job performance. Thus, neuroticism positively moderates the effect of flow on job performance, confirming H4. Table 5: Chi-square Difference Test between Low and High Neuroticism Trait Groups Constrained Model Unconstrained Model Δχ 2 Fit index: Chi-square (d.f.) 26.1 ( 9 ) 21.2 ( 8 ) 4.9** GFI AGFI NFI RMSEA Neuroticism trait High Low H4: 0.15* 0.34** The relationship between flow and job performance is moderated by neuroticism. Compared to teachers with low neuroticism, those with high neuroticism show the relationship between flow and job performance. Note: * p <.05; **p <.01 DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Despite the literature suggesting a positive relationship between personality traits (with the exception of neuroticism), job performance, and flow experience, research that empirically analyzes those relationships is scarce. The first contribution of the present study to the literature is to examine the relationships among the main constructs of the model. The second contribution is the finding that flow experience has direct effects on teacher job performance. They are often in flow at work when they work hard and are goal oriented. Teachers immersed in activities perform better. This finding is consistent with the assumptions of the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) and the positive affectivity theory (Watson et al., 1988) that suggest positive emotions broaden individual habitual modes of thinking and acting (Demerouti, 2006). The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April,

10 The findings of this study provide additional evidence that can be integrated with previous literature from sports and music domains (Jackson et al., 2001; O Neil, 1999). Thus, it seems worthwhile for schools to promote flow among their teachers by creating working conditions. Results of the structural equation model examining hypotheses show that, unexpectedly, openness and agreeableness did not influence job performance. These findings differ from those of some previous studies. Extraversion and conscientiousness personality traits had a significant effect on job performance. This study used a structural equation model to examine whether extraversion and conscientiousness mediated the effect between flow experience and job performance. The findings reflect that extraversion and conscientiousness traits partially mediate the relationship between flow experience and job performance. These results are only partially consistent with previous literature. Schmitt, Gooding, Noe, and Kirsch (1984) argued that personality is frequently regarded as an antecedent of job performance. However, existing findings reveal that they share only 4% of variance (Hurtz & Donovan, 2000). In other words, personality does not necessarily fully mediate job performance, though the results seem to indicate that flow at work relates to job performance. One possible explanation may be that goal- and achievement-oriented teachers who were frequently immersed in and enjoyed their activities also performed better. In contrast, teacher personalities cannot and should not be changed. To ensure teachers awareness of goals, school administrators should set clear performance targets and clearly indicate primary and secondary tasks. The third contribution of this study is the finding that neuroticism personality traits moderate the relationship between flow experience and job performance. One possible explanation may be that neurotic individuals could not fully concentrate and immerse in what they were doing. They could not fully focus and could not forget everything else around them. In other words, they were not consistent with the prevailing core elements of the flow experience. These results are consistent those found by Demerouti (2006), who argued that personality seems to play more of a moderating, rather than causal role in predicting job performance. The measurements of personality traits were also difficult, complex, and diverse. Using a one-factor measurement of personality traits could possibly contribute to the insignificant support and could be a limitation of the study. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH Empirical results from this study contribute to understanding the relationships among job performance, flow experience, and personality traits. This research concludes that flow is beneficial for job performance. Organizations can promote flow among their employees by creating flow-evoking working conditions though work (re)design approaches (Demerouti, 2006). Several limitations of the study should be pointed out for further research. Because the research was conducted in Taiwan, the organization phenomena observed in this study may not hold true in other sectors with different cultures, or in other countries. Therefore, further research should be employed in several different sectors. First, including different range job positions for testing the relationships between flow experience and job performance will increase the probability of finding variation in job performance. Second, the small sample size in this study means the generalizability of the present findings should be applied with caution. Further research should increase the sample size and consider other types of careers. Third, while the research model is theorized to be causal, the study only adopts a cross-sectional approach in which cause and effect data are captured in the short term. Further work could consider adopting a longitudinal design to further examine the relationship of the factors. Finally, further research could explore the relevance of other internal or external factors for building a complete model. 42 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013

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14 Ext1 Ext2 Ext3 Neuroticism Neu1 Neu2 Neu3 Openness Ope1 Ope2 In-role Performance IrP1 IrP2 Irp3 Irp4 Extra-role Performance ErP1 Erp2 Erp3 Erp4 Activity Excitement Seeking Positive Emotions Anxiety Angry Hostility Depression Aesthetics Feelings Exhibits punctuality (arriving at work on time in the morning and after lunch breaks). Exhibits attendance at work beyond the norm, for example, takes fewer days off than most individuals or fewer than allowed. Coasts toward the end of the day. Gives advance notice if unable to come to work. Helps other employees with their work when they have been absent. Volunteers to do things not formally required by the job. Takes initiative to orient new employees to the department even though not part of his/her job description. Helps others when their work load increases (assists others until they overcome problems). 46 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013