The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits on Accountants and their Career Decisions

Abstract

This study analyses how personality traits influence accountants’ roles, career decision-making, and career sustainability. It also explores the influential roles of personality traits, psychological empowerment, behavioural roles, organisational support, and accountants’ job performance in relation to turnover intention, particularly at the early stage of an accounting career. This study employed a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, consisting of two phases: Phase I (Qualitative) and Phase II (Quantitative). In Phase I, 30 accountants participated in semi-structured interviews using a phenomenological approach. The interviewees’ personality traits were measured across five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism using a 20-item psychometric scale. The qualitative data collected through interviews were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis in NVivo software. In Phase II, 266 accountants participated in a cross-sectional survey. Accountants’ perceived organisational support, personality traits, psychological empowerment, perceived behavioural control, job performance, and turnover intention were measured using a questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were measured through Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, average variance extracted, discriminant validity, and correlations. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including correlation, t-test, ANOVA, and SEM, in SPSS and SmartPLS. The primary findings revealed that accountants’ personality traits, “especially openness to experiences, conscientiousness, and agreeableness”, are more likely to engage them in an accounting career. Accountants with the agreeableness trait were more satisfied with the nature of their jobs, organisational structure, job recognition, and professional development opportunities than those with other personality traits. These personality traits are linked to their psychological empowerment, which in turn leads to job performance. Accountants’ high-level psychological empowerment has a significant positive influence on their perceived behavioural control and job performance. However, neither psychological empowerment, perceived behavioural control, nor job performance contributes to reducing turnover intention. These factors were analysed amid sector-level pressures on accountants and their higher expectations, compared to their personal achievements. Entities like the Saudi Organisation for Chartered and Professional Accountants (SOCPA) should encourage strategic retention plans that, holistically, include promotional opportunities, work engagement, empathy, appreciation, and incentives to achieve a better version of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.