The impact of personality traits on cognitive engagement: the study on financial institutions in Trincomalee district

Abstract

Engagement is a positive, fulfilling, affective- motivational state of workrelated well-being that is characterized by physical, emotional, and cognitive. Hence organizations may be better off improving on their employees with certain personality traits if they want to create an engaged workforce. This research investigates the impact of personality traits on cognitive engagement in a context of selected financial institutions in Trincomalee District. In this study, big five traits were used to measure various dimensions of personality which are extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. To attain the objectives, the quantitative method was used and data were collected through questionnaires. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to employees in financial institutions in Trincomalee District and only 191 questionnaires were received from the respondents. The data were analysed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. The findings exhibited that, personality traits of financial institutions in Trincomalee District is in high level because the mean value is 3.64 and also cognitive engagement of employees is in high level with the mean value of 4.6. Lastly, the regression analysis between personality traits and cognitive engagement indicated that 91% of total variance of cognitive engagement was explained by personality traits. In conclusion, it is observed that personality traits have influence on the employees’ cognitive engagement. Results of this study suggest that the personality traits are useful for examining the dispositional source of cognitive engagement.