Do personality states predict momentary task performance? The moderating role of personality consistency

In the current study, we investigated how state neuroticism and state conscientiousness related to momentary task performance, and we tested whether these relationships were affected by the extent to which a person is consistent in his/her level of state neuroticism/conscientiousness across situations (i.e., his/her level of situational consistency). We hypothesized that state neuroticism relates negatively, while state conscientiousness relates positively to momentary task performance. Moreover, for both personality dimensions, we expect that the state personality- momentary task performance relationship is stronger for employees who behave, feel, and think more consistently across situations. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a 10-day spanning experience sampling study in a financial institution. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that state neuroticism related negatively and state conscientiousness related positively to momentary task performance (p <.05). Moreover, these relationships were stronger for people showing higher situational consistency in their levels of state neuroticism (p <.10) and state conscientiousness (p <.05). From a theoretical point-of-view, our findings suggest that personality states are an important antecedent of momentary task performance, and that this is especially true for people high in situational consistency. From a practical point-of-view, our results underscore the importance of going beyond the assessment of a person's overall (trait) level of personality, by also taking into account his/her state personality levels and the consistency herein, thereby adding more depth to the selection and/or assessment decisions made.