This is a book about the past, present and future of personality at work. It begins by introducing the principal concepts of current personality theory. A concerted effort is made to communicate the sense of coherence that exists among the components of personality such as needs, traits, social cognition, and emotions. The 'Five Factor Model' of traits is described. This work also gives an overview of the techniques used to evaluate personality and is a useful guide to personality research with suggestions on how it can be integrated into organizational research.

For many years, the explicit personalitythat part of which the person is awarehas dominated the realm of personality assessment. Until now, the implicit personalitythe unconscious, inaccessible, hidden reserve of motives and needs explored by Freud, Jung, Rorschach, and othershas been difficult to measure. Yet most psychologists have also concluded that both components of personality govern different behaviors, and their interplay may explain a variety of hitherto unexamined behaviors. In what Drew Westen has called the explosion of empirical studies of unconscious cognitive processes, new,...