How Faculty Members’ Personality traits Influence their Education-Research Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits and education-research performance of faculty members. A survey was conducted among 321 faculty members in Tehran University, Iran. The research instrument included: personal and professional features, items related to personality traits, and items related to self-evaluation of education and research performance. Reliability and validity of the instrument were determined through opinions of faculty members and application of Cronbach’s Alpha, respectively. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using SPSS/Windows. Findings showed that neuroticism had a negative and significant effect on education and research performance. Openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness had positive and significant effects on research performance. Extraversion and agreeableness had positive and significant effects on education performance. Finally, results showed that agreeableness had the most effect on educational performance and neuroticism had the most effect on research performance.