Volitional Trait Change in Selection: It's About Time, but Also Degree and Perspective

• Published in: International journal of selection and assessment 2025-02, Vol.33 (1)
• Main Authors: Perossa, Andrew, Connelly, Brian S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0965-075X; 1468-2389
• DOI: 10.1111/ijsa.12509

Volitional trait change—the idea that people can willfully change their personality—marks an important advancement for personality science beyond historic views of traits as relatively immutable. We applaud Dupré and Wille's (2024) extension and application of how volitional trait change could impact personnel selection. In this response, we aim to contribute to this discussion by focusing on three critical considerations for the applicability of PDGs to personnel selection—time (how quickly traits can change), degree (how much traits can change), and perspective (who perceives trait change). We concur that personality development has untapped potential in personnel selection and offer suggestions and caveats for how organizations might best realize it. We are excited about a new frontier in extending personality development to organizational settings and are optimistic that doing so would appreciably benefit employees, organizations, and the selection literature. Personality development through PDGs and interventions is possible but relatively unexplored in an organizational context Personality development has been typically observed over several months, so employee tenures must be long enough for organizations to benefit Observed personality development effects are relatively modest, and the widening of selection pools should reflect them Organizations should pair PDGs with effective personality development interventions to yield the best outcomes Multirater personality feedback offers organizations more accurate evaluation of goal progress and the opportunity to give reinforcing feedback