Adaptive performance and personality traits in the context of healthcare

• Adaptive performance is important in the constant changing environment of healthcare. • Personality traits – the Big Five – of nursing professionals are possible related to adaptive performance. • Nursing professionals’ rate themselves mostly as agreeable and conscientious. • Agreeableness and conscientiousness are not related to adaptive performance. • Openness is positively and significantly related to adaptive performance. • Neuroticism is negatively and significantly related to adaptive performance Improvements in healthcare are imperative. In response, healthcare professionals should continue to learn and develop innovative solutions. This means healthcare organizations require adaptive performers. Personality traits may be related to adaptive performance. This study investigates this possible relationship. Professionals (N = 583) working in the field of nursing in the Netherlands and the United States completed a survey measuring adaptive performance and the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and neuroticism. We studied to what extent personality traits were related to adaptive performance. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test whether personality traits were related to adaptive performance. We found that nurses openness and extraversion were positively related to adaptive performance, while neuroticism was negatively related. We found that nursing professionals characterized themselves predominantly as agreeable and conscientious. These personality traits were not related to adaptive performance. Human resource departments of healthcare organizations could include these outcomes in their assessments and learning and development programs. Healthcare organizations could adopt a strategy that considers the findings of this study when implementing changes. Educational institutions should integrate these findings on adaptive performance when implementing changes.