The Relationship Between Big Five Personality Traits and Innovative Work Behavior: The Mediator Role of Psychological Safety

Abstract

This paper will explore how the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) influence the innovative work behavior of employees working in healthcare sectors in Iraq. It also explores the mediating process of psychological safety in converting personality traits into innovative behavior. The study was based on the Trait Activation Theory and Psychological Safety Theory, and a quantitative, time-lagged survey design was used to minimize common-method bias. A mixed-mode methods approach (online and on-site) was used to collect data from 425 workers in Iraqi health care. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS 4 were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to experience have a significant positive influence on innovative work behavior, whereas Agreeableness and Neuroticism have a significant negative influence. Moreover, psychological safety was identified as mediating the associations between all five personality traits and innovative work behavior, serving as a crucial process that triggers trait-consistent behaviors within the working environment. The study fills a gap in the innovation literature by examining the psychological drivers of innovation at the micro level in the health sector of a developing economy. It provides empirical data that psychological safety is a crucial conditional variable in the activation of personality traits toward innovation, thereby expanding the use of Trait Activation Theory to non-Western, hierarchical organizational settings.