We examined emotional stability, ambition (an aspect of extraversion), and openness as predictors of adaptive performance at work, based on the evolutionary relevance of these traits to human adaptation to novel environments. A meta-analysis on 71 independent samples (N = 7,535) demonstrated that emotional stability and ambition are both related to overall adaptive performance. Openness, however, does not contribute to the prediction of adaptive performance. Analysis of predictor importance suggests that ambition is the most important predictor for proactive forms of adaptive performance, whereas emotional stability is the most important predictor for reactive forms of adaptive performance. Job level (managers vs. employees) moderates the effects of personality traits: Ambition and emotional stability exert stronger effects on adaptive performance for managers as compared to employees.
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