In a series of three studies, a four-level hierarchical model of personality was employed to identify the antecedents and three validating criteria of a newly developed trait labeled job resourcefulness (JR). JR is defined as an enduring disposition to garner scarce resources and overcome obstacles in pursuit of job-related goals. Across three service contexts, JR was shown to predict customer orientation, self-rated performance, and supervisor-rated performance. The results also revealed that the hierarchical model accounted for more variance in performance ratings than one version of the 5-Factor Model of personality. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for selecting high-performing service employees.
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