Date of Award

3-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Clay M. Koschnick, PhD

Abstract

The Extrovert Ideal led to a society that has a favorable bias toward extroverts. Classrooms, workplaces, and the general public have been designed with extroverts in mind. Introverts, who make up more than half the world’s population, are forced to act in extroverted ways due in part to the extrovert ideal. Previous studies indicate introvert performance declines when working with more extroverted preferences, like open offices that favor group work, but fail to discuss the acting introverts are forced to do in workplaces created for their extroverted counterparts. The purpose of this study is to present a unique theoretical construct, Introvert Personality Labor (IPL), that describes the labor expended by introverts in order to fit in to environments created for their extroverted counterparts. Other goals of this study included: testing the relationship between IPL and performance and uncovering which individual preferences had significant relationships with IPL. A survey was created that combined extroversion questions from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R) and unique preference, performance, and narcissism questions. The EPQ-R was used to create a measure of IPL. Through correlation of IPL and the preferences collected, significant relationships between individual preferences and IPL were identified. A linear regression analysis allowed for the conclusion on which explanatory variables, like preferences and demographics, best predicted IPL. The results indicated IPL and performance do not have a significant relationship. Of the 13 individual preferences tested, 10 had significant relationships with IPL. Finally, the regression model concluded Social Battery, having mandatory lunch meetings/group lunches with coworkers, and gender were the best predictors of IPL. It is important to understand IPL as a potential influence on job satisfaction, and thus job performance, for the majority of the workforce.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-23-M-196

Comments

A 12-month embargo was observed.

Approved for public release: 88ABW-2023-0289

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