Is Openness a Good Thing?
Based on the definition of the five-factor model of personality; openness reflects a tendency to pursue and enjoy new things, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the trait has been shown to correlate with an increased willingness to test out novel activities that many consider risky.1
A study about “The Influence of Openness to Experience on Perceived Employee Creativity” found that openness to experience was positively associated with both employees’ perceptions of their radical creativity and incremental creativity.2
Another study explores the correlation between trust, communication openness, and employees' job satisfaction in a large Indonesian company. The results show that trust and communication openness were positively related to employees' job satisfaction dimensions.3
In a 2015 study, performance management firm 15Five found that most employees want to work for a company that values openness and honesty above all else, but that few are lucky enough to get it. Eighty-one percent of workers, according to the study, believe that corporate transparency is more important than any workplace perk, but only 15 percent are very satisfied with the level of communication within their offices.4
Thus, Openness is a positive trait. Open people have a higher level of self-motivation to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They are curious about the world and want to learn more about how it works. They are also eager to try new things, so they may be better able to adapt and thrive when faced with changes in their environment, situation, or relationships.
1https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/openness
2Journal of Creative Behavior. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jocb.138
3https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-linkage-between-trust%2C-communication-openness-Wulandari-Burgess/cb83ee36207cb3d1a3c2b41fefedef3c14c110a1
4https://thriveglobal.com/stories/4-reasons-to-embrace-openness-and-transparency-at-work/
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