The Five Factor Model of personality and employees’ excessive use of technology

► Study examined broad personality traits based on the Five Factor Model. ► Examined excessive use of technology in an under-examined population – employees. ► Personality, specifically conscientiousness, predicted problem internet use. ► Results suggest conscientiousness may also predict other excessive use tendencies. ► Findings may be useful in informing selection procedures or avoiding ADA litigation. Prior research has stressed the negative effects employee technology addiction, or excessive use, may have in the workplace. This study explored personality, through use of the Five Factor Model (FFM), and problem and pathological technology (Internet and text-messaging) use. Personality was found to predict certain aspects of technology use. Specifically, conscientiousness was negatively related to problem Internet use. However, the FFM did not add to the prediction of pathological Internet use or problem and pathological text-messaging use. These findings suggest that some dimensions of the FFM may be useful in explaining why certain employees may be predisposed to developing problem use tendencies. Implications of the current findings as well as limitations and future directions are discussed.