Most of us have heard some
version of the saying “Behind every successful man is a great woman.” This quote highlights that people get
accolades for their success in the workplace, but most people who achieve
greatness in the workplace need people who support their personal lives.
So, is it true that successful
people get significant help from their partners? And is the form of this quote accurate? Is it that successful men are helped by
women, but not the other way around?
This question was explored in a
paper in the December, 2014 issue of Psychological Science by Brittany Solomon and Joshua
Jackson.
They analyzed data collected from
over 4,000 people over a five-year period in Australia. The participants in this survey were married
heterosexual couples. The survey
collected the Big Five personality characteristics (Openness, Extraversion,
Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) for both the members of a
couple. The survey got information about
job satisfaction, income, and promotions.
It also got information about a variety of other aspects of the
relationship such as how much members of a couple would handle basic household
chores.
People’s own personality
characteristics influence their success at work. For example, replicating a lot of previous
work, people who are more agreeable, tend to make less money and to be less
likely to get promoted than those who are less agreeable. People who are highly agreeable tend to avoid
asking for raises and promotions, and so they get passed over in favor of those
who are willing to stand up for themselves.
In addition, People who are extraverted at work tend to have high levels
of job satisfaction and also get promoted (because people notice their
efforts). People who are high in conscientiousness also tend to enjoy their
work more and to make more money than those who are low in conscientiousness.
When looking at a person’s partner,
though, conscientiousness was the big factor that had an influence. People who had conscientious partners tended
to enjoy their work more, make more money, and be more likely to get promotions
than people whose partners were low in conscientiousness. This influence of a partner’s
conscientiousness go above-and-beyond the influence of a person’s own
personality characteristics.
One interesting facet of these
results is that they were true for both men and women. So, these findings suggest that behind every
successful person there is a conscientious partner, but men and women benefit
equally from conscientious partners.
Why does this happen?
There seem to be a couple of
factors at play here. First, more
conscientious partners tend to take on a bigger share of household duties. So, a person who spends a lot of time on
their work has someone who picks up the slack on household chores. Second, people tend to feel good about their
relationship when they have a conscientious partner. Presumably, people with partners high in
conscientiousness, do not argue as much about housework as those with partners
low in conscientiousness. This higher
level of relationship satisfaction also improves people’s success at work.
When people think about their
satisfaction and success in the workplace, they often focus on their own
characteristics. These findings suggest
that the status of people’s relationship also has a significant affect on their
workplace success.
Finally, it would be useful to see this study repeated in
other countries. It is interesting that
there were no gender differences in the influence of a partner’s
conscientiousness in this sample from Australia. I would be curious to know whether the same
results would be observed in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
