Relationship between Personality Traits and Constituent Factors in Impressions of Public Service: Impressions of City Office Staff as a Case Study

Abstract

In this study, we examined the factor composition of negative impressions of city office staff among 104 male and female university and graduate students with previous experience dealing with city offices, and the personal traits associated with these negative impressions. The results suggested that negative impressions of city office staff were composed of four factors: “lack of reliability in emotional terms”, “lack of reliability in instrumental terms”, “lack of tangibles”, and “lack of empathy.” Among these, only “lack of reliability in instrumental terms” was associated with “extraversion” from the Big Five personality traits and “empathic concern” from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index.