Personality traits in the museum community.

The museum community relies on the cohesion of several different functional groups to successfully run an institution. This study investigates the personality traits among employees in medium sized history museums across the country. Subjects were given a personality profile assessing the traits of the Five Factor Model of personality, and asked to indicate their affiliation with one of four museum functional categories, director/administrative, collections, education, or other. An analysis of the results indicates education staff reported significantly higher extraversion than collections staff. Results also revealed that people in the director/administrative group reported higher emotional stability than both collection and education groups. The findings in this study can impact job placement and hiring for positions in museums. Also, a knowledge of how different groups communicate can help strengthen teamwork and understanding between members of the museum community.