Abstract

This paper empirically examines the relationship among personality traits, job satisfaction, and preference for reward system using a sample of direct selling employees. A survey is administered to 318 salesmen of direct selling in Taiwan. These findings include 1. If a direct seller’s personality trait is more agreeable, he/she will have higher job satisfaction. 2. If the direct seller’s personality trait tends to be more neurotic then job satisfaction will be lower. 3. If a direct selling company uses social rewards to reward direct sellers, both their intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction will increase significantly. 4. If a direct selling company uses material rewards, the extrinsic satisfaction significantly increases only. 5. Direct sellers who are more agreeable tend to prefer social rewards. From a psychological perspective, the understanding of reward system preference assists companies in designing a proper motivation system to meet the actual needs of employees and enhance their job satisfaction. Furthermore, these empirical evidences can facilitate companies’ human resource management strategy.

Key words: Personality traits, job satisfaction, reward system, human resource management.