Measuring resilience in the sales industry

Resilient persons are those who are able to "bounce back" from stressful experiences quickly and effectively (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). If there is such a personality characteristic, and if it is measurable, it should predict success in jobs that are characterized by continual obstacles. Sales, and particularly commercial real estate sales, is such an industry.;The Cognitive Hardiness Scale is an attempt to measure resilience. Numerous studies have found correlations between it and "job burnout" (Nowack & Pentkowski, 1994). However, no previous studies have directly tested resilience as a selection tool for the sales industry.;This objective of this study was to establish whether resilience, as measured by the Cognitive Hardiness Scale, incrementally adds to the Five-factor Model's validity and effectiveness as a selection tool. This was done by testing whether (a) the Cognitive Hardiness Scale was correlated with the Fivefactor Model to determine if it measured any additional personality characteristics and (b) if hardiness was correlated with success, as measured by the number of transactions that sales agents complete.;Results showed that the Cognitive Hardiness Scale significantly correlated with facets within the Five-factor Model such as Anxiety (r = -.27, p<.05), Self-conscientiousness (r = -.20, p<.05), Vulnerability (r = -.24, p<.05), Competence (r = .21, p<.05), and Positive Emotions (r = .375, p<.05). Finally, neither the Cognitive Hardiness Scale nor the Five-factor Model correlated with the number of transactions performed by the sales agents. This may be an artifact of the firm's existing selection procedures. This finding suggests that the Cognitive Hardiness Scale does measures facets of personality characteristics, but that those characteristics are not predictive of successful or unsuccessful performance in a stressful situation. Further research could determine whether resilient behaviors emerge from the coincidence of certain situational and organizational conditions with personality characteristics.