Using the ‘Big-Five’ for Assessing Personality Traits of the Champions: An Insinuation for the Sports Industry

Sport, is no more a spare time activity and has become a highly competitive and an extremely commercialized enterprise. Involvement of multinational corporations in sport activities and holding of mega events like the Olympics; and, the World Cup held by the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA);along with, the increasing impact of media broadcasting, have given rise to a new global multi- billion dollars sport market; where athletes remain the center of attention. Sport organizations, thus are always in search of the best athletes, not only for competitive purposes, but also, because the successes of a particular sport industry and corporate benefactors, depend upon the rise and fall of its super stars. The sports organization, thus are constantly on the search for high performers, such as the ‘right’ coach, the best manager, top CEOs or a new key athlete who can make their business a success. ‘Who will be the next Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods or Venus Williams?’ is a billion dollar question. However, predicting success in sports can be quite a daunting task; and, organizations endeavor to achieve best performances from their athletes; through not only lucrative financial packages, but also through best possible sports’ relevant environment and extensive trainings. Despite all efforts, only some of the players are able to make it to the top. Understanding personality of these players is one area which has been ignored and this one area might be able to answer the billion dollar question. The present study explores this particular area and provides empirical evidence of personality traits peculiar to the high performers or more aptly, the eventual champions. Studying the impact of Big Five personality traits, on the performance of 91 contact sports national champions of Pakistan; our findings reveal significant association between performance and the Big Five traits, i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extroversion and openness to experience.

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