Abstract
The widespread acceptance of the Big Five model implies that personality consists of relatively independent dimensions that form a taxonomy whereby individual differences may be explained. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the subscales of an established personality inventory that measures narrow traits of personality, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), could be reduced meaningfully to fit a broad factor model within a South African context. The OPQ 5.2 concept model was administered to 453 job applicants in the telecommunications sector. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a six-factor structure that included five factors corresponding to the Big Five model of personality. The sixth factor, labeled Interpersonal Relationship Harmony, resembled the description of the Chinese tradition factor, extracted in a non-Western society.