Trevor Archer, Bengt Jansson, and Klaus Olsen
This exploratory report presents the contents of a large data-base consisting of psychometric measurement of personality-related attributes of individuals who underwent the recruitment process by completing the JobMatchTalent instrument that was developed from principles of occupational psychology. On the basis of individuals’, who applied for corporate or governmental leadership positions, responses, the correlations between applicants’ age and personal attributes was obtained. Correlational and regression analyses were used to explore differences between younger and older potential executive participants. These indicated that younger leadership applicants enjoyed an advantage with regard to: ”Focus-on-details”, ”Focus-on-order”, ”Own motivation”, ”Concentration”, ”Will-power”, ”Winner-instinct”, ”Visions-for-the-future”, whereas older leadership applicants enjoyed an advantage with regard to: ”Sphere-of-influence”, ”Tolerant attitude” and ”Trust-in-others”. The levels of stress-sensitivity, strategic focus, energy and communication, as expressed by younger and older recruitment applicants seeking executive positions, were comparable. At higher age levels, the leadership candidates expressed less focus on the tasks and less orientation towards their own ambitions but were rather more concerned with developing their staff, building relations and ‘team-spirit’.