Abstract: The present work attempted to take the recent advance in Chinese personality assessment further and to expand it into the area of organizational-industrial psychology. The authors aimed at developing an instrument to describe work-related personality traits and to predict job performance. The development of the CPW predicated on the belief that personality constructs operationalized in situation-specific forms are more useful for predicting behaviors in similar situations. The paper included three studies on the conceptualization, construct validity and criterion-reference validity of CPW. CPW items were chosen from an item pool developed by the Assessment and Development Centre (1996). Adopting the format of EPPS, most of the subscales in the original EPPS were redefined and items rewritten. Many items were written with specific reference to the work situation. The 15 CPW dimensions were: Drive for Personal Achievement Deference to Authority, Planning and Orderliness, Attention-Seeking, Autonomy, Need for Affiliation, Introspectiveness, Support-seeking, Dominance, Nonabrasiveness and Modesty, Innovativeness and Change- orientation, Tenacity, Client Service Orientation, and Overall Managerial Readiness. Each of the 15 dimensions were correlated with an Adjective Checklist The correlations were consistent with the definition of the CPW scales. The 15 CPW dimensions were then factor-analyzed. A 3-factor structure was found: Ambition- Altruism, Order-Independence, and Management- Subordination. The results support the conceptualization of CPW dimensions. Known group studies further supported the criterion validity of CPW: First managers scored higher on Dominance and Overall Managerial Readiness than non-managers. Second, social workers were found to be higher on Client Service Orientation, compared to university students and customer service staff in for-profit organizations. The instrument provides a Chinese indigenous personality instrument that has wide application value for research and practice in personnel psychology.

Key words: Chinese Personality at Work Questionnaire, concepatualization, validity