Dr.

Bindu Gupta

Personality
The relatively stable set of characteristics that influences an individuals behavior and lend it consistency.

What is Personality?
Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of

an individual that distinguish him/her from other people and at the same time form a basis for our predictions concerning his/her future behavior

Variables Influencing Individual Behavior

Sources of Personality Differences

Personality

Environment

Heredity

* Culture * Family * Group Membership * Life Experiences

The Role of Personality in Organizational Behavior

A few words of caution about personality
Some personality characteristics are useful in

certain organizational situations.

No best personality, and managers need to

appreciate the advantages of employee diversity in the right job

A key concept here is fit, putting the right person

Personality Characteristics in Organizations

A strong situation can overwhelm the effects of individual personalities by providing strong cues for appropriate behavior

Personality Characteristics in Organizations

Strong personalities will dominate in a weak situation

Measuring Personality
Helpful in hiring decisions To appreciate diversity and better interaction Most common method: self-reporting surveys

Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent

assessment of personality often better predictors

Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Psychologist have discovered five basic

general dimensions that describe personality

By describing the individuals standing on each of the five factors, a comprehensive sketch

can be provided which summarizes his/her emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal, and motivational style

 A persons scores on the Big Five reveal a personality

profile as unique as his/her fingerprints

The Big Five Dimensions of Personality

Neuroticism (N) Extraversion (E)

Openness (O)
Agreeableness (A) Conscientiousness (c )

The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions

Extroversion
Sociable, gregarious, and assertive

Agreeableness
Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting

Conscientiousness
Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized

Emotional Stability
Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus nervous, depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)

Openness to Experience
Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive

Big Five Traits

What is Relevant

What does it affect?

Emotional Stability

Less negative thinking and fewer negative emotions Less-hyper-vigilant Better interpersonal skills Greater social dominance More emotionally expressive Increased learning More creative More flexible and autonomous Better liked More Compliant and conforming Greater effort and persistence More driver and discipline Better organized and planning

Higher job satisfaction Lower stress level Higher performance* Enhanced leadership Higher job and life satisfaction Training performance Enhanced leadership More adaptable to change Higher Performance* Lower level of deviant behavior Higher performance Enhanced leadership Greater longevity

Extraversion

Openness

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

The Big Five Model (Cont.)

the companys.
In a best-seller, Built to Last, by Collins and

in the interview from both your perspective and

Porras, they discovered that many companies, as part of long-term success, have very strong cultures that in many ways dictate a certain personality type if one is to be successful.

For example, if you work at 3M, a high score on

Openness to Experience would be an almost

necessary personality attribute or trait, because the culture is built around innovation, change, and creativity.

The Big Five Model (Cont.)

At Nordstroms, culture demands high scores on

extraversion and agreeability and are essential traits to possess. culture is probably not the place for you.

If you are low on either of these, the Nordstrom Knowing your own personality and the culture of

the company can save both parties much time, effort, and money if the culture is strong and has fairly specific expectations around behavioral patterns.

Some Research Findings

From this large sample of volunteers recruited and examined over the Internet, lead researchers

Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., and Oliver P. John, Ph.D., working at the University of California at Berkeley, found that

certain changes do occur in middle adulthood. Conscientiousness increased throughout the age range studied, with the biggest increases in a person's 20s; Agreeableness increased the most during a person's 30s;

Some Research Findings

Neuroticism declined with age for women but did not decline for

men

Openness showed small declines with age for both men and

women.

Finally, extraversion declined for women but did not show

changes in men.

Both neuroticism and extraversion scores were higher for

younger women than for younger men. But for both of these traits - and most strikingly for neuroticism - the apparent sex differences diminished with age.

Jungs Psychological Types and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI

Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

Self-Monitoring
Core Self-Evaluation
Self-Esteem

Locus of Control

Machiavellianism Risk Taking Type A vs. Type B Personality Proactive Personality

Self-Monitoring
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors

Self-Monitoring
Receive better performance ratings
Show less commitment to their organizations

Self-Monitoring
In advertising, high self-monitors respond more

to image-based ads that promise to make them look good, whilst low self-monitors respond better to product-based ads and prefer high quality goods.

Self-Monitoring
In organizational life, both high and low monitors are subject to

criticism.

High self-monitors are sometimes called Chameleons, who readily

adapt their self-presentation to their surroundings being on their own planet and insensitive to others

Low self-monitors, on the other hand, often are criticized for

Within an OB context, self-monitoring is like any other individual

difference- not a matter of right or wrong or good versus bad present and future managers.

But rather a diversity that needs to be adequately understood by

Self-Monitoring
Practical Recommendation
For High, moderate, and low self-monitors become more aware of your self image and how it affects others

High self-monitor Dont overdo it. You cannot be

everything to everyone

Low Self-monitor You can bend without breaking,

so try to be bit more accommodating while being true to your basic beliefs

Practice reading and adjusting to non-verbal cues in various public situations

Core Self-Evaluation: Two Main Components

Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate
Internals (Internal locus of control) Individuals who believe that they control what happens to them Externals (External locus of control) Individuals who believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance

Locus of Control
Research Findings on Locus of Control
Internals displays greater worker motivation Internals have stronger expectations that efforts leads to

performance

Internals exhibit higher performance on task involving

learning or problems solving when performance leads to valued rewards

There is stronger relationships between job satisfaction and

performance for internals than externals

Locus of Control
Internal obtain higher salaries and greater salary increase

than externals

Externals tend to be more anxious than internals , have higher

absenteeism rates, are more alienated from the work settings, and are less likely involved on their job than are internals
is important

Allowing internals considerable voice in how work is performed Internals will not react well to being closely supervised Externals, may prefer a more structured work setting, and

they may be more reluctant to participate in decision making

Core Self-Evaluation: Two Main Components

Self-Esteem How well do you like yourself?

peoples self-perceived competence and selfimage

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Self-esteem affects behavior in organizations

and other social settings in several important ways

Related to initial vocational choice

Take more risk in job selection, are attracted to

high status occupations, and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs that people low in selfesteem

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

A study of college students looking for jobs reported that those with high self-esteem
Received more favorable evaluations from

recruiters

Were more satisfied with the job search Receive more job offers Were more likely to accept jobs before graduation

than were students with low-self esteem

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Those with high self-esteem
report more positive attitudes, feelings, and life

satisfaction and less anxiety, hopelessness and depressive symptoms

feel unique, competent, secure, empowered, and

connected to people around them

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Self-esteem is also related to numerous behavior
Employees with low self-esteem

more easily influenced by opinions of others Set lower goals More susceptible to adverse job conditions tend to be uncertain about the correctness of their opinion, attitudes, and behaviors

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Self-esteem (cont.)
Organizations will generally benefit from a

workforce with high self-esteem SELF-ESTEEM?

WHAT CAN ORGANIZATION DO TO BOLSTER

Opportunity for participation in decision-making, autonomy, interesting work

Should avoid creating a culture with excessive and petty work rules that signal employees that they are incompetent or untrustworthy

Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism (Mach)
Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means

Conditions Favoring High Machs

Direct interaction with others

Minimal rules and regulations

Machiavellianism
In 1513, the Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli published

a book entitled The Prince

Machiavelli urged those who desired power to adopt an

approach based solely on expediency and usefulness

above friendship, loyalty and fair play

He suggested that a truly successful leader should always be He should be willing to do whatever it takes to win It led to researchers to propose that acceptance of this

ruthless creed involves, another dimension of personality known as Machiavellianism

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Machiavellianism (cont.)
People of this type are said to be rational, unemotional

and willing to go to extreme length to achieve their personal goals

Are said to be loners who put little emphasis on friendship and loyalty Have little remorse or guilt about harming others Enjoy manipulating others, they are extremely wary of being manipulated themselves The reason of awakened interest in this characteristics is the increasing awareness of political behavior in organizations

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Machiavellianism (cont.)
What specific tactics are signs that someone is a

high Mach?

Machs may be expected to do the following Neglect to share information Find subtle ways of making you look bad to management Fail to meet their obligations Spread false rumors about you

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Machiavellianism (cont.) Handling High Machs
Expose them to others publicly confront them

with their actions and false statements they have made

Avoid situations that give high Machs an edge high Machs prefer to operate in situations where other peoples emotions run high and the person they wish to manipulate are unsure how to proceed

Usually wise to avoid such situations whenever you can

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Risk Taking people differ in their willingness to

take risk

This propensity to assume or avoid risk has been

shown to have an impact on how long it takes managers to make a decision and how much information they require before making their choice

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

High Risk-taking Managers Make quicker decisions. Use less information to make decisions. Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations.

Low Risk-taking Managers Are slower to make decisions. Require more information before making decisions. Exist in larger organizations with stable environments. Risk Propensity Aligning managers risk-taking propensity to job requirements should be beneficial to organizations.

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Type A and Type B Personality
Type A behavior pattern type As tend to be

impatient, always seems to be experiencing a sense of time urgency, lose their temper, talk rapidly, and interrupt others

Type B behavior pattern Type Bs tend to work

steadily, take a relaxed approach to life, and evenly tempered

Type A Personality
Type A Impatient and always moving, eating, doing something Obsessed with numbers Try to do more than one thing at a time Fast, hard workers; emphasize quantity Type B Do not suffer from time urgency Feel little need to display or discuss achievements Play for fun and relaxation, without guilt More creative

 According to Silicon valley consultant, Type A executives

can exhibit stress in one of the four ways

Hostility/impatience believe everyone is incompetent

and so intimidate others, who then fear them

Compulsive/perfectionism want to do everything

themselves because they cant live their own or others mistakes

Competitiveness want to win at all cost

Chronic tension are multitaskers who make others ill at

ease by their hyperactivity

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

Type As and Task Performance
Type As do tend to work faster than

type Bs on many tasks, even no pressure or deadlines

They can do work in the presence of

distractions, tend to seek more difficult and challenging work than type Bs

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

BUT NOT ALWAYS SUPERIOR TO TYPE Bs Type A perform poorly on task requiring patience or

careful judgment

Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)

The question of whether Type As or Type Bs make more productive employees boils down to the issue of person-job fit
Type A may excel at tasks involving time pressure or solitary work Type Bs - advantage in tasks involving complex judgment and accuracy as opposed to speed

Proactive Personality
Actively taking the initiative to improve their current

circumstances while others sit by passively Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere. Create positive change in their environment. More likely to be seen as leaders and change agents More likely to achieve career success

Linking Personality and Values to the Workplace

Person-Job Fit: John Hollands Personality-Job Fit Theory

Six personality types Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) There appear to be intrinsic differences in personality between people There are different types of jobs People in jobs congruent with their personality should be more satisfied and have lower turnover

Key Points of the Model:

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Relationships Among Personality Types

The closer the occupational fields, the more compatible. The further apart the fields, the more dissimilar.

Need to match personality type with occupation.

Source: Reprinted by special permission of the publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, copyright 1973, 1985, 1992 by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Still Linking Personality to the Workplace

In addition to matching the individuals personality to the job, managers are also concerned with:
Person-Organization Fit: The employees personality must fit with the organizational culture. People are attracted to organizations that match their values. Those who match are most likely to be selected. Mismatches will result in turnover. Can use the Big Five personality types to match to the organizational culture.
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Advice to Managers
Realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to be positive

and enthusiastic because of their personalities. Similarly, realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to complain and experience stress because of their personalities.

Provide an extra measure of direct supervision to workers who dont take the

initiative to solve problems on their own and always seem to blame someone or something else when things go wrong.
esteem who tend to belittle themselves and question their abilities.

Provide additional encouragement and support to workers with low self-