Individual Behavior,

Personality, and
Values
MARS Model of Individual Behavior

Situational
factors
Values Motivation

Personality
Perceptions Individual
Ability behavior and
Emotions results
Attitudes
Stress Role
perceptions

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Employee Motivation

 Internal forces that affect a person’s

voluntary choice ofbehavior
• direction
• intensity
• persistence

S
M
A BAR

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Employee Ability

 Natural aptitudes and learned capabilities

required to successfully complete a task
 Competencies  personal characteristics that
lead to superior performance
 Person  job matching
• selecting
• developing S
M
• redesigning
A BAR

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Role Perceptions

 Beliefs about what behavior is required to

achieve the desired results:
• understanding what tasks to perform
• understanding relative importance of tasks
• understanding preferred
behaviors to accomplish tasks

S
M

A BAR

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Situational Factors

 Environmental conditions beyond the

individual’s short-term control that constrain
or facilitate behavior
• time
• people
• budget
• work facilities S
M

A BAR

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Defining Personality

 Relatively enduring pattern of thoughts,

emotions, and behaviors that characterize a
person, along with the psychological
processes behind those characteristics
• External traits – observable behaviors
• Internal states – thoughts, values, etc inferred from
behaviors
• Some variability, adjust to suit the situation

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Nature vs. Nurture of Personality
 Influenced by Nature
• Heredity explains about 50 percent of behavioural
tendencies and 30 percent of temperament
• Minnesota studies – twins had similar behaviour
patterns
 Influenced by Nurture
• Socialization, life experiences, learning also affect
personality
• Personality isn’t stable at birth
• Stabilizes throughout adolescence
• Executive function steers using our self-concept as
a guide

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Five-Factor Personality Model
(CANOE)

Conscientiousness Careful, dependable

Agreeableness Courteous, caring

Neuroticism Anxious, hostile

Openness to Experience Sensitive, flexible

Extroversion Outgoing, talkative

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Five-Factor Personality and
Organizational Behavior
 Conscientiousness and emotional stability
• Motivational components of personality
• Strongest personality predictors of performance
 Extroversion
• Linked to sales and mgt performance
• Related to social interaction and persuasion
 Agreeableness
• Effective in jobs requiring cooperation and helpfulness
 Openness to experience
• Linked to higher creativity and adaptability to change

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Jungian Personality Theory
 Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung
 Identifies preferences for
perceiving the environment
and obtaining/processing
information
 Commonly measured by
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Extroversion versus introversion
• similar to five-factor dimension
 Sensing versus intuition
• collecting information through senses versus
through intuition, inspiration or subjective sources
 Thinking versus feeling
• processing and evaluating information
• using rational logic versus personal values
 Judging versus perceiving
• orient themselves to the outer world
• order and structure or flexibility and spontaneity

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Self-Concept Defined

 An individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations

 “Who am I?” and “How do I feel about myself?”
 Guides individual decisions and behavior

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Three “C’s” of Self-Concept
 Complexity
• People have multiple self-concepts
 Consistency
• Improved wellbeing when multiple self-concepts
require similar personality traits and values
 Clarity
• Clearly and confidently described, internally
consistent, and stable across time.
• Self-concept clarity requires self-concept
consistency

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Four “Selves” of Self-Concept
 Self-enhancement
• Promoting and protecting our positive self-view
 Self-verification
• Affirming our existing self-concept (good and bad
elements)
 Self-evaluation
• Evaluating ourselves through self-esteem, self-
efficacy, and locus of control
 Social self
• Defining ourselves in terms of group membership

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Self-Concept: Self-Enhancement

 Drive to promote/protect a positive self-view

• competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, valued
 Strongest in common/important situations
 Positive self-concept outcomes:
• better personal adjustment and mental/physical
health
• inflates personal causation and probability of
success

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Self-Concept: Self-Verification
 Motivation to verify/maintain our existing self-
concept
 Stabilizes our self-concept
 People prefer feedback consistent with their
self-concept
 Self-verification outcomes:
• We ignore or reject info inconsistent with self-
concept
• We interact more with those who affirm/reflect self-
concept

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Self-Concept: Self-Evaluation
 Defined mainly by three dimensions:
 Self-esteem
• High self-esteem -- less influenced, more
persistent/logical
 Self-efficacy
• Belief in one’s ability, motivation, role perceptions, and
situation to complete a task successfully
• General vs. task-specific self-efficacy
 Locus of control
• General belief about personal control over life events
• Higher self-evaluation with internal locus of control

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 Self-Concept: Social Self
 Social identity -- defining ourselves in terms of
groups to which we belong or have an emotional
attachment
 We identify with groups that have high status -- aids
self-enhancement
Contrasting Groups

IBM Employee
Employees at
other firms

Live in An individual’s People living in

U.S.A. social identity other countries

Graduates of other
University of Dallas schools
Graduate
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Values in the Workplace
 Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our
preferences
 Define right or wrong, good or bad
 Value system -- hierarchy of values

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Schwartz’s Values Model

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Schwartz’s Values Model

 Openness to change – motivation

to pursue innovative ways
 Conservation -- motivation to
preserve the status quo
 Self-enhancement -- motivated by
self-interest
 Self-transcendence -- motivation to
promote welfare of others and
nature

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Values and Behavior
 Habitual behavior usually consistent with
values, but conscious behavior less so
because values are abstract constructs
 Decisions and behavior are linked to values
when:
• Mindful of our values
• Have logical reasons to apply values in that
situation
• Situation does not interfere

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Values Congruence

 Where two or more entities have similar

value systems
 Problems with incongruence
• Incompatible decisions
• Lower satisfaction/loyalty
• Higher stress and turnover
 Benefits of incongruence
• Better decision making (diverse perspectives)
• Avoids “corporate cults”

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Values Across Cultures: Individualism
and Collectivism
 Degree that people value duty to their group
(collectivism) versus independence and
person uniqueness (individualism)
 Previously considered opposites, but
unrelated -- i.e. possible to value high
individualism and high collectivism

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Individualism
High Individualism
The degree to which people
U.S.
value personal freedom,
Italy self-sufficiency, control over
India
themselves, being
appreciated for unique
Denmark qualities

Taiwan

Low Individualism
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Collectivism
High Collectivism
The degree to which people
value their group
Italy membership and
Taiwan
harmonious relationships
within the group
India

Denmark

U.S.

Low Collectivism
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 Power Distance
High Power Distance  High power distance
Malaysia • Value obedience to authority
Venezuela • Comfortable receiving
commands from superiors
• Prefer formal rules and authority
Japan to resolve conflicts
 Low power distance
U.S. • Expect relatively equal power
sharing
Denmark
Israel
• View relationship with boss as
interdependence, not
Low Power Distance dependence
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 Uncertainty Avoidance
High U. A.
 High uncertainty avoidance
Greece
Japan • feel threatened by ambiguity
and uncertainty
Italy • value structured situations and
direct communication

U.S.  Low uncertainty avoidance

• tolerate ambiguity and
uncertainty
Singapore

Low U. A.
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Achievement-Nurturing
Achievement
 High achievement
Japan
orientation
• assertiveness
China • competitiveness
U.S. • materialism

France  High nurturing orientation

Chile • relationships
• others’ well-being
Sweden

Nurturing
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Three Ethical Principles

Greatest good for the greatest number

Utilitarianism of people

Individual Fundamental entitlements

Rights in society

Distributive People who are similar should receive

Justice similar benefits

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Influences on Ethical Conduct

 Moral intensity
• degree that issue demands ethical principles
 Ethical sensitivity
• ability to recognize the presence and determine the
relative importance of an ethical issue
 Situational influences
• competitive pressures and other conditions affect
ethical behavior

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Supporting Ethical Behavior

 Ethical code of conduct

 Ethics training

 Ethics hotlines

 Ethical leadership and culture

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