Personality,

Intelligence,
Attitudes, and
Emotions
Michael A. Hitt
C. Chet Miller
Adrienne Colella

5-1
 I Know She’s Smart . . . But . . .
1. What are your thoughts on personality
testing for employment?
2. Should personality traits play a significant
role in the hiring process?
3. Did you have to take a personality test before
Bill Byham
being hired by any of your employers?

Answer the questions

T F

Exploring Behavior in Action 5-2

 Personality, Intelligence,
Attitudes and Emotions
1. Do you agree or disagree with Herb
Kelleher’s statement, “organizations can
Herb Kelleher train people to do only so much; there are
individual differences in people that are
not easily influenced”?
2. How big a role do personality traits play in
a person’s performance at work?

5-3
 Knowledge Objectives
1. Define personality and explain the basic nature of
personality traits.
2. Describe the Big Five personality traits, with
particular emphasis on the relationship with job
performance, success on teams, and job satisfaction.
3. Discuss specific cognitive and motivational concepts
of personality, including locus of control and
achievement motivation.
4. Define intelligence and describe its role in the
workplace.
5. Define an attitude and describe how attitudes are
formed and how they can be changed.
6. Discuss the role of emotions in organizational
behavior.
5-4
 Fundamentals of Personality
A stable set of characteristics representing
internal properties of an individual, which are
reflected in behavioral tendencies across a
variety of situations. Three basic beliefs:
• Relatively enduring
• Major determinants of one’s behavior
• Influence one’s behavior across wide variety of
situations

Not all in agreement. Some believe personalities can

experience changes and we may behave differently
from situation to situation.
5-5
 Determinants of Personality
Development
• Heredity
• Identical twins
• Newborns
• Genetic effects
• Environment
• Social exposures
• Physiological forces
• Socioeconomic factors

5-6
 Big Five Personality Traits

Extraversion Conscientiousness

Personality

Openness to
Agreeableness
Experience

Emotional Stability

Adapted from Exhibit 5-1: The Big Five Personality Traits

5-7
 Big Five and High-
Involvement Management
Manager Competencies E C A ES O
Delegating to others + + - + +
Developing others + (+) ++ + (+)
Motivating others ++ + (+) +
Associate Competencies E C A ES O
Decision-Making Skills + ++ - + +
Self-Development + ++ + + (-)
Self-Management + + (-)
Teamwork + + ++ + +
Adapted from Exhibit 5-2: The Big Five and High Involvement Management 5-8
 Big Five as a Selection Tool
• Can be a useful part of a portfolio of tools
• Provide useful predictions of future job
performance
• Also need to do an in-depth job analysis
• Analysis of which traits support specific job
performance

5-9
 Cognitive and Motivational
Properties of Personality
• Cognitive Properties
• Perceptual and thought processes
• Affect how one typically processes information
• Motivational Properties
• Stable differences
• Energize and maintain overt behaviors

5-10
 Cognitive and Motivational
Properties of Personality
Authoritarianism
Locus of
Control
Self-Monitoring
Cognitive and
Motivational
Concepts

Achievement Approval
Motivation Motivation

Adapted from Exhibit 5-3: Cognitive and Motivational Concepts of Personality 5-11
 Cognitive Concepts

Locus of Control

Authoritarianism

Self-Monitoring

5-12
Motivational Concepts

Achievement
Motivation

Approval
Motivation

5-13
 Cautionary and
Concluding Remarks
• Personality characteristics may change
• People can adjust to situations
• Training can help with personality conflicts
• Focus on “normal” personality characteristics

5-14
 “I Have Ketchup in My
Veins”
• Do you know someone like Patricia Harris?
• What has helped to make her successful at
McDonald’s?
• Do you think more people need to have “passion” for
what they do to be more successful?
• What are your thoughts about the statement, “Patricia
Harris exemplifies what happens when
an individual’s traits, abilities, and
passion line up with the vision of the
organization”?

Experiencing Patricia Harris

5-15
Strategic OB
 Intelligence
General mental ability to develop and understand
concepts, particularly those that are more
abstract and complex.

5-16
 Verbal
Verbal
Comprehension
Comprehension

Number
Number Perceptual
Perceptual
Aptitude
Aptitude Areas of Speed
Speed
Intelligence
Spatial
Spatial
Memory
Memory Visualization
Visualization

Inductive
Inductive Deductive
Deductive
Reasoning
Reasoning Reasoning
Reasoning
5-17
 Intelligence and Success

Military Jobs Civilian Jobs

Adapted from Exhibit 5-4: Intelligence and Success

5-18
 Intelligence and
Intelligence Testing in the
NFL
1. What are your thoughts about the NFL conducting
intelligence tests as well as strengths and agility
tests?
2. The article asks, “Can a player be too smart?” Do you
agree or disagree? Why?
3. Were you surprised by the scores for each position?
4. Were you surprised by some of the scores for other
types of jobs?

Experiencing
5-19
Strategic OB
 Attitudes
A persistent tendency to feel and behave in a
favorable or unfavorable way toward a specific
person, object, or idea.

5-20
 Important Conclusions
• Reasonably stable
• Directed toward some person, object or idea
• Relates to one’s behavior toward that object
or person
• People tend to behave in ways that are
consistent with their feelings
• Behaviors are also influenced by
motivational forces and situational factors

5-21
 Influence of Attitudes on
Behavior
Object, Person, or
Idea

Attitude Toward Object,

Person, or Idea
Behavior Toward
Object, Person, or Idea

Other Influences

Adapted from Exhibit 5-5: Influence of Attitudes on Behavior

5-22
Essential Elements of Attitudes

Cognitive

Affective Behavioral

5-23
Formation of Attitudes

Learning Self-Perceptions

Need for
Consistency

5-24
 Formation of Consistent
Attitudes
Accounting

+ -

Dan - Dan’s new +

colleague
Formation of a
consistent work attitude
Exhibit 5-6: Formation of Consistent Attitudes
5-25
Important Workplace Attitudes

Job Organizational
Satisfaction Commitment

5-26
 Job Satisfaction Outcomes
• Highly positive effect on intentions to stay in
the job
• Modest effect on actually staying in the job
• Modestly positive effect on regular attendance
at work
• Positive effect on performance (may also be
positively affected by performance)
• Moderately strong relationship with motivation

Job
Satisfaction
5-27
 Organizational Commitment
Outcomes
• Positive effects on intentions to stay in the job
• Modest effects on actually staying in the job
and attending work regularly
• Significantly related to motivation
• Positive effects on job performance

Organizational
Commitment

5-28
 Causes
• Role ambiguity
• Supervision/leadership
• Pay and benefits
Job Organizational
• Nature of the job Satisfaction Commitment
• Organization climate
• Stress
• Perceptions of fair treatment

5-29
 Reasons for Commitment
Normative
Commitment

Affective Continuance
Commitment Commitment

5-30
Persuasive Communication
Message Situation

Communicator Target

5-31
Qualities For Attitude Change
• Communicator’s overall credibility
• Trust of the intentions of the
communicator
• Similar interests or goals
• Attractiveness of the communicator
• Sometimes it is the message

5-32
 Fear and Beyond
• Fear arousal often produces more attitude
change
• Other factors also play a role:
• The probability that negative consequences will
occur if no change in behavior is made
• The perceived effect of changing behavior
• The perceived ability to change behavior

5-33
 Cognitive Dissonance
• An uneasy feeling produced when a person
behaves in a manner inconsistent with an
existing attitude
• Three key conditions for change:
• The behavior must be substantially inconsistent
with the attitude
• The inconsistent behavior must cause harm or
have a negative consequence for others
• The inconsistent behavior must be voluntary and
not forced

5-34
 Emotions
Complex subjective reactions that have both a
physical and mental component. Examples
include:

Anger Happiness Anxiety

Pride Contentment Guilt

5-35
 Causal Effects
• Social activity • Job satisfaction
• Altruism and • Motivation
helping behavior • Organizational
• Effective conflict citizenship
resolution behavior
Positive Emotional Contagion – emotions
Emotionsexperienced by one or a few membersNegative
Influence of a group spread to other members. Emotions
Influence
• Aggression against • Job dissatisfaction
co-workers • Decision-making
• Aggression towards • Negotiation
the organization outcomes
• Workplace deviance
Adapted from Exhibit 5-7: The Direct Effects of Emotion
5-36
 Emotional Labor
The process whereby associates must display
emotions that are contrary to what they are
feeling. Can result in stress, emotional
exhaustion, and burnout.
• The manner in which supervisors enforce “display”
rules can influence the harmful nature of emotional
labor
• Strong self-identity associate is less likely to
experience negative effects
• Supportive networks help to mitigate the negative
effects of emotional labor

5-37
 Emotional Intelligence
The ability to accurately appraise and effectively
regulate one’s own and others’ emotions and use
emotion to motivate, plan, and achieve.
Linked to:
• Career success
• Leadership effectiveness
• Managerial performance
• Performance in sales jobs

5-38
 Criticisms
• Not really intelligence but a set of social
skills and personality traits
• Sometimes it is so broadly defined that it is
meaningless

5-39
 Characteristics of High EI
• Self-awareness • Empathy
Managerial
Advice • Self-regulation • Social skill
• Motivation or
drive
• Do you think these skills can be trained?
• Do you believe developing a strong EI is a
lifelong process?
• What are you doing to develop your own
EI?

Daniel Goleman

5-40
 The Strategic Lens
1. Specifically, how can you use knowledge of
personality, attitudes, intelligence, and emotions to
make better hiring decisions?
2. If top executives wanted to implement a strategy that
emphasized innovation and new products (or
services), how could they use knowledge of
personality, attitudes, and emotions to affect the
organization’s culture in ways to enhance innovation?
3. How could a manager use knowledge about
personality and attitudes to form a high-performance
work team?

5-41
Questions

5-42