ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOR

Personality & Emotions

OBJECTIVES
AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER,
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
1. Explain the factors that determine an individual’s
personality.
2. Describe the MBTI personality framework.
LEARNING

3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality

model.
4. Explain the impact of job typology on the
personality/job performance relationship.
5. Differentiate emotions from moods.
6. Contrast felt versus displayed emotions.
O B J E C T I V E S (cont’d)
AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER,
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
7. Read emotions.
8. Explain gender-differences in emotions.
9. Describe external constraints on
emotions.
10. Apply concepts on emotions to OB
LEARNING

issues.
What is Personality?
Personality Traits

Personality
PersonalityDeterminants
Determinants
••Heredity
Heredity
••Environment
Environment
••Situation
Situation
The Myers-Briggs Type

~
Indicator

But I encourage you

to learn more about this

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
• •Extroverted
ExtrovertedororIntroverted
Introverted(E (EororI)I)
• •Sensing
SensingororIntuitive
Intuitive(S
(SororN)
N)
• •Thinking
ThinkingororFeeling
Feeling(T
(TororF)
F)
• •Perceiving
PerceivingororJudging
Judging(P(PororJ)J)
Sixteen
Primary
Traits

~
Interesting
but
The Big Five
Model
I decided YES
Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
Locus of control

Machiavellianism

Self-esteem

Self-monitoring

Propensity for risk taking

Type A personality
Locus of Control
Machiavellianism

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Distracting
Distractingemotions
emotions
Self-Esteem and Self-
Monitoring
Risk-Taking
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.
 Personality Types

Type B personalities may be more creative,

imaginative, and philosophical.
 THE PERSONALITY FACTOR
Faiz Askari on why the personality of an IT
professional is so critical for the hiring
Competing
manager. in the global marketplace, Indian IT
companies are hiring professionals who not only
have sound technical knowledge but the skills of
interacting with global clients. The personality of a
candidate (both lateral and fresh recruits) plays a
very significant role in the selection process. This
personality is not just an indicator of how well a
person looks but his attitude, confidence, the ability
to convince a client or lead a team, etc.
Organizations constantly hold training sessions to
improve the soft skills of their professionals, which
eventually lead to a positive impact on their
personality.
 EVALUATING A CANDIDATE
The personality factor is in fact considered very
important while evaluating any candidate. This is
because of the fact that more and more IT companies
are strengthening their services component. In this
scenario a technical person has to meet and face the
customers. Tarun Singh, Director, Kenexa
Technologies, throws light on the evaluation process,
“Basically evaluating any individual is a very personal
opinion. If three people evaluate a person they might
give opinions which might be very different from one
another.
To tackle this problem, many companies are
adopting a focused hiring procedure. In this,
the HR professional has to keep some fixed
criteria in mind while selecting the right
candidate for any given job.” Singh suggests
the best solution for this problem, “There is
no fixed formulae for selecting the right
candidate which can fit all. There has to be a
customized criterion for every job or
organization. This can be achieved by
observing the top performers of that
particular company and those who were
working for the same kind of job profile.
So before selecting a candidate the
human resource team has to be well
prepared on some basic standards for a
suitable candidate. This can be evolved
by interacting with successful
employees and achievers of that
organization.” Gautam Sinha, CEO, TVA
Infotech, states, “There are a few
aspects which are the primary criteria
for any recruiter while evaluating an
individual for a job. These important
traits include communication abilities,
dressing sense, how one carries oneself,
etiquette, manners and personal
grooming.
These are collectively called the personality
of an individual. So in ground reality the
personality effect is the biggest criteria for
selecting any individual these days.” Sinha
is however quick to add that while
recruiting IT professionals for a technical
position, some employers have sidelined
the personality factor. But at the same time
many IT companies are considering all
these qualities while selecting the technical
staff as well.
 FREQUENT CUSTOMER
INTERACTIONS
Gautam Sinha of TVA Infotech agrees that the importance of
personality in a candidate’s profile is high because these
days most employees have to face their customers, “This is
unlike earlier times when an engineer only had to sit in a
factory and develop the product. Nowadays, the engineer
has to come out of the factory and interact with customers,
deliver them all the support and basically convince them to
buy that product. This is how the trend has evolved and it
will continue to experience such changes in the near future
as well.” Sinha adds that four to five years back the Indian IT
industry was completely dominated by the services sector.
Now many product companies have come to India
and they are basically changing the recruitment
scenario. “Almost 70 percent of the Indian IT
industry is still focused on services while the
remaining 30 percent comprises product
companies.” While the personality factor is
considered very important in some instances not
much priority is given to it, which leads to problems
later. States Tarun Singh of Kenexa Technologies,
“When companies go on a hiring spree and do bulk
recruitment they often sideline this critical factor.
This has often resulted badly for these companies.”
THE RIGHT GROOMING

As per a recent report by Nasscom, the total number of

employees in the Indian IT industry has been estimated
as nearly 1.3 million. Nasscom believes that this
number is expected to grow five times within the next
6-7 years. The industry simultaneously needs well-
qualified and experienced human resources
professionals who can effectively source the manpower
needs of the industry and focus on talent development.
These HR professionals have to be adept at selecting
the right people for the right job to ensure that their
companies can meet global business challenges.
Sangeeta Gupta, Vice-president, Nasscom, throws
light on the growing requirement for right manpower
in the IT industry, “India needs more cutting-edge
educational institutions if it has to keep advancing as
a technology service provider and make the big shift
to high-value for global companies. However, apart
from just producing the right kind of candidates for
the industry, there also has to be a clarity in the
selection procedure of these candidates. This can vary
from one job to another but certain elements like the
personality effect can be taken care of right from the
academic level as well.” Gupta believes that this
requires a change in the education scenario as per the
changing requirements of the IT industry. “There has
to be a more professional approach in the education
sector.
Students while preparing themselves for any
niche industry need to have knowledge of that
industry and clear understanding of the
qualities of an ideal candidate for their target
segment. This includes understanding of proper
grooming required for that job.”
While most IT companies do conduct training
sessions to improve the soft skills requirements
of their professionals the real solution would be
to begin the training right at the education
level.
 selection at Deloitte

 Deloitte, the UK’s fastest-growing major

 business advisory firm, has substantially
 enhanced the speed and efficiency of its
 graduate recruitment process by replacing
 a paper-based psychometric test with
 online verbal and numerical reasoning
 tests from PSL.
 The tests - which are used to sift applicants
 after an initial pre-selection stage - have
 saved Deloitte thousands of hours of
 interview time. This improved process has
 further enhanced the firm’s perception in the
 competitive market for talented graduates.
 Deloitte is the largest recruiter of graduates in the UK private
 sector. Each year, the firm appoints around 1,200 graduates
 and undergraduates - from over 10,000 applicants - to work
 in the 21 service lines within its tax, audit, consulting and
 corporate finance businesses.
 To meet the challenge of sifting such a huge volume of
 applications, Deloitte has integrated online verbal and
 numerical reasoning tests into its graduate selection process.
 The firm was previously using a paper-based, 90-minute verbal
 and numerical reasoning test. Eligible candidates would come
 into the office to which they were applying to sit this test and
 to be interviewed by a line manager.
 “We needed to find a more effective approach as this was a
 very time-consuming process,” said Sally Whitman, a Senior
 Manager in the Graduate Recruitment team at Deloitte. “The
 answer was to introduce online testing. This has enabled us
 to cut down the number of interviews we were undertaking as
 now our line managers only see candidates who have already
 passed the psychometric tests. There’s a great benefit for the
 candidates too as they can sit the tests in their own time,
 without any need to travel.”
 Having made the decision to move to online testing, Deloitte
 short-listed PSL and another online test provider.
 “We chose PSL because we could brand the tests with the
 Deloitte logo, to make them a seamless part of our application
 process, and we had confidence in the reliability of their test
administration system,” said Sally Whitman.
 EVALUATING KEY SKILLS

 The two tests assess a candidate’s ability to understand and

 interpret complex, verbally-presented descriptions and to
 analyse financial data. Together, they take approximately 70
 minutes to complete.
 “These online tests are more sophisticated than paperbased
 tests because they use item-banked technology and
 randomisation to reduce the risk of overexposure or cheating,”
 said Sally Whitman.
 Item-banked tests feature a huge library of available questions.
 Each candidate is given a random sample of questions, all of
 which have the same degree of difficulty. The chances of any
 two candidates getting the same test are several million to
 one, yet the candidates’ scores can all be compared equally.
 PSL provided Level A and B training for one of Deloitte’s
 graduate recruitment administrators and it worked closely
 with the firm to automate the whole process of testing.
 SELECTION PROCEDURE

Graduates now apply online throughout the year.

The academic
requirements include a 2.1 degree and 300 UCAS
tariff points
at A-level. Candidates who meet these needs - and
have other
attributes such as good work experience and career
motivation
- are invited by e-mail to complete the verbal and
numerical reasoning tests online. The combined
result from the tests is then posted back into
Deloitte’s online application system.
 “Our research shows that the verbal and numerical reasoning
 tests provide evidence of ability and likely performance in the
 job and performance in professional Chartered Accountant
 qualifications,” said Sally Whitman. “We’re conducting more
 research in this area but already we’ve seen a high correlation
 between a candidate’s score in the test and their score in
 professional exams. Online testing has also saved us money
 because we’re able to screen candidates prior to inviting them
 in for an interview.”
 Candidates who achieve the benchmark score in the tests are
 invited to a competency-based interview with a manager from
 their chosen service line.
 “In total, we sift out around 60 per cent of applicants through
 our pre-selection stage, the remaining 40 per cent are invited
 to sit the tests,” said Sally Whitman. “From these, about 30
 per cent are then rejected and the remainder are invited in for
 a first interview. At the interview stage, we’re looking for all-rounder who meet our
11 competencies, which include
 commercial awareness, problem solving and judgment skills.”
 Those who impress at the first interview are invited to a final
 assessment day, where they undertake a work simulation, a
 written exercise and a role play exercise before having an interview with a partner
of the firm. A random sample of candidates are selected to complete paper-based
versions of PSL’s verbal and numerical reasoning tests, as a confirmatory check.
 The successful candidates usually start at Deloitte either in
September or October.
 SUSTAINING GROWTH
 Deloitte is already renowned in the marketplace for its
 capabilities and the quality of its client service. The firm
 believes that its ability to recruit talented graduates will be a
 key factor in sustaining its growth.
 “Our current and future success depends on attracting and
 retaining the most able people in our profession,” said Sally
 Whitman. “The market for talented graduates is very
 competitive, so we need to ensure our selection process is
 fast and efficient. PSL’s online tests help us to concentrate
 on the candidates who have got what it takes to be successful.”

Deloitte & Touche LLP employs around 9,500 staff in 21 offices in the UK. It is
a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a
leading professional services organisation which operates in 140 countries.
Weblink: www.deloitte.co.uk
Emotions- Why Emotions
Were Ignored in OB
The “myth of rationality”
Organizations are not emotion-free.
Emotions of any kind are disruptive to
organizations.
Original OB focus was solely on the effects of
strong negative emotions that interfered with
individual and organizational efficiency.
What Are Emotions?

Affect
A broad range of emotions that
people experience.

Emotions Moods
Intense feelings that are Feelings that tend to be
directed at someone or less intense than emotions
something. and that lack a contextual
stimulus.
Felt versus Displayed
Emotions
Emotion Dimensions
Variety of emotions
Positive
Negative
Intensity of emotions
Personality
Job Requirements
Frequency and duration of emotions
How often emotions are exhibited.
How long emotions are displayed.
Facial Expressions Convey
Emotions
Emotion Continuum
The closer any two emotions are to each
other on the continuum, the more likely
people are to confuse them.
Gender and Emotions
Women
Can show greater emotional expression.
Experience emotions more intensely.
Display emotions more frequently.
Are more comfortable in expressing emotions.
Are better at reading others’ emotions.
Men
Believe that displaying emotions is
inconsistent with the male image.
Are innately less able to read and to identify
with others’ emotions.
Have less need to seek social approval by
showing positive emotions.
External Constraints on
Emotions

Organizational Cultural
Influences Influences

Individual
Individual
Emotions
Emotions
OB Applications of
Understanding Emotions
Ability and Selection
Emotions affect employee effectiveness.
Decision Making
Emotions are an important part of the
decision-making process in organizations.
Motivation
Emotional commitment to work and high
motivation are strongly linked.
Leadership
Emotions are important to acceptance of
messages from organizational leaders.
OB Applications of
Understanding Emotions
Interpersonal Conflict
Conflict in the workplace and individual
emotions are strongly intertwined.
Deviant Workplace Behaviors
Negative emotions can lead to employee
deviance in the form of actions that
violate established norms and threaten
the organization and its members.
 Productivity failures
 Property theft and destruction
 Political actions
 Personal aggression
Ability and Selection

Emotional

EmotionalIntelligence
Intelligence(EI)
(EI)
Self-awareness

Self-awareness
Self-management

Self-management
Self-motivation

Self-motivation
Empathy

Empathy
Social

Social skills
skills
Research

ResearchFindings
Findings
Compare your best High

High EI
EI scores,
scores, not
not high
high
manager with your IQ
IQ scores,
scores, characterize
characterize
worst one. high
high performers.
performers.
(ss)
 ~
Personality Types
Achieving Personality-Job Fit

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
••Realistic
Realistic
••Investigative
Investigative
••Social
Social
••Conventional
Conventional
••Enterprising
Enterprising
••Artistic
Artistic
 Holland’s
Typology of
Personality
and
Congruent
Occupations
 among
Occupati
onal
Personali
ty Types
What Are Emotions? (cont’d)