ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

INDRANIL MUTSUDDI
What is Personality?
Personality Traits

Personality Determinants
• Heredity
• Environment
• Situation
Nature of Personality
 Personality refers to the set of traits & behaviors that
characterize an individual.
 It refers to the relatively stable pattern of behavior &
consistent internal state & explains an individual’s
behavioral tendencies.
 Personality has both internal (thoughts, values &
genetic characteristics that is inferred from observable
behaviors) & external (observable behaviors)
elements.
 Personality of an individual is relatively stable in
nature.
 Personality is both inherited as well as it can be
shaped by the environment.
 Importance of Personality in OB

 Law of Behavior: “People are different”

 To ensure high performing employees in an
organization.
 To manage workforce diversity.
 Summarizing person’s behaviors & attitudes
in relation to a wide range of events.
 Personality consists of characteristics or
traits that describe how people are likely to
behave in a given situation.
Importance of Personality in OB

 Personality is useful in predicting &

understanding the general feelings,
thoughts and behaviors of individuals at the
workplace.
 Contribution of various personality theories.
 Determinants of
Personality

Heredity Environment

Nature: It advocates that Nurture: It advocates argue that

Part of personality finds its personality finds its basis in
Origins in biology (heredity) Life experiences (early life mostly)
Self Esteem

It can be described as how we perceive ourselves

in terms of our abilities, competencies & effectiveness
Organization-based
Self Esteem
 Theories of Personality

Type Theory:
Humanistic
• Introverts Trait Theory
Theory
• Extroverts

Personality Theories

Psycho-analytic
Social Learning
Theory
Theory
(Sigmund Freud)
 Levels of Consciousness depicted
by Psychoanalytic Theory

Ego Conscious Id:

It refers exclusively to the
Unconscious innate component personality
which is inherited by birth.

Ego:
Superego

It develops out of the id because

of the necessity for dealing with
the real world.
Id

Super-Ego:
It represents the internalized
representation of values &
morals of the society as taught
by our parents & others.
 The Shaping of Personality
Stages of
Personality

Freudian Erickson’s John Piaget Chris Argyris

Stages Stages Stages Stages

• Infancy
• Immature
• Childhood
• Oral Stage • Sensorimotor • Maturity
• Play age
• Anal Stage • Preoperational
• School age
• Phalic Stage • Concrete
• Puberty
• Latency Stage Operational
• Young Adults
• Genital Stage • Formal
• Middle Adult
Operational
• late Adult
Late Adult
 Determinants of Personality

Heredity Environment Family

Personality

Social Situational
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Personality Types
• Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
• Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
• Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
• Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
Sixteen
Primary
Traits
used for
MBTI
The Big Five
Model
 Personality Structure (The “Big Five” Traits)
Characteristics of a person
Dimension Scoring +vely on the dimension

Extroversion Outgoing, Talkative, Sociable,

Assertive

Trusting, good natured,

Agreeableness
Cooperative, softhearted

Dependable, responsible,
Conscientiousness
Achievement-oriented

Emotional Stability Relaxed, Secure, Unworried

Openness to Sensitive, Intellectual,

Experience Imaginative, Broadminded
 Other Personality types

Achievement
Authoritative Orientation

Self Esteem
Locus of
Personality Traits
Control

Risk taking
Machiavellianism

Self-Monitoring
Introverts/
Extroverts
Type A & B
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 Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction
• Minimal rules and regulations
• Distracting 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.
Culture Defined…
 Culture may be defined as how a society
perceives the world & how should it
operate.

 It includes the values, beliefs, attitudes &

expectations for the behavior that the
society believes to be good, effective,
desirable & beneficial.
Importance of Cultural Awareness to
Managers
 Catering / managing workforce diversity
 Managing cross-cultural differences.
 Ensure cross-cultural assimilation
 Managing a Global workforce.
 Meeting the challenges of expatriation &
repatriation.
Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions of Cultural
Differences
 Individualism-Collectivism
 Power Distance
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Masculinity-femininity
 Time orientation
Power Distance
 “The power distance between a boss B and a
subordinate S in a hierarchy is the difference
between the extent to which B can determine
the behavior of S and the extent to which S
can determine the behavior of B.”

 It is the acceptance of large differences in

power b/w the most powerful & the least
powerful in a society.
Individualism-Collectivism
 It is the degree to which individuals in a
society prefer to act as individuals, as
opposed to a group.
 In this type of culture people prefer to work
alone & to depend on others only to the
extent that is necessary.
Uncertainty-Avoidance
 It is the degree to which cultures differ in
the extent to which they tolerate
uncertainty.

 People who belong to this culture are

uncomfortable in situations where
alternatives & outcomes are not well
defined, and thus develop rules that
address nearly every facet of their
behavior.
Masculinity-Femininity
 It is the degree to which a society displays
mostly traditionally male or traditionally
female traits.

 These terms generally depict individuals

who are “macho” or who display strong
maternal instincts.
Time Orientation
 It is the degree to which cultures possess a
short or long perspective on time.

 Long-term cultures place much greater

value on their history & their traditions.

 Short-term cultures tend to support

behaviors that often have negative
connotations-instant gratification, failure to
plan for retirement, low savings etc.
Personality Types
Personality Types
Achieving Personality-Job Fit

Personality Types
• Realistic
• Investigative
• Social
• Conventional
• Enterprising
• Artistic
 Holland’s
Typology of
Personality
and
Congruent
Occupations
Relationships
among
Occupational
Personality
Types
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
something. emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus.
What Are Emotions? (cont’d)
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
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
Intelligence (EI)
 Self-awareness
 Self-management

 Self-motivation

 Empathy

 Social skills

 Research Findings
 High EI scores, not
high IQ scores,
characterize high
performers.
 Steps Leading To Successful
Organizational Socialization
New recruits
placed in high
morale groups
Relaxed
orientation
program
Socialization
by a good
supervisor
Timely/
consistent
feedback
Relevant
training

Challenging
first job