Characteristics of Personality

The term personality is used in various senses.

Generally, it is used to indicate the external outlook of an individual. In philosophy, it

means internal quality.

But in social psychology, the term personality indicates-neither the external or outward
pattern nor does it indicate the internal quality. It means an integrated whole. In the
modem world and psychology, it has come to indicate the sum total of an individual’s
characteristics and qualities.

Various thinkers, social psychologists, and others have defined personality in various ways.
It is a sum of physical, mental and social qualities in an integrated manner.

Thus, personality is the sum of the ideas, attitudes, and values of a person which
determine his role in society and form an integral part of his character. Personality is
acquired by the individual as a result of his participation in group life. It refers to
something much more essential and enduring about a person.

Beyond this basic point of agreement, personality has other characteristics or features in

common.

 Personality is something which is unique in each individual.

 Personality refers particularly to the persistent qualities of an individual.

 Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to the environment.

 Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions.

 Personality represents a unique organization of persistent dynamic and social

predisposition.

 Consistency.

 Psychological and physiological.

 It impacts behaviors and actions.

 Multiple expressions.
Personality is something which is unique in each individual
Personality refers to internal as well as external qualities, some of which are quite general.
But it is unique to each individual. It is not possible for a person to reproduce or imitate
the qualities of the personality of another person.

Personality refers particularly to persistent qualities of an

individual
Every individual has a certain feeling as well as other permanent traits and qualities.

Personality is mainly composed of the persistent or permanent qualities that exhibit

themselves in form of social behavior and attempt to make an adjustment with the
environment.

Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to

the environment
Personality represents the process of learning. It takes place in reference to the
environment. We do not acquire all the traits of personality at once.

Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions

Personality is not an individual quality. It is a result of social- interaction.

In other words, it means that when we come in contact with other members of society, we
acquire certain qualities while We exhibit certain others. All these come to form
personality.

Personality represents a unique organization of persistent

dynamic and social predisposition
In personality, various qualities are not put together.

They are, in fact, integrated into one. This integration is nothing but a result of
organization which may be different from man to man. The behavior of a person directed
to one particular individual may differ from the behavior of another person.
That is why; we put the condition of a suitable environment. This suitability is concerned
with individual specificity.

Consistency
There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially, people act
in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations.

Psychological and physiological

Personality is a psychological construct, but research suggests that it is also influenced by
biological processes and needs.

It impacts behaviors and actions

Personality does not just influence how we move and respond in our environment; it also
causes us to act in certain ways.

Multiple expressions
Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can also be seen in our thoughts,
feelings, close relationships, and other social interactions.

Actually, personality is the unique combination of patterns that influence behavior,

thought, motivation, and emotion in a human being. There are many approaches to the
modem psychological study of personality, including the psychodynamic, learning,
humanistic, biological, trait, and cultural perspectives.

It can be described as how a person affects others, how he understands, and views himself,
and his pattern of inner and outer measurable traits. It encompasses the relatively stable
feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns a person has.

In fact, our personality changes over long periods of time.

Features of classical conditioning

1. Neutral Stimulus (NS)
Any environmental stimulus that dos not naturally produce a behavioural response.
2. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Produces a natural unlearned behavioural response.
3. Unconditioned Response (UCR)
 Response that occurs naturally without learning to do so.
4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
A stimulus that has been associated with a UCS so that it now produces the same
response as the UCS on its own.
5. Conditioned Response (CR)
A learnt behaviour that is shown in response to a learnt CS.
6. Extinction
Weakening the link between NS/CS and UCS so that association longer exists.
7. Spontaneous Recovery
Behaviours may be dormant rather than permanently unlearned.
8. Stimulus Generalisation
Associations to any stimulus that closely resembles conditioning stimulus.

12). Distortion in Perception:

Distortion in perception results in creating communication gap. It is a serious
barrier to communication and a reason for communication failure. H Joseph
Reitz has rightly pointed out that “communication may fail because the
communicate perceptually ready to receive certain communication actually
receives different communication.

“A halo effect also creates a distortion. It refers to perceiving people as good or

bad or influential. Prof. K Aswathappa has observed, “A common phenomenon in
communication is the tendency for a receiver to evaluate information on the basis
of its source.

Information emanating from a VIP tends to be overrated and the same coming
from an ordinary individual is likely to be discounted.” The perceiver’s
personality, his values, needs and attitudes, environment in organisation etc.
influence perception.

Managers must therefore understand the importance of perception in

organisational behaviour and its effects on communication. They should realize
the existence of perceptual differences at any time and in any given situation.
They must be aware of all this and should confirm and seek information from
various sources to make decisions.
Transactional Analysis (TA)
Transactional Analysis is a theory developed by Dr. Eric Berne in the 1950s. Transactional Analysis is a
social psychology and a method to improve communication. The theory outlines how we have
developed and treat ourselves, how we relate and communicate with others, and offers suggestions
and interventions which will enable us to change and grow. Transactional Analysis is underpinned by
the philosophy that:
• People can change
• We all have a right to be in the world and be accepted
Transactional Analysis (TA) is a personality and psychotherapy for personal growth. It has wide
applications in organisations. A transaction consists of a transactional stimulus (TS) and a
transactional response (TR). TS is the behaviour (verbal or nonverbal) produced by one person in
acknowledgement of the presence of others when two or more people encounter each other. TR is
the response to TS by another person.
It is beneficial to study TA as it has received great popularity and a wide appeal because on a well
developed psychoanalytical theoretical base and it uses very simple, understandable, everyday
terminology.
Transactional Analysis involves the analysis of ego-states; analysis of transactions, life-positions

1. Ego States:
It represents a person’s way of thinking, feeling and behaving. There are three
ego states present in everyone: child, parent and adult. They are related to
behaviour of a person and not his age. However, they are present in every person
in varying degrees. There may be more of one ego state than another at a specific
point of time. When two persons communicate with each other, communication
is affected by their ego states. These are;

(a) Child ego:
Child behaviour reflects a person’s response to communicate in the form of joy,
sorrow, frustration or curiosity. These are the natural feelings that people learn as
children. It reflects immediate action and immediate satisfaction. It reflects
childhood experience of a person gained generally up to the age of five years.

A child can be:

(i) Natural child:
He is naturally curious, joyous or scornful. He does what comes his way naturally.

(ii) Adaptive child:
He reacts the way his parents want him to react. He is trained to act.

(iii)Rebellious child:
He has the experience of fear, frustration and anger.

(b) Parent Ego:

Parent behaviour is acquired through external environment. As young children,
their parents’ behaviour remains embedded in their minds which is reflected as
parental ego when they grow up. It usually reflects protection, displeasure,
reference to rules and working on the basis of past precedents.

This can be:

(i) Nurturing parent ego:
As nurturing parents, managers praise good performance of the workers. They
interact with them and help them during times of distress. They reflect nurturing
behaviour towards others.

(ii) Negative or critical parent ego:

As critical parents, managers criticize or ignore poor performance of the workers
rather than help them to improve. They have a critical attitude while interacting
with others.

(c) Adult ego:
Adult behaviour reflects the ability to analyse the situation and take logical
decisions. He overcomes the emotional feelings and takes decisions based on
facts and figures. This state is based upon reasoning, thinking, experience,
rationality and discussion based on facts.

It updates the parental ego to determine what is right and wrong and child ego to
determine what feelings to express and what not to express. These ego states are
present in all human beings at some time or the other. People respond to
different situations in different ways depending on their ego state.

2. Life Position:
Behaviour of a person depends upon his experience at different stages of his life.
He develops a philosophy towards work from early childhood which becomes
part of his identity and remains with him for lifetime unless some external factor
changes it. These positions are called life time positions.
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They fall into four categories:

(a) I am OK, You are OK.

(b) I am OK, You are not OK.

(c) I am not OK, You are OK.

(d) I am not OK, You are not OK.

(a) I am OK, You are OK:

This life position represents adult ego of a person. It becomes the philosophy of a
person who has good and positive experiences with others. They feel confident
about themselves and others. Managers with this life position believe in give and
take. They are competent to take decisions and also allow others to participate in
the decision-making processes. They delegate authority and express confidence
and consistency in others. They are not threatened by others and express freely
what they want to express.

(b) I am OK, You are not OK:

This life position represents parent ego of a person who is brought up as a
rebellious child. They have critical attitude towards others. They believe whatever
they do is right and blame others for their wrong acts. This usually happens when
a person is ignored as a child.

Managers with this life position have critical attitude towards others. They find
faults with others and lack trust, faith and confidence in them. They believe
whatever they do is right and, therefore, do not delegate tasks to others.

(c) lam not OK, You are OK:

This life position represents a state of distrust in the person himself. He lacks
confidence in whatever he does. He believes he cannot do things that people
around him can do and, therefore, keeps grumbling most of the times about
something or the other.

Managers with this life position are usually not good managers. They do not
perform well, have an erratic behaviour, feel guilty for their acts and often use
excuses to act against others.

(d) I am not OK, You are not OK:

This life position represents a desperate state of persons who have lost interest in
life. They have been brought up as neglected children and, therefore, have
negative attitude towards life. In extreme situations, they may even commit
suicide. Managers with this life position do not believe in themselves and others.
They make mistakes in work, do not make proper decisions and also do not
believe in decisions made by others.

One of these life positions dominates every person at a point of time. The
optimum position is ‘I am OK, You are OK where a person believes in himself and
others. It represents an adult- adult transaction and a psychologically matured
state of mind. This position can be achieved through education and managers
should try to reach this stage through training and development programmes in
their interest and interest of the organisation.

3. Analysis of Transactions:
When two persons interact or communicate with each other, there is a
transaction between them. While transacting, both of them are at different ego
states.

Based on the ego states, two types of transactions can take place:
(a) Complementary and

(b) Crossed.

(a) In complementary transactions, sender of information gets an expected

response from the receiver.

People get expected response from each other because both are in the expected
ego states. Both are, therefore, satisfied and communication is complete. In
complementary transactions, ego states of two persons are parallel to each other.
Stimulus and response patterns are as predicted.

There can be nine types of complementary transactions:

adult – adult Parent – parent child – child

adult – parent Parent – child child – parent

adult – child Parent – adult child – adult

(b) In crossed transactions, sender gets unexpected response from the receiver
which obstructs the process of communication. Stimulus – response lines are not
parallel in these transactions. Rather, they cross each other. The person who
initiates the transaction or creates a stimulus gets a response he does not expect.
If manager acts as adult but the employee responses as child, the communication
process will get blocked. Either the manager will come down to the level of child
or try to make the employee behave as an adult so that communication is
resumed.

What is Motivation ?
Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals.
It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological
factors stimulating the people’s behaviour can be -

 desire for money

 success
 recognition
 job-satisfaction
 team work, etc

One of the most important functions of management is to create willingness amongst the employees to perform in the best
of their abilities. Therefore the role of a leader is to arouse interest in performance of employees in their jobs. The process
of motivation consists of three stages:-

1. A felt need or drive

2. A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused
3. When needs are satisfied, the satisfaction or accomplishment of goals.

Therefore, we can say that motivation is a psychological phenomenon which means needs and wants of the individuals
have to be tackled by framing an incentive plan.

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of

Motivation
In 1959, Frederick Herzberg, a behavioural scientist proposed a two-factor theory or the motivator-hygiene theory.
According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that result in satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent
dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of “Satisfaction” is “No satisfaction” and the opposite of
“Dissatisfaction” is “No Dissatisfaction”.

FIGURE: Herzberg’s view of satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Herzberg classified these job factors into two categories-

a. Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are essential for existence of motivation at
workplace. These do not lead to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if these factors are absent / if these factors
are non-existant at workplace, then they lead to dissatisfaction. In other words, hygiene factors are those factors
which when adequate/reasonable in a job, pacify the employees and do not make them dissatisfied. These factors
are extrinsic to work. Hygiene factors are also called as dissatisfiers or maintenance factors as they are
required to avoid dissatisfaction. These factors describe the job environment/scenario. The hygiene factors
symbolized the physiological needs which the individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled. Hygiene factors
include:
 Pay - The pay or salary structure should be 
appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and
competitive to those in the same industry in the same
domain.
 Company Policies and administrative policies - The
company policies should not be too rigid. They should be
fair and clear. It should include flexible working hours,
dress code, breaks, vacation, etc.
 Fringe benefits - The employees should be offered
health care plans (mediclaim), benefits for the family
members, employee help programmes, etc.
 Physical Working conditions - The working
conditions should be safe, clean and hygienic. The work
equipments should be updated and well-maintained.
 Status - The employees’ status within the
organization should be familiar and retained.
 Interpersonal relations - The relationship of the
employees with his peers, superiors and subordinates
should be appropriate and acceptable. There should be no
conflict or humiliation element present.
 Job Security - The organization must provide job
security to the employees.

b. Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be regarded as motivators. The
motivational factors yield positive satisfaction. These factors are inherent to work. These factors motivate the
employees for a superior performance. These factors are called satisfiers. These are factors involved in
performing the job. Employees find these factors intrinsically rewarding. The motivators symbolized the
psychological needs that were perceived as an additional benefit. Motivational factors include:
 Recognition - The employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by the
managers.
 Sense of achievement - The employees must have a sense of achievement. This depends on the job.
There must be a fruit of some sort in the job.
 Growth and promotional opportunities - There must be growth and advancement opportunities in an
organization to motivate the employees to perform well.
 Responsibility - The employees must hold themselves responsible for the work. The managers should
give them ownership of the work. They should minimize control but retain accountability.
 Meaningfulness of the work - The work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for the
employee to perform and to get motivated.

The Four Stats

In a general sense, there are four states an organization or team can find themselves in
when it comes to Two Factor Theory.
 1. High Hygiene and High Motivation
This is the ideal situation and the one which every manager should strive for. Here, all
employees are motivated and have very few grievances.

2. High Hygiene and Low Motivation

In this situation, employees have few grievances but they are not highly motivated. An
example of this situation is where pay and working conditions are competitive but the
work isn’t very interesting. Employees are simply there to collect their salary.

3. Low Hygiene and High Motivation

In this situation, employees are highly motivated but they have a lot of grievances. A typical example of this
situation is where the work is exciting and really interesting but the pay and conditions are behind competitors
in the same industry.

4. Low Hygiene and Low Motivation

This is obviously a bad situation for an organization or team to find itself in. Here,
employees aren’t motivated and the hygiene factors are not up to scratch.

Limitations of the Theory

Some common criticisms of Herzberg’s Motivation Theory include:
 The theory only applies to white collar workers.

 It doesn’t take an individuals situation or perception into consideration. We have

attempted to address this above by applying the theory at an individual level.

 The theory focuses on improving employee satisfaction. That doesn’t necessarily

translate into increased productivity.

 There is no objective way to measure employee satisfaction within the theory.

 Two Factor Theory is subject to bias. For example, when an employee is satisfied
they will give themselves credit for that satisfaction. Conversely, when they are
dissatisfied they will blame external factors.

Meaning/Concept of Learning in Organizational Behavior (OB)

Learning is natural act of living creature in which each change personality, performance and behavior. It is the
process of acquiring new knowledge, skills and values which relatively changes the behavior of individual. In
organization, various people with varieties of skills, knowledge and perception need to work jointly. They learn from
each other. Managers, supervisors, lower level employees and even organization should learn. Learning is usually a
need based activity. Learning is relatively permanent change in human behavior which can be measured. People can
learn through formal or informal programs. In organizational behavior, it is taken as vital process as without learning
people resist changes in the organization. This means, to make employees ready to change, learning is essential.

In conclusion, learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, skills or technique through experience, practice or
instruction. It changes behavior of individual more permanently. Managers in organization, concern regarding the
tendency of individual for learning new knowledge and skills so that they can easily accept any changes in
organization. It can be planned or unplanned. Productivity, profitability, quality of work life, modified attitude,
acceptable behavior, readiness to change, etc. are consequence of learning. Learning ensures that employees
behave, react or respond positively and more formally as per expectation.

Significance or importance of learning in OB

Learning has strategic importance in every organization as it directly related to their survival and prosperity. It is not
only important to organization, but equally important to individual as it also serves personal growth. For people,
learning changes the behavioral orientations such as knowledge, skills, values, personality and competency. In
organizational setting, importance of learning can be justified with the following reasons:
1. Helps to understand and predict human behavior at work
Different roles, skills, and knowledge in the organization are acquired through learning. Managerial skills such as
technical, human and conceptual are, however, learned and these skills are paramount for understanding and
predicting behaviors of subordinates. Learning is essential to understand how other people behave in organization.
This is equally important to middle level and operating level employees.
2. Helps to manage diversity
Diversity in human resources in terms of their gender, socio-economic background, social and national culture,
physical abilities, level of skills and knowledge, etc. The issue of diversity has emerged in political as well as legal
concern. Such diversities in people at work place create differences in their needs, attitudes, level of motivation and
workplace behaviors. Such diversities are most essential to manage to increase productivity or organization and
morale of employee. For this, learning is initiated to the managers and workers through training.

3. Helps to adapt changing technology

Frequently changing technology has not only changed the processing of converting input into output but also has
affected the patterns of industrial relations. This is being one of the vital sources for resistivity to change. To work
with a new technology, we need to learn new skills. Similarly, it is necessary to redefine workplace relations along
with decentralization in work system, telecommuting, and virtual teams. Learning is important to manage
knowledge workers, computer programmers, computer scientists and other processional workers in organizational
settings. Learning boosts up the level of confidence of employees to adapt change. Thus, to initiate change, learning
is essential.
4. Helps to maintain TQM
The objective of TQM can be achieved only by involving people concerned with quality management which is
possible through adapting new knowledge continuously. In the process of implementing TQM, the role of leader is
dominant to involve employees and enhance their sense of ownership and commitment at work. Moreover, in the
process of implementing TQM and work processes successfully, behavioral dimensions such as leadership
behavior, workplace decentralization, group dynamics, empowerment, communication and interpersonal relations
are to be properly implemented. All these things are possible through learning.
5. Facilities organizational change and development
Learning facilitates organizational change and development. Some of these forces for organizational change and
development are globalization, technology and demographics. Such change compel managers to reconfigure
organizations processes. Technological changes in transportation and telecommunication have change job
responsibilities and authority. Learning and understanding of such forces will help managers to enhance
commitment. Learning is also important for managing planned changes (organizational development) in the
organization.

By definition, a discipline is an accepted science that is based on a theoretical foundation.

But, OB has a multi-interdisciplinary orientation and is, thus, not based on a specific
theoretical background.

Therefore, it is better to reason to call OB a separate field of study rather than a discipline
only.

why ob is a field of study and not discipline?

Organizational Behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals,groups and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectiveness.
An organization is a collection of people who work together to achieve a wide
variety of goals, both goals of the various individuals in the organization and
goals of the organization as a whole. Organizations exist to provide goods and
services that people want. These goods and services are the products of the
behaviors of workers.
DEFINITION FROM NOTES
Organisational behaviour is an interdisciplinary approach as it has borrowed
concepts, theories, models and practices of physical sciences as well as social
sciences. The main features of organisational behaviour are primarily based on
behavioural sciences. The organisational behaviour is studied in relation to
psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, economics, science,
technology and environmental sciences. OB is, in fact, called an applied
behavioural science.

The relationship of OB with other fields of study is depicted in the

following diagram:
Determinants of Personality in Organisational behaviour
 What determines personality? Of all the complexities and unanswered questions in the study of human
behaviour, this question may be the most difficult. People are enormously complex; their abilities and
interests and attitudes are diverse. An early argument inpersonality research was whether an individual's
personality was the result of heredity or environment. Was the personality predetermined at birth, or was it
the result of the individual's interaction with his or her environment? Personality appears to be a result of
both influences. Additionally, today we recognize another factor - the situation. The problem lies in the
fact the cognitive and psychological processes, plus many other variables, all contribute to personality.
The determinants of personality can perhaps best be grouped in five broad categories: biological, cultural,
family, social and situational.

Biological determinants of Personality Development

The biological determinants of personality development are

Biological Factors
The study of the biological contributions to personality may be studied under three heads:

a. Heredity:  Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.

Physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy
level, and biological rhythms are characteristics that are considered to be inherent from one’s parents.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual's personality is the
molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.

Research on animals has showed that both physical and psychological characteristics can be
transmitted through heredity. But research on human beings is in adequate to support this view point.
However, psychologists and geneticists have accepted the fact that heredity plays an important role in
one's personality.

b. Brain:  The second biological approach is to concentrate on the role that the brain plays in personality.
Though researchers make some promising inroads, the psychologists are unable to prove empirically the
contribution of human brain in influencing personality. The most recent and exciting possibilities come from
the work done with electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) and split-brain psychology.

Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research give indication that better
understanding of human personality and behaviour might come from the study of the brain. Work with
ESB on human subjects is just beginning.

There seem to be definite pleasurable and painful areas in the human brain. This being true, it may be
possible physically to manipulate personality through ESB.
c. Biofeedback:  Until recently, physiologists and psychologists felt that certain biological functions such
as brainwave patterns, gastric secretions, and fluctuations in blood pressure and skin temperature were
beyond conscious control. Now some scientists believe that these involuntary functions can be consciously
controlled through biofeedback. In BFT the individual learns the internal rhythm of a particular body process
through electronic signals feedback from equipment that is wired to the body area. From this biofeedback
the person can learn to control the body processin question. More research is needed on biofeedback
before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. But its potential impact could be extremely interesting for
the future.
d. Physical features:  A vital ingredient of the personality, an individual's external appearance, is
biologically determined. The fact that a person is tall or short, fat or skinny, black or white will influence the
person's effect on others and this in turn, will affect the self-concept. Practically all would agree that
physical characteristics have at least some influence on the personality. According to Paul H Mussen "a
child's physical characteristics may be related to his approach to the social environment, to the
expectancies of others, and to their reactions to him. These, inturn, may have impacts on personality
development".

Personality Determinants in Organisational behaviour

If personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at birth and no
amount of experience could alter them. But personality characteristics are not completely dictated by
heredity. There are other factors, which also influence personality.

Cultural Factors
Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality formation are the culture in which we are
raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends and social groups and other influences
we experience. Traditionally, cultural factors are usually considered to make a more significant
contribution to personality than biological factors.

The culture largely determines attributes toward independence, aggression, competition, and cooperation.
According to Paul H Mussen "each culture expects, and trains, its members to behave in the ways that are
acceptable to the group. To a marked degree, the child's cultural group defines the range of experiences
and situations he is likely to encounter and the values and personality characteristics that will be
reinforced and hence learned". Culture requires both conformity and acceptance from its members.

There are several ways of ensuring that members comply with the dictates of the culture.

The personality of an individual to a marked extent is determined by the culture in which he or she is
brought up. It follows that a person reared in a western culture has a different personality from a person
reared in our Indian culture.

Family Factors
 Whereas the culture generally prescribes and limits what a person can be taught, it is the family, and later
the social group, which selects, interprets and dispenses the culture. Thus, the family probably has the
most significant impact on early personality development.

A substantial amount of empirical evidence indicates that the overall home environment created by the
parents, in addition to their direct influence, is critical to personality development. For example, children
reared in a cold, un stimulating home are much more likely to be socially and emotionally Mal adjusted
than children rose by parents in a warm, loving and stimulating environment.

The parents play an especially important part in the identification process, which is important to the
person's early development. According to Mischel, the process can be examined from three different
perspectives.

i. Identification can be viewed as the similarity of behaviour including feelings and attitudes between
child and model.
ii. Identification can be looked at as the child's motives or desires to be like the model.
iii. It can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes of the model.

From all three perspectives, the identification process is fundamental to the understanding of personality
development. The home environment also influences the personality of an individual. Siblings (brothers
and sisters) also contribute to personality.

Social Factors
There is increasing recognition given to the role of other relevant persons, groups and especially
organizations, which greatly influence an individual's personality. This is commonly called the
socialization process. Socialization involves the process by which a person acquires, from the
enormously wide range of behavioural potentialities that are open to him or her. Socialization starts with
the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. After infancy, other members of the immediate
family – father, brothers, sisters and close relatives or friends, then the social group – peers, school
friends and members of the work group, play influential roles.

Socialization process is especially relevant to organizational behaviour because the process is not
confined to early childhood, taking place rather throughout one's life. In particular, evidence is
accumulating that socialization may be one of the best explanations for why employees be have the way
they do in today's organizations.

Situational Factors
Human personality is also influenced by situational factors. The effect of environment is quite strong.
Knowledge, skill and language are obviously acquired and represent important modifications of behaviour.
An individual's personality, while generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations. The
different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one's personality. According to
Milgram "Situation exerts an important press on the individual. It exercises constraints and may provide
push. In certain circumstances it is not so much the kind of person a man is, as the kind of situation in
which he is placed that determines his actions". We should therefore not look at personality patterns in
isolation.