Group 10

Phạm Châu Thuý Kiều – BABAWE19066

Nguyễn Hoài My – BABAWE19150
Hoàng Thị Trà My – BABAWE19180
Dương Tiến Tài – BABAWE19125

Chapter 4: Personality and values

1. Define personality, describe how it is measured and explain the factors that determine an
individual’s personality.
Personality: the sum of total ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others.
Research has shown that personality tests are useful in hiring decision.
Heredity: factors determined at conception, one’s biological, physiological and inherent
psychological makeup (molecular structure of genes, located in chromosomes).
Personality traits: enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour. The ore
consistent the characteristic and the ore frequently a trait occurs in diverse situations, the more
important that trait is in describing the individual.
2. Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and assess its strengths and
weaknesses.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): a 100-question personality test that taps four
characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types. It is very popular but it is
questioned whether it’s valid measure. It can be a valuable tool for increasing self-awareness
and providing career guidance but it is unrelated to job performance so managers should not
use it. The characteristics are:
 Extraverted vs. introverted (outgoing/assertive vs. quiet/shy)
 Sensing vs. intuitive (routine/order/details vs. unconscious processes)
 Thinking vs. feeling (reason/logic vs. personal values/emotions)
 Judging vs. perceiving (control/ordered/structured vs. flexible/spontaneous)
3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
The Big Five personality model: a personality assessment model that taps five basic
dimensions. The dimensions are related to job performance.
 Extraversion: captures one’s comfort level with relationships (sociable, gregarious,
assertive)  better interpersonal, more emotionally expressive.
 Agreeableness: one’s propensity to defer to others (good-natured, cooperative, trusting)
 better liked, more compliant and conforming.
 Conscientiousness: measure of reliability (responsible, dependable, persistent,
organized)  more effort/persistence, more discipline/organized.
 Emotional stability (converse = neuroticism): one’s ability to withstand stress (calm, self-
confident, secure)  less negative thinking.
 Openness to experience: one’s range of interests/fascination with novelty (imagination,
sensitivity, curiosity)  increased learning, more creative.
4. Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behaviour at work.
The preponderance of evidence shows that individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful,
thorough, able to plan, organized, hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to
have higher job performance in most if not all occupations. Employees who score higher in
conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge, probably because highly
conscientious people exert greater levels of effort on their jobs. The higher levels of job
knowledge then contribute to higher levels of job performance. Although conscientiousness is
the Big Five trait most consistently related to job performance, the other traits are related to
aspects of performance in some situations. All five traits have other implications for work and
for life.
5. Identify other personality traits relevant to OB.
Core self-evaluation: degree to which individual likes or dislikes herself, sees herself as capable
and effective and feels in control of her environment or powerless over the environment.
Machiavellianism: degree to which individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance &
believes that end can justify the means  good negotiator.
Narcissism: the tendency to be arrogant, have grandiose sense of self-importance, require
excessive admiration and have a sense of entitlement. They are often less effective.
Self-monitoring: measures an individual’s ability to adjust behavior to external, situational
factors.
Risk taking willingness to take changes, take risk.
Type A personality: Aggressive involvement in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more
and more in less and less time and, if necessary, against the opposing efforts of other things or
other people.
Type B personality: never hurry, more relaxed; Type A is better in work interviews and work.
Proactive personality: person identifies opportunities, shot initiative, take action, persevere
meaningful change.
6. Define values, demonstrate the importance of values and contrast terminal and instrumental
values.
Values: Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to live your life that is personally
or socially preferable – “How To” live life properly. Attributes of values are
 The content attribute says that a mode of conduct or an end-state of existence is
important.
 The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.
Value system: hierarchy based on individual’s values in terms of their intensity.
Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would like to achieve
during their lifetime.
Instrumental values: preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving one’s terminal
values.
7. Identify the dominant values in today’s workforce.
Contemporary work values: whilst it must be recognised that there will be significant variations
within groups, it is useful to recognise that groups tend to reflect similar values and this can be
a valuable aid in explaining and predicting behaviour.
Linking individual’s personality and values to the workplace:
 Personality-job fit theory: Six personality types - Realistic – Investigative – Artistic –
Social – Enterprising – Conventional
 The closer the occupational fields, the more compatible, there appear to be intrinsic
differences in personality between people, there are different types of jobs, people in
jobs congruent with their personality should be more satisfied and have lower turnover
 Personality-organization fit argues that people are attracted to and selected by
organizations that match their values.
8. Identify Hofstede’s fine value dimensions of national culture.
The Big Five model appears in almost all cross-cultural studies. Differences tend to be in the
emphasis on dimensions and whether countries are predominantly individualistic or
collectivistic.
Values differ across cultures, and an approach for analyzing this was done by Geert Hofstede.
He found that employees vary on five value dimensions of national culture:
 Power distance
 Individualism vs Collectivism
 Masculinity vs Femininity
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Long-term orientation vs Short-term orientation
Despite a few concerns, Hofstede has been one of the most widely cited social scientists ever,
and his framework has left a lasting mark on OB.
The GLOBE team identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ. The main
difference with Hofstede is that it added dimensions, such as humane orientation and
performance orientation.