Personality

Defining personality
• Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of
thinking, feeling and behaving.
• Personality is a relatively stable set of characteristics that influences an
individual’s behavior
• Personality (defined by Kassarjian in 1971) as “the combination of
characteristics, patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make up an
individuals’ distinctive character”.
• This way, we could understand human behavior at an individual level.
 Determinants of personality
Factors or determinants of Determinants of
personality include: personality

1. Biological Factors
2. Cultural Factors
Biological factors
Family & social
factors
Cultural factors Situational factors

3. Family Factors
4. Social Factors →Brain →Socialization →Independence
process (Australia) →Positive behavior
5. Situational Factors →Physical features →Negative behavior
→Identification →Aggression (North
→Heredity/genetic process Korea)
makeup
→Home environment →Competition (India)
→Social group →Cooperation (Japan)
 Personality theories
1. Trait Theory - understand individuals by breaking down behavior patterns
into observable traits.
2. Psychodynamic Theory - emphasizes the unconscious determinants of
behavior.
3. Humanistic Theory - emphasizes individual growth and improvement.
4. Integrative Approach - describes personality as a composite of an
individual’s psychological processes.
 Trait theory
• Trait theory suggests that personality is made up of a number of broad
traits.
• A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that causes
individuals to behave in certain ways.
• Unlike psychoanalytic or humanistic theories of personality, the trait
approach to personality is focused on differences between individuals.
• The combination and interaction of various traits form a personality that is
unique to each individual.
• Trait theory is focused on identifying and measuring these individual
personality characteristics.
BIG-Five model of personality
Five-factor model (FFM)
 What is the Big-Five model of personality?
• Trait theories of personality have long attempted to pin down exactly how
many personality traits exist.
• The big five-factor model of personality represents five core traits that interact
to form human personality (building blocks of personality).
1. Agreeableness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Neuroticism
5. Openness
Remember them using the watery acronyms OCEAN or CANOE (openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)
 Big Five model/core traits
According to this model, there are five fundamental underlying trait dimensions that are stable
across time, cross-culturally shared, and explain a substantial proportion of behaviour:
• Openness: This refers to an employees readiness to adapt to changing circumstances and accept new
avenues.
• Conscientiousness: This generally revolves around an employee being devoted and hardworking
towards their responsibility.
• Extraversion: By nature, extroverts enjoy the company of others and fancy recognition and
acknowledgement.
• Agreeableness: This personality trait is often related with characteristics like warmth, compassion,
cooperation.
• Neuroticism: This refers to the propensity towards being very moody and experiencing emotions of
anxiety, worry, anger, fear, among others.

There are truly endless possibilities of combining these five traits, which have self-evidently produced
endless different personalities which interact with one another.
 Why personality tests?
• Not every personality is suited for every job position, so it's important to recognize
personality traits and pair employees with the duties that fit their personalities the best.
• This can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction, helping your business function
more efficiently.
• For example, people with outgoing personalities often work best in positions where they get
to interact with others. These people can provide friendly and helpful customer service, and
they can boost the attitudes of other workers by being upbeat and happy. However, outgoing
people might not flourish in positions that keep them behind closed doors, separated from
others.
• This might include an information technology position that keeps them behind a computer all
day or an accounts payable job that doesn't require much interaction with vendors or other
staff members. Those jobs might be a better fit for people with more introverted personalities.
 Why Big 5 personality tests are beneficial to
the hiring process?
• Understand your candidates’ personalities better in a shorter time frame,
reducing your time-to-hire.
• Determine or make adjustments in terms of the management style you choose
for the candidate joining your team, and
• Candidates will understand their strengths better, and tap into their personality
traits to enhance their productivity
• Suggest ways that your candidates can improve based on the results of the Big
5 personality test.
 Managing big-5 personality traits: Openness
(1) Openness: This refers to an employees readiness to adapt to changing
circumstances and accept new avenues.

• Managing those employees who score high on this personality trait requires
managers to give them new avenues to explore. As they are responsive to
change, they are always looking to go beyond the usual and, therefore, offering
them new and exciting projects will augment their engagement.
• Those low on this personality trait are generally averse to change. The best way
to manage them would be to introduce change incrementally. This does not mean
you don’t push them out of their comfort zone. Just be sensitive to not push all
the change in one day.
 Managing big-5 personality traits: Conscientiousness
(2) Conscientiousness: This generally revolves around an employee being
diligent and hardworking towards their responsibility.
• Employees with high levels of this personality trait display commitment,
dedication and discipline at work. Managing them is generally an easy task.
• To engage them, it is best to delegate them tasks which require reliability, these
employees have great potential to come out as leaders.
• However, those who score low generally lack that reliability and rigour in their
work. They might have the same or even more calibre as their counterparts, but
generally lack the devotion.
• Managing low score employees requires constant mentoring and coaching to
encourage them and create focus.
 Managing big-5 personality traits: Extroversion
(3) Extroversion: By nature, extroverts enjoy the company of others and fancy
recognition and acknowledgement.
• Employees who recognize themselves as extroverts are outgoing and always ready to
take charge.
• Extroverts generally make great leaders and excel at people facing roles. Managing
them requires leaders to appreciate their work and boost their spirits.
• At the same time, they can get impulsive and it is the manager’s responsibility to ensure
they don’t take decisions impulsively.
• Introverts generally prefer working alone or in very small groups. They take time to
open up and managing them requires patience because they may not feel engaged the
second they join the organization.
• They are best for intellectually driven projects and managers who leverage this can
optimize their strengths.
 Managing big-5 personality traits: Agreeableness
(4) This personality trait is often related with characteristics like warmth,
compassion, cooperation.
• Managing those who have a high agreeableness quotient is quite simple because
they rarely resist.
• Adopt an empathetic approach while dealing with them. To facilitate their growth,
equip them with skills to deal with confrontation and other difficult situations.
• Those who score low in this are often crude, competitive and display raw emotions.
Empathy is again the card to play here. Managers should be composed even when
they are crude and explain to them where they are going wrong.
• Additionally, invest in coaching and mentoring them to be sensitive towards the
emotions of others while displaying their opinions.
 Managing big-5 personality traits: Neuroticism
(5) This refers to the propensity towards being very moody and experiencing
emotions of anxiety, worry, anger, fear, among others.
• Managing neurotic employees requires empathetic managers, preferably with a
coaching background or supporting apps or platforms. Such employees require
constant positive reinforcement and feedback to ensure their wellbeing at work as
well as out of it.
• Those on the other end of the spectrum are easier to manage. They have a better
work life balance and feel satisfied with their professional and personal life.
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (1)
• MBTI is just one approach to personality typing that categorize
people based on their traits, tendencies, and other characteristics.
• The MBTI tool was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her
mother Katharine Cook Briggs in 1942 and is based on
psychological conceptual theories proposed by Swiss
psychiatrist Carl Jung from his work Psychological Types.
• Jung’s theory of psychological types was based on the existence of
four essential psychological functions – judging functions (thinking
and feeling) and perceiving functions (sensation and intuition ).
• He believed that one combination of the functions is dominant for a
person most of the time.
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (2)
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective, self report evaluation
that identifies a person’s personality type and psychological preferences.
• The purpose of this assessment is to assign individuals into one of four categories
based on how they perceive the world and make decisions, enabling respondents to
further explore and understand their own personalities.
• The four categories are: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking
or feeling, judging or perceiving.
• Each person is said to have one preferred quality from each category, producing 16
unique personality types.
• There is not a combination that is considered "better" or "worse” than another– all
types are viewed as equal.
 Career Choice and MBTI Personality Type

https://www.utech.edu.jm/campus-experience/career-placement/personality-assessment
Thanks!