Meaning of Personality

Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes, and ideas of an individual’s, as these
are organized externally into roles and statues and as they relate internally to motivation, goals,
and various aspects of selfhood. The term personality is derived from the Latin word “Persona”
which means to speak through.
This Latin term was used to denote the mask, the actors used to wear in ancient Rome and
Greece, An individual’s personality is the combination of traits and patterns that influence their
behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion.
It drives individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways; in essence, it is what
makes each individual unique.
Over time, these patterns strongly influence personal expectations, perceptions, values, and
attitudes. In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly
consistent throughout life. It is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that
influence his or her behavior towards goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of
projecting these states.
The study of personality focuses on two broad areas;
 One is understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such
as sociability or irritability.
 The other is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.
What is Personality?
According to Gordon Allport, “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individuals
of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environments”.
Feist and Feist said, “personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior.”
By personality Ogburn means “the integration of the socio-psychological behavior of the human
being, represented by habits of action and feeling, attitudes and opinions.”
According to Lundberg, “The term personality refers to the habits, attitudes and other social
traits that are characteristic of a given individual’s behavior”.
Meaning of Attitude
An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of an object expressed at some level of
intensity. It is an expression of a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of a person, place, thing, or
event. These are fundamental determinants of our perceptions of and actions toward all aspects
of our social environment. Attitudes involve a complex organization of evaluative beliefs,
feelings, and tendencies toward certain actions.
How much we like or dislike something that determines our behavior towards that thing.
We tend to approach, seek out, or be associated with things we like; we avoid, shun, or reject
things we do not like.

Some examples of attitudes are-

he has a positive attitude about the changes, she is friendly and has a good attitude, he was
showing some attitude during practice today, so the coach benched him, I like my friends that
means I am expressing my attitudes towards my friends, etc.

Definition of Attitude
Attitude is the manner, disposition, feeling, and position about a person or thing, tendency, or
orientation, especially in mind.
According to Gordon Allport, “An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized
through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to
all objects and situations with which it is related.”
Frank Freeman said, “An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain institutions,
persons or objects in a consistent manner which has been learned and has become one’s typical
mode of response.”
Thurstone said, “An attitude denotes the total of man’s inclinations and feelings, prejudice or
bias, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats, and other any specific topic.”
David Krech, Richard S. Crutchfield, and Egerton L. Ballackey. - “Attitudes are an
‘individual’s enduring favorable or unfavorable evaluations, emotional feelings, and action
tendencies toward some object or idea.”.
Characteristics of Attitude
 Attitudes are the complex combination of things we call personality, beliefs, values,
behaviors, and motivations.
 It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very unfavorable.
 All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
 An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to define our identity, guide our
actions, and influence how we judge people.
 Although the feeling and belief components of attitude are internal to a person, we can
view a person’s attitude from their resulting behavior.
 Attitude helps us define how we see situations and define how we behave toward the
situation or object.
 It provides us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about people and objects.
 It can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitude is those that we are consciously
aware of an implicit attitude is unconscious, but still, affect our behaviors.
 Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person.
 An attitude is a summary of a person’s experience; thus, an attitude is grounded in direct
experience predicts future behavior more accurately.
 It includes certain aspects of personality as interests, appreciation, and social conduct.
 It indicates the total of a man’s inclinations and feelings.
 An attitude is a point of view, substantiated or otherwise, true or false, which one holds
towards an idea, object, or person.
 It has aspects such as direction, intensity, generality, or specificity.
 It refers to one’s readiness for doing Work.
 It may be positive or negative and may be affected by age, position, and education.

Meaning of Perception
Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order
to represent and understand the environment. All perception involves signals in the nervous
system, which in turn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sense organs.
It is not the passive receipt of these signals but is shaped by learning, memory, expectation, and
attention.
The study, of these perceptual processes, shows that their functioning is affected by three classes
of variables – the objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs,
and the individual doing the perceiving.

Definition of Perception
Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system but subjectively seems mostly
effortless because this processing happens outside of conscious awareness.
According to Joseph Reitz; “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual
receives information about his environment—seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.”
According to B. V. H. Gilmer, “Perception is the process of becoming aware of situations, of
adding meaningful associations to sensations.”
Uday Pareek said perception can be defined as “the process of receiving, selecting, organizing,
interpreting, checking, and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.”
According to S. P. Robbins, perception can be defined as “the process by which individuals
organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environments.”

Perception includes the 5 senses;

 touch,
 sight,
 taste
 smell
 sound.

It also includes what is known as perception, a set of senses involving the ability to detect
changes in body positions and movements.
It also involves the- cognitive processes required to process information, such as recognizing the
face of a friend or detecting a familiar perfume.
The study of these perpetual processes shows that their functioning is affected by three classes of
variables—the objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs
and the individual doing the perceiving.
In simple words, we can say that perception is the act of seeing what is there to be seen.
But what is seen is influenced by the perceiver, the object and its environment. The meaning of
perception emphasizes all these three points.

Importance of Perception
Perception is a subjective, active and creative process through which we assign meaning to
sensory information to understand ourselves and others. It can be defined as our recognition and
interpretation of sensory information. It also includes how we respond to the information.
It is the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world
by means of the sensory receptors. It is our sensory experience of the world around us and
involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli.
 Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act
within our environment.
 Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because every person
perceives the world and approaches life problems differently. Whatever we see or feel is
not necessarily the same as it really is. When we buy something, it is not because it is the
best, but because we take it to be the best.
 If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their behavior in the
changed circumstances by understanding their present perception of the environment.
One person may be viewing the facts in one way which may be different from the facts as
seen by another viewer.
 With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined, because
people’s perception is influenced by their needs.
 Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when
dealing with people and events in the work setting. This problem is made more
complicated by the fact that different people perceive the same situation differently. In
order to deal with the subordinates effectively, the managers must understand their
perceptions properly.
  Perception can be important because it offers more than objective output; it ingests an
observation and manufactures an altered reality enriched with previous experiences.
 Perception builds character (not necessarily good or bad character) that defines different
roles individuals fall into the clown, the hypocrite, the self-righteous, the victim, etc..
It is vitally important if we want to get along with others to try to see things from their
perspective or walk in their shoes for a while. If we walk in their shoes we will gain a new
perspective about things and in that understand the other and also can love and help the other
more appropriately.
Thus, for understanding human behavior, it is very important to understand their perception, that
is, how they perceive the different situations.
People’s behavior is based on their perceptions of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world
as it is perceived is the world that is important for understanding human behavior.

Errors in Perception
As seen above perception is the process of analyzing and understanding a stimulus as it is.
But it may not be always possible to perceive the stimuli as they are.
Knowingly or unknowingly, we mistake the stimulus and perceive it wrongly.
There are some errors in perception;
 Illusion.
 Hallucination.
 Halo Effect.
 Stereotyping.
 Similarity.
 Horn Effect.
 Contrast.

Illusion
The illusion is a false perception. Here the person will mistake a stimulus and perceive it
wrongly.
For example, in the dark, a rope is mistaken as a snake or vice versa. The voice of an unknown
person is mistaken as a friend’s voice. A person standing at a distance who is not known may be
perceived as a known person.
Hallucination
Sometimes we come across instances where the individual perceives some stimulus, even when
it is not present.
This phenomenon is known as a hallucination. The person may see an object, person, etc. or he
may listen to some voice though there are no objects and sounds in reality.
Selective Perception
Selective perception means the situation when people selectively interpret what they see on the
basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
It means any characteristics that make a person, object, or event stand out will increase the
probability that it will be perceived. Because it is impossible for us to assimilate everything we
see, only certain stimuli can be taken in.
Halo Effect
The individual is evaluated on the basis of perceived positive quality, feature or trait. When we
draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as
intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a halo effect is operating.
In other words, this is the tendency to rate a man uniformly high or low in other traits if he is
extraordinarily high or low in one particular trait: If a worker has few absences, his supervisor
might give him a high rating in all other areas of work.
Stereotyping
People usually can fall into at least one general category based on physical or behavioral traits
then they will be evaluated. When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group
to which he or she belongs, we are using the shortcut called stereotyping.
or example, a boss might assume that a worker from a Middle East country is lazy and cannot
meet performance objectives, even if the worker tried his best.
Similarity
Often, people tend to seek out and rate more positively those who are similar to themselves. This
tendency to approve of similarity may cause evaluators to give better ratings to employees who
exhibit the same interests, work methods, points of view or standards.
Horn Effect
When the individual is completely evaluated on the basis of a negative quality or feature
perceived. This results in an overall lower rating than an acceptable rate.
He is not formally dressed up in the office, that’s why he may be casual at work too.

Meaning of motivation
Motivation comes from the Latin word “movere” which means, “to move” Motivation is defined
as inner burning passion caused by need, wants and desire which propels an individual to exert
his physical and mental energy to achieve desired objectives.
Motivation is goal-directed behavior. People are motivated when they expect that a course of
action is likely to lead to the attainment of a goal and a valued reward – one that satisfies their
needs and wants.
Three Components of Motivation
 Direction: what a person is trying to do.
 Effort: how hard a person is trying.
 Persistence: how long a person keeps on trying.

The process of motivation consists of three stages:-

 A felt need or drive
 A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused
 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.

Dynamics of Motivation
Motivation is triggered by the psychological tension comes due to the unfulfilled need and drive
consumers to buy. Consumers strive consciously and unconsciously to bring down their tension
by selecting goals in anticipation of fulfilling their needs.
Motivation Definition
Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organisational goals,
conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs.
Stephen P Robbins - It is the desire within an individual that stimulates him or her to action.
George R. Terry - It is the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, strivings or needs
direct, control or explains the behaviour of human beings.

Types of Motivation
The two types of motivation are:
 Intrinsic motivation
 Extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation can arise from self-generated factors that influence people’s behaviour. It
is not created by external incentives.
It can take the form of motivation by the work itself when individuals feel that their work is
important, interesting and challenging and provides them with a reasonable degree of autonomy
(freedom to act), opportunities to achieve and advance, and scope to use and develop their skills
and abilities.
Extrinsic motivation occurs when things are done to or for people to motivate them.
These include rewards, such as incentives, increased pay, praise, or promotion; and punishments,
such as disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticism. Extrinsic motivators can have an
immediate and powerful effect, but will not necessarily last long.

Characteristics of Motivation
 Motivation is a psychological phenomenon
 Motivation is a continuous process
 Motivation is caused due to anticipated perceived value from an action
 Motivation varies from person to person and time to time
 An individual is motivated by positive or negative motivation

Importance of Motivation
 High level of performance
 Low employee turn over and absenteeism
 Acceptance of organization change
 Organizational image
High level of performance
Organizations must ensure that the employees have a high degree of motivation. A highly
motivated employee put extra effort into work and have a sense of belonging for the
organization.
The efficiency of work will be improved, wastage will be minimum which will result in
increased productivity, and performance level will be high.
Low employee turn over and absenteeism
Low level of motivation is a root cause of low turnover and absenteeism. High level of
absenteeism causes a low level of production, poor quality, wastages and disruption in
production schedules.
Increased turnover is disastrous for any organization as it puts a strain on the financial position of
the organization due to additional recruitment, selection, training and development.
Acceptance of organization change
Social change and technology evolution happens in the external environment have greater impact
on the motivation of the employee. Management must ensure that the changes are introduced in
the organization and its benefits explained to the employees so that there is no resistance to
change and organizational growth is achieved.
Organizational image
Employees are the mirrors of any organization. Regular training & development programmes
should be organized to keep employees updated with the latest skills. It will have a positive
impact on the employees and the image of the organization will be improved.

Theories of Motivation
The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory assumes that people are motivated to satisfy 5 levels of needs
those are a psychological need, security need, social need, esteem and self-actualization needs.
Maslow categorized the five needs into higher and lower orders.
Lower-order: Physiological and safety.
Higher-order needs: Social, esteem, and self-actualization.
 Physiological Needs
 Security Needs
 Social Needs
  Esteem Needs
 Self-Actualization
Maslow suggests that five levels of needs are arranged in accordance with the importance.
Starting from the bottom of the hierarchy, an individual is motivated first and foremost to
psychological need.
When the need are satisfied then he is motivated and moves up the hierarchy to satisfy security
need. This moving up and process continue till the end-user reaches the self-actualization.

Physiological Needs
Definition: Physiological needs are considered the most important because they are a most
immediate need and hence are also known as basic needs.
These are also needed our body to stay functional.
It is the bottom and most important needs.
Example:
1. It includes food, clothes, shelter, air, water, sexual activities etc.
2. Basic pay, workspace in the context of organization behaviour.

Security Needs
Definition: Security or safety needs are referred to as a requirement for a secure physical and
emotional environment.
The need is free from worry about money and job security and desire for safe working condition.
Security needs are satisfied for people in the workplace by job continuity.
A grievance resolving system and an adequate insurance and sentiment benefit package.
Example:
1. Financial security, Heath and wellness, a desire for adequate housing.
2. Job security, adequate medical benefits, and safe working conditions in the context of
organization behaviour.

Social Needs
Definition: Social needs are needs related to a special aspect of human life. They include the
needed for love and affection and the need is affected by one’s peers.
For most people, these needs are satisfied by a combination of family and community
relationship and friendship on the job.
Manager can help the ensure the satisfaction of these important needs by allowing social
interaction and making employees feel like a part of a team or workgroup.
Example:
1. Social acceptance, need to belong, to relate to others.
2. Good co-workers and supervisors, participating in social functions in the context of
organization behaviour.

Esteem Needs
Definition: The Esteem needs are concerned with self-respect, self-confidence, feeling of
personal worth.
A feeling of being unique and recognition satisfaction. It is the image of the self in the eye of
others.
A person with high esteem thinks that people think highly of him. It is our esteem that gives us a
recognition of our skill.
Example:
1. when someone says that he is funny, entertaining and amiable. He must have heard other
saying the most of think about him.
2. Promotions and being recognized at work in the context of organization behaviour.

Self-Actualization
Definition: Self-actualization is the realizing of oneself. Many people reach a stage in their life
where they start wondering what is expected out of them in their life.
It is the final need on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
They hear a voice that tells them to fulfil their destiny. Such people to figure out the meaning of
their lives and faces of an existential question.
Example:
1. Obtaining our full potential, becoming confident, eager to express our beliefs, and willing to
reach out to others to help them.
2. Challenging projects, opportunity for innovation and creativity in the context of organization
behaviour.
Advantages of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Simple to understand
 It takes into account human nature
 Relevant in all field
Disadvantages of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Needs do not necessarily follow a hierarchy
 The theory is difficult to test/measure

Expentency Theory of Motivation

Expectancy theory is a motivation theory first proposed by Victor Vroom of the Yale School of
Management in 1964. The theory also assumes that people are rational and logically calculating.\
What is Vroom’s Expectancy Theory?
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory is one of the process of motivation theories. It is based on the idea
that people believe that effort will lead to desired outcomes. Through experience, the individual
expects that they can achieve performance. Finally, they direct their effort towards outcomes
which help to fulfil their needs.
According to Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, motivation boils down to the decision of how much
efforts to exert in a specific situation.
First assumption: is that individuals join organizations with some expectations about their
motivations, needs, and past experiences. These influence how individuals behave in an
organization.
Second assumption: is that an individual’s behavior is a result of conscious choice. That is,
people are independent to behave in a certain way according to their own expectancy
calculations.
Third assumption: is that individuals expect different things from the organization (e.g., job
security, advancement, good salary and challenge).
Fourth assumption: is that individuals will behave in a certain way so as to optimize outcomes
for them personally.
Components of Expectancy Theory
The Theory state the three components that are linked to a person’s motivation. These
components are:
 Expectancy
 Instrumentality
 Valence
Expectancy means an individual belief that particular degree of effort will lead to increased
performance.
Effort–performance relationship.
 Expectancy is a probability which may vary from 0 to 1.
 Expectancy of 0 indicates that the effort has no impact on performance.
 Expectancy of 1 indicates that a particular first-level outcome will follow behaviour.
Example: if I work harder then this will be better.
Instrumentality
Instrumentality represent a person’s belief that a particular outcome is dependent on a specific
level of performance
Performance–reward relationship
 This is a perception by an individual that first level outcome is associated with second-
level outcome.
 Instrumentality ranges from -1 to 1.
 An instrument of 1 indicates that a particular outcome is totally dependent on
performance on performance
 An instrumentality of 0 indicates that there is no relationship between performance and
outcome
 Finally, an instrumentality of -1 reveals that high-performance reduces the chance of
obtaining outcome why low performance increase a chance
Example: superior performance is instrumental in getting a promotion

Valence
Valence refers to the positive or negative value the people place on outcome.
Rewards–personal goals relationship
 We assign value to an outcome depending on our requirements and needs.
 Mostly people attach high value to outcome such as increased salary, promotion or
recognition but no value to stress or layoffs.
 An outcome of valence depends on individual needs and is measured with scale ranging
from negative value to a positive value.
Example: If an employee has a strong preference for attaining a reward, valence is positive.

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-

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-existent 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 (medi claim),
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.

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.

ERG Theory of Motivation

To bring Maslow’s need hierarchy theory of motivation in synchronization with empirical
research, Clayton Alderfer redefined it in his own terms. His rework is called as ERG theory of
motivation. He recategorized Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into three simpler and broader classes
of needs:
Existence needs- These include need for basic material necessities. In short, it includes an
individual’s physiological and physical safety needs.
Relatedness needs- These include the aspiration individual’s have for maintaining significant
interpersonal relationships (be it with family, peers or superiors), getting public fame and
recognition. Maslow’s social needs and external component of esteem needs fall under this class
of need.
Growth needs- These include need for self-development and personal growth and advancement.
Maslow’s self-actualization needs and intrinsic component of esteem needs fall under this
category of need.
Difference between Maslow Need Hierarchy Theory and Alderfer’s ERG Theory

ERG Theory states that at a given point of time, more than one need may be operational.

ERG Theory also shows that if the fulfillment of a higher-level need is subdued, there is an
increase in desire for satisfying a lower-level need.

According to Maslow, an individual remains at a particular need level until that need is
satisfied. While according to ERG theory, if a higher- level need aggravates, an individual
may revert to increase the satisfaction of a lower- level need. This is called frustration-
regression aspect of ERG theory. For instance- when growth need aggravates, then an
individual might be motivated to accomplish the relatedness need and if there are issues in
accomplishing relatedness needs, then he might be motivated by the existence needs. Thus,
frustration/aggravation can result in regression to a lower-level need.

While Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is rigid as it assumes that the needs follow a specific
and orderly hierarchy and unless a lower-level need is satisfied, an individual cannot proceed
to the higher-level need; ERG Theory of motivation is very flexible as he perceived the needs
as a range/variety rather than perceiving them as a hierarchy. According to Alderfer, an
individual can work on growth needs even if his existence or relatedness needs remain
unsatisfied. Thus, he gives explanation to the issue of “starving artist” who can struggle for
growth even if he is hungry.