Organizational Behaviour: Personality

Total Quality & Excellence Centre
Organizational Behaviour
Session 3
Personality
Dr. Abdelmutalab Ibrahim
Sudan University of Science& Technology

session 3 Outline
At the end of this session, you should understand:
• What is meant by “personality.”
• A brief history of personality theory and research.
• The elements of the most commonly accepted model of personality - the Five-
Factor Model (“Big Five” or “FFM”).
• How personality has been shown to affect job performance and other work-related
outcomes.
• Why and how organizational managers use personality assessment as a tool in
decision-making.

Concept of Personality
• Definition: the psychological qualities that influence
an individual characteristics behavior patterns in a
stable an distinctive manner
• Important Note*: Personality alone accounts for only
2-12% of the variance in behavior (NOT IN TEXT)
• Interactionist Perspective*: Note that both the
person and the situation act as significant causes of
behavior in organizations, thus reinforcing the
importance of properly managing the situations that
employees work in.

Sources of Personality Differences
• Heredity: Research on the nature-nurture

controversy* indicates that about 50% of the variance
in personality is inherited, thus setting limits on
development
• Environment: Shapes at least 50% of personality?
– Culture
– Family
– Group Membership
– Life Experiences




Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Extrovert (E)
Type of Social
Interaction Introvert (I)
Sensing (S)
Preference for
Gathering Data Intuitive (N)
Feeling (F)
Preference for
Decision Making Thinking (T)
Perceptive (P)
Style of
Decision Making Judgmental (J)



Personality, Organizations, and the

Organization of Personality
• Early researchers believed the personality-job performance
relationship was weak. Reasons:
– Comparatively weak analytic techniques.
– Inappropriate measures (most used psychopathology inventories, e.g.,
MMPI).
– No theoretical framework on which to base research findings.
– The belief that behavior is determined more by situations than by traits
(Mischel,1968).
• Research and theoretical innovations that “rehabilitated”
personality in late 80’s, early 90’s.
– Meta-analysis: A new quantitative method for summarizing research
findings.
– The Five-Factor Model: A new organizing taxonomy for personality
structure (The Big Five).

The Five-Factor Model

• Premise: Personality can be efficiently described with five
relatively independent trait dimensions.
• Model derived from factor-analytic studies of much larger sets of
traits.
– Factor analysis: A method for reducing a large set of data into
something interpretable
– Allport & Odbert (1936): Identified more than 18,000 trait terms
in unabridged dictionary
• Eventually factor analyzed into five dimensions
• Five-factor model reproduced across many cultures and languages
(Saucier, Hampson, & Goldberg, 2000).
• Research evidence points to the heritability (Rowe, 1997) and
stability (Costa & McCrae, 1997) of the FFM.

The Five-Factor Model

• The Five Factors and their Characteristics:
– Extraversion: Assertive, competitive, positive emotionality,
sociable, Outgoing
– Agreeableness: Warm, likeable, gentle, cooperative
– Conscientiousness: Orderly, dependable, industrious,
disciplined, achievement oriented
– Emotional Stability: Relaxed, free from anxiety,
depression, negative emotionality
– Openness to Experience: Creative, cultured, intellectual,
perceptive, curious, broad minded


:The “Big Five” Personality Factors*

(Each factor is a continuum of many related traits)
Adjustment (Emotional Stability)

(Stable, confident, effective) (Nervous, self-doubting, moody)
Sociability(Extraversion)
(Gregarious , energetic, assertive) (Reserved, shy, Quiet)
Conscientiousness
(Planful, neat, dependable) (Impulsive, careless, irresponsible)
Agreeableness
(Warm, Empathetic, Trusting, Cooperative) (Independent, cold, rude)
Intellectual Openness
(Imaginative, curious, original) (Dull, unimaginative, literal-minded)
15
Big Five Personality Factors
Low Extraversion High
Reserved, Timid, Quiet Gregarious, Assertive, Sociable
Agreeableness
Cold, Disagreeable, Antagonistic Cooperative, Warm, Empathetic, Trusting
Conscientiousness
Easily distracted, Disorganized, Unreliable Responsible, Organized, Dependable, Persistent
Emotional Stability
Hostile, Anxious, Depressed, Insecure Calm, Self-confident, Secure
Openness to Experience
Unimaginative, Inflexible, Literal-minded, Dull Creative, Flexible, Curious, Artistic
16
The Five-Factor Model and Job Performance:

Research Findings
• Summary of meta-analytic findings (Barrick & Mount, 1991):
– Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability are the best
personality predictors of job performance across nearly all jobs.
– Extraversion and Agreeableness are important in jobs requiring
a high degree of interpersonal work
– Less consistent evidence for Openness to Experience
• Personality has been shown to predict:
– Job performance and results (e.g. $ sales volume)
– Job satisfaction
– Training performance
– Leadership
– ….and many more important job-related behaviors and attitudes

Why Should Organizations Test Personality?
• Personality predicts aspects of job performance that may not be

strongly related to knowledge, skills or abilities.
– Incremental validity
– Predicts what a person will do, as opposed to what they can
do.
– Contextual job performance (Borman & Motowidlo, 1993)
• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Willingness to “go
above and beyond” the call of duty
• Unlike other selection tools, little or no evidence of adverse
impact (different selection ratios between demographic groups).

Personality in Selection Decisions:

A Case Study
• You’ve been hired to design a selection system for customer
service workers at McToxic Pizza
– Step 1: Conduct a thorough Job Analysis
• You discover that high-performers are friendly, dependable,
and low in imagination
– Step 2: Refer worker attributes to a validated model of
personality (e.g., the Big Five)
• Friendly: Agreeableness; Dependable: Conscientiousness;
Unimaginative: (Low) Openness to Experience.
– Step 3: Incorporate a personality test as one factor guiding
selection decisions
• DO NOT base selection decisions solely on a single test
score of any kind!!
Big Five Mini-Marker Exercise

How Accurately Can You Describe Yourself?
1 2 3 4 5
Inaccurate Slightly Neither Slightly Accurate
Inaccurate Accurate

Reverse score items:

1, 3, 4, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 29,33, 34, 35, 37, 38,
40
1=5
2=4
3=3
4=2
5 =Sum
1 items:
1, 2, 11, 13, 25, 28, 32, 40 = Factor I
12, 14, 19, 21, 26, 33, 34, 36 = Factor II
4, 6, 15, 20, 27, 30, 38, 39 = Factor III
3, 9, 10, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 = Factor IV
5, 7, 8, 16, 18, 23, 35, 37 = Factor V

Extraversion (Factor I)

Emotional Stability (Factor II)

Agreeableness (Factor III)

Conscientiousness (Factor IV)

Openness to Experience (Factor V)

Caveats and Future Research

Directions
• Is the Big Five the best model?
– It’s a model of personality, not a theory
– Some research suggests that 3, 7, or 9 factor models best represent human
personality
– Studies have shown greater predictive validity for finer-grained facets of
personality - measure predictors and criteria at the same level.
• Are self-report personality tests accurate?
– Personality test-takers can distort responses when instructed to do so
– Most research suggests that distortion does not undermine validity of
personality tests
• Again: How does personality affect performance?
– Are there other mechanisms besides motivation?

Holland’s Theory of Personality-Job Fit

Type Personality Occupations
Mechanic, Farmer,
Realistic Shy, Stable, Practical
Assembly-Line Worker
Biologist, Economist,
Investigative Analytical, Independent
Mathematician
Social Worker,
Social Sociable, Cooperative
Teacher, Counselor
Accountant, Manager
Conventional Practical, Efficient
Bank Teller
Enterprising Ambitious, Energetic Lawyer, Salesperson
Painter, Writer,
Artistic Imaginative, Idealistic
Musician











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Total Quality & Excellence Centre

Dr. Abdelmutalab Ibrahim

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sources of Personality Differences

• Heredity: Research on the nature-nurture

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Personality, Organizations, and the

Sudan University of Science& Technology

The Five-Factor Model

Sudan University of Science& Technology

The Five-Factor Model

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

:The “Big Five” Personality Factors*

Adjustment (Emotional Stability)

Reserved, Timid, Quiet Gregarious, Assertive, Sociable

Easily distracted, Disorganized, Unreliable Responsible, Organized, Dependable, Persistent

The Five-Factor Model and Job Performance:

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Why Should Organizations Test Personality?

• Personality predicts aspects of job performance that may not be

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Personality in Selection Decisions:

Big Five Mini-Marker Exercise

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Reverse score items:

1, 2, 11, 13, 25, 28, 32, 40 = Factor I

12, 14, 19, 21, 26, 33, 34, 36 = Factor II

4, 6, 15, 20, 27, 30, 38, 39 = Factor III

3, 9, 10, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 = Factor IV

5, 7, 8, 16, 18, 23, 35, 37 = Factor V

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Emotional Stability (Factor II)

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Agreeableness (Factor III)

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Conscientiousness (Factor IV)

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Openness to Experience (Factor V)

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Caveats and Future Research

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Holland’s Theory of Personality-Job Fit

Enterprising Ambitious, Energetic Lawyer, Salesperson

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology

Sudan University of Science& Technology