Individual in the

Organization
Individual Differences and
Effectiveness

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 After studying this unit you
should be able to:
Describe the factors that influence
personality and work behaviour
Discuss key personality
characteristics for organizational
members
Understand the psychological process
you need in order to be personally
effective
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 Personality

Those stable and enduring aspects

of an individual that distinguish him/her
from other people and
at the same time form a basis for our
predictions concerning his/her future
behavior

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Major forces influencing personality
Cultural forces
Hereditary forces
Social class and other group
membership forces
Family relation forces

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Differences between
individuals

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Approaches to Personality
Psychoanalytic perspective
Behavioral perspective
Humanistic perspective

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 Psychoanalytic Theory
Basic Elements of Freud’s Theory
Psychic Determinism
Unconscious Mental Processes
Personality Structure
Conflict

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 Psychic Determinism
All human behaviour is determined.
All behaviour is meaningful.
The meaning can be sought both in
conscious and unconscious
phenomena

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 Unconscious Mental
Processes
Most of mental activity occur in the
absence of consciousness.
The unconscious (Id) is filled with
sexual and destructive drives

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 Personality Structure
The psyche contains the 3 structures
Id – smth in a person that is not
recognized as part of the self
The Ego – conscious part, obeying the
rules of logic, reason and learned from
the experience
The Superego – moral component that is
imposed in the self by the society

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 Conflict

Man is torn by conflict both within

himself and himself and outer
world.
Conflict is central in human life.

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 Behavioural Approach
Personality is a set of learned
responses. Behaviour is a product
of conditioning.
Internal events (thoughts and
feelings) can’t be studied objectively,
the subject of psychology is
behaviour.

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 Humanistic Approach
Man is innately motivated towards
growth and actualization of his
potential

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???
Is personality a constant
throughout our lifetime, which
remain resistant to change and
circumstances?

To what extent can we measure

and compare individuals on the
basis of their personality?
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 Type Theories
People are categorized into groups
on the basis of characteristics that
give rise to certain patterns of
behavior.

Temperament typology
Jung’s typology

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 Types of Temperament
Sanguine
Melancholic
Choleric
Phlegmatic

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 Jung’s Theory of Types
Psychological types are patterns in the way
people prefer to perceive and make
judgments.

All conscious mental activity is either perception

(taking in data) or judgment (making decisions)
activity
Two perception processes are sensing and
intuition, two judgment processes are thinking
and feeling.

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 Jung’s Typology
E I
Extroversion Focus attention on Focus attention on Introversion
The outer world The inner world

S Look at things at N
Look at things in the
Sensing present and Intuition
future, at patterns
concrete
and possibilities
information
T F
Thinking Base decisions on Feeling
Base decisions on
logic & cause-
values
effect analysis

J P
Judging Deal with world Perceiving
Deal with world
through flexible
through planning
spontaneous
and organizing
approach

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 Personality Types
SJ`` - traditionalist, stabilizer, consolidator,
focus on order and facts
SP - negotiator, troubleshooter, fire fighter,
resists order, maverick
NT - visionaries, architect of system, builder,
focus on systems and strategy
NF - catalyst, spokesperson, energiser, focus
people on improvement
`

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 Trait Theories
A trait is a predisposition to respond
in a consistent way in many
different situations
Key assumptions
1. Many traits exist in all people to
some degree
2. We can measure traits
quantitatively
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 Extroverts
Impulsive, quick tempered,
emotional; often aggressive,
carefree, sociable, active. Like to be
the centre of attention, often
unreliable.

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Important Personality Traits in
Organizations

1. Locus of Control
2. Achievement Orientation
3. Machiavellianism
4. Self-Esteem
5. Self monitoring
6. Risk taking

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 Locus of Control
includes one’s conviction about the
sources of one’s achievements and
failures
Internals Externals
believe that their are convinced that
successes and their successes and
achievements are failures are due to
due to themselves external factors

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 3 Basic Motivational Needs
The need for achievement
The need for power
The need for affiliation

One of these needs tends to dominate

in all of us (D.McClelland)

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 Need for Achievement
Need for achievement is the drive to
accomplish challenging goals.
Behaviours include:
knowing what they can achieve
pushing for responsibility
setting themselves new challenges
a desire for feedback to do even better

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 Need for Affiliation
Need for Affiliation is the desire for
close relationships with others
Behaviours include
• A need to be popular
• A need for people to be around
• Avoiding of difficult situations
• Sensitivity to situations and people

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 Need for Power
Behaviours include:
A desire to lead
A desire to volunteer
Being persuasive
Being linked to a managerial course
elsewhere within the organization

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 Machiavellianism
An individual high in Mach. Is
pragmatic, maintains emotional
distance, believes that ends can
justify means
High-Machs manipulate more, are
persuaded less, persuade other more
than do Low-Machs

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Self-Monitoring

Self-Monitoring
the extent to which
people are able to
observe their own
behavior and adapt it
to external situations

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 Improving Self-Esteem
1. Be supportive by showing concern
for employee problems, interests,
status, & contributions
2. Offer work involving variety,
autonomy, and challenges that suit
the employee’s values, skills, and
abilities
3. Strive for management-employee
cohesiveness and build trust
4. Have faith in each employee’s self-
management ability, and reward
successes

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 Behavior
is the term given to the things that
human beings do that can be directly
detected by the senses of others
The causes of behaviour are based
on our
information about people and the
situation
attitudes, beliefs and values
motivation

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The Big Five Framework
Extroversion – sociable, fun loving, friendly,
talkative
Openness to experience- being original,
imaginative, daring and having broad
interests
Agreeableness refer to individual’s ability to
defer to others. Cooperative and trusting of
others. ( low A – mistrustful, skeptical,
stubborn and rude)

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 The Big Five Framework

Conscientiousness- hardworking,
energetic, persevering

Emotional Stability – calm,

enthusiastic, and secure

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 Personality-Job Fit Model
Realistic type
Investigative type
Social type
Conventional type
Enterprising type
Artistic type

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Outgoing personality
Good communication
skills
Work is first priority
Active socially
Independent worker
Quick thinking
Careful thinker
Uses logic on difficult jobs
Always going out of the
office
Spends a lot of time on
the phone
Too ugly to get a date
Drinks a lot
Nobody knows what he
does
Offers plausible excuses
Wont make a decision
Gets someone else to
do it
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Expresses himself well Speaks English
Has leadership Is tall or has a louder
qualities voice
Career minded Back Stabber
Keen sense of humor Know a lot of dirty
jokes
Loyal Cant get a job
anywhere else
Plans for promotion Buys drinks for all
boys
Of great value to the Gets to work on time
organization
Relaxed attitude
Sleeps at desk
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 Perception
is a mental process involving the
selection, organization, structuring
and interpretation of information in
order to make inferences and give
meaning to the information

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 Model of perception

Stimuli------Attention----
Recognition----
Translation-------Behaviours

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 Perceptual Principles
Proximity
Similarity
Closure

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 Perceptual Errors
Stereotyping – attributes are assigned to
people on the basis of their membership in a social
or demographic group
Halo effect – assumption that because a person
has a certain trait he/she automatically has other
traits
Selective perception- the perceiver singles
out certain info that supports prior belief and filters
out into that does not confirm that belief
Assumed similarity – individual ascribes to
others characteristics and feeling he posses himself
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 Attribution Theory

Attribution theory explains the

whys of behaviour.
It states that it is the perceived
causes of events, not the actual
ones that influence people’s
behavior

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Fundamental attribution errors

People make two attribution errors:

- by underestimating the impact of
external or situational causes of
behavior
- by overestimating the impact of
internal or personal causes of behavior
Self-serving bias: we accept
responsibility for success but not for
failure.
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 Attitude
A mental state of readiness,
organized through experience to
behave in a characteristic way
towards the object of the attitude

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 Structure of Attitudes
Cognitive component- the perceptions,
beliefs, evaluations about the object
Affective component- emotional
feelings (likes or dislikes) about the attitude
object
Behavioural components- the
tendency to act towards the attitude object
in a consistent and characteristic way

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 Work related attitudes
Job satisfaction
Job involvement
Organizational Commitment

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 Job satisfaction
a pleasurable or positive emotional
state resulting from a person’s
appraisal of his/her job or job
experience

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Dimensions of Job satisfaction
The work itself
Pay
Promotion
Supervision
Co-workers

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 Job involvement
The degree to which a person
identifies psychologically with his job
and considers his perceived
performance level to be important to
self-worth

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 Organizational commitment
An attitude towards the organization
as a whole reflecting the individual’s
Acceptance of the goals and values
of the organization
Willingness to exert effort on behalf
of the organization
Intention to stay with the
organization
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 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is any
incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behavior and
attitudes.

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 Learning
Learning is any relatively permanent
change in behavior that occurs as a
result of experience

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 Operant conditioning
Behaviour is a function of its
consequences

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Methods of shaping behavior
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
extinction

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 Reinforcement Schedules
Continous reinforcement
Intemittent reinforcement

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 Schedules of Reinforcement

Interval Ratio

fixed Fixed -ratio

Fixed interval

Variable variable Variable

interval ratio
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 Summary
Personality is influenced by genetics,
social, cultural and situational factors
There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’
personality types
Knowledge of an individual’s
personality can aid in reducing
mismatches between and individual
and a job
Knowledge of personality makes
selection more effective
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