Chapter 3

Understanding People at
Work: Individual
Differences and
Perception
Learning Objectives

1. Define personality and how it affects work

behaviors
2. Understand the role of values in determining work
behaviors
3. Explain the process of perception and how it
affects work behaviors
4. Understand how individual differences affect
ethics
5. Understand cross-cultural influences on individual
differences and perception

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Fit

Person-Organization
Person-Job Fit
Fit

The degree to which The degree to which

a person’s values, a person’s skill,
personality, goals, knowledge, abilities,
and other and other
characteristics characteristics
match those of the match the job
organization. demands.

1-3
Values

• Values refer to
stable life goals
that people have,
reflecting what is
most important to
them.

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Values

Terminal Instrumental
Values Values
A world of beauty Broad minded
An exciting life Clean
Family security Forgiving
Inner harmony Imaginative
Self respect Obedient
Personality

• Personality encompasses the relatively stable

feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns a
person has.
Big Five Personality Traits

Trait Description
Openness Curious, original, intellectual, creative, and
open to new ideas.
Conscientiousness Organized, systematic, punctual,
achievement-oriented, and dependable.
Extraversion Outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys
being in social situations.
Agreeableness Nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and
warm.
Neuroticism Anxious, irritable, aggressive,
temperamental, and moody.
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Dimension Explanation
EI Extraversion: Those who Introversion: Those who derive
derive their energy from other their energy from inside.
people and objects.
SN Sensing: Those who rely on Intuition: Those who rely on their
their five senses to perceive intuition and hunches to perceive
the external environment. the external environment.
TF Thinking: Those who use their Feeling: Those who use their
logic to arrive at solutions. values and ideas about what is
right and wrong to arrive at
solutions.
JP Judgment: Those who are Perception: Those who are
organized, systematic, and curious, open minded, and prefer
would like to have clarity and to have some ambiguity.
closure.
Other Personality Traits

Proactive
Locus
Self-Monitoring
Self-Efficacy
Self-Esteem
Affectivity
ofPersonality
Control

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Perception

• Perception is how individuals detect and

interpret environmental stimuli.
Visual Perception

• Our visual perception

goes beyond the
information physically
available. In this
figure, we see the
white triangle in the
middle even though it
is not really there.
Visual Perception

Which circle is bigger? The circle on the left appears

bigger when in fact they are the same size.
Self Perception

Self-
Self- False
enhancement
effacement bias consensus error
bias
Social Perception

• Our perceptions
of the Information
Values,
emotions,
environment are from the
feelings, and
environment
influenced by personality

our values,
emotions,
feelings, and
personalities,
which in turn Actions Perceptions
influence our
actions.
Social Perception

Self-fulfilling Selective
Stereotypes
prophecy perception
Social Perception

• First impressions are

initial thoughts and
perceptions we form
about people, which
tend to be stable and
salient to contrary
information.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

Attributions

Will you make

an Internal or Consensus
External
Attribution?

Distinctivenes
Consistency
s

Internal or External Attribution

 Attributions

Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency Attribution

High High distinctiveness Low consistency External
consensus This person does not This person usually
Everyone else usually behave this does not behave
behaves the way in different this way in this
same way. situations. situation.

Low consensus Low distinctiveness High consistency Internal

No one else This person usually Every time this
behaves the behaves this way in person is in this
same way. different situations. situation, he/she
acts the same way.
Individual Differences and Ethics

Culture

Personal
Values

Personality
Ethics