INDIVIDUAL

PERSONALITY AND VALUES

Chapter 05

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In our society we come across people:

Aggressive Extrovert

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What is Personality?
 Personality is dynamic concept describing the growth and development of
a person’s whole psychological system.
 Definition of personality produced by Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago.
 Said Personality is the ”dynamic organization within individual of those psychological
systems that determine his/her unique adjustments to environment”.
Personality as the sum of total ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with
others.
Why measuring personality traits are important?
Because
Personality tests are used in hiring decisions and help managers to forecast who is best
for a job.

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Personality Determinants
 An early debate in personality research centered on, whether an individual’s
personality was result of heredity or environment.
 It appears it is result of both: Heredity and Environment

1. Heredity: Physical stature (build), facial attractiveness, gender,

temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level and other are
influenced by—who your parents are. (biological & psychological inherent)

2. Environment : Surroundings an individual grows

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 Personality Frameworks

1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)

2. Big Five Model

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 1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)

 Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)

 Extraverted are outgoing, sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.
 Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)
 Sensing are practical and prefer routine and order, and they focus on details.
Intuitive rely on unconscious processes and look at the “big picture.”
 Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
 Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal
values and emotions.

 Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

 Judging types want control and prefer order and structure. Perceiving types are flexible
and spontaneous.

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2. The Big Five Personality Model

1. Extraversion: Sociable, gregarious, and assertive

2. Agreeableness: Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
3. Conscientiousness: Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized
4. Emotional Stability
 Low on Neuroticism Scale:
 Calm, self-confident, secure
 High on Neuroticism:
 Nervous, depressed, and insecure, moody
5. Openness to Experience: Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive

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 How Do the Big Five Traits Predict Behavior?

Research has shown this to be a better framework.

 Traits are STRONGLY RELATED to HIGHER JOB PERFORMANCE

1. Highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge, exert greater effort, and have
better performance.
 Because they are dependable, reliable, careful, thorough, able to plan, organized,
hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have higher job performance in
most if not all occupations
2. Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction, life satisfaction, low stress level.
 Low score in Neuroticism: Optimistic and experience fewer negative emotions
 High score in Neuroticism: Fear, anger, stressful and anxious
3. Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good social skills.
4. Open to experience people are more creative and can be good leaders.
5. Agreeable people are good in social settings. 8
Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
Core Self Evaluation:
 Whether they see themselves as capable and effective in control of their environment

Locus of Control: The degree to which people believe they are masters of their
own fate.
 Internal locus of control
 People who have positive core self-evaluations like themselves and see
themselves as effective, capable, and in control of their environment.
 Too much positive: Lead to overconfidence  Bad Decisions

 External locus of control

 People who have negative core self-evaluations tend to dislike themselves,
question their capabilities, and view themselves as powerless over their environment.

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 Contd..
Self Monitoring:
A personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
 High Self Monitors [Flexible and adoptive]
 Regulate one’s own behavior in a social context
 High self-monitors readily adjust their behavior to the situation at hand.

Low Self- High Self-

Monitoring Monitoring
 Low Self Monitors
 Tend to regulate themselves according to their own internal beliefs and are typically less concerned with
social context.
 Boss rate narcissist less effective at their jobs:
 Particularly when it comes to helping others.
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Contd..
Machiavellianism: (Mach) named after Niccolo Machiavelli,.
 Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance,
and believes that ends can justify means.

 High Mach:
 They interact face to face with others rather than indirectly
 Confident, Persuasive (persuade others), Manipulative
 Minimum rules and regulation

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Contd..

Narcissism:
 Wants to be center of attention
 Looks in the mirror a lot
 Thinks s/he has many talents
 Requires excessive admiration
 Has a sense of entitlement
 Selfish, Exploitative, Arrogant
 Treat others as they are inferior

 Research Evidence:
 Narcissists are more charismatic and thus more likely to emerge as leaders
 But the subordinate rated them as worse if boss has that personality
 Boss rate narcissist less effective at their jobs:
 Particularly when it comes to helping others.
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 Contd..
Risk Taking:
The willingness to take chances, may be best to align propensities with job
requirements.

Risk Risk
Averse Takers
 High Risk Takers [Risk Takers]
 Make quick decisions
 Use less information to make decision
 Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organization

 Low Risk Taker [Risk Averse]

 Are slower to make decision
 Require more information before making decision
 Exist in large organizations with stable environment
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Contd..
Proactive Personality:
People with this personality type, actively take initiative to improve their current
circumstances or create new one.

 Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and perseveres until

meaningful change occurs

 Create positive change in their environment in-spite of constraints or obstacles

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Type A and B Personality

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Personality and Situations

 SITUATION STRENGTH THEORY: A theory indicating that the way personality

translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation.
 Trait activation theory (TAT): A theory that predicts that some situations, events, or
interventions “activate” a trait more than others.

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VALUES

Basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of

existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.
Values contain a judgmental element because they carry an individual’s ideas
about what is right, good, or desirable.
 Instrumental values: Preferable modes of behavior/conduct or means of achieving
one’s terminal values. (The means to an End)
 Working hard, Respecting, traditions, Being conservative, Being creative, Being honest, being decisive,
disciplined etc.

 Terminal values: Desirable end-states of existence; the goals a person would like to
achieve during his or her lifetime. (The End)
 Quality, Responsibility, Innovativeness, Excellence, Morality, Profitability, social status, security,
financial security etc.

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Sources of Value System

Our value system develop from:

 Genetics:
 Values are partly determined by our genetically transmitted traits.
 Transferred by parents

 Culture [Environment]
 Altered due to environmental factors
 Learn from society (family, friend, teachers and others)

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Value System

 Values are considered subjective and vary across people and culture.

 Hierarchy of values that form our value system.

 It can be defined as a hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s values in

terms of their intensity.

[Prioritizing the values]

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Generational Values

 Different generations:
 Like boomers want to stay in office for longer hours  loyal, dedication
 Gen X & Y focus on work life balance.

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Person-Job Fit

 Match a job requirement with a personality characteristics is best way to hire

candidate.

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Person-Organization Fit

 Researchers also focus on matching a people to organization

as well as to any specific jobs.
 If organization faces a dynamic and changing environment they require
employees to:
 Readily change tasks and move easily between teams.
 It is important that employee’s personality fit with the organization’s culture
than only with characteristics of any specific job.

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International Values (Hofstede’s framework)

 Power distance describes the degree to which people in a country accept that
power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. A high power
distance means large inequalities of power and wealth exist and are tolerated
in the culture, as in a class or caste system that discourages upward mobility.
A low power distance rating characterizes societies that stress equality and
opportunity.
 Individualism versus collectivism. Individualism is the degree to which people prefer
to act as individuals rather than as members of groups and believe in an individual’s
rights above all else. Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which
people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect
them.

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 Masculinity versus femininity. Masculinity is the degree to which the culture
favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control, as
opposed to viewing men and women as equals. A high masculinity rating
indicates the culture has separate roles for men and women, with men
dominating the society. A high femininity rating means the culture sees little
differentiation between male and female roles and treats women as the equals
of men in all respects.
 Uncertainty avoidance. In cultures scoring high on uncertainty avoidance,
people have increased anxiety about uncertainty and ambiguity and use laws
and controls to reduce uncertainty. People in cultures low on uncertainty
avoidance are more accepting of ambiguity, are less rule oriented, take more
risks, and more readily accept change.

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 Long-term versus short-term orientation. People in a culture with long-
term orientation look to the future and value thrift, persistence, and tradition.
 In a short-term orientation, people value the here and now; they also accept
change more readily and don’t see commitments as impediments to change.

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