Major Personality attributes influencing OB

(1) Authoritarianism,
(2) Bureaucratic Personality,
(3) Machiavellianism,
(4) Introversion and Extroversion,
(5) Problem Solving Style,
(6) Achievement Orientation,
(7) Locus of Control,
(8) Self Esteem,
(9) Self Monitoring,
(10)Risk Taking,
(11)‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ Personality, and
(12)Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Authoritarianism,
• Authoritarians tend to place high moral value on their beliefs and are
strongly oriented towards conformity of rules and regulations.
• They naturally prefer stable and structured work environments which
are governed by clean rules and procedures.
• They believe obedience and respect for authority and blind acceptance
of authority.
• Good followers
• Work better under supervision
Bureaucratic Personality,

• Respect for organizational rules and regulations

• Believes in subordination, formal relationships
• Not innovative
• Do not take risk
• Feel at ease at following established directions
Machiavellianism,

Characteristics of Machs:
• Focused on their own interests
• Manipulate
• Deceive and exploit others to achieve their goals
• Seek control over others
• Maintains emotional distance
• High self confidence and high self esteem
Introversion and Extroversion,
Problem Solving Style

Problem solving styles

1. Sensation feeling style:- Dependable, friendly, social and approach
facts with human concerns.
2. Sensation Thinking Style:- Practical, logical, and sensitive to details.
These people prefer bureaucratic type organisations. Not suitable for
jobs require highly interpersonal relations. Suitable for technical
jobs.
Problem Solving Style
3. Intuition Feeling Style:- Enthusiastic, people oriented, charismatic
and helpful. Eg: PROs, advertsising, politics etc
4. Intuition Thinking Style:- Creative, energetic, ingenious etc.

Law, research and development, Management positions

Achievement Orientation,
• Strive to do things in a better way.
• Love to take risky assignments so that they feel the sense of
achievement
• Better in sports, management and sales.
Locus of Control
Locus of control refers to an individual’s belief that events are either
within one’s control (Internal Locus of Control) or are determined by
forces beyond one’s control (External Locus of Control).

Some people believe that they are the masters of their own fate.
(Internal)

Other people see themselves as pawns of fate, believing that whatever

happens to them in their lives is due to their luck or fate. (External)
Self Esteem
(i) High self esteem people believe that they possess the ability
they need to succeed at work.
(ii) Individuals with high self esteem will take more risks in job
selection.
(iii) People with low self esteem are more sensible to external
influence than are those with high self esteems. Low esteems are
dependent on the receipt of positive evaluations from others.
(iv) In managerial positions, the low esteems tend to be
concerned with pleasing others and, therefore, less likely to take
unpopular stands than are high esteems.
Self Esteem
(v) High esteems are more satisfied with their job than the
low esteems.
(vi) High self esteem people are very friendly, affectionate,
find it easy to form interpersonal attachments and find
good in other people. Low self esteem people are usually
critical of others, are generally depressed and blame others
for their own failures.
(vii) High esteem people are high performers while low
esteem people contribute to poor performance which in
turn reinforces low self esteem.
Self Monitoring
“Self monitoring is a personality trait that measures an individual’s
ability to adjust his or her behaviour to external situational factors”
• High self monitors can behave differently in different situations. Low
self monitors cannot deviate their behaviour.
• They tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in every
situation; hence, there is high behavioural consistency between who
they are and what they do.
Risk Taking

• It will affect the decision-making capacity of a manager.

• Conscious and impulsive people
• Impulsive – rapid decisions with less information
• Conscious – Low risk taking
• But the results are same

• Brokerage firm and audit

‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ Personality
‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ Personality
‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ Personality
‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ Personality

Despite Type ‘A’s hard work, the Type ‘B’ people are the ones who
appear to make it to the top. Great sales persons are usually Type A’s
while senior executives are generally Type B’s.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Briggs and Myers developed the Myers – Briggs type indicator (MBTI) a
personality test that measured each of the traits

MBTI is one of the most widely used personality tests. It is used by many
organisations to select people for a particular position.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

It measures how people focus their attention (extrovert or introvert),

collect information (sensing or intuition), process the same (thinking or
feeling) and finally direct themselves to the other world (judging or
perceiving)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)