Personality

PersonalityPersonalityDr. Bindu Gupta

PersonalityPersonality

The relatively stable set of

characteristics that influences an

individual’s behavior and lend it

consistency.

What is Personality?What is Personality?

The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others, measurable traits a person exhibits

What is Personality?What is Personality?

“Those relatively 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”

The Role of Personality in The Role of Personality in Organizational BehaviorOrganizational BehaviorBehavior usually results both from

the characteristics of individual and the nature of situation

An important determinant of behavior in organizations, ◦with several aspects of the

environment, it is one of many factors that may be involved

Variables Influencing Individual Variables Influencing Individual BehaviorBehavior

The Role of Personality in The Role of Personality in Organizational BehaviorOrganizational Behavior

A few words of caution about personality◦ Some personality characteristics are useful in

certain organizational situations.

◦ No best personality, and managers need to appreciate the advantages of employee diversity

◦ A key concept here is fit, putting the right person in the right job

◦ Personality will have the most impact in “weak” situations – with loosely defined roles, few rules, and weak reinforcement and punishment contingencies

Personality Characteristics Personality Characteristics in Organizationsin Organizations

A strong situation can

overwhelm the effectsof individual personalitiesby providing strong cuesfor appropriate behavior

Strong personalities

will dominatein a weaksituation


Sources of Personality DifferencesSources of Personality Differences

Environment* Culture* Family* Group Membership* Life Experiences

Heredity

Personality

Personality Traits Personality Traits The Five-Factor Model of

PersonalityMBTI

The Big Five Model of Personality The Big Five Model of Personality DimensionsDimensionsExtroversionSociable, gregarious, and assertive

AgreeablenessGood-natured, cooperative, and trusting

ConscientiousnessResponsible, dependable, persistent, and organized

Openness to ExperienceCurious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive

Emotional StabilityCalm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus nervous, depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)

in the interview from both your perspective and the company’s.

In a best-seller, Built to Last, by Collins and Porras, they discovered that many companies, as part of long-term success, have very strong cultures that in many ways dictate a certain personality type if one is to be successful.

For example, if you work at 3M, a high score on Openness to Experience would be an almost necessary personality attribute or trait, because the culture is built around innovation, change, and creativity.

At Nordstrom’s, culture demands high scores on extraversion and agreeability and are essential traits to possess.

If you are low on either of these, the Nordstrom culture is probably not the place for you.

Knowing your own personality and the culture of the company can save both parties much time, effort, and money if the culture is strong and has fairly specific expectations around behavioral patterns.

Jung’s Psychological Types and Jung’s Psychological Types and Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorMyers-Briggs Type IndicatorMBTI

Major Personality Attributes Major Personality Attributes Influencing OBInfluencing OB

Self-Esteem

Locus of Control

Machiavellianism

Self-Monitoring

Risk Taking

Type A vs. Type B Personality

Proactive Personality

Self-MonitoringSelf-Monitoring

Self-Monitoring

A personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors

Self-MonitoringSelf-MonitoringBehavior based on cues

High self monitors◦ flexible: adjust

behavior according to the situation and the behavior of others

◦ can appear unpredictable and inconsistent

Low self monitors◦ act from internal

states rather than from situational cues

◦ show consistency◦ less likely to

respond to work group norms or supervisory feedback

WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO. . .WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO. . . Low self monitors

High self monitors

Get promoted

Change employers

Make a job-related geographic move

Self-MonitoringSelf-Monitoring

In advertising, high self-monitors respond more to image-based ads that promise to make them look good, whilst low self-monitors respond better to product-based ads and prefer high quality goods.

Locus of ControlLocus of Control

Locus of Control

The degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate

•Internals (Internal locus of control) Individuals who believe that they control what happens to them

•Externals (External locus of control)Individuals who believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance


Locus of ControlInternal External

I control what happens to me!

People and circumstances

control my fate!

Locus of ControlLocus of Control Research Findings on Locus of Control

◦ Internals displays greater worker motivation

◦ Internals have stronger expectations that efforts leads to performance

◦ Internals exhibit higher performance on task involving learning or problems solving when performance leads to valued rewards

◦ There is stronger relationships between job satisfaction and performance for internals than externals

Core Self-Evaluation: Two Main Core Self-Evaluation: Two Main ComponentsComponentsSelf-Esteem – How well do you

like yourself? – people’s self-perceived competence and self-image

Assessment reflect responses to people and situations, successes and failures, and the opinions of others

Self-EsteemSelf-Esteem

Success tendsto increaseself-esteem

Failure tendsto decreaseself-esteem

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Self-esteem affects behavior in

organizations and other social settings in several important ways

Related to initial vocational choice

◦Take more risk in job selection, are attracted to high status occupations, and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs that people low in self-esteem

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)A study of college students looking for

jobs reported that those with high self-esteem◦ Received more favorable evaluations from

recruiters◦ Were more satisfied with the job search◦ Receive more job offers◦ Were more likely to accept jobs before

graduation than were students with low-self esteem

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Self-esteem is also related to

numerous behavior

◦Employees with low self-esteem more easily influenced by opinions of others Set lower goals More susceptible to adverse job conditions tend to be uncertain about the correctness

of their opinion, attitudes, and behaviors

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Those with high self-esteem

◦report more positive attitudes, feelings, and life satisfaction and less anxiety, hopelessness and depressive symptoms

◦feel unique, competent, secure, empowered, and connected to people around them

Self-EfficacySelf-Efficacy

beliefs and expectations about

one’s ability to accomplish a

specific task effectively


Sources of self-efficacyPrior experiences and prior successBehavior models (observing success)PersuasionAssessment of current physical and emotional capabilities

Sources of self-efficacyPrior experiences and prior successBehavior models (observing success)PersuasionAssessment of current physical and emotional capabilities

The Role of AffectThe Role of Affect

Positive Affect – an individual’s tendency to accentuate the positive aspects of oneself, other people, and the world in general

Negative Affect – an individual’s tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of oneself, other people, and the world in general

MachiavellianismMachiavellianism

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction with others

• Minimal rules and regulations

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction with others

• Minimal rules and regulations

Machiavellianism (Mach)

Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Machiavellianism (cont.)

◦ What specific tactics are signs that someone is a high Mach?

◦ Machs may be expected to do the following Neglect to share information Find subtle ways of making you look bad to

management Fail to meet their obligations Spread false rumors about you

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Machiavellianism (cont.)Handling High Machs

◦ Expose them to others – publicly confront them with their actions and false statements they have made

◦ Avoid situations that give high Machs an edge – high Machs prefer to operate in situations where other people’s emotions run high and the person they wish to manipulate are unsure how to proceed

Usually wise to avoid such situations whenever you can

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)

High Risk-taking Managers◦ Make quicker decisions.◦ Use less information to make decisions.◦ Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial

organizations. Low Risk-taking Managers

◦ Are slower to make decisions.◦ Require more information before making decisions.◦ Exist in larger organizations with stable

environments. Risk Propensity

◦ Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job requirements should be beneficial to organizations.

Type A Personality Type A Personality Type A

◦ Impatient and always moving, eating, doing something

◦ Obsessed with numbers

◦ Try to do more than one thing at a time

◦ Fast, hard workers; emphasize quantity

Type B◦ Do not suffer

from time urgency

◦ Feel little need to display or discuss achievements

◦ Play for fun and relaxation, without guilt

◦ More creative

According to Silicon valley consultant, Type A executives can exhibit stress in one of the four ways

Hostility/impatience – believe everyone is incompetent and so intimidate others, who then fear them

Compulsive/perfectionism – want to do everything themselves because they can’t live their own or others’ mistakes

Competitiveness – want to win at all cost

Chronic tension – are multitaskers who make others ill at ease by their hyperactivity

Other Personality Other Personality Characteristics (cont.)Characteristics (cont.)Type A’s and Task Performance

◦Type A’s do tend to work faster than type B’s on many tasks, even no pressure or deadlines

◦They can do work in the presence of distractions, tend to seek more difficult and challenging work than type B’s


◦BUT NOT ALWAYS SUPERIOR TO TYPE B’s

◦Type A perform poorly on task requiring patience or careful judgment


The question of whether Type A’s or Type B’s make more productive employees boils down to the issue of person-job fit

Type A may excel at tasks involving time pressure or solitary work

Type B’s - advantage in tasks involving complex judgment and accuracy as opposed to speed

Proactive PersonalityProactive Personality

◦ Actively taking the initiative to improve their current circumstances while others sit by passively

◦ Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere.

◦ Create positive change in their environment.

◦ More likely to be seen as leaders and change agents

◦ More likely to achieve career success

Personality

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