MHR 640 Lecture 2

MHR 640 Lecture 2
Chapter 2: Personality, Self-Awareness, and Trait Theory
Personality
The unique organization of characteristics which define an individual and determine that
person’s pattern of interaction with the environment -Allporte, 1961
- All of the ways a person interacts with others and how they react to others
Personality predicts
- Reactions to organizational change
- Performance at work
- Group functioning, conflict, performance
- Reaction to/performance in training and learning situations
- Leadership
Popular vs Science-based Approaches

Popular
1. Not reliable
- Get different results each time
2. Not valid
- Does Not predict work performance
3. Assumes personality is a category (this or that)
Science-based
1. Reliable
- Consistent questions
2. Valid
- Questions related to what we want to know
- Predicts performance? Leadership? etc
3. Continuous measurement (talk about as more or less of a trait)
4. Interactionist perspective: person factors + environmental factors = behaviour
Situation Strength
1. Strong situation
- Personality weak predictor of behaviour
2. Weak situation
- Personality strong predictor of behaviour
Brian Little: Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality

https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality?language
=en
- Openness and conscientiousness are good predictors of success
- Conscientiousness stick to deadlines, perseverance, and passion
- Extraversion and agreeableness: working well with others
MHR 640 Lecture 2
- Introverts are not necessarily anti-social but do better when they lower levels of
stimulation
- Are we just a bunch of traits? No. we are like some other people and like no other
people.
- What makes us different? The doings in life, our personal and core projects.
- “I am an introvert but i have a core project to be a professor, so we act in an extroverted
way to keep students motivated and engaged”
- Acting out of character needs care: repair oneself
HEXACO
- Honesty-humility
- Emotionality
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Openness to experience
Honesty-Humility
1. High scores
- Avoid manipulating others for personal gain
- Feel little temptation to break rules
- Are uninterested in lavish wealth and luxuries
- Feel no special entitlement to be elevated in social status
2. Low scores
- Flatter others to get what they want
- Inclined to break rules for personal profit
- Are motivated by material gain
- Feel a strong sense of self-importance
Emotionality (Emotional Stability, Neuroticism)

1. High scores
- Fear physical dangers
- Experience anxiety in response to life’s stresses
- Feel a need for emotional support from others
- Feel empathy and sentimental attachments with others
2. Low scores
- Not deterred by the prospect of physical harm
- Feel little worry even in stressful situations
- Have little need to share their concerns with others
- Feel emotionally detached from others
Extroversion
1. High scores
- Feel positively about themselves
MHR 640 Lecture 2
- Feel confident when leading or addressing groups of people

- Enjoy social gatherings and interactions
- Experience positive feelings of enthusiasm and energy
2. Low scores
- Consider themselves unpopular
- Feel awkward when they are the center of social attention
- Are indifferent to social activities
- Feel less lively and optimistic than others do
Agreeableness
1. High scores
- Forgive the wrongs that they suffered
- Are lenient in judging others
- Are willing to compromise and cooperate with others
- Can easily control their temper
2. Low scores
- Hold grudges against those who have harmed them
- Are critical of others’ shortcomings
- Are stubborn in defending their point of view
- Feel anger readily in response to mistreatment
Conscientiousness
1. High scores
- Organize their time and their physical surroundings
- Work in a disciplined way toward their goals
- Strive for accuracy and perfection in their tasks
- Deliberate carefully when making decisions
2. Low scores
- Unconcerned with orderly surroundings or schedules
- Avoid difficult tasks or challenging goals
- Are satisfied with work that contains some errors
- Make decisions on impulse or with little reflection
Openness to experience
1. High scores
- Are absorbed in the beauty of art and nature
- Are inquisitive about various domains of knowledge
- Use their imagination freely in everyday life
- Take an interest in unusual ideas or people
2. Low scores
- Rather unimpressed by most works of art
- Feel little intellectual curiosity
- Avoid creative pursuits
- Feel little attraction toward ideas that may seem radical or unconventional
MHR 640 Lecture 2
Self-Awareness
Individuals who are self-aware:
- Understand who they are and their unique personality characteristics
- Understand their preferred learning styles, strengths, areas for improvement, values, etc.
- Set appropriate goals
- Are better able to manage stress
- Understand how others perceive them
Self-awareness is important for leaderships because:

- They need to manage downward (subordinates, mentor) and upward (conversations with
supervisors/boss about learning style etc)
- Individuals who are self-aware tend to be superior to both
What is a Trait?
- Relatively enduring characteristic of a person
- May change slowly over time but relatively stable
- A way in which people differ from one another
- Talk about as a quantity (more or less of something)
- Traits are dispositions
- Represents a tendency to act a certain way in a situation
Trait Approach to Leadership

- Earliest researchers believed
- Some people are natural leaders
- Early assumptions
- Leaders have traits that distinguish them from non-leaders
- Next phase – focused on effectiveness
- Effective leaders have traits that distinguish them from ineffective leaders
- Problem:
- Traits aren’t “all or none”
- Over 170 traits
- Modern/current research is more sophisticated
- Traits are a precondition
Personality and Leadership

- In 2002 (meta-analysis: all data of research combined):
- Extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience
positively related to leader emergence and effectiveness (both positively)
- In 2022 (meta-analysis):
- Agreeableness positively related to leader emergence and effectiveness
- Different personality traits may be more strongly related to different leadership
styles/theories
- For example: Extroversion – Charismatic leadership; Honesty-Humility – Ethical
leadership
MHR 640 Lecture 2
Trait Approach Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
- Can help guide leader selection
- Helps with leadership preparation
Limitations:
- Which traits/characteristics are absolutely needed?
- How much of a trait/characteristic is needed?
- For example: High or average conscientiousness?

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MHR 640 Lecture 2

Chapter 2: Personality, Self-Awareness, and Trait Theory

Popular vs Science-based Approaches

Brian Little: Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality

Emotionality (Emotional Stability, Neuroticism)

- Feel confident when leading or addressing groups of people

Self-awareness is important for leaderships because:

Trait Approach to Leadership

Personality and Leadership

Trait Approach Strengths & Weaknesses

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