What is Personality?

How individual’s psychological

system adjust with the
environment
 What is Personality?
The dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his unique
adjustments to his environment. - Gordon Allport.
– The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, the measurable traits a person
exhibits
•Measuring Personality
– Helpful in hiring decisions
– Most common method: self-reporting surveys
– Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality – often better predictors
 Determinants of Personality

• Heredity

• Environment
 Personality
• Heredity

– Young Children
– Identical twins
– Job satisfaction
 Personality
• Environment

– Culture
• Norms
• Attitudes
• Values

– Is Personality persistent?
 Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior
– The more consistent the characteristic and the more
frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the more
important the trait.
•Two dominant frameworks used to describe personality:
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
– Big Five Model
 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Most widely used instrument in the world.
• Participants are classified on four axes to determine one
of 16 possible personality types, such as ENTJ.

Sociable and Quiet and

Assertive Shy

Practical and Unconscious

Orderly Processes

Use Reason Uses Values

and Logic & Emotions

Want Order Flexible and

& Structure Spontaneous
 The Types and Their Uses
• Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a name, for
instance:
– Visionaries (INTJ) – original, stubborn, and driven.
– Organizers (ESTJ) – realistic, logical, analytical, and
businesslike.
– Conceptualizer (ENTP) – entrepreneurial, innovative,
individualistic, and resourceful.

• Research results on validity mixed.

– MBTI® is a good tool for self-awareness and counseling.
– Should not be used as a selection test for job candidates.
The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions
 Personality and OB
• Conscientiousness
– OCB
• Extroverted
– Sale , management
• Openness to experience
– Training efficiency
• Emotional stability
–?
 Personality and life

• Extroverted
• Agreeable
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional stability
• Openness to experience
 Personality tests

• Myer Briggs type indicator

• Big Five
 Measuring personality

• Self – reporting
• Observer – rating
• Projective measures
– Rorschach Inkblot Test
– Thematic apperception test

Problems????
 Personality Test at work
• Positives
– Same criteria
– Record
– Specific results
– Fairness
– Comprehensive
– Scientific
 Personality Test at work
• Negatives

– Can be fake
– Insufficient self insight
– May miss crucial aspects
– Interpretation
 Personality and OB
• Cattell 16PF

• DISC (Drive, Influence, Steadiness,

Compliance)
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB
• Core self evaluations

– Self esteem
– Internals and externals

Positives vs Negatives
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB

• Machiavellianism

• Narcissism
 More Relevant Personality Traits
• Self-Monitoring
– The ability to adjust behavior to meet external, situational
factors.
– High monitors conform more and are more likely to
become leaders.

• Risk Taking
– The willingness to take chances.
– May be best to align propensities with job requirements.
– Risk takers make faster decisions with less information.
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB
• Risk taking vs Risk avoidance

– Rapid
– Using less information
– Matches with growth
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB
• Type A
– Always moving and walking
– Feel impatient with the rate of events
– Try doing two things at one time
– Obsessed with numbers
– Cannot enjoy leisure
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB
• Type B
– Never suffer urgency
– Feel no need to display their achievements
– Can relax without guilt

• Quality vs Quantity
• Creativeness
• Ability to be hired
 Major Personality attributes
influencing OB
• Proactive personality

– Leaders
– Challenge the status quo
– More likely to seek jobs
– More likely to leave jobs
Learning
Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result
of experience
•Learning components:
Theories of Learning
• Classical Conditioning
• A type of conditioning in which an individual responds to some stimulus
that would not ordinarily produce such a response.
• Operant Conditioning
• A type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward
or prevents a punishment.
• Social-Learning Theory
• People can learn through observation and direct experience.
Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov’s Dog Drool

• Key Concepts:
• Unconditioned stimulus
• A naturally occurring phenomenon.
• Unconditioned response
• The naturally occurring response to a natural stimulus.
• Conditioned stimulus
• An artificial stimulus introduced into the situation.
• Conditioned response
• The response to the artificial stimulus.
This is a passive form of learning. It is reflexive and not voluntary –.
Operant Conditioning

• B. F. Skinner’s concept of Behaviorism: behavior follows stimuli in a

relatively unthinking manner.
• Key Concepts:
• Conditioned behavior: voluntary behavior that is learned, not reflexive.
• Reinforcement: the consequences of behavior which can increase or
decrease the likelihood of behavior repetition.
• Pleasing consequences increase likelihood of repetition.
• Rewards are most effective immediately after performance.
• Unrewarded/punished behavior is unlikely to be repeated.
Social-Learning Theory

• Based on the idea that people can also learn indirectly: by

observation, reading, or just hearing about someone else’s – a
model’s – experiences.
• Key Concepts:
• Attentional processes
• Must recognize and pay attention to critical features to learn.
• Retention processes
• Model’s actions must be remembered to be learned.
• Motor reproduction processes
• Watching the model’s behavior must be converted to doing.
• Reinforcement processes
• Positive incentives motivate learners.
Shaping: A Managerial Tool

Systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves an

individual closer to the desired response.
•Four Methods of Shaping Behavior:
• Positive reinforcement
• Providing a reward for a desired behavior (learning)
• Negative reinforcement
• Removing an unpleasant consequence when the desired behavior occurs (learning)
• Punishment
• Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an undesirable behavior (“unlearning”)
• Extinction
• Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its cessation (“unlearning”)
Schedules of Reinforcement: A
Critical Issue
• Two Major Types:
• Continuous Reinforcement
• A desired behavior is reinforced each time it is demonstrated
• Intermittent Reinforcement
• A desired behavior is reinforced often enough to make the behavior worth repeating
but not every time it is demonstrated
• Multiple frequencies
Types of Intermittent Reinforcement
• Ratio
• Depends on the number of responses made.
• Interval
• Depends on the time between reinforcements.
• Fixed
• Rewards are spaced at uniform time intervals or after
a set number of responses.
• Variable
• Rewards that are unpredictable or that vary relative
to the behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed-ratio
Behavior Modification (OB Mod)
The application of reinforcement concepts to individuals in the work
setting
•Follows the Five-Step Problem-Solving Model
Problems with OB Mod and
Reinforcement
• OB Mod ignores thoughts and feelings.
• OB Mod may not explain complex behaviors that involve thinking
and feeling.
• Stimuli may not be consciously given as a means of shaping
behavior.

Modern managers and

OB theorists are using
cognitive approaches to
shaping behavior.
Summary and Managerial
Implications
• Three Individual Variables:
• Ability
• Directly influences employees level of performance.
• Managers need to focus on ability in selection, promotion, and transfer.
• Fine-tune job to fit incumbent’s abilities.
• Biographical Characteristics
• Should not be used in management decisions: possible source of bias.
• Learning
• Observable change in behavior = learning.
• Reinforcement works better than punishment.
Values?
 Values
• A basic conviction that a specific conduct or
result is acceptable against an opposite
conduct or result.
– Intensity depends how important it is
– Learned in pure black and white form
– Stable and enduring

• Importance
 Type of values
• Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)
– Terminal values
– Instrumental values

• Hierarchy of Values may differ among people

Values in the Rokeach Survey
Value Differences Between Groups

Source: Based on W. C. Frederick and J. Weber, “The Values of Corporate Managers and Their Critics: An Empirical Description and Normative Implications,” in
W. C. Frederick and L. E. Preston (eds.) Business Ethics: Research Issues and Empirical Studies (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1990), pp. 123–44.
 Values Across Cultures
• Hofstede’s Framework of assessing culture

– Power distance
– Individualism vs collectivism
– Masculinity vs Femininity
– Uncertainty avoidance
– Long-term vs short-term orientation
 Hofstede’s Framework: Power Distance
The extent to which a society accepts that power in
institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
•Low distance
•Relatively equal power
between those with
status/wealth and those
without status/wealth
•High distance
•Extremely unequal power
distribution between those
with status/wealth and
those without status/wealth
 Hofstede’s Framework:
Individualism
• Individualism
– The degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than a
member of groups
• Collectivism
– A tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of
which they are a part to look after them and protect them

Versus
Hofstede’s Framework: Masculinity
• Masculinity
– The extent to which the society values work roles of achievement,
power, and control, and where assertiveness and materialism are also
valued
• Femininity
– The extent to which there is little differentiation between roles for
men and women

Versus
Hofstede’s Framework: Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by
uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid
them

High Uncertainty Avoidance:

Society does not like ambiguous
situations and tries to avoid them.
Low Uncertainty Avoidance:
Society does not mind ambiguous
situations and embraces them.
 Hofstede’s Framework: Time Orientation
• Long-term Orientation
– A national culture attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and
persistence
• Short-term Orientation
– A national culture attribute that emphasizes the present and the here
and now
 Values Across Cultures
• The GLOBE framework for assessing cultures
– Assertiveness
– Future orientation
– Gender differences
– Uncertainty avoidance
– Power distance
– Individualism vs collectivism
– In-group collectivist
– Performance orientation
– Human orientation
 Loyalty and Integrity
• Integrity
– Based on ethical judgment and a sense of
responsibility

• Loyalty
– Unthinking faithfulness
 Loyalty and Integrity
• Society
– Anonymous / public speaking
• Civil association
– Lying to protect the group / group speak publically
• Organization
– Cover the wrong doing/ trying to persuade org. to put the
things right
• Self
– Protect self , seek advantage/ resign , refuse to be bought
 Values- A Muslim perspective
• Self effort
– Economic development
• Riba
– Unreasonable/ welfare GOVT. concept
• Objective judgment vs subjective judgment
– Employ the whole man (Peter Drucker)
• Consensus building
– MBO
• Organization as community
– Modern economic system
• Past orientation
– Less planning/ Risk taking
• Legal / Moral
– Islamic Work Ethics (IWE)
 Relationships Among Personality
Types

The closer the

occupational The further apart
fields, the more the fields, the
compatible. more dissimilar.
 Linking Personality to the Workplace
In addition to matching the individual’s personality to the job,
managers are also concerned with:

•Person-Organization Fit:
– The employee’s personality must fit with the organizational
culture.
– People are attracted to organizations that match their
values.
– Those who match are most likely to be selected.
– Mismatches will result in turnover.
– Can use the Big Five personality types to match to the
organizational culture.
 Person-Organization Fit
• Personality and organization culture
– Extroversion / aggressive team oriented
– Openness to experience / innovation, less
standardization

• Commitment
• Low turnover
 Summary and Managerial
Implications
• Personality
– Screen for the Big Five trait of conscientiousness
– Take into account the situational factors as well
– MBTI® can help with training and development

• Values
– Often explain attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions
– Higher performance and satisfaction achieved when the
individual’s values match those of the organization.