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Personality and Values

Define Personality, Personality Determinants, Personality Traits Relevant to OB, The Importance of Values, Terminal Versus Instrumental Values, Generational Values, Linking an Individual's Personality and Values to the Workplace.

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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 How people affect others and how they understand view themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and the person-situation intervention.

 Measuring Personality
Helpful in hiring decisions Most common method: self-reporting surveys Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent assessment of personality often better predictors
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Personality Determinants
 Heredity
Factors determined at conception: physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biorhythms This Heredity Approach argues that genes are the source of personality Twin studies: raised apart but very similar personalities Parents don t add much to personality development There is some personality change over long time periods
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Personality Determinants
 Environment  Factors that exert pressures on our personality formation:
The culture in which we are raised Early conditioning Norms among our family Friends and social groups The environment we are exposed to plays a substantial role in shaping our personalities. Culture establishes the norms, attitudes, and values passed from one generation to the next and create consistencies over time. The arguments for heredity or environment as the primary determinant of personality are both important. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an individual s full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment.

   

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Personality Determinants
Situation: Influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one s personality. There is no classification scheme that tells the impact of various types of situations. Situations seem to differ substantially in the constraints they impose on behavior.

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Personality Traits
Personality Traits -are 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. Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid. These are personality traits. The more consistent the characteristic, the more frequently it occurs, the more important it is. Trait can be common in individual but may vary in absolute term. Researchers believe that personality traits can help in employee selection, job fit, and career development.

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Personality Traits
Two dominant frameworks used to describe personality:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Big Five Model

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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator


 Most widely used instrument in the world. Participants are classified on four characteristics to determine one of 16 possible personality types, such as ENTJ. Sociable and Assertive
Extroverted (E) Introverted (I)

Quiet and Shy Unconscious Processes


Feeling (F)

Practical and Orderly

Sensing (S) Thinking (T)

Intuitive (N)

Use Reason and Logic

Uses Values & Emotions Flexible and Spontaneous

Want Order & Structure

Judging (J)

Perceiving (P)

Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a name, for instance:


Visionaries (INTJ) (Introvert, Intutive, thinking, Judging) original, stubborn, and driven. Organizers (ESTJ)(Extrovert, sensing, thinking, judjing) realistic, logical, analytical, and businesslike. Conceptualizer (ENTP)(extrovert, intuitive, thinking, perceiving) entrepreneurial, innovative, individualistic, 4-7 and resourceful.

The Types and Their Uses


 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.

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The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions


Recent research gave 5 dimensions underlies all others and encompass most of the significant variation in human personalities
Extroversion Sociable, gregarious, and assertive Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting Agreeableness Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized Conscientiousness Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus nervous, depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)

Emotional Stability Openness to Experience

Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive


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The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions


Extraversion. Comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet. Agreeableness. Individual s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness people cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. Conscientiousness. A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable. Emotional stability. A person s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure. Openness to experience. The range of interests and fascination with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the openness category are 4-10 conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

How Do the Big Five Traits Predict Behavior?


 Research has shown this to be a better framework.  Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to higher job performance:.
Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction. Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good social skills. Extroversion predicts performance in managerial and sales positions. The results showed that conscientiousness predicted job performance for all occupational groups. Employees higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge. Open people are more creative and can be good leaders. Openness to experience is important in predicting training proficiency. 4-11 Agreeable people are good in social settings.

Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB


 Core Self-Evaluation
The degree to which people like or dislike themselves Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance People who have a positive core self-evaluation see themselves as effective, capable, and in control, more goal oriented ,set higher and ambitious goals . People who have a negative core self-evaluation tend to dislike themselves.

 Machiavellianism
A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who believes that ends justify the means. High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and persuade more than they are persuaded. Flourish when:
They flourish when direct interaction Work with minimal rules and regulations Emotions distract others

 Named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to gain and use power.
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Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB


 High Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors  High Machs make good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or that offer substantial rewards for winning.

 Narcissism
An arrogant, entitled, self-important person who needs excessive admiration. Less effective in their jobs. Describes a person who has a grandiose sense of selfimportance. They think they are better leaders. Often they are selfish and exploitive. Less effective at their job specially when its comes to help others.

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More Relevant Personality Traits


Self-Monitoring
 This refers to an individual s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.  Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different situations, and are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private self.  Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation resulting in a high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.  The research on self-monitoring is in its infancy, so predictions must be guarded. Preliminary evidence suggests:
High self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of others. High self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers and receive more promotions. High self-monitor is capable of putting on different faces for different audiences. High monitors conform more and are more likely to become leaders.
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More Relevant Personality Traits


 Risk Taking
The willingness to take chances. May be best to align propensities with job requirements. Risk takers make faster decisions with less information. The propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it takes managers to make a decision and how much information they require before making their choice. High risk-taking managers make more rapid decisions and use less information in making their choices. Managers in large organizations tend to be risk averse; especially in contrast with growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Makes sense to consider aligning risk-taking propensity with specific job demands.

  

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Even More Relevant Personality Traits


 Type A Personality

Aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more in less time and, if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.
They are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly, are impatient with the rate at which most events take place, Strive to think or do two or more things at once Cannot cope with leisure time Obsessed with achievement numbers They are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.

Prized in North America but quality of the work is low


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Even More Relevant Personality Traits


 Type B Personality  In contrast to the Type A personality is the Type B Personality.
Type B s never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience. Type B s feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation. Type B s play for fun and relaxation, rather than exhibit their superiority at any cost. They can relax without guilt.

 Type A personality compared to Type B personality


Type A s operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They subject themselves to continuous time pressure, are fast workers, quantity over quality, work long hours, and are also rarely creative. Type A s behavior is easier to predict than that of Type B s. Do Type A s differ from Type B s in their ability to get hired?

 Type A s do better in job interviews; are more likely to be judged as having desirable traits such as high drive, competence, and success motivation. 4-17

Even More Relevant Personality Traits


 Proactive Personality- Actively taking the initiative to improve their current circumstances while others sit by passively.

Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and perseveres to completion Creates positive change in the environment More likely to be seen as leaders and change agents More likely to achieve career success

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Values
Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to live your life that is personally or socially preferable How To live life properly. Values represent basic convictions:
There is a judgmental element of what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. Values are not generally fluid and flexible. They tend to be relatively stable and enduring. A significant portion of the values we hold is established in our early years from parents, teachers, friends, and others.
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Value
 Attributes of Values:
Content Attribute that the mode of conduct or endstate is important Intensity Attribute just how important that content is.

 Value System
A person s values rank ordered by intensity Tends to be relatively constant and consistent

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Importance of Values
 Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and behaviors  Influence our perception of the world around us  Represent interpretations of right and wrong  Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others

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Classifying Values Rokeach Value Survey


 Terminal Values
Conviction about desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime- comfortable life, exciting life, peace, etc

 Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one s terminal values. Ex- ambitious, broad minded, cheerful etc.

 People in same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values


But values vary between groups Value differences make it difficult for groups to negotiate and may create conflict
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Values in the Rokeach Survey

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Linking Personality and Values to the Workplace Managers are less interested in someone s ability to do a specific job than in that person s flexibility.
Person-Job Fit: personality attributes helps in understanding the relationship between job performance and personality characteristic.
John Holland s Personality-Job Fit Theory Six personality types and the congruent occupation Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) Key Points of the Model: There appear to be intrinsic differences in personality between people There are different types of jobs People in jobs congruent with their personality should be 4-24 more satisfied and have lower turnover

Holland s Personality Typology & Occupations

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Relationships Among Personality Types

The closer the occupational fields, the more compatible.

The further apart the fields, the more dissimilar.

Need to match personality type with occupation.

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Still Linking Personality to the Workplace


In addition to matching the individual s personality to the job, managers are also concerned with:
Person-Organization Fit: Values -Often explain attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions
Higher performance and satisfaction achieved when the individual s values match those of the organization. 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.
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