Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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.
4-0
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
4-1
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
4-2
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.
4-3
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.
4-4
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.
4-5
Personality Traits
Two dominant frameworks used to describe personality:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Big Five Model
4-6
Intuitive (N)
Judging (J)
Perceiving (P)
4-8
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.
4-12
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.
4-13
4-15
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.
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
4-18
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.
4-19
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
4-20
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
4-21
Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one s terminal values. Ex- ambitious, broad minded, cheerful etc.
4-23
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
4-25
4-26