Chapter 5 - one’s biological, physiological, and inherent

Personality and Values psychological makeup.

Defining Personality - The heredity approach argues that the ultimate

- Enduring characteristics that describe an explanation of an individual’s personality is the
individual’s behavior. molecular structure of the genes, located in the
chromosomes.
- It is a dynamic concept describing the growth
and development of a person’s whole When someone exhibits these characteristics in a
psychological system. large number of situations, we call them personality
traits of that person.
- The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
to and interacts with others. Personality traits

- Most often described in terms of the measurable - Enduring characteristics that describe an
traits a person exhibits individual’s behavior.

Measuring Personality - In diverse situations, the more important that trait is

- The most important reason managers need to in describing the individual.
know how to measure personality is that research
has shown personality tests are useful in hiring The two most dominant frameworks for identifying
decisions and help managers forecast who is the and classifying traits
best for the job.
1. Myers-Briggs Type indicator
- The most common means of measuring  The most widely used personality assessment
personality is through self-report surveys. instrument in the world.

- The Weaknesses of self-report surveys are:  A personality test that taps four
characteristics and classifies people into 1 of
 If the respondent lies or practices impression 16 personality types.
management to create a good impression.
 When people know their personality scores - The MBTI has problems such as:
are going to be used for hiring decisions,
they rate themselves as about half a • It forces a person into one type or another,
standard deviation more conscientious and for example one person is only either
emotionally stable than if they are taking introverted or extroverted, no type in
the test just to learn more about themselves. between.
 Accuracy. A perfectly good candidate
could have been in a bad mood when • Lacks strong supporting evidence to its
taking the survey, and that will make the validity
scores less accurate.
2. Big Five Model
- Another way to measure personality is through
Observer-rating surveys. - A personality assessment model that taps five
basic dimensions.
 A co-worker or another observer does the
measuring with or without the subject’s The five basic dimensions are
knowledge.
1. Extraversion
 Research suggests observer-ratings surveys • A personality dimension describing someone who
are a better predictor of success on the job is sociable, gregarious, and assertive.

 However, an analysis of a large number of 2. Agreeableness

observer-reported personality studies shows • A personality dimension that describes someone
that a combination of self-report and who is good natured, cooperative, and trusting.
observer-reports predicts performance
better than any one type of information. 3. Conscientiousness
• A personality dimension that describes someone
 Conclusion: Use both observer ratings and who is responsible, dependable, persistent, and
self-report ratings of personality when organized.
making important employment decisions
4. Emotional stability
• A personality dimension that characterizes
Personality Determinants someone as calm, self-confident, secure (positive)
versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative).
- Early personality research showed personality was
the result of heredity or the environment 5. Openness to experience

- Further research shows that heredity is more • A personality dimension that characterizes
important than the environment someone in terms
of imagination, sensitivity, and curiosity.
Heredity
Research has found relationships between these
- Refers to the factors determined at conception. personality dimensions and job performance
"The preponderance of evidence shows that
individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful, 2. Machiavellianism
thorough, able to plan, organized, hardworking, • Named after Niccolo Machiavelli
persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have • Individuals high in this trait are more
higher job performance in most if not all pragmatic, maintains emotional distance
occupations.” said the authors of the most-cited and believes ends can justify means.
review
• Research shows they manipulate more, win
more, are persuaded more, and persuade
others more.

• They like their jobs less and are more

stressed.

• They flourish when:

- In face to face interactions

Employees who score high in conscientiousness
develop higher levels of job knowledge, perform - The situation has minimal rules and
well and are good at maintaining performance in regulations
the face of negative feedback.
- When emotional involvement with details
However, extremely conscientious individuals do irrelevant to winning distracts people
not perform better than those who are only above with less of the trait.
average in conscientiousness.
• They are productive in jobs that require
Conscientiousness is more important than the other bargaining skills or that offer substantial
traits because it is most consistently related to job rewards for winning
performance.
3. Narcissism
Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most • Describes a person who has a grandiose
strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, sense of self-importance, requires excessive
and low stress levels. admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and
is arrogant.

• Narcissists are more charismatic and are

more likely to emerge as leaders and may
even display better psychological health.

• Despite the advantage, the trait is

undesirable. Supervisors see them as worse
leaders than their colleagues

• “The difference between God and Larry is

that God does not believe he is Larry.”

4. Self Monitoring

• refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or

her behavior to external, situational factors.
Individuals who score high in openness are
especially susceptible to workplace accidents • People who have more of this trait are more
adaptive, more likely to emerge as leaders,
Extraverts tend to be more impulsive, engage in get more promotions, show less
risky behavior, and are more likely to lie in a job commitment to their organizations and are
interview. more mobile in their careers

A downside of agreeableness is that it is associated 5. Risk Taking

with lower levels of career success.
• The willingness to take risks.
Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
• High risk-taking managers made more rapid
1. Core Self-Evaluation decisions and used less information than did
the low risk takers. Interestingly, decision
• People with positive core self-evaluations accuracy was the same for both groups.
perform better than others, are more
committed to their goals and are persistent • The work population as a whole also differs
in achieving their goals. in risk propensity. It makes sense to recognize
these differences and even consider
• People with positive core self-evaluation are aligning them with specific job demands.
more satisfied with their job because they
see more challenge in their job and actually 6. Proactive Personality
attain more complex jobs. • People who identify opportunities, show
initiative, take action, and persevere until
• People being too positive can lead to them meaningful change occurs.
making bad decisions.
 • They are more likely to be seen as leaders, with his or her flexibility to meet changing situations
to be satisfies with work, help others more and commitment to the organization.
with their tasks and are more likely to
achieve career success. Person-Job Fit Theory by John Holland

7. Other orientation - A theory that identifies six personality types and

• People who think about other people a lot, proposes that the fit between personality type and
being concerned about their well-being occupational environment determines satisfaction
and feelings. and turnover.

• Employees high in other orientation also - The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and
exert especially high levels of effort when turnover lowest when personality and occupation
engaged in helping work or prosocial are in agreement. The closer two fields or
behavior. In sum, it appears that having a orientations are in the hexagon, the more
strong orientation toward helping others compatible they are. Adjacent categories are
does affect some behaviors that actually quite similar, whereas diagonally opposite ones are
matter for organizations. highly dissimilar.

Values - The key points of this model are:

- Basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct 1. There do appear to be intrinsic differences in
or end-state of existence is personally or socially personality among individuals.
preferable to an opposite or converse mode of
conduct or end-state of existence. 2. There are different types of jobs.

- Has content and intensity attributes 3. People in jobs congruent with their personality
should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily
• The content attribute says a mode of resign than people in incongruent jobs.
conduct or end-state of existence is
important. Person-Organization Fit

• The intensity attribute specifies how - The person–organization fit essentially argues that
important it is people are attracted to and selected by
organizations that match their values, and they
- Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring. leave organizations that are not compatible with
They are more often reinforced than changed their personalities.

Value System - Following these guidelines at the time of hiring

should identify new employees who fit better with
- A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s the organization’s culture, which should, in turn,
values in terms of their intensity. result in higher employee satisfaction and reduced
turnover
The Importance of Values
International Values
- They lay the foundation for our understanding of
people’s attitudes and motivation and influence - One of the most widely referenced approaches
our perceptions. for analyzing variations among cultures was done in
the late 1970s by Geert Hofstede
Rokeach Value Survey
1. Power Distance
- Created by Milton Rokeach
• describes the degree to which people in a
- Consists of two sets of values, each containing 18 country accept that power in institutions
individual value items and organizations is distributed unequally.

• Terminal Values • A high rating on power distance means that

large inequalities of power and wealth exist
- refers to desirable end-states. and are tolerated in the culture, as in a class
or caste system that discourages upward
- These are the goals a person would like to achieve mobility.
during his or her lifetime.
2. Individualism vs Collectivism
• Instrumental Values
• Individualism is the degree to which people
- refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means prefer to act as individuals rather than as
of achieving the terminal values members of groups and believe in individual
rights above all else.
• Generational Values
• Collectivism emphasizes a tight social
- Though it is fascinating to think about generational framework in which people expect others in
values, remember these classifications lack solid groups of which they are a part to look after
research support. them and protect them.

- Managers today are less interested in an 3. Masculinity vs Femininity

applicant’s ability to perform a specific job than • Masculinity is a national culture attribute
that describes the extent to which the
 culture favors traditional masculine work
roles of achievement, power, and control.
Societal values are characterized by
assertiveness and materialism.

• Femininity is a national culture attribute that

indicates little differentiation between male
and female roles; a high rating indicates
that women are treated as the equals of
men in all aspects of the society.

4. Uncertainty avoidance

• The degree to which people in a country

prefer structured over unstructured situation.

• In cultures that score high on uncertainty

avoidance, people have an increased level
of anxiety about uncertainty and ambiguity
and use laws and controls to reduce
uncertainty.

5. Long-term vs Short-term orientation

• People in a culture with long-term

orientation look to the future and value thrift,
persistence, and tradition.

• In a short-term orientation, people value the

here and now; they accept change more
readily and don’t see commitments as
impediments to change.

The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures

- The Global Leadership and Organizational

Behavior Effectiveness research program is an
ongoing cross-cultural investigation of leadership
and national culture.

- The framework identified nine dimensions on

which national cultures differ.

- Resemble the Hofstede dimensions

- The main difference is that the GLOBE framework

added dimensions, such as humane orientation
(the degree to which a society rewards individuals
for being altruistic, generous, and kind to others)
and performance orientation (the degree to which
a society encourages and rewards group members
for performance improvement and excellence).

- Hard to say which framework is better (GLOBE or

Hofstede). The former has a more nuanced
perspective while the latter withstood the test of
time