Session 6- 8

Personality
Read: Classical Conditioning (Pavlov’s
Experiment, Robbins)
Personality is the unique and relatively stable
patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and emotions
shown by individuals

It is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and

interacts with others
 About Personality

Personality Quotient, or PQ, refers to your ability to

understand yourself and others for effective
communication and teamwork

Technical skill accounts for only 15% of success in the

workplace. The other 85% of workplace success comes
from people skills! These skills are developed through
learning better ways to behave and interact
Is personality result of heredity or
environment?
Nature vs Nurture

• Nature/Heredity: genetic or hereditary origins (factors

determined at conception)

• Nurture: person’s socialization, life experiences, and other

forms of interaction with the environment
“Genes define your potential, but your environment largely
determines how you turn out. The few who escape negative influences
are outliers.”

“Both “nature” (what you’re born with) and “nurture” (what you’ve
been exposed to as you age) are nearly equally important for
understanding people’s personalities and health”
Application of Nurture Framework

For a manager, this provides an opportunity to create

situation that can mould the personality for enabling
behavior
Measurement of Personality

• Self-Report Questionnaires
assessment involving an individual’s responses to questions

• Projective Techniques
elicits an individual’s response to abstract stimuli
e.g., Rorschach Inkblots

Some other include probing and observation-based techniques

What do you
see?
(projective
technique)
Personality Frameworks
Some major psychometric tools include:

Five Factor/ Big Five Personality Model (OCEAN)

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Hogan Personality Inventory

Core Self Evaluations (CSE)

• Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help
managers forecast who is best for a job.

• The most common means of measuring personality is

through self-report surveys, in which individuals evaluate
themselves on a series of factors.

• Research indicates our culture influences the way we rate

ourselves. People in individualistic countries trend toward
self-enhancement, while people in collectivist countries
like Taiwan, China, and South Korea trend toward self-
diminishment.
Application of Personality
Assessment
Personality instruments can clearly give clues to managers as to:

• How a particular individual may be best supported or motivated

• For better communication
• Team building
• Enhancing interpersonal communication
• P-O fit/P-J fit
Big Five Personality Traits/Five
Factor Model (Trait theory)
 Big Five Personality Traits

Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Neuroticism Imagination/ Openness

energetic, talkative, focussed, hardworking, moody, tense, worried to Experience
kind, affectionate,
sociable, gregarious, organized, self- about small things, insightful, curious,
good natured,
outgoing and disciplined, methodic, frequent mood swings. flexible, artistically
courteous, trusting
assertive persistent, responsible Emotional Stability, on the sensitive and
and sympathetic
and thorough other hand, includes being imaginative and
calm, happy, secure and having a wide variety
unworried. of interests
Big Five Assessment Score
Interpretations
1 to 1.8: Very Low
1.9 to 2.6 : Low
2.7 to 3.4 : Average
3.5 to 4.2 : High
4.3 to 5 : Very high

• Very Low/ very high scores may have their own positive or negative effects
and may indicate areas of development

• Average scores indicate flexibility

People who have average scores

No Strong Positives-Adaptable, Issues-Might be perceived

Preferences Moderate, as-Unprincipled,
Reasonable Inscrutable, Calculating
Openness to Experience (O)

 Creative and innovative

Issues:

Difficult to
 Comfortable with ambiguity- more adaptable
work in a rigid
to change job or
environment
 Open to trying new things
Get bored
 Focused on tackling new challenges
easily
 Low stress levels

 Fit better into organisations that emphasize on

innovation rather than standardization.
Conscientiousness (C)
 Spend time preparing; Pay attention to
details Issues:
 Exert greater effort Perfectionists
hence high
 High job performance; develop high level expectations
of job knowledge from others
too
 Can manage jobs even in difficult situations
such as incivility or abusive supervision Too focussed
on their own
 Conscientiousness is important for overall work
job success
Tough raters
 Great performers
Extraversion (E)

 Talkative; Enjoy being the center of

attention
Issues:
 High life and job satisfaction
Might seem egoistic or
 Have a wide social circle of friends and dominant to others;
acquaintances
Socially dominant
 Find it easy to make new friends; more
Poor listeners
assertive

 Better fit with jobs having significant

interpersonal interactions; aggressive and
team-oriented cultures
Agreeableness (A)

 Have a great deal of interest in

other people; Care about others; Issues:
Empathetic
May have low level of
 Enjoy helping and contributing to career success in case of
the happiness of other people PJ misfit (hence, choose
your job wisely)
 Perform well in socially oriented
jobs, eg customer-service, nurses Difficulty in negotiating

 Less susceptible to turnover Inability of saying No

Neuroticism/ emotionally
UNstable (N)
 Experience a lot of stress; Worry about Issues with Neuroticism:
many different things; Get upset easily
Less life and job
 Experience dramatic shifts in mood; easily satisfaction
overwhelmed
Very high level of
 Feel anxious; may be unable to cope with stress
high job/ situation demands

 Emotionally stable people-High job & life

satisfaction, less intentions to quit; more
adaptable
Read the article: How to become a
better leader (shared on email)
Critical Areas (refer the article –
how to be better leaders)
Big Five Factor Risk of that quality

If Very High If Very Low

Openness to Experience Want too much on their plate; Uncertainty- avoidant; unwilling
Unsettling for subordinates/team to experiment without
members who crave consistency; conclusive data; likes to work
easily bored; too complex; Difficult in a structured system
to work in a rigid job or
environment

Conscientiousness Micromanagement inhibits Hasty decisions; too trusting of

subordinates/team members and intuition; might come across as
delays problem recognition. laid back or not interested
Lose sight of the big picture;
burnout/stress, work-life balance
issues

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-become-a-better-leader/
Big Five Factor Risk of that quality

If Very High If Very Low

Extraversion Domineering; can crush debate; Socializing is painful;
Exhausting for those who try to Serious facial expression can deflate
keep up people; Tough time in unknown
social gatherings

Agreeableness Could think a lot about others; Cold; reserved; Perceived as

over concerned; others’ ruthless, uncaring, self-promoting,
problems become their political, calculating, untrustworthy,
problem; Perceived as naïve, blunt, aggressive, uncooperative;
easy to manipulate, spineless stingy

Emotional stability (opposite is Unemotional; find difficulty in Overreact; short-tempered; gloomy;

neuroticism) empathizing; Seem uncaring; angry; tensed; nervous;
too chilled out/relaxed discontented; easily perturbed; in
overoptimistic; extreme stress; react without
thinking

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-become-a-better-leader/
 Big five Analysis
Big Five Factor Scores Strengths Critical Improvement Areas
Areas
Openness to
Experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Emotional Stability
What happens if you don't like your personality trait?

• Personality is not synonymous with behaviour

• Find an organization that suits you. Not all organizational
cultures are for everyone.
• Build your trust circle. That helps.
• Realize that all traits have upsides— and downsides.
• Extraverted people are more impulsive. Agreeable people are
bad negotiators and so on
Remember
• If your natural preference is not supported by your
environment, a person can experience stress and
frustration.

• When you de-stress, you'll come back to your

normal self, and things will work out.

• Talk about it, get it through, the things that are

stressing you out, rather than keep it in.
 The Dark Triad

Machs; Narcissists; Psychopaths

(Follow the book chapter - Robbins)

Additionally, take the psychometric

assessment mentioned in the book chapter
Dark Traids, for example, Machiavellianism
(Mach)

Is the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains

emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify
means.

• “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high-Mach

perspective

• High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded

less, and persuade others more than do low Machs
• In jobs that require bargaining skills (such as labour
negotiation) or that offer substantial rewards for winning
(as in commissioned sales), high Machs will be productive

• Machs involve more in Counterproductive work behaviours

(CWB) and are aggressive in nature

• Win in the short term-lose in the long; this is because they

are not well-liked