Chapter 02
Values, Attitudes, Emotions, and Culture: The Manager as a
Person
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Learning Objectives 34
Key Definitions/Terms 34
Chapter Overview 35
Lecture Outline 2
Lecture Enhancers 42
Management in Action 45
Building Management Skills 47
Managing Ethically 48
Small Group Breakout Exercise 48
Be the Manager 49
Case in the News 50
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 2-1. Describe the various personality traits that affect how managers
think, feel, and behave.
LO 2-2. Explain what values and attitudes are and describe their impact on
managerial action.
LO 2-3. Appreciate how moods and emotions influence all members of an
organization.
LO 2-4. Describe the nature of emotional intelligence and its role in
management.
LO 2-5. Define organizational culture and explain how mangers both
create and are influenced by organizational culture
KEY DEFINITIONS/TERMS
agreeableness: The tendency to get along well with external locus of control: The tendency to locate
other people responsibility for one’s fate in outside forces and to
believe that one’s own behavior has little impact on
attitude: A collection of feelings and beliefs outcomes
attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) framework: A extraversion: The tendency to experience positive
model that explains how personality may influence emotions and moods and to feel good about oneself and
organizational culture the rest of the world
conscientiousness: The tendency to be careful, instrumental value: A mode of conduct that an
scrupulous, and persevering individual seeks to follow
emotional intelligence: The ability to understand and internal locus of control: The tendency to locate
manage one’s own moods and emotions and the moods responsibility for one’s fate within oneself
and emotions of other people
job satisfaction: The collection of feelings and beliefs
emotions: Intense, relatively short-lived feelings that managers have about their current jobs
mood: A feeling or state of mind
organizational commitment: The collection of
need for achievement: The extent to which an feelings and beliefs that managers have about their
individual has a strong desire to perform challenging organization as a whole
tasks well and to meet personal standards for
excellence organizational culture: The shared set of beliefs,
expectations, values, norms, and work routines that
need for affiliation: The extent to which an individual influence the ways in which individuals, groups, and
is concerned about establishing and maintaining good teams interact with one another and cooperate to
interpersonal relations, being liked, and having other achieve organizational goals
people get along
organizational socialization: The process by which
need for power: The extent to which an individual newcomers learn an organization’s values and norms
desires to control or influence others and acquire the work behaviors necessary to perform
jobs effectively
negative affectivity: The tendency to experience
negative emotions and moods, to feel distressed, and to personality traits: Enduring tendencies to feel, think,
be critical of oneself and others and act in certain ways
norms: Unwritten, informal codes of conduct that self-esteem: The degree to which individuals feel good
prescribe how people should act in particular situations about themselves and their capabilities
and are considered important by most members of a
group or organization terminal value: A lifelong goal or objective that an
individual seeks to achieve
openness to experience: The tendency to be original,
have broad interests, be open to a wide range of value system: The terminal and instrumental values
stimuli, be daring, and take risks that are guiding principles in an individual’s life
organizational citizenship behaviors
(OCBs): Behaviors that are not required of
organizational members but that contribute to and are
necessary for organizational efficiency, effectiveness,
and competitive advantage
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter focuses upon the manager as a feeling, thinking human being. We start by describing
enduring personality characteristics that influence how managers ‘manage,” as well as how they view
other people, their organizations, and the world around them. We discuss as well how managers’ values,
attitudes, and moods play out in organizations, shaping organizational culture. This chapter provides a
strong appreciation of how the personal characteristics of managers influence the process of management
in general, and organizational culture in particular.
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Enduring Characteristics: Personality Traits
Personality traits are enduring tendencies to feel, think, and
act in certain ways. It is important to understand a manager’s
personality because it influences his or her behavior and
approach to management.
A. The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five is a group of five general Traits that contribute
to the composition of an individual’s personality. Each
should be evaluated along a continuum.
1. Extraversion is the tendency to experience positive
emotions and moods expressed by affectionate, outgoing,
and friendly demeanor. Being high on this trait can be an
asset for managers whose jobs entail an especially high
level of social interaction. Those low on this factor can be
highly effective if excessive social interaction is not
required by their job.
2. Negative Affectivity is the tendency to experience
negative emotions and moods, feel distressed, and be
critical of others. Managers high on this trait may often
feel angry and dissatisfied and complain about their own
and others’ lack of progress. Those who are low on
negative affectivity do not tend to experience many
negative emotions and are less pessimistic and critical of
themselves and others. See Figure 2.3 for a measure of
Negative Affectivity.
3. Agreeableness is the tendency to get along well with
others. Managers high on this continuum are likeable,
tend to be affectionate, and care about other people.
Those who are low may be somewhat distrustful of
others, unsympathetic, uncooperative and even at times
antagonistic. See Figure 2.2 for a measure of this.
4. Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful,
scrupulous, and persevering. Managers who are high on
this factor are organized and self-disciplined while those
who are low may seem to lack self-direction and self-
discipline.
5. Openness to experience is the tendency to be
original, have broad interests, be open to a wide range of
stimuli, be daring, and take risks. Those high on this trait
continuum like to take risks and sometimes choose to
become an entrepreneur, while those low on this scale
tend to be more conservative in their planning and
decision-making.
B. Other Personality Traits that Affect Managerial
Behavior
1. The locus of control trait captures an individual’s
beliefs concerning the amount of control they have over
what happens to and around them.
a. People with an internal locus of control believe
that they are responsible for their own fate and see
their own actions and behaviors as being important
and decisive determinants of future outcomes.
b. People with an external locus of control believe
that outside forces are responsible for what happens
to and around them and that their own actions don’t
make much of a difference.
2. Self-esteem is the degree to which feel good about
themselves and their capabilities.
3. Needs for achievement, affiliation and power have
been extensively researched by psychologist David
McClelland.
a. The need for achievement is the extent to which
an individual has a strong desire to perform
challenging tasks well and to meet personal standards
for excellence.
b. The need for affiliation is the extent to which an
individual is concerned about establishing and
maintaining good interpersonal relations, being
liked and getting along with other people.
c. The need for power is the extent to which an
individual desires to control or influence others.
II. Values, Attitudes, and Moods and Emotions
A. Values: Terminal and Instrumental
1.A terminal value is a personal conviction about
lifelong goals or objectives while an instrumental value
is a personal conviction about desired modes of
conductor ways of behaving.
2. Terminal values often lead to the formation of norms,
which are informal rules of conduct for behaviors
considered to be important within an organization.
3. A leading researcher identified 18 terminal values and
18 instrumental values that when placed in rank order,
will describe a person’s value system. See Figure 2.4.
B. Attitudes
An attitude is a collection of feelings and beliefs. A
manager’s attitude affects how they approach their job.
Two of the most important attitudes in this context are:
1. Job Satisfaction is the collection of feelings and
beliefs that managers have about their current job. See
Figure 2.5 for a sample items from two measures of job
satisfaction.
a. Managers who are satisfied with their jobs are
more likely to perform organizational citizenship
behaviors (OCBs). OCBs are behaviors that are not
required but contribute to organizational efficiency,
effectiveness, and gaining a competitive advantage .
b. A growing source of dissatisfaction for many
lower and middle-level managers and employees is
the threat of unemployment and increased
workloads from downsizing.
c. The ways in which layoffs are handled is
important for both layoff victims and survivors.
2. Organizational commitment is the collection of
feelings and beliefs that managers have about their
organization as a whole. See Figure 2.6 for a measure of
organizational commitment. With organizational
commitment, managers:
a. Believe in what their organizations are doing
b. Are proud of what the organization stands for
c. Feel a high degree of loyalty toward their
organizations.
C. Moods and Emotions
1. Mood: A mood is a feeling or state of mind.
Personality traits and current circumstances often
determine a person’s mood. See Figure 2.7 for a
measure of positive and negative mood at work
2. Emotions: Emotions are more intense than moods,
are more short-lived, and are usually linked to a specific
cause.
III. Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand and
manage one’s own moods and emotions, as well as the moods
and emotions of others.
1. Managers with high levels of EI are able to prevent
their emotions from getting in the way of making
effective decisions.
2. EI helps managers perform the interpersonal roles of
figurehead, leader, and liaison.
3. Emotional intelligence helps managers understand
and relate well to other people.
4. See Figure 2.8 for a measure of Emotional
Intelligence.
IV. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture describes the set of beliefs,
expectations, values, norms, and work routines that influence
how members of an organization relate to each other and
work together to achieve organizational goals.
1. When members share an intense commitment to goals,
a strong organizational culture exists. When the opposite
is true, the organization’s culture is weak
2. When an organization’s culture is very strong, it is
often referred to as the organization’s ‘personality’
because it influences the way its members behave.
A. Managers and Organizational Culture
1. Managers play a particularly important part in
influencing organizational culture. This is most evident
in the start-up of new companies
2. Management researcher Benjamin Schneider
developed a model called the attraction-selection-
attrition (ASA) framework, which posits that
entrepreneurs tend to hire employees whose
personalities are similar to their own.
B. The Role of Values and Norms in Organizational
Culture
Shared values, as well as shared norms, play a
particularly important role in organizational culture the
types of values and norms that managers promote within
an organization determine and shape its culture.
1. Values of the founder: From the ASA model
previously discussed, it is clear that founders can have a
profound and long-lasting effect on organizational
culture.
2. Socialization: This is the process by which
newcomers learn an organization’s values and norms
and acquire the work behaviors necessary to perform
jobs effectively. As a result, organizational values and
norms are internalized.
3. Ceremonies and rites: These are formal events that
recognize incidents of importance to the organization as
a whole and to specific employees. The most common
rites that organizations use to transmit cultural norms
and values to their members are rites of passage, of
integration, and of enhancement. (See Table 2.1 for
examples of the rites listed below.)
a. Rites of passage determine how individuals enter,
advance within, or leave an organization.
b. Rites of integration build and reinforce common
bonds among organizational member
c. Rites of enhancement let organizations publicly
recognize and reward employee contributions and
thus strengthen their commitment to organizational
values.
4. Stories and language: Stories frequently told within
an organization, either fact or fiction, provide important
clues about values and norms. The slang or jargon that
people within an organization use to frame and describe
events also provides important clues about norms and
values.
C. Culture and Managerial Action
Culture influences the way in which managers perform their
four main functions.
1. Planning: In an innovative organizational culture, top
managers are likely to develop a flexible approach to
planning and to encourage participation by subordinates.
In contrast, managers in a conservative organizational
culture are likely to emphasize top-down planning.
2. Organizing: Because they value creativity, managers
in an innovative culture are likely to create an organic
structure that is flat and in which authority is
decentralized. In contrast, managers in a conservative
culture are likely to create a well-defined hierarchy of
authority and establish clear reporting relationships.
3. Leading: In an innovative culture, managers are likely
to lead by example, encourage employees to take risks
and experiment, and to be supportive regardless of
success or failure. In a conservative culture, they are
likely to use management by objectives, constantly
monitor progress toward goals, and oversee their every
move.
4. Controlling: Managers in innovative cultures tend to
recognize that there are multiple, potential paths to
success and that failure must be accepted in order for
creativity to thrive. Therefore, they are more concerned
that employees be flexible and take risks and less
concerned about their adherence to pre-determined
routines and goals in contrast, managers in more
conservative cultures emphasize caution and
maintenance of the status quo.
LECTURE ENHANCERS
Lecture Enhancer 2.1
DANIEL GOLEMAN AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
For eight years, Daniel Goleman has argued persuasively that emotionally intelligent managers become
the best and most profitable business leaders in the world. Beginning with 1995 bestseller Emotional
Intelligence, Goleman has sought to strip away conventional notions of what it means to be intelligent by
examining how key personality traits can lead to measurable success. Although his background is in
psychology, he has become a powerful voice in the corporate world. It is Goleman’s contention that top
leaders will recognize that they cannot function without a clear understanding of their own feelings and
those of the people around them. “Emotions have their place, and your emotions have an enormous
impact on how well you can do the task as hand,” he says. Below are excerpts from an interview with Dr.
Goleman.
Industry observers often complain about the dichotomy in the business world today. Executives are
expected to behave as if they have no emotions while they make decisions that will have profound effects
on other people’s lives. What do you think has brought us to this state where businesspeople are supposed
to ‘check their emotions at the door’?
Goleman: The first analysis of the organizational life was conducted in a sociological tradition by Max
Weber and Talcott Parsons, and it pretty much ignored to emotional reality of work. It analyzed the
workplace and organizational dynamics as though emotions were not part of the equation. That
framework has survived to this day, even though everyone who works knows it’s a lie. We don’t leave
emotions at home and we don’t check them at the door. We can either acknowledge this fact or not.
You maintain that companies perform better if top managers have emotional intelligence, but the business
world is rife with stories of CEOs and top managers who have been wildly successful even though they
are insensitive jerks. If emotional intelligence is so important, how do you account for their successes?
Goleman: The question to ask is not, “Is a specific company successful despite the fact that the head guy
is a jerk?” Rather, you should ask, “If all things were equal – if there were two companies with similar
markets, similar opportunities, and similar resources, and one boss was a jerk and the other was a dream
boss – which company would do better? In fact, the insurance industry did exactly that study. It was
commissioned LOMO, an insurance industry organization and carried out by the Hay Group. The
researchers looked at moderately successful companies of the same size and evaluated CEOs on their
emotional intelligence and leadership abilities. They found that the more these bosses exhibited empathy,
initiative, and a drive to achieve, the more profitable the companies were. That’s the better way to answer
this question.
Is it there ever a point at which someone is too old to learn these competencies?
Goleman: You are never too old to learn emotional intelligence. In fact, people tend to improve in
emotional intelligence over the course of a lifetime, because life lesions often make people wiser in this
domain. Thy get more comfortable with themselves and other people. So in a rough way, a slow way,
there’s a tendency to earn. But someone who wants to a leader needs to have a relative high level of these
abilities. A business school that wants to help its students achieve high leadership levels either has to
select people who have already developed these abilities, or it has to help its students to learn them.
Essentially, you are saying that individuals must be able to draw on the so-called ‘soft skills’ or they
won’t be good leaders.
Goleman: It’s a paradox. Soft skills have hard consequences.
Taken from Intelligence at Work by Sharon Shinn, published in BizEd Magazine, September/October
2003.
Lecture Enhancer 2.2
THE BIG THRILL PERSONALITY
Another facet of personality is one’s tolerance for risk taking. Some individuals have a kind of
psychological urge to reach beyond the status quo and seek out novelty, change, and excitement.
Psychologist Frank Farley, of the University of Wisconsin, has spent twenty years examining what he
calls the Type T (thrill-seeking) personality. According to Farley’s theory, Big T types are high-profile
individuals who seek excitement and stimulation wherever they can find it or create it. For some the
thrills are mostly physical. For others they’re mental.
The degree of risk that individuals are willing to assume spans a broad continuum. Big T personalities,
those who continually live on the edge, are at one end of the scale. Little t’s, who cling to certainty and
predictability, are at the other. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. But Farley believes it’s the Big
T segment, a group that makes up an estimated 10 to 30 percent of the American population, that holds
the key to America’s future. “Type T’s are the people who are likely to have enormous impact on
society,” he says. “They are the great experimenters in life; they break the rules.”
Whether male or female, risk-taking individuals tend to be what Farley calls “transmutative thinkers,”
adept at shifting from one cognitive process to another, and from the abstract to the concrete and vice
versa. Thrill seekers are happiest in jobs that provide change, excitement, and an ample outlet for their
creativity. They are often drawn to careers in advertising, journalism, or in the brokerage business, where
novelty and uncertainty are a given.
Whether individuals seek risks or avoid them affects not only their own job performance but also boss-
employee relationships and co-worker production. An organization with too many risk takers can spell
trouble. So can one top-heavy with cautious, security-minded individuals. A synergistic mix is best. If it’s
the thrill-seeking visionaries who drive a company with their ideas, it’s their more pragmatic peers who
help implement those concepts. Finally, says Farley, “people who are the most successful realize that if
they’re going to take risks, they’re going to fail once in a while.”
MANAGEMENT IN ACTION
Notes for Topics for Discussion and Action
DISCUSSION
1. Discuss why managers who have different types of personalities can be equally effective and
successful.
The chapter notes that there is no single “right” or “wrong” personality trait for being an effective
manager; rather, effectiveness is determined by a complex interaction between characteristics of
managers (including personality traits) and the nature of the job and organization. Furthermore,
personality traits that contribute to the managerial effectiveness in one situation may actually hinder the
effectiveness in another situation.
2. Can managers be too satisfied with their job? Can they be too committed to their organizations? Why
or why not?
The text defines job satisfaction as the feelings and beliefs people have about their current jobs and
organizational commitment as the collection of feelings and beliefs people have about their organizations
as a whole. Students may mention that managers who are too satisfied with their jobs may not look to
improve the current state of affairs, preferring to let things go on as they are. This may harm the prospects
of the team as a whole. On the personal level, managers who are too satisfied with their jobs or too
committed to the organization may harm their own prospects of career improvement or advancement.
3. Assume that you are a manager of a restaurant. Describe what it is like to work for you when you are
in a negative mood.
4. Why might managers be disadvantaged by low levels of emotional intelligence?
Social skills are increasingly important in organizations today. People work more and more in teams.
Emotional intelligence enables managers to interact more effectively both internally with co-workers and
externally with customers.
6. Watch a popular television show and as you watch it, try to determine the emotional intelligence levels
of the characters each of the actors in the show portrays. Rank the characters from highest to lowest in
terms of emotional intelligence. As you watched the show, what factors influenced your assessments of
emotional intelligence levels?
The ranking of characters by students will probably vary, thereby providing the basis for an interesting
discussion. Factors influencing student assessment of emotional intelligence may include awareness of
and ability to manage one’s own emotions, the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of others,
good listening skills, and the ability to effectively deal with interpersonal conflict.