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CHAPTER TWO
Individual Differences:
Personality and Values
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Learning Objectives
1. Define personality and discuss how the Big Five personality
factors relate to workplace behavior and performance.
2. Describe the dark triad of personality and the MBTI types
and discuss their implications for organizational behavior.
3. Summarize Schwartz’s model of individual values and
discuss the conditions where values influence behavior.
4. Describe four ethical principles and discuss three factors
that influence ethical behavior.
5. Describe five values commonly studied across cultures.
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Individual Behavior at Bridgewater Associates
Bridgewater Associates places considerable weight on
the personality, values, and other individual differences
of its job applicants and employees.
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Personality in Organizations
Relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
that characterize a person, along with psychological processes.
Personality traits:
• Categories of behavior tendencies.
• Evident across situations.
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Nature Versus Nurture of Personality
Influenced by nature:
• Heredity explains about 50 percent of behavioral tendencies.
Influenced by nurture:
• Socialization, learning.
Personality stabilizes in young adulthood.
• Self-concept gets clearer, more stable with age.
• Executive function regulates behavior.
• Some traits change throughout life.
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Five-Factor Personality Model
TRAIT DESCRIPTION
Conscientiousness Organized, dependable, thorough
Agreeableness Trusting, helpful, good-natured
Neuroticism Anxious, insecure, self-conscious
Openness to experience Imaginative, creative, curious
Extraversion Outgoing, talkative, energetic
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Five-Factor Model and Individual Behavior
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Five Factor Model and Behavior:
Further Information
Effective leaders, salespeople are somewhat more
extraverted.
Openness to experience may predict a creative work
performance.
Conscientiousness is a weak predictor of adaptive,
proactive performance.
Agreeableness:
• Predicts team member, customer service performance.
• Weak predictor of proficient, proactive performance.
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Five Factor Model Issues
1. Higher Big Five scores aren’t always better.
2. Specific traits may predict better than overall Big Five
factors.
3. Personality isn’t static.
4. The five-factor model doesn’t cover all personalities.
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The Dark Triad
Machiavellianism:
• Strong motivation to get what one wants at the expense of others.
• Believe that deceit is natural and acceptable to achieve goals.
• Take pleasure in misleading, outwitting, controlling others.
• Seldom empathize with or trust coworkers.
Narcissism.
• Obsessive belief in one’s own superiority, entitlement.
• Excessive need for attention.
• Intensely envious.
Psychopathy.
• Social predators may ruthlessly dominate and manipulate others.
• Mask of psychopathy: superficial charm, but selfish self-promoters.
• Engage in antisocial, impulsive, and often fraudulent thrill-seeking behavior.
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Dark Triad and Workplace Behavior
1. Organizational politics.
• Using influence tactics for personal gain at the expense of others
and the interests of the entire organization.
2. Serious white-collar crime activity.
3. Workplace aggression or bullying may be predicted by
psychopathy.
4. Poor decision making may be predicted by psychopathy.
5. Ineffective team behaviors
• Complex effect.
Dark triad may have some positive outcomes.
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Jungian Personality Theory and MBTI
Exhibit 2.3
Sources: Adapted from
an exhibit found at
http:www.16-
[Link].
Based on data from CPP,
Inc. Sunnyvale, CA
94086 from Introduction
to Type and Careers by
Allen L. Hammer.
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Evaluating the MBTI
Most widely used personality test.
Most widely studied measure of cognitive style.
Adopts a neutral view of score results.
Improves self-awareness and mutual understanding.
Poor at predicting job performance, effective leadership,
or team development.
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Values in the Workplace
Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences.
• Define right and wrong, good and bad: what we “ought” to do.
• Direct our motivation, potentially decisions and behavior.
Value system: arrange values into hierarchy of preferences –
developed through socialization (parents, religion, friends,
experiences, society)
( eg; prefer change over conformity; generosity over
frugality)
Compared with personality, values are:
• Evaluative (not descriptive).
• May conflict with each other.
• Affected more by nurture than nature.
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• In reality values, values exist only within individuals-
personal values.
• However, groups of people may hold similar values –
shared values
• Shared values to team, department, organisation,
profession or entire society.
• Values shared by people throughout organisation-
organisational values
• Values shared across society- cultural values
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Values differ from personality traits:
• Values are evaluative (what we ought to do);
personality traits are descriptive (what we tend to do).
• Values conflict with each other (e.g. valuing
excitement conflicts with valuing stability); personality
traits have minimal conflict (eg: high agreeableness
and high introversion)
• Values affected more by nurture (socialization,
reinforcement) than nature (heredity); personality
about equally affected by nature and nurture.
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Schwartz’s Values Model
57 values clustered into 10
categories, and further into four
quadrants.
Openness to change.
• Motivated to pursue innovative ways.
Conservation.
• Motivated to preserve the status quo.
Self-enhancement.
• Motivated by self-interest.
Self-transcendence.
• Motivated to promote the welfare of
others and nature.
Exhibit 2.4 Schwartz’s Values Circumplex
Sources: S.H. Schwartz, “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Countries.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
25 (1992): 1-65: S.H. Schwartz and K. Boeh Structure of Human Values with Confirmatory Factor Analysis.” Journal of Research in Personality 38.
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Importance of Values at IKEA
IKEA describes itself as a values-driven
company, so job applicants need to reflect on
whether their personal values are congruent
with the global retailer’s organizational values.
[Link]
ture-and-values
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How Values Influence Decisions and Behavior
Values affect the relative attractiveness (valence) of
choices - more positive feelings toward choices
consistent with our values.
Values frame perceptions - influence whether we notice
something and how we interpret it.
Values motivate us to act consistently with self-concept
and public image - values are part of our identity and
image (eg: achievement)
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When Values Don’t Predict Behavior
Situational factors are barriers or lack of opportunity
e.g. more difficult to be environmentally friendly if
no recycling facilities.
Counter-motivational forces - coercion from others
(threat of job loss) motivates people to engage in
unethical business activities.
Lack of values awareness.
• Values are abstract.
• Behavior is often routine, so less mindful of values with
routine behavior.
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Values Congruence
Similarity of a person’s values hierarchy to another
source (eg: organization, a co-worker)
Importance of values congruence.
• Team values congruence—higher team cohesion and
performance.
• Person–organization values congruence—higher job
satisfaction, loyalty, and organizational citizenship, lower stress
and turnover.
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Ethical Values and Behavior
Ethics: study of moral principles and values, whether actions are right or
wrong, outcomes are good or bad.
Four ethical principles:
1. Utilitarianism.
• Greatest good for the greatest number. Problem: Cost-benefit analysis — many outcomes
aren’t measurable.
• Problem: Focuses on the consequences, but means of achieving those consequences could be
immoral.
2. Individual rights.
• Everyone has same natural rights - moral norm of society, not just legal rights — e.g. freedom
of speech. Problem: conflicting rights — e.g. shareholders’ right to be informed conflicts with
executive’s right to privacy.
3. Distributive justice.
• Benefits and burdens should be the same or proportional - — e.g. those who contribute
equally in their work should receive similar rewards; those who contribute less should receive
lower rewards.
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[Link] of Care: Moral obligation to help others.
• Caring for others is a fundamental characteristic of
humanity.
• Everyone has a moral obligation to help others within their
relational sphere to grow and self-actualize.
• This principle emphasizes partiality, whereas other principles
value impartiality.
• Includes being attentive to others’ needs, showing
responsibility for others, giving care to others, having
empathy for others.
• Core concept in stakeholder theory and servant leadership.
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Moral Intensity and Ethical Conduct
Moral intensity is the degree that an issue demands the
application of ethical principles.
Moral intensity higher when:
• Decision has substantially good or bad consequences.
• High agreement among others that outcomes are good-bad
(not diverse beliefs).
• High probability that good-bad outcomes will occur from the
decision.
• Many people will be affected by the decision.
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Moral Sensitivity and Ethical Conduct
A person’s ability to detect a moral dilemma and
estimate its relative importance.
Moral sensitivity is higher in people with:
• Expertise/knowledge of prescriptive norms and rules.
• Past experience with specific moral dilemmas.
• More empathy.
• A self-view as an ethical person.
• Mindfulness.
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Supporting Ethical Behavior
Corporate code of ethics.
Educate and test employee’s ethical knowledge.
Systems for communicating and investigating wrongdoing.
Ethical culture and ethical leadership.
[Link]
[Link]
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Cross-Cultural Differences at Beam Suntory
Suntory Holdings Ltd. CEO Takeshi Niinami
recognized that cross-cultural differences
could be a concern when the Japanese
beverage company acquired Jim Beam, which
makes bourbon in Kentucky.
© McGraw Hill © Akio Kon/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Individualism
High Individualism
The degree to which S. Africa
people value personal USA
freedom, self-sufficiency,
control over their lives, Japan
and being appreciated for Denmark
unique qualities.
Venezuela
Taiwan
Low Individualism
[Link]
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Collectivism
High Collectivism
The degree to which
people value their group
Taiwan
membership and Israel
harmonious relationships
within the group.
India
USA
Japan
Low Collectivism
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Power Distance
High Power Distance
High power distance.
Malaysia
• Value obedience to authority.
• Accept superiors’ commands. India
• Prefer formal rules and
authority to resolve conflicts.
Japan
Low power distance.
USA
• Expect relatively equal power
sharing. Denmark
• View relationship with boss Israel
as interdependence, not
dependence. Low Power Distance
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Uncertainty Avoidance
High U. A.
High uncertainty avoidance.
Greece
• Feel threatened by ambiguity
and uncertainty. Belgium
• Value structured situations and
direct communication.
Norway
Low uncertainty avoidance. USA
• Tolerate ambiguity and
uncertainty. Denmark
Singapore
Low U. A.
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Achievement⏤Nurturing
Achievement
High achievement
Japan
orientation:
• Assertiveness. Austria
• Competitiveness.
• Materialism. USA
High nurturing orientation: Brazil
• Value relationships.
• Focus on human interaction. Netherlands
Sweden
Nurturing
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Cultural Diversity within the United States
Deep-level diversity across ethnic and regional groups.
Individualism (highest among African Americans).
Collectivism (highest in southern states, California, Hawaii).
Openness to experience, personality (highest in New England,
Middle Atlantic, and Pacific regions).
Neuroticism (highest in Northeast and Southeast).
Regional variations seem to be caused by:
• Regional institutions.
• Regional migration.
• Physical environment (smallest effect).
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© 2021 McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom.
No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill.