2.
3 PERSONALITY
What is Personality?
Personality - the sum total of ways in
which an individual reacts to and interacts
with others.
Most often described in terms of
measurable traits that a person exhibits
such as shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy,
ambitious, loyal, and timid.
Psychologists define personality as the
growth and development of a person’s
whole psychological system.
Cont…
Personality is defined as “a unique set of
traits and characteristics, relatively stable
over time.”
Personality is unique
Each of us has our own personality, different
from that of any other person’s.
Personality does not change from day-to-day
Over a longer term, personality may change
Personality Determinants
Personality reflects heredity and environment
Heredity - is the most dominant factor
Twin studies: genetics more influential than parents
Environmental factors- do have some influence
Aging - influences levels of ability
Basic personality is constant
Cont…
Nurture
Nature Personali
Pattern of life
Hereditary ty product of experiences
forces Nature and
Nurture
Heredity refers to those Environment Among the
factors that were determined at factors that exert pressures
conception. Physical stature, on our personality formation
are the culture in which we
facial attractiveness, gender,
are raised, our early
temperament, muscle
conditioning, the norms
composition and reflexes,
among our family, friends,
energy level, and biological and social groups, and other
rhythms influences that we
Measuring Personality Traits
1. Early Search for Primary Traits
In one study, 17,953 individual traits were
identified.
It is virtually impossible to predict behavior
One researcher isolated 171 traits
concluded that they were superficial and lacking in
descriptive power.
Cont…
2. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Most widely used personality-assessment
instrument in the world.
But lack of evidence does not seem to deter its
use in a wide range of organizations.
Individuals are classified as:
1. Extroverted or Introverted (E/I)-extroverts tend to be
sociable and assertive verses introverts tend to be quiet
and shy.
2. Sensing or Intuitive (S/N)-Sensors are practical and
orderly where intuits utilize unconscious processes.
3. Thinking or Feeling (T/F)-Thinking focuses on using
reason and logic whereas feeling utilizes values and
emotions.
4. Judging or Perceiving (J/P)-Judgers want order and
Cont…
Classifications combined into 16 personality
types (i.e. INTJ or ESTJ)
INTJs are visionaries. They usually have
original minds and great drive for their own
ideas and purposes. They are characterized
as skeptical, critical, independent,
determined, and often stubborn.
ESTJs are organizers. They are realistic,
logical, analytical, decisive, and have a
natural head for business or mechanics. They
like to organize and run activities.
Cont…
3. The Big-Five Model
The Big Five model of personality sets forth that
there are five basic dimensions that underlie all
others and encompass most of the significant
variations in human personalities.
The Big Five factors are:
1. Extroversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Conscientiousness
4. Emotional Stability
5. Openness to Experience
Strongly supported relationship to job
performance (especially Conscientiousness)
Cont…
1. Extraversion - this dimension captures one's
comfort level with relationships.
Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and
sociable.
Introverts tend to be reserved timid and quiet.
2. Agreeableness - this dimension refers to an
individual’s propensity to defer to others.
Highly agreeable people are cooperative,
warm, and trusting.
People who score low on agreeableness are
cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.
Cont…
3. Conscientiousness - this dimension is a measure of reliability.
High conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable,
and persistent.
Low conscientious person are easily distracted, disorganized, and
unreliable.
4. Emotional stability - this dimension taps a person's ability to
withstand stress.
People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-
confident, and secure.
People with highly negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious,
depressed, and insecure.
5. Openness to experience – it addresses an individual’s range of
interests and fascination with novelty.
Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically
sensitive.
Those at the other end of the openness category are
conventional and, find comfort in the familiar
Big Five Personality Traits and OB
Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
This are;
1. Self-esteem
2. Machiavellianism
3. Self-Monitoring
4. Risk Taking
5. Locus of Control
N.B: Personality attributes that have been found
to be powerful predictors of behavior in
organizations.
Cont…
Self-esteem (Core Self-Evaluation)
Self-esteem is the degree to which people like/dislike
themselves.
People with positive self-esteem like themselves and see
themselves as capable and effective in the workplace
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism describes a person who tends to be
emotionally distant and believes that the ends justify the
means.
High machs tend to be pragmatic, emotionally distant and
believe the ends justify the means
They can be very persuasive in situations where there is
direct interaction with minimal rules and people are
distracted by emotions.
Should we conclude that high Machs make good employees?
Cont…
Self-Monitoring - refers to an individual's
ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
High self-monitors will be more successful in
managerial positions in which individuals are
required to play multiple, and even contradicting,
roles.
Risk Taking - People differ in their willingness
to take chances
Locus of Control - refers to the degree of
believe that they control their destinies internally
or externally
Achieving Personality Fit
Job-Person Fit: argues that satisfaction is
highest and turnover lowest when personality and
occupation are in agreement.
The Person-Organization Fit- it's probably
more important that employees' personalities fit
with the overall organization's culture than with
the characteristics of any specific job.
essentially argues that people leave jobs that are
not compatible with their personalities.
Example: People high on openness to experience
fit better into organizations that emphasize
innovation rather than standardization.
Implications to Mangers
Personality
Evaluate the job, group, and organization to
determine the best fit
Big Five is best to use for selection
MBTI for development and training
Enough for
today. . .