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Chapter Overview

Personality and values are major shapers of behavior. In order for managers to predict behavior, they must know the personalities of those who work for them. The chapter starts out with a review of the research on personality and its relationship to behavior and ends by describing how values shape many of our work-related behaviors.

Personality

A. What Is Personality?

1. Personality. When psychologists talk of personality, they mean a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole psychological system.

2. Defining Personality: Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to, and interacts with, others — described in terms of measurable traits.

a. Early work on personality tried to identify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior including shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid.

1) When someone exhibits these characteristics in a large number of situations and they are relatively enduring over time, we call them personality traits.

3. Assessing Personality: Personality assessments have been increasingly used in diverse organizational settings.

a. In fact, 8 of the top 10 U.S. private companies and 57 percent of all large U.S. companies use them, including Xerox, McDonald’s, and Lowe’s.

b. Schools such as DePaul University have also begun to use personality tests in their admissions process.

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

4. Measuring Results: The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys:

1) Individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors.

2) Potentially inaccurate due to falsehoods, impression management, or the momentary emotional state of the candidate.

5. Culture and Ratings: Research indicates our culture influences the way we rate ourselves.

a. People in individualistic countries (see Chapter 4) like the United States and Australia trend toward self-enhancement, while people in collectivistic countries (see Chapter 4) like Taiwan, China, and South Korea trend toward self-diminishment.

6. Self-Reports and Observer-Ratings: Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent assessment of personality.

a. Here, a coworker or another observer does the rating.

b. Though the results of self-reports and observer-ratings surveys are strongly correlated, research suggests observer-ratings surveys predict job success more than self-ratings alone.

c. However, each can tell us something unique about an individual’s behavior, so a combination of self-reports and observer-ratings predicts performance

7. Personality Determinants: Personality appears to be development of both hereditary and environmental factors. Of the two, heredity seems to have the most impact.

a. Heredity: These are factors determined at conception such as physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms.

1) The heredity approach argues that personality is determined at the chromosome level.

2) As people grow older, their personalities do change.

3) However, this change is more in terms of level of ability than it is in changes in the actual ranking of the behavioral traits themselves—which are very stable over time.

B. PERSONALITY FRAMEWORKS

1. Many of our behaviors stem from our personalities, so understanding the components of personality helps us predict behavior. Important theoretical frameworks and assessment tools, discussed next, help us categorize and study the dimensions of personality.

2. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

3. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used instrument in the world. Respondents are asked a series of situational questions and their answers are categorized on four scales to determine personality type.

a. Four Classification Scales:

1) Extraverted versus Introverted (E or I). People scoring higher on the extraverted side of the scale are more outgoing, social, and assertive while those on the introvert side are quiet and shy.

2) Sensing versus Intuitive (S or N). Sensing individuals are practical, enjoy order, and are detail oriented. Intuitive people are more big picture oriented and rely on gut feelings.

3) Thinking versus Feeling (T or F). This scale is important in decision making: thinkers use reason and logic while feelers use emotions and their own personal values to make decisions.

4) Judging versus Perceiving (J or P). Judgers are control-oriented and enjoy structure and order. Perceivers are more flexible and spontaneous.

b. <para>These classifications together describe 16 personality types, with every person identified with one of the items in each of the four pairs. Let’s explore several examples.

1) Introverted/Intuitive/Thinking/Judging people (INTJs) are visionaries.

a) They usually have original minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes.

b) They are skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn.

2) ESTJs are organizers.

a) They are realistic, logical, analytical, and decisive and have a natural head for business or mechanics.

b) They like to organize and run activities.

3) The ENTP type is a conceptualizer,

a) They are innovative, individualistic, versatile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas.

b) This person tends to be resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments.

4. <para>In spite of its popularity, evidence is mixed about the MBTI’s validity as a measure of personality—with most of the evidence suggesting it isn’t.

a. <endnoteref linkend="ch05en12" label="1One problem is that it forces a person into either one type or another (that is, you’re either introverted or extraverted).

b. There is no in-between, though people can be both extraverted and introverted to some degree.

c. The best we can say is that the MBTI can be a valuable tool for increasing self-awareness and providing career guidance.

d. But because results tend to be unrelated to job performance, managers probably shouldn’t use it as a selection test for job candidates.

C. The Big Five Personality Model.

1. The Big Five Model of personality has an impressive body of research that supports it.

2. The model (particularly one factor, conscientiousness) appears to be positively related to job performance and can be used as an employment selection or screening tool.

3. Five Factors.

a. Extraversion: Deals with the comfort level with relationships.

1) Like the MBTI, this is contrasted with introversion.

2) Scoring high in this factor means the respondent is more gregarious, assertive, and sociable.

3) Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.

4) Extraverts tend to be happy in their jobs but may be impulsive and absent themselves from work to take on some other, more sensational tasks.

b. Agreeableness: Measures deference toward others.

1) High scorers are cooperative, warm, and trusting while low scorers are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

2) Agreeable workers are less likely to be involved in drugs and excessive drinking.

c. Conscientiousness: Measures reliability.

1) High scorers are responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent.

2) Low scorers are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

3) Not surprisingly, this is the key determinant of job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on the Big Five.

4) However, conscientious people also tend not to take risks and may find organizational change difficult to handle.

d. Emotional Stability (or Neuroticism – its opposite): Measures ability to handle stress.

1) The more stable a person, the better he (or she) can handle stress.

2) People with high emotional stability tend to become self-confident and secure.

3) They often have higher life and job satisfaction. Low emotional stability scorers tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.

4) Yet, surprisingly, low-scoring people make better and faster decisions when in a bad mood than do stable people.

e. Openness to Experience: Measures the range of interests and fascination with novelty, a proxy for creativity.

1) People who score low on this factor tend to be conventional and enjoy familiar circumstances.

2) High scorers tend to be creative, curious, and artistically sensitive.

3) People high in this factor deal better with organizational change and are more adaptable.

4. How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work?

a. Research on the Big Five has found relationships between these personality dimensions and job performance. <endnoteref linkend="ch05en14" label="14"/>

b. Conscientiousness at Work:

1) Employees who score higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge; probably because highly conscientious people learn more (conscientiousness was rather strongly related to GPA). <endnoteref linkend="ch05en16" label="16"/>

2) Higher levels of job knowledge then contribute to higher levels of job performance.<link linkend="ch05mn14" preference="1"/></para>

3) <para> Despite pitfalls, conscientiousness is the best overall predictor of job performance. However, the other Big Five traits are also related to aspects of performance and have other implications for work and for life. Exhibit 5-1 summarizes these other relations.

c. Emotional Stability at Work: <para>Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels.

d. Emotional Stability at Work: Extraverts tend to be happier in their jobs and in their lives as a whole.

1) They experience more positive emotions than do introverts, and they more freely express these feelings.

2) Extraversion at Work: Extraverts tend to perform better in jobs that require significant interpersonal interaction.

a) Finally, extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in groups; extraverts are more socially dominant, take charge sorts of people, and they are generally more assertive than introverts.

b) One downside of extraversion is that extraverts are more impulsive than introverts; they are more likely to be absent from work and engage in risky behavior such as unprotected sex, drinking, and other impulsive or sensation-seeking acts. <endnoteref linkend="ch05en19" label="19"/></para>

3) <para>Openness at Work: Individuals who score high on openness to experience are more creative in science and art than those who score low.

a) They also are more comfortable with ambiguity and change than those who score lower on this trait.

4) <para>Agreeableness at Work: You might expect agreeable people to be happier than disagreeable people.

a) And they are, but only slightly.

b) When people choose romantic partners, friends, or organizational team members, agreeable individuals are usually their first choice.

c) Agreeable individuals are better liked than disagreeable people, which explains why they tend to do better in interpersonally oriented jobs such as customer service.

d) They also are more compliant and rule abiding and less likely to get into accidents as a result.

e) Agreeable children do better in school and as adults are less likely to get involved in drugs or excessive drinking.

f) They are also less likely to engage in organizational deviance. One downside of agreeableness is that it is associated with lower levels of career success (especially earnings).

g) Agreeable individuals may be poorer negotiators; they are so concerned with pleasing others that they often don’t negotiate as much for themselves as they might. <endnoteref linkend="ch05en22" label="22"/></para>

5) <para>In general, the Big Five personality factors appear in almost all cross-cultural studies, including China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States. <endnoteref linkend="ch05en24" label="24"/></para></section></section>

e. The Dark Triad.

1) Research indicates the Big Five traits have the most verifiable linkages to important organizational outcomes, but neither are they the only traits a person exhibits nor are they the only ones with organizational behavior implications.

2) Researchers have found three socially undesirable traits are relevant to organizational behavior: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Researchers have labeled these traits the Dark Triad.

b. Machiavellianism:

1) (often abbreviated Mach) Named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to gain and use power.

2) An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes ends can justify means. “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high-Mach perspective.

3) A considerable amount of research has related high- and low-Mach personalities to behavioral outcomes.

4) High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others more than do low Machs.

5) Yet high-Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors. High Machs flourish:

a) when they interact face to face with others rather than indirectly;

b) when the situation has a minimal number of rules and regulations, allowing latitude for improvisation; and

c) when emotional involvement with details irrelevant to winning distracts low Machs.

6) Thus, whether high Machs make good employees depends on the type of job.

7) In jobs that require bargaining skills (such as labor negotiation) or that offer substantial rewards for winning (such as commissioned sales), high Machs will be productive.

8) But if ends can’t justify the means, there are absolute standards of behavior, or the three situational factors we noted are not in evidence, our ability to predict a high Mach’s performance will be severely curtailed.

c. Narcissism.

1) The term is from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a man so vain and proud he fell in love with his own image.

2) In psychology, narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and is arrogant.

3) Narcissism can have pretty toxic consequences.

a) A study found that although narcissists thought they were better leaders than their colleagues, their supervisors actually rated them as worse.

b) For example, an Oracle executive described that company’s CEO Larry Ellison as follows: “The difference between God and Larry is that God does not believe he is Larry.”

4) Because narcissists often want to gain the admiration of others and receive affirmation of their superiority, they tend to “talk down” to those who threaten them, treating others as if they were inferior.

5) Narcissists also tend to be selfish and exploitive and believe others exist for their benefit.

6) Their bosses rate them as less effective at their jobs than others, particularly when it comes to helping other people.

d. Psychopathy.

1) In the OB context, psychopathy is defined as a lack of concern for others, and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.

a) Measures of psychopathy attempt to assess the person’s motivation to comply with social norms; willingness to use deceit to obtain desired ends and the effectiveness of those efforts; impulsivity; and disregard, that is, lack of empathic concern for others.

2) The literature is not consistent about whether psychopathy or other aberrant personality traits are important to work behavior.

3) Given the newness of research on the Dark Triad, using psychopathology scores for employment decisions may carry more risks for now than rewards. Organizations wishing to assess psychopathy or other traits need to exercise caution.

e. Other Traits. Comment by lindarobbian: AU: Please supply text.

1) The Dark Triad is a helpful framework for studying the three dominant dark-side traits in current personality research, and researchers are exploring other traits as well.

a) One emerging framework incorporates five additional aberrant compound traits based on the Big Five.

(1) First, antisocial people are indifferent and callous toward others. They use their extraversion to charm people, but they may be prone to violent counterproductive work behaviors and risky decision making.

(2) Second, borderline people have low self-esteem and high uncertainty. They are unpredictable in their interactions at work, are inefficient, and may have low job satisfaction.

(3) Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric and disorganized. In the workplace, they can be highly creative, although they are susceptible to work stress.

(4) Fourth, obsessive-compulsive people are perfectionists and can be stubborn, yet they attend to details, carry a strong work ethic, and may be motivated by achievement.

(5) Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and hate criticism. They can function only in environments requiring little interaction.

E. Other Personality Traits Relevant to organizational behavior.

1. Core Self-Evaluation.

a. This is a measure of the degree to which a person likes or dislikes him- or herself.

b. Positive core self-evaluators like themselves and see themselves as being effective, capable, and in charge of their environment. They tend to perform better because they set ambitious goals and persist at achieving them.

c. Negative evaluators tend to dislike themselves, question their capabilities, and view themselves as powerless over their environment.

2. Self-Monitoring.

a. Self-Monitoring describes the ability of people to adjust their behaviors to fit external, situational factors.

1) High self-monitors are very adaptable and sensitive to external cues. People with low self-monitoring tend to have high behavioral consistency while high self-monitors can appear chameleon-like to their coworkers.

2) High self-monitors tend to get better performance ratings, take leadership positions, are more mobile, and take up central positions in their organizations, even though they have less commitment to their organization.

3. Proactive Personality.

a. Individuals with proactive personalities tend to identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

b. People with this personality attribute are highly prized by organizations for obvious reasons.

c. They are often leaders or change agents and will challenge the status quo.

d. Proactive people tend to have successful careers but may not be a good match for organizations who do not value change.

F. Personality and Situations.

1. Interestingly, we are learning that the effect of particular traits in organizational behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical frameworks, situation strength and trait activation, help explain how this works.

2. Situation Strength Theory.

a. Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation. By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behavior.

1) Strong situations pressure us to exhibit the right behavior, clearly show us what that behavior is, and discourage the wrong behavior.

2) In weak situation, “anything goes,” and thus, we are freer to express our personality in our behaviors.

3) Thus, research suggests that personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations than in strong ones.

b. Components of Situation Strength: Researchers have analyzed situation strength in organizations in terms of four elements.

1) Clarity: the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are available and clear.

2) Consistency: the extent to which cues regarding work duties and responsibilities are compatible with one another.

3) Constraints: the extent to which individuals’ freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside their control.

4) Consequences: the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the organization or its members, clients, supplies, and so on.

c. Organizational Situations: Some researchers have speculated that organizations are, by definition, strong situations because they impose rules, norms, and standards that govern behavior. These constraints are usually appropriate.

d. But that does not mean that it is always desirable for organizations to create strong situations for their employees.

1) Jobs with myriad rules and tightly controlled processes can be dull or demotivating.

2) People do differ, so what works well for one person might work poorly for another.

3. Trait Activation Theory (TAT).

a. Trait Activation Theory (TAT) predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others (Exhibit 5-2).

1) Research shows that in a supportive environment, everyone behaves prosocially, but in an environment that is not so nice, whether an individual has the personality to behave prosocially makes a major difference.

b. Together, situation strength and trait activation theories show that the debate over nature versus nurture might best be framed as nature and nurture. Not only does each affect behavior, but they interact with one another.

1) Personality affects work behavior and the situation affects work behavior, but when the situation is right, the power of personality to predict behavior is even higher.

Values

A. Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.

1. They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable.

2. Values have both content and intensity attributes.

a. The content attribute says a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important.

b. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.

c. When we rank an individual’s values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that person’s value system.

3. All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system.

a. We find it in the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, and equality.

4. Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring.

5. Values lay the foundation for understanding people's attitudes, motivation, and behavior.

6. They influence our perceptions.

7. Values can cloud objectivity and rationality.

B. Terminal versus Instrumental Values.

1. Values can be classified by instruments such as the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS).

2. This instrument consists of two sets of values.

a. The sets are terminal and instrumental values.

1) Terminal Values. Focuses on desirable end-states; goals a person would like to achieve.

2) Instrumental Values. Lists preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving terminal values.

C. Generational Values.

1. Researchers have integrated several analyses of work values into groups that attempt to capture the shared views of different cohorts or generations in the U.S. workforce.

2. You will surely be familiar with the labels—for example, baby boomers, gen-xers, millennials—some of which are used internationally.

a. It is important to remember that while categories are helpful, they represent trends not the beliefs of individuals.

Linking an Individual’s Personality and Values to the Workplace

Managers have become concerned with matching both the personality and the values of an employee with those of the organization. The hope is to identify workers who are both flexible and committed to the organization.

A. Person-Job Fit.

1. Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory:

a. Holland identified six personality types and proposed that job satisfaction and propensity to leave depend on how well the job and personalities are matched (congruency).

b. Social individuals belong in jobs requiring social skills and so on.

c. Vocational Preference Inventory Questionnaire.

1) This was the tool Holland used to identify congruent occupations.

2) The six personality types (or fields in Holland’s terminology) are laid out on a hexagon.

3) Fields that lie adjacent to each other are similar; those diagonally opposite are highly dissimilar.

4) Appropriate jobs for that personality (that is, those jobs that are congruent to the field) are listed either within the field’s segment of the hexagon or in a separate document.

d. There are cultural implications for person–job fit that speak to workers’ expectations that jobs will be tailored to them.

1) In individualistic countries where workers expect to be heard and respected by management, increasing person–job fit by tailoring the job to the person increases the individual’s job satisfaction.

2) However, in collectivistic countries, person–job fit is a weaker predictor of job satisfaction because people do not expect to have jobs tailored to them, so they value person–job fit efforts less.

B. Person-Organization Fit.

1. The understanding that a person must be a good match to the organization itself has become increasingly important to managers.

2. The person-organization fit concept argues that employees are more likely to leave an organization when their personalities do not match the organizational culture rather than when their skills or personalities are a good match with a particular job.

3. The alignment of an employee’s personality and values with an organization’s culture is positively related to increased job satisfaction, lower turnover, and higher organizational commitment.

4. By testing and selecting based on this concept, managers can increase organizational outcomes.

C. Other Dimensions of Fit.

1. Although person–job fit and person–organization fit are considered the most salient dimensions for workplace outcomes, other avenues of fit are worth examining.

2. These include person–group fit and person–supervisor fit.

a. Person–group fit is important in team settings, where the dynamics of team interactions significantly affect work outcomes.

b. Person–supervisor fit has become an important area of research since poor fit in this dimension can lead to lower job satisfaction and reduced performance.

3. All dimensions of fit are sometimes broadly referred to as person–environment fit. Each dimension can predict work attitudes, which are partially based on culture.

Cultural Values

A. Because values differ across cultures, an understanding of the differences would be helpful in explaining and predicting behavior of employees from different countries. Two frameworks to assess culture are Hofstede’s Framework and the GLOBE studies.

a. Hofstede’s Framework.

i. Examines five value dimensions of national culture. While there are many criticisms of this framework, it is one of the most widely read and accepted in OB (Exhibit 5-4).

1. Power Distance: The degree to which people accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.

i. High power distance means that great inequities in power and wealth are tolerated.

ii. Low power distance cultures stress equality and upward opportunities.

2. Individualism/Collectivism: The amount of emphasis placed on the individual as opposed to the group.

i. Individualism is when people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups and believe in individual rights above all else.

ii. Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect group members to look after and protect them.

3. Masculinity/Femininity: The value a culture places on traditional gender roles.

i. Masculine societies have men dominating society, separate roles for men and women, and expressly value achievement, power, and control.

ii. Feminine cultures value equality among the sexes.

4. Uncertainty Avoidance: The degree to which people in a culture prefer structured over unstructured situations.

i. High uncertainty avoidance cultures are anxious over ambiguity and uncertainty: they emphasize law and controls.

ii. Low cultures accept a greater variety of opinion and higher levels of risk while relying less on rules: they more readily accept change.

5. Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation: Degree of long-term devotion to traditional values.

i. Long-term cultures are future-oriented and value tradition, thrift, and persistence.

ii. Short-term cultures are immediate and accept change more readily.

ii. There are both regional and national differences in culture as measured by this framework.

iii. Hofstede’s framework is not without its critics, but it is still highly influential.

b. The GLOBE Framework.

i. A relatively recent and on-going program of research, this framework uses nine dimensions of national culture.

1. Some dimensions – such as power distance, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, gender differentiation, and future orientation can be seen as an extension of Hofstede’s framework.

2. The main difference is that the GLOBE framework added dimensions such as humane orientation (the degree individuals are rewarded for fair, generous, and altruistic behaviors) and performance orientation (the degree to which group members are rewarded for performance improvement and excellence).

ii. Comparison of Hofstede’s Framework and the GLOBE Framework.

1. Which framework is better? That is hard to say, and each has its supporters.

Summary and Implications for Managers

· Personality. Managers need to evaluate the job, the work group, and the organization in order to determine what the optimum Big Five personality type would be for a new employee. The MBTI could be helpful in training and development.

· Values. Values strongly influence attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions, so knowing a person’s values may help improve prediction of behavior.

· Additionally, matching an individual’s values to organizational culture can result in positive organizational outcomes.

· Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousness — as well as the other Big Five traits, depending on the criteria your organization finds most important. Other traits, such as core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant in certain situations.

· Although the MBTI has faults, you can use it in training and development to help employees better understand themselves, help team members better understand each other, and open up communication in work groups and possibly reduce conflicts.

· Evaluate jobs, work groups, and your organization to determine the optimal personality fit.

· Take into account employees’ situational factors when evaluating their observable personality traits, and lower the situation strength to better ascertain personality characteristics.

· The more you consider people’s different cultures, the better you will be able to determine their work behavior and create a positive organizational climate that performs well.

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