Organizational Behavior and Leadership In the 21st Century Oct 15
Emir7
Week5Discussion.pptxCh 5: Personality & Values
Dr. Altamirano
King graduate school
Organizational behavior & leadership
Learning Objectives
Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it.
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality framework and the Big Five model.
Discuss how the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-monitoring, and proactive personality contribute to the understanding of personality.
Describe how personality affects job search and unemployment.
Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts behavior.
Contrast terminal and instrumental values.
Describe the differences between person-job fit and person-organization fit.
Compare Hofstede’s five value dimensions and the GLOBE framework.
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it.
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and the Big Five model.
Discuss how the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-monitoring, and proactive personality contribute to the understanding of personality.
Describe how personality affects job search and unemployment.
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Personality
Defining Personality
Personality is a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole psychological system.
The sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
We begin by defining personality. Personality is a dynamic concept, meaning it is changing all the time. It describes the total of growth and development of a person’s whole psychological system. The text definition is that personality is the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
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Happiness - an enduring state of mind consisting not only of feelings of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions, but also of a sense that one's life is meaningful and valued
Anger - an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something you feel has deliberately done you wrong
Discussion
What makes you happy?
What are some things that make you angry?
Measuring Personality
Measuring Personality
Managers need to know how to measure personality.
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.
One of the greatest challenges in the study of personality is its measurement. Managers need to know how to measure personality because accurately measuring personality gives managers an advantage in the recruitment and hiring processes. Typically, personality is measured using self-report surveys.
Research indicates our culture influences the way we rate ourselves. People in individualistic countries trend toward self-enhancement, while people in collectivist countries such as Taiwan, China, and South Korea trend toward self-diminishment.
Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent assessment of personality. Here, a coworker or another observer does the rating.
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.
However, each can tell us something unique about an individual’s behavior, so a combination of self-reports and observer reports predicts performance better than any one type of information.
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Factors that Shape Personality
Personality Determinants
Is personality the result of heredity or environment?
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
An early argument centered on whether or not personality was the result of heredity or environment. Personality appears to be a result of both influences. Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
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Discussion
Are you happy with your personality?
Would you like to be different?
Factors that Shape Personality
Early research tried to identify and label enduring personality characteristics and traits.
Shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid.
Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid. These are personality traits. The more consistent the characteristic over time, and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the more important the trait is in describing the individual.
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Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five Model
The most widely used personality framework is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Individuals are classified as:
Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
INTJs are visionaries.
ESTJs are organizers.
ENTPs are conceptualizers.
The most widely used personality framework is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Individuals are classified as Extroverted or Introverted (E or I), Sensing or Intuitive (S or N), Thinking or Feeling (T or F), and Perceiving or Judging (P or J). These classifications are then combined into 16 personality types.
INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great drive. 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.
ENTPs are conceptualizers. They are innovative, individualistic, versatile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas. They tend to be resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments.
MBTI is widely used. It is taken by over 2.5 million people each year and 89 of the Fortune 100 companies use it.
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Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI & Big Five Model
The Big Five Model
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Openness to experience
An impressive body of research supports that five basic dimensions underlie all other personality dimensions. The five basic dimensions are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. Let’s look at each of these for a minute.
Extraversion is a comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
Agreeableness is an Individual’s propensity to defer to others. People who are high on agreeableness are cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness is indicated by people who are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.
Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
Emotional stability describes a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
And lastly, openness to experience suggests the 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.
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Exhibit 5-1 shows the results of research on personality scores of CEO candidates. The study found that conscientiousness—in the form of persistence, attention to detail, and setting of high standards—was more important than other traits. These results attest to the importance of conscientiousness to organizational success. Although conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance, other traits are also important.
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Model of How Big Five Traits Influence OB Criteria
All five traits also have other implications for work and for life. Let’s look at these one at a time. Exhibit 5-2 summarizes the points.
Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and reduced intentions to quit and burnout.
People with high emotional stability can adapt to unexpected or changing demands in the workplace.
Extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence and behaviors in groups. Extraverts also tend to have generally high job satisfaction and reduced burnout. Some negatives are that extraverts can appear to be self-aggrandizing, egoistic, or too dominating and that their social behavior can be disadvantageous for jobs that do not require frequent social interaction.
Individuals who score high on openness to experience are more likely to be effective leaders and are more comfortable with ambiguity. They cope better with organizational change and are more adaptable in changing contexts.
Agreeable individuals are better liked than disagreeable people, which explains why they should perform well in interpersonally oriented jobs such as customer service.
They experience less work–family conflict and are less likely to turnover. People who are agreeable are more satisfied in their jobs and contribute to organizational performance by engaging in citizenship behavior. They are also less likely to engage in organizational deviance.
One downside is that agreeableness is associated with lower levels of career success.
The five personality factors identified in the Big Five model appear in almost all cross-cultural studies.
These studies have included a wide variety of diverse cultures such as China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States. Generally, the findings corroborate what has been found in U.S. research: of the Big Five traits, conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance.
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Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI & Big Five Model
The Dark Triad is a group of negative personality traits including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy – all three of which have relevance for organizational behavior.
Machiavellianism is the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means. Narcissism refers to the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement. And psychopathy is the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.
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Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI & Big Five Model
The Dark Triad
Machiavellianism: the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
Narcissism: the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.
Psychopathy: the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.
The Dark Triad is a group of negative personality traits including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy – all three of which have relevance for organizational behavior.
Machiavellianism is the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means. Narcissism refers to the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement. And psychopathy is the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.
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Discussion
Are you a determined person? Are you a stubborn person?
Are you shy? In which occasions are you shy?
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI & Big Five Model
An emerging framework to study dark side traits:
First, antisocial people are indifferent and callous toward others.
Second, borderline people have low self-esteem and high uncertainty.
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.
One emerging framework incorporates five additional aberrant compound traits based on the Big Five.
First, antisocial people are indifferent and callous toward others.
Second, borderline people have low self-esteem and high uncertainty.
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Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five Model
Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric and disorganized.
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.
Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and hate criticism.
Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric and disorganized.
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.
Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and hate criticism.
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CSE, Self-Monitoring, and Proactive Personality
Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
Core Self-Evaluation: bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
Self-Monitoring: measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.
Proactive Personality: people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.
Some other personality traits relevant to OB include core self-evaluation, self-monitoring, and proactive personality.
People who have a positive core self-evaluation see themselves as effective, capable, and in control. People who have a negative core self-evaluation tend to dislike themselves.
Self-monitoring refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different situations, and are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private selves.
An individual with a proactive personality actively takes the initiative to improve his or her current circumstances. These individuals identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere.
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The Situation, Job Search, and Unemployment
What personality characteristics predict job search behaviors among the unemployed?
Conscientiousness and extraversion are the two strongest predictors of job search behavior,
Self-esteem and self-efficacy (parts of CSE) are also important.
How does personality influence our job search outcomes and operate during our unemployed periods?
Many studies of unemployed job seekers have found that conscientiousness and extraversion were predictive of networking intensity, general job-search intensity, interviews, and job offers, even after controlling for demographic characteristics and the time spent unemployed.
Overall, one review suggests that conscientiousness and extraversion are the two strongest predictors of job search behavior, although self-esteem and self-efficacy (parts of CSE) are also important.
Additional work on unemployed university students suggests that positive affectivity is also important in getting interviews, job offers, and becoming employed—primarily because the positive affect enables the students to have a clearer and more open perspective toward the job search process, engage in more self-monitoring of their motivation, and through reducing procrastination. Negative affectivity and hostility can have the reverse effect.
It appears that extraversion, conscientiousness, and positive affectivity tend to have a substantial effect on becoming employed and coping with unemployment (with negative affectivity and hostility having equivalent negative effects).
Finally, as we will discuss further in the next section, the situation and context matters as well. The experience of unemployment is not the same for everyone across the board—it can be different for new entrants to the labor market (college grads), those who have just lost their jobs, and those who are employed, seeking jobs.
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The Situation, Personality, and Behavior
Situation strength theory: indicates that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation.
The degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behavior.
Clarity
Consistency
Constraints
Consequences
Research shows that the effect of a particular trait on organizational behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical frameworks that can help explain this are the situation strength theory and trait activation theory.
Situation strength in an organization can be analyzed in terms of:
Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are available and clear.
Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work duties and responsibilities are compatible with one another.
Constraints, or the extent to which individuals’ freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside their control.
Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the organization or its members, clients, suppliers, and so on.
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Trait Activation Theory: Jobs in Which Certain Big Five Traits Are More Relevant
| Detail Orientation Required | Social Skills Required | Competitive Work | Innovation Required | Dealing with Angry People | Time Pressure (Deadlines) |
| Jobs scoring high (the traits listed here should predict behavior in these jobs) | blank | blank | blank | blank | blank |
| Air traffic controller | Clergy | Coach/scout | Actor | Correctional officer | Broadcast news analyst |
| Accountant | Therapist | Financial manager | Systems analyst | Telemarketer | Editor |
| Legal secretary | Concierge | Sales representative | Advertising writer | Flight attendant | Airline pilot |
| Jobs scoring low (the traits listed here should not predict behavior in these jobs) | blank | blank | blank | blank | blank |
| Forester | Software engineer | Postal clerk | Court reporter | Composer | Skincare specialist |
| Masseuse | Pump operator | Historian | Archivist | Biologist | Mathematician |
Trait activation theory predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others. Exhibit 5-3, shown here, provides specific examples of this theory.
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| Detail Orientation Required | Social Skills Required | Competitive Work | Innovation Required | Dealing with Angry People | Time Pressure (Deadlines) |
| Model | Broadcast technician | Nuclear reactor operator | Medical technician | Statistician | Fitness trainer |
| Jobs that score high activate these traits (make them more relevant to predicting behavior) | blank | blank | blank | blank | blank |
| Conscientiousness (+) | Extraversion (+) | Extraversion (+) | Openness (+) | Extraversion (+) | Conscientiousness (+) |
| Blank | Agreeableness (+) | Agreeableness (–) | Blank | Agreeableness (+) | Neuroticism (–) |
| Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Neuroticism (–) | Blank |
Trait activation theory predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others. Exhibit 5-3, shown here, provides specific examples of this theory.
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Discussion
What sort of things would you do to amuse yourself during a car journey?
What is one thing that many people don't know about you?
Terminal and Instrumental Values
Values: basic convictions about what is right, good, or desirable.
Value system: ranks values in terms of intensity.
The Importance and Organization of Values
Values:
Lay the foundation for understanding of attitudes and motivation.
Influence attitudes and behaviors.
Values represent basic convictions that a person has about what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes, and have the tendency to be stable and enduring. An individual’s set of values ranked in terms of intensity is considered the person’s value system. Values lay the foundation for our understanding of attitudes and motivation and generally influence attitudes and behaviors.
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Terminal and Instrumental Values
Terminal vs. Instrumental Values
Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence.
Instrumental values: preferred modes of behavior or means of achieving terminal values.
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. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states of existence. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behavior, that is, the means of achieving the terminal values.
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Dominant Work Values in Today’s Workforce
| Cohort | Entered the Workforce | Approximate Current Age | Dominant Work Values |
| Boomers | 1965–1985 | 50s to 70s | Success, achievement, ambition, dislike of authority; loyalty to career |
| Xers | 1985–2000 | Mid-30s to 50s | Work-life balance, team-oriented, dislike of rules; loyalty to relationships |
| Millennials | 2000 to present | To mid-30s | Confident, financial success, self-reliant but team-oriented; loyalty to both self and relationships |
Exhibit 5-4 shows that different generations hold different work values. Boomers (Baby Boomers) entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid-1980s. Xers (Generation Xers) entered the workforce beginning in the mid-1980s. The most recent entrants to the workforce are the Millennials. Though it is fascinating to think about generational values, remember that these classifications lack solid research support. Generational classifications may help us understand our own and other generations better, but we must also appreciate their limits.
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Person-Job Fit vs. Person-Organization Fit
Person-Organization Fit
People high on extraversion fit well with aggressive and team-oriented cultures.
People high on agreeableness match up better with a supportive organizational climate than one focused on aggressiveness.
People high on openness to experience fit better in organizations that emphasize innovation rather than standardization.
The Person-Organization Fit is most important for an organization facing a dynamic and changing environment. Such organizations require employees who are able to readily change tasks and move fluidly between teams. It argues that people leave jobs that are not matched with their personalities.
Using the Big Five terminology, for instance, we could expect that people high on extraversion fit well with aggressive and team-oriented cultures, that people high on agreeableness match up better with a supportive organizational climate than one focused on aggressiveness, and that people high on openness to experience fit better in organizations that emphasize innovation rather than standardization. Research on person-organization fit has also looked at whether people’s values match the organization’s culture. This match predicts job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and low turnover.
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Person-Job Fit vs. Person-Organization Fit
Other Dimensions of Fit
Although person-job fit and person-organization fit are considered the most salient dimensions for workplace outcomes, other avenues of fit are worth examining.
Person-group fit
Person-supervisor fit
Although person-job fit and person-organization fit are considered the most salient dimensions for workplace outcomes, other avenues of fit are worth examining.
These include person-group fit and person-supervisor fit.
Person-group fit is important in team settings, where the dynamics of team interactions significantly affect work outcomes.
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.
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Hofstede’s Five Value Dimensions
Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions originate from a large survey that he conducted from the 1960s to 1970s that examined value differences among different divisions of IBM, a multinational computer manufacturing company.
Hofstede’s Five Value Dimensions
Hofstede’s Framework
Power distance
Individualism versus collectivism
Masculinity versus femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long-term versus short-term orientation
Hofstede’s framework for assessing cultures suggests five value dimensions of national culture.
Power distance: is the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
Individualism versus collectivism: individualism is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups. Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups in which they are a part to look after them and protect them.
Masculinity versus femininity: masculinity is the degree to which values such as the acquisition of money and material goods prevail. Femininity is the degree to which people value relationships and show sensitivity and concern for others.
Uncertainty avoidance: is the degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations.
Long-term versus short-term orientation: long-term orientations look to the future and value thrift and persistence. Short-term orientation values the here and now; they accept change more readily and don’t see commitments as impediments to change.
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GLOBE
The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Culture
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program updated Hofstede’s research.
Data from 825 organizations and 62 countries.
Used variables similar to Hofstede’s.
Added some news ones.
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) program began updating Hofstede’s research using data from 825 organizations and 62 countries. The variables studied are similar to Hofstede’s, with some additional ones as well. For example, performance orientation is the degree to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence, and humane orientation is the degree to which a society rewards individuals for being altruistic, generous, and kind to others.
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Implications for Managers
Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousness—and the other Big Five traits—depending on the criteria your organization finds most important. Other aspects, such as core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant in certain situations.
Although the MBTI has faults, you can use it for training and development; to help employees better understand each other, open communication in work groups, and possibly reduce conflicts.
Personality matters to organizational behavior. It doesn’t explain all behavior, but it sets the stage. Emerging theory and research reveal how personality matters more in some situations than others. The Big Five has been a particularly important advancement, though the Dark Triad and other traits matter as well. Every trait has advantages and disadvantages for work behavior, and there is no perfect constellation of traits that is ideal in every situation. Personality can help you to understand why people (including yourself!) act, think, and feel the way we do, and the astute manager can put that understanding to use by taking care to place employees in situations that best fit their personalities. An understanding of personality can also help you understand what strengths you may have (and should strive for) when searching for a job.
Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousness—and the other Big Five traits—depending on the criteria your organization finds most important. Other aspects, such as core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant in certain situations.
Although the MBTI has faults, you can use it for training and development; to help employees better understand each other, open communication in work groups, and possibly reduce conflicts.
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Implications for Managers
Evaluate jobs, work groups, and your organization to determine the optimal personality fit.
Consider situational factors when evaluating observable personality traits, and lower the situation strength to better ascertain personality characteristics more closely.
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.
Evaluate jobs, work groups, and your organization to determine the optimal personality fit.
Consider situational factors when evaluating observable personality traits, and lower the situation strength to better ascertain personality characteristics more closely.
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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For Next Week
Discussion Forum due next week
Ethics Paper due in two weeks
