PERSONALITY

NATURE OF PERSONALITY
• Personality refers to a set of unique characteristics that
make an individual different from others.
1. Personality has both internal and external elements. The
external traits are the observable behaviors that we
notice in an individual’s personality, for eg, sociability.
The internal states represents the thought, values and
genetic characteristics that we infer from the observable
behaviors.
2. An individuals personality is stable. If it changes at all, it
is only after a very long time.
3. An individual’s personality is both inherited as well as
shaped by the environment. Our personality is partly
inherited genetically from our parents. However, these
genetic personality characteristics are altered some what
by life experiences.
4. Each individual is unique in behavior. There are striking
differences among individuals.
 DEFINITION
• Maddi(1980), defines personality as a stable set of
characteristics and tendencies that determine those
commonalities and differences in the psychological behavior
of people (thoughts, feelings and actions), have continuity in
time, and may not be easily understood as the sole result of
the social and biological pressures of the moment.
• The above definition indicates that people have some traits
in common with others and also different from others in
certain respects. That is why managers cannot follow
uniform pattern of rewards or motivational techniques to
influence every employee’s behavior.
• Maddi’s definition does not imply that people do not ever
change. Changes in personality occur slowly over a long
time.
• By understanding certain dimensions of personality,
managers would, to a great extend, be able to predict the
behavior of individual employees at work.
 DETERMINANTS OF
PERSONALITY.
• Certain factors enter into shaping
of personality. Main factors are
• Hereditary
• Cultural values
• Family background
• Life experience
• People we interact
 HERIDITARY
• There are some genetic factors that
partly determine certain aspects of
who we are and what we become.
• Whether we are tall/short, healthy or
sick … all such characteristics are
traceable in most cases to hereditary.
• Our personality is also shaped by how
we learn to handle other’s reactions
to us ( eg- our appearance, expertise
etc)
 CULTURAL VALUES
• People born in different cultures
may have different values that
shape different personality which
in turn influence their behavior.
• People in the west tend to be
assertive
 FAMILY BACKGROUND
• Socio economic status, no of children,
their birth order, the background,
education of parents and family
members shape personality
appreciably. First born usually have
different experiences during the
childhood than those born later.
Members of the family mould the
character of the children, from birth in
several ways.
 LIFE EXPERIENCE

• Personality characteristics are

molded by frequent occurrence of
positive or negative experiences
in life.
 PEOPLE WE INTERACT WITH
• “ A person is known by the company he or she keeps”
• The implication is that people influence one another
and tend to associate with those who are like minded
in their attitude and values.
• We are influenced by the people we interact with- our
parents, our teachers, our class mates and later our
friends and colleagues and so on.
• If we are to be accepted as members of a work
group, we have to conform to its values, whether
acceptable or not to us. If we don’t, we will not be
accepted as a member of their group.
• Our desire to be part of the group and belong to it as
its member will force many of us to change certain
aspects of our personality (we may have to be less
aggressive, more co-operative)
 PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
AND BEHAVIOR AT WORK.
• Employees personality is pretty well formed by the
time they join organizations.
• Research has identified five dimensions of personality-
commonly referred as the BIG FIVE. They are
dimensions details
Extroversion and Outgoing and sociable. focus and interact
introversion externally. Most likely to be successful if working
in sales department, publicity offices, PR Dept etc
Introverts are quite, reflective, intelligent people,
preferring to work in small and intimate circles.
They process feeling and ideas within themselves
agreeableness Friendly, co-operative, and trusting
conscientiousness Responsible, dependable, persistent, organized
Openness to experience Curious, imaginative, excited by novelty, keen on
experimenting with new ideas.
Emotional stability Relaxed, mature, cope with stress
 Other personality factors that determine the
kinds of behavior at work.

NO PERSONALITY FACTORS
1 NEED PATTERN
2 LOCUS OF CONTROL
3 TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY
4 SELF ESTEEM AND SELF CONCEPT
5 AUTHORITARIANISM AND DOGMATISM
6 MACHIAVELLINISM
7 SELF MONITORING
 NEED PATTERN
• STEERS AND BRAUNSTEIN (1976) have
developed a scale for four personality needs
which are important in work setting. They are
1. Achievement (engage themselves actively in
work behavior to feel good about their
achievements and successes)
2. Affiliation(like to work co-operatively with
others)
3. Autonomy( function best when not closely
supervised,
4. And Dominance(very effective while operating
where they can actively enforce their legitimate
authority- as in the case of Police Dept)
 LOCUS OF CONTROL
• The concept has to do with whether people believe that
they are in the control of events, or events control them.
• Those high on internal locus of control(internals)believe
that they control and shape the course of events in their
lives.
Those on external locus of control(externals) tend to
believe that events in life occur due to factors that are
beyond their control and these are shaping their destiny.
• INTERNALS seek and process more job related
information, influence others at work, seek opportunities
for advancement and rely on their own abilities.
• EXTERNALS are sensitive to factors that surround them,
experience less job satisfaction and involve less in their
jobs than internals.
 TOLERENCE FOR AMBIGUITY
• This personality characteristic indicates the level of
uncertainty that people can tolerate without
experiencing undue stress, and continue to work
normally and effectively. Managers are expected to
maintain their performance levels even under
working under conditions of extreme uncertainty
and insufficient information, especially when there
is rapid change in organization’s external
environment.
• Managers with high tolerance for ambiguity are able
to cope well under these conditions. Managers with
low tolerance would find it impossible to operate
effectively under conditions of rapid change.
 SELF ESTEEM AND SELF
CONCEPT.

• The higher the self esteem and

self concept , the greater would
be their contributions to the goals
of the organization, especially
when the system recognises their
efforts and rewards them well.
 AUTHORITARIANSM AND
DOGMATISM
• Individuals with AUTHORITARIAN
personalities tend to use their power
somewhat high handedly with their
subordinates, while being very differential at
the same time to their superiors.
• DOGMATISM refers to a person’s rigidity or
inflexibility in being open minded to other’s
point of view. These are not effective in
organizational effectiveness, since new ideas
brought up by people at lower levels in the
system would neither be listened to nor
implemented.
 MACHIAVELLIANISM
• The use of manipulation as a primary
means of gaining and retaining control
over others. They are cool, calculating, are
willing to twist and turn facts to influence
others and try to gain control over people,
events and situations by manipulating the
system to their advantage.
• Machiavellians may be able to fool a few
people all the time and all the people for a
small time, but in the long run, they are
disturbed and disliked by many in the
system and hence tend to become
ineffective.
 SELF MONITORING
• This concept describes an individuals
ability to monitor self behavior and adapt
and adjust easily to different situations.
Those high on self monitoring would put
their best foot forward in diverse
situations, which might call for
diametrically opposite behaviors,
concealing their true nature.
• Those low on self monitoring would find it
difficult to pretend to be anything that is
contrary to their true self.
 RISK TAKING
• Individuals range from high risk takers
to risk avoiders.
• High risk takers make quick decisions
and do so relying on very little
information. Stock brokers are primary
example for this .
• Risk averse individuals hesitate to take
decisions unless they have all the
information at their disposal . They do
not get into new or innovative ideas.
 TYPE ‘A’ AND TYPE ‘B’
PERSONALITIES.
• Type A persons are highly achievement
oriented , exhibit competitive mode of
operation and are impatient when their
work is slowed down for any reason.
• Type B individuals takes things easy and
do not have competitive drive.
• Type A are more prone to heart attack
compared to Type B. They may also suffer
health problems which may be detrimental
to both organization and themselves.
 WORK ETHIC ORIENTATION
• Some individuals are highly work
oriented while others try to do the
bare minimum necessary to hold on to
their jobs.
• While high level of work ethic
orientation in members is good for
organization to achieve its goals,
excessive “workaholism” might lead to
premature burnout and health
problems.
 VALUES/ ATTITUDES AND
BELIEFS
• We have seen several Personality
predispositions that influence
behavior and are important for
individual, managerial and
organizational effectiveness,
• Our attitudes are also influenced by
values, attitudes and beliefs from
early childhood by parents, friends,
teachers, religion and cultural norms.
 VALUES
• VALUES denote preferences regarding
what is deemed to be an appropriate
course of action or outcome.
• They specify each individual’s sense of
right or wrong, which influence their
attitudes and behavior.
• Values are formed by the influence of
parents, teachers, friends and others in
the environment and groups that
people interact with on regular basis.
 VALUES
• Is capital punishment right or wrong?
• Some might argue that capital
punishment is right to control and
eliminate the act of murder. Others
might argue that no government has
the right to take anyone’s life.
• So values contain a judgmental
element in that they carry an
individual’s ideas as to what is right,
good, or desirable.
IMPORTANCE OF VALUES
• Values generally influence attitudes and behavior.
• Suppose that you enter in an organization with the
view that allocating pay on the basis of
performance is right and on the basis of seniority is
wrong.
• How will you react if the organization you join is
making payment on the basis of seniority?- you are
likely to be disappointed.
• You are likely to be disappointed and this can lead
to job dissatisfaction and decision not to exert a
high level of effort since “ it is probably not going
to lead more money?
 Sources of Value
• Where do our value sysrems come from?
• Studies of twins demonstrate that the values of
biological parents play an important part in
explaining what your values will be. But the
majority of the variation in values is due to
environmental factors- national culture, parents,
teachers, friends, etc.
• A significant portion of values we hold is
established in our early years- from parents,
teachers, friends and others. As you grew up
and were exposed to other value systems, you
may have altered a number of other values.
TERMINAL AND INSTRUMENTAL
VALUES
• Rokeach developed values
belonging to two categories-
terminal and instrumental.
TERMINAL INSTRUMENTAL
Represents the individual’s Relates to the means to
preferences in achieving the achieve the desired ends.
ends or goals during one’s
lifetime

Eg-terminal value Terminal value

Values leading the lifestyle Work hard and have a high
of the rich work ehic.
 Values- classification
• Allport classifies human values
into six categories. They are
no classification explanation
1 Theoretical Interest in discovering truth through
rational and systematic thinking and
analysis.
2 economic Examining the practicality and usefulness
of things, including wealth/
3 Aesthetic Harmony through beauty and form
4 social Pertaining to social relationship and
interactions
5 political Gaining power and influencing individuals.
6 religious Understanding the universe and and
 .
• Knowing the values that employees hold helps
managers to assess their attitude and
subsequently shape their behavior.
• For e.g., employees in US value individualism and
therefore managers would benefit by giving them
freedom to do their jobs without interference,
which would then increase job satisfaction .
• In India, we were following a system of close
supervision which might call for a change. Giving
them autonomy and guidance as and when
necessary might help both attitude and behavior.
PREDOMINANT WORK VALUES

• A value plan developed by Maglino and

his associates includes
1. Achievement
2. Helping others
3. Honesty and
4. Fairness
Work proceeds smoothly when there is
value similarity. When values clash, the
situation leads to conflicts regarding
goals.
PREDOMINANT WORK VALUES
• In an achievement oriented culture, like US, the nine
work related values held by employees are identified as
1. Recognition for accomplishments
2. Respect and dignity
3. Personal choice and freedom
4. Involvement in work
5. Pride in work
6. Financial security
7. Good quality life style
8. Opportunities for self development
9. Health and wellness
certainly, these will be different for India.
Values-implication for managers
• Why it is important to know an individual’s value?
• Although they don’t have a direct impact on
behavior, values strongly influence a person’s
attitude.
• So knowledge of an individual’s value system can
provide insight into one’s attitudes.
• Given that people’s value differ. Managers can use
the Rokeach value survey to assess potential
employees and determine if their values align with
the dominant values of the organization.
• An employees performance and satisfaction will be
higher if his or her values fit well with the
organization.
 ATTITUDE
• The extend to which we like or
dislike someone or our job denotes
our attitude.
• In the workplace, job satisfaction
is considered as an important
attitude from the organizational
perspective.
• Just as values influence attitudes,
attitude influence behavior.
 THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONS
OF ATTITUDES
• The term “attitude” frequently is used in describing
people and explaining their behavior. For e.g., ‘he has
a poor attitude’.
• Attitude can be characterized in three ways. First,
they tend to persist unless something is done to
change them. For e.g., if George is transferred to day
shift, his attitude will become positive. Second,
attitude can fall anywhere in a continuum from very
favorable to unfavorable. For e.g., if George is
transferred to day shift his attitude may change from
unfavorable to highly favorable. Thirdly, attitudes are
directed towards some object about which a person
has feelings and belief. In George’s case this is work
shift
Components of attitudes
• Attitudes can be broken down
into three components
1. Emotional
2. Informational
3. behavioral
 Emotional component
• This component involves the person’s
feelings about an object.
• Thus emotion is given the greatest
attention in organizational behavior
literature in relation to job satisfaction.
• In addition, the expression of emotions-
either positive, like customer service
representative, negative like a police
officer, neutral like a public servant – is
also important to work behavior
Informational component
• This consists of beliefs and information the
individual has about an object.
• A supervisor may believe that two weeks of
training is necessary before a worker can
operate an equipment. In reality, the
average worker may be able to operate the
machine successfully after just 4 days of
training. Yet the information the supervisor
is using ie
2 weeks is the key to his attitude about
training.
 Behavioral component
• This consists of a person’s tendencies
to behave in a particular way toward
an object.
• For e.g., the supervisor in the previous
example, may assign two weeks of
machine training to all his new people.
• Out of three components mentioned,
only behavioral component can be
directly observed.
 Functions of attitude

• An understanding of the functions of attitudes

is important to the study of organizational
behavior for a number of reasons.
• It helps predict work behavior. For e.g., if an
attitude survey shows that workers are upset
by a change in the work rules and next week
absenteeism begins to increase sharply,
management may conclude that a negative
attitude toward work rules led to an increase
in worker absenteeism.
• Another reason is that attitudes help people
adapt to work environment.
 functions
KATZ has noted that attitudes
serve four important functions in
this process.
1. Adjustment function
2. Ego-Defensive function
3. Value-Expressive function
4. Knowledge function
 Adjustment function
• When employees are well treated by
the boss, they are likely to develop a
positive attitude towards supervision
and organization. When employees are
not treated well and given minimum
increase in salary, they are likely to
develop a negative attitude.
• These attitudes help employees adjust
to their environment and are a basis
for future behaviors.
 Ego-Defensive function
• Attitude also help them defend their self
images.
• For e.g., an older manager whose decisions are
continually challenged by a younger manager
may feel that the latter is immature and
inexperienced. In truth, the younger manager
may be right in challenging the older manager.
But the older manager will not agree to this and
pass the blame to junior manager and protect
the ego.
• As a result, the senior manager will develop a
negative attitude toward the younger one.
• The same is true for younger manager also, who
will feel that the boss is not doing a good job.
Value-Expressive function
• A manager who believes strongly in the
work ethic will tend to voice attitudes
toward specific individuals or work
practices as a means of reflecting this
value.
• A supervisor who wants a subordinate to
work harder might say “ you have to work
harder, this was the tradition of the
company since it was founded.”
• Attitudes serve as a basis for expressing
one’s central values.
 Knowledge function.
• A union member may have a
negative attitude towards
management. As a result,
everything the manager say is
regarded as a pack of lies ,
distortion of the truth, or an
attempt to manipulate the
workers.
 CHANGING ATTITUDE
• Employee attitude can be changed, to
the best interest of the company.
• If employee believe that their employer
does not take care of them, management
would like to change this attitude.
• Sometimes, attitude change is difficult to
accomplish because of certain barriers.
• When these barriers are identified, some
ways of overcoming them and effectively
changing them are examined.
 BARRIERS OF CHANGING
ATTITUDES

• There are two basic

barriers

1.Prior commitments
2.Insufficient information
 PRIOR COMMITMENTS

• People feel a commitment to a

particular course of action and
are unwilling to change.
INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION
• Sometimes, people do not see any
reason to change attitude.
• For eg, a boss may not like a
subordinates attitude, but the latter
may be pleased with his own behavior.
• Unless the boss show the individual
why a negative attitude is detrimental
to carrear progress or salary rise the
subordinate will continue to have a
negative attitude.
 How to overcome barriers?

1. Providing new information

2. Use of fear (anti smoking
commercials)
3. Resolving discrepancies.
4. Influence of friends or peers
5. Cooping approach.- a situation
taking people who are dissatisfied
and getting them involved in
improving things.
Implications to managers
• Managers should be interested in
their employees attitudes because
give warnings of potential problems
and because they influence behavior.
• Satisfied and committed employees,
for instance, have lower rates of
turnover and absenteeism
• So managers want to do things that
generate positive job attitudes.