Personality

Sum total of ways in which an

individual reacts and interacts with
others
 What is Personality?

• Internal perspective: Processes within an

individual that explain why he or she behaves in
characteristic ways.
– Attitudes, emotions, ways of thinking
– Fairly stable across time and situations
– Partly inherited
• External perspective: How the individual is perceived by
others that he or she interacts with (reputation).
– “She has a great personality!”
– Shaped by two fundamental motives related to social
interaction
• Getting along with others (cooperation)
• Getting ahead of others (competition)
 Factors of personality

Heredity

Culture

Family Personality

Environment
Social

Situational
 Personality
“Characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling and acting.”

Four major perspectives on Personality

Psychoanalytic - unconscious motivations

Trait - specific dimensions of personality
Humanistic - inner capacity for growth
Social-Cognitive - influence of environment
 The Unconscious
“the
“the mind
mind isis like
like an
an iceburg
iceburg -- mostly
mostly hidden”
hidden”
Conscious Awareness Unconscious
small part above surface below the surface
(Preconscious) (thoughts, feelings,
wishes, memories)

Repression
banishing unacceptable
thoughts & passions to
unconscious
Dreams & Slips
 Are There “Basic” Traits?
What trait “dimensions” describe personality?

Combination of 2 or 3
Expanded set of factors
genetically determined
“The Big 5”
dimensions

Extraversion/Introversion
Emotional Stability/Instability
 Myers –Briggs type indicator
• Extrovert vs. Introvert
• Sensing vs. Intuitive
• Thinking vs. Feelings
• Judging vs. perceiving

• Basically a tool for increasing self

awareness
 Models of Personality
• The “Big 5 Model” of Personality
– One of the most extensively researched
models of personality
– Five dimensions that capture much of the
variation in human personality
– Useful for managers because of predictive
validity
– Sometimes called the “OCEAN” model (as an
acronym)
 Models of Personality
• Openness to Experience
• Broad range of interests
• Fascination with new things and ideas
• Daring and imaginative
• Change and challenge welcomed
• Creative
• Depth and complexity of mental and experiential
life
• NOT conventional, satisfied by the familiar
 Models of Personality
• Conscientiousness
• Reliable
• Responsible
• Organized
• Careful
• Task and goal oriented
• Persistent
• Impulse control, think before acting
• NOT easily distracted, unreliable
 Models of Personality
3. Extraversion
• Comfortable with relationships
• Outgoing
• Sociable
• Uninhibited
• Assertive
• NOT reserved, quiet
 Models of Personality
• Agreeableness
• Propensity to defer to others
• Cooperative
• Warm
• Trusting
• Modest
• Good natured
• NOT cold, disagreeable
 Models of Personality
5. Neuroticism or “Emotional Stability”
• Ability to withstand stress
• Calm
• Self-confident
• Secure
• Even tempered
• NOT anxious, nervous, depressed, insecure,
irritable
 Humanistic theory
• Emphasizes on individual growth,
improvement and the self concept to
personality.
• Potential for positive development,
creativity and self realization.
 Physique-temperament theory
• Endomorphy – tendency towards plumpness,
Built for comfort not for speed
Mesomorphy – tendency towards muscularity,-
Hard , rectangular, strong, resistance to
injury, suited for hard work
Ectomorphy – tendency towards thickness,
delicate, lean, large head compare to body,
not suited for hard work
 How Does Personality Affect Job
Performance?
• Theory and research show that Big Five factors impact
motivation, which in turn affects performance. For example…

Self-efficacy
Conscientiousness Performance
Goals

• Thus, personality’s effect on performance may be fully or

partially (dotted line) mediated by motivation
 Personality dimensions
• Authoritarianism
• Bureaucratic personality
• Machiavellianism
• Problem solving style
• Locus of control
 Problem solving style
• Sensation- feeling style-dependable, and
social
• Sensation-thinking style-practical and
logical
• Intuition-feeling style- enthusiastic, people
oriented and helpful
• Intuition- thinking style –creative, energetic
and like challenging jobs
 Defense Mechanisms

• Repression - banishes certain thoughts/feelings

from consciousness (underlies all other defense
mechanisms)
• Regression - retreating to earlier stage of fixated
development
• Reaction Formation - ego makes unacceptable
impulses appear as their opposites
• Projection - attributes threatening impulses to
others
• Rationalization - generate self-justifying
explanations to hide the real reasons for our
actions
• Displacement - divert impulses toward a more
acceptable object
• Sublimation - transform unacceptable impulse
into
something socially valued
Social-Cognitive Perspective
Behavior learned through
conditioning & observation

What we think about our situation

affects our behavior

Interaction of
Environment & Intellect
 Reciprocal Determinism
Personal/
Cognitive
Factors

Environment
Behavior
Factors

Internal
Internal World
World +
+ External
External World
World =
= Us
Us
 Personal Control
Internal Locus of Control
You pretty much control your own destiny
External Locus of Control
Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny

Methods of Study
• Correlate feelings of control with behavior
• Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of
control and noting effects
 Self efficacy
• Magnitude- related to self capability
• Strength –
• Generality

• Effect on organizational implications

• Selection-decisions
• Training programme
• Goal-setting
 Outcomes of Personal Control
• Learned Helplessness

Uncontrollable Perceived Generalized

bad events lack of control helpless behavior

Important
Issue
• Nursing Homes
• Prisons
 Major personality attributes
influencing OB
• Locus of control
• Machiavellianism
• Self-esteem
• Self-monitoring
• Risk taking
• Proactive personality
 Achieving personality fit

• The person organization fit

• The person job fit
• Realistic
• Investigative
• Social
• Conventional
• artistic
 Measuring personality
• Self report surveys
• Observer rating survey
• Projective techniques