What is personality?

1. Ch No.5
Personality &
Values

2. The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that
determine his unique adjustments to his environment.

3. What is Personality?
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, the measurable traits a person
exhibits
Personality will affect decisions about the future, whether the job
hunting, thinking of taking some time out, or considering options such
as voluntary work
It affects how and when to make decisions, the information based
them on, and the outcomes achieved from them.

4. Measuring Personality
Helpful in hiring decisions
Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality – often better predictors
Most common method:
self-reporting surveys

5. Personality Determinants
Heredity
The biological, physiological or psychological characteristics of individual that
are inherited through the generation.
This “Heredity Approach” argues that genes are the source of
personality
Twin studies: raised apart but very similar personalities
Parents don’t add much to personality development
There is some personality change over long time periods
If heredity is the only determinant of personality, no changes in
personality may occur.
Personality
Personality
Determinants
Determinants
• •Heredity
Heredity
• •Environment
Environment

6. Personality Determinants
Environment
Environment is the place where an individual is expected to
play a major role in shaping his/her personality.
Environmental factors include the culture of the society in
which an individual is brought up
The norms set by the parents, teachers and other social
groups with which the individual interacts,
Personality
Personality
Determinants
Determinants
• •Heredity
Heredity
• •Environment
Environment

7. The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there
is any reaction, both are transformed.
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator

8. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
A Personality assessment instrument
Classification
Extraverted VS Introverted
Individuals are outgoing, sociable, assertive
Quite and Shy
Judging VS Perceiving
Want control and prefer their world to
be ordered and structured
Flexible and Spontaneous
Sensing VS Intuitive
Practical and prefer routine and order;
focus on details
Unconscious process and look at the
“big picture”
Thinking VS Feeling
Use reason and logic
Rely on personal values and emotions

9. The Big Five Personality Models
Extraversion
Gregarious, assertive, sociable, introverts tend to be reserved, timid and
quite.
Agreeableness
Co-operative, warm and trusting. Low on agreeableness are cold,
antagonistic.
Conscientiousness
Responsible, Organized, Persistent. Low on conscientiousness are
distracted, disorganized unreliable.
Emotional Stability
Responsible, Organized, Persistent. Low on conscientiousness are
distracted, disorganized unreliable.
Openness to Experience
Creative, curious, artistically, sensitive. At the other end; are
conventional, find comfort in the familiar.

10. Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
Core Self Evaluation
 With positive core self-evaluation like themselves as effective capable.
 With negative core self-evaluation dislike themselves, question their
capabilities.
Machiavellianism
Pragmatic maintains emotional distance.
Narcissism
Fall in love with your own image.
Self Monitoring
Individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to
external situational factors.
Type a Personality
Achieve more and more in less and less time, if necessary against the
opposing efforts of other things or people.
Proactive Personality
Identity opportunity, show initiative, take action.

11. Personality is a person among persons. There is no personality of one man on a desert
island.

12. Value
Mode of conduct or end state is personally or socially
preferable (i.e., what is right and good)
Values have both context and intensity attributes. They
contain a Judgmental element.
Value System
A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s values in
terms of their intensity.

13. Importance of Values
 Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong”.
 Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and
behaviors of individuals and cultures.
 Influence our perception of the world around us
 Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred
over
others

14. Terminal Values
Instrumental Values
 also called intrinsic value  also called extrinsic value
 desired end-states or
life goals
 by which we achieve
desired ends
Generational Values
Analysis of work values into group that attempt to
capture values of different generations
(I) Veterans 1950-1960
(II) Boomers 1965-1985
(III) Xers 1985-2000
(IV) Nexters after 2000

16. VS

17. Mean Value Rankings of Executives, Union
Members, and Activists

18. We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we
should die.
Linking an Individual's Personality
And Values to The Workplace

19. Linking an Individual's Personality
And Values to The Workplace
Managers are less interested in someone’s ability to do a
specific job than in that person’s flexibility.
Person-Job Fit
John Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory
Six personality types
Realistic
Social
Investigative
Enterprising
•Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI)
Artistic
Conventional

20. Linking an Individual's Personality
And Values to The Workplace
In addition to matching the individual’s personality to the job,
managers are also concerned with:
Person-Organization Fit
The employee’s personality must fit with the organizational
culture.
People are attracted to organizations that match their values.
Those who match are most likely to be selected.
Mismatches will result in turnover.
Can use the Big Five personality types to match to the
organizational culture.

21. Global Implications
Personality
Do frameworks like Big Five transfer across cultures?
•Yes, the but the frequency of type in the culture may vary.
•Better in individualistic than collectivist cultures.
Values
Values differ across cultures.
Hofstede’s Framework for assessing culture – five value dimensions:
Power distance
•Masculinity vs. Femininity
•Individualism vs. Collectivism
•Uncertainty Avoidance
•Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation

22. Power Distance
The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and
organizations is distributed unequally
Low distance
Relatively equal power between those with status/wealth and
those without status/wealth
High distance
Extremely unequal power distribution between those with
status/wealth and those without status/wealth
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Individualism
The degree to which people prefer to act as
individuals rather than as members of groups
Collectivism
A tight social framework in which people expect
others in groups of which they are a part to look
after them and protect them

23. Masculinity vs. Femininity
Masculinity
The extent to which the society values work roles of
achievement, power, and control, and where assertiveness
and materialism are also valued
Femininity
The extent to which there is little differentiation between roles for men and
women
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous
situations and tries to avoid them
High Uncertainty Avoidance
Society does not like ambiguous situations and tries to
avoid them
Low Uncertainty Avoidance
Society does not mind ambiguous situations and embraces them

24. Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation
Long-term Orientation
A national culture attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and
persistence
Short-term Orientation
A national culture attribute that emphasizes the present and the hereand-now