What is Personality?
Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others.
Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics
that describe an
individual’s behavior.
Personality
Determinants
• Heredity
• Environment
• Situation
Personality Determinants
Heredity:
The biological, physiological or psychological characteristics of
individual that are inherited through the generation.
 Genetic reasons underlying human behaviors - shyness, fear…
 Twin Studies – A1 & B1 vs A2 & B2
 Consistency in behavior over time and across situation – job
satisfaction over time &situation
If heredity is the only determinant of personality, no
changes in personality may occur.
Personality Determinants (Cont.)
Environment
Environment is the place where an individual is expected to
play a major role in shaping his/her personality.
Situation
Situation has significant influence on the personality of an
individual. According to the need of the situation individual
can shape himself/herself – control behaviour as and when
needed
Personality
Traits
Core Traits
Descriptive Characteristics of High Scorers
Conscientiousness
Dependable, hardworking, organized, selfdisciplined, persistent, responsible
Emotional stability
Calm, secure, happy, unworried
Agreeableness
Cooperative, warm, caring, good-natured,
courteous, trusting
Extraversion
Sociable, outgoing, talkative, assertive, gregarious
Openness to experience
Curious, intellectual, creative, cultured, artistically
sensitive, flexible, imaginative
The Big-Five Model of Personality Trait
 Extraversion
This dimension captures one’s comfort level with
relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive and
sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid and quite.
 Agreeableness
This dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to
subjugate his own interests for the sake of the group. Highly
agreeable people are co-operative, warm and trusting. People with
low agreeableness are cold, disagreeable and antagonistic.
 Conscientiousness
This dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly
conscious person is responsible, organized, dependable and
persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily
distracted, disorganized and unreliable.
The Big-Five Model (Cont.)
 Emotional Stability
- This dimension taps 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.
 Openness to Experience
- One’s range of interest and fascination with novelty. Extremely
open people are creative, curious and artistically sensitive. Those are
at the end of openness category are conventional and find comfort in
the familiar.
Determinants of Personality
Biological
Cultural
Familial
Situation
Biological Factors
Heredity
Brain
Physical features
Cultural Factors
Culture with a person
External culture
Familial Factors
Identification process
Socialization process
The Self Concept: Self-esteem and Self-efficacy
Self concept refers to the efforts made by an individual
to understand his own self.
Self esteem refers to the self perceived competence
Self efficacy refers to a person’s perception of his
ability to cope with different situations.
Major Personality Attributes influencing OB
Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they
are masters of their own fate.
Internals
Individuals who believe that they
control what happens to them.
Externals
Individuals who believe that
what happens to them is
controlled by outside forces
such as luck or chance.
Major Personality Attributes influencing OB (Cont.)
Machiavellianism
Individuals’ degree to maintain an
emotional distance from other –
believe that ends justify the means
Self-Esteem (SE)
Individuals’ degree of liking or
disliking themselves
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an
individuals ability to adjust his or her
behavior to external, situational
factors.
Major Personality Attributes influencing OB (Cont.)
Risk taking:
The individual’s willingness to take the risk
• High Risk-taking Managers
– Make quicker decisions
– Use less information to make decisions
– Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial
organizations
• Low Risk-taking Managers
– Are slower to make decisions
– Require more information before making decisions
– Exist in larger organizations with stable
environments
Major Personality Attributes influencing OB (Cont.)
Proactive Personality
Identifies opportunities,
shows initiative, takes
action, and perseveres
until meaningful change
occurs.
Creates positive change
in the environment,
regardless or even in
spite of constraints or
obstacles.
Personality Types
Type A’s
1. are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;
2. feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;
3. strive to think or do two or more things at once;
4. cannot cope with leisure time;
5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in
terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.
Type B’s
1. never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its
accompanying impatience;
2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements
or accomplishments;
3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their
superiority at any cost;
4. can relax without guilt.
Personality Theories
Levinson’s Theory of Adult Life Stages
Four Period of Stability:
1. Age 22-28, individual steps in to the adult life.
2. Age 33-40, individual is in the process of settling.
3. Age 45-50, individual enters into middle adulthood.
4. Age 55-60, individual approaches to old age
Four Transitional Period:
1. Age thirty transition (Between age 28 and 33 years).
2. Mid-life transition (Between age 40 and 45 years).
3. Age fifty transition (Between age 50 and 55 years)
4. Late adult transition (Between age 60 and 65 years).
Personality Theories
Hall’s Career Stage Model
Four Stages of Career:
• Exploration: Individual seeks an identity, attempts to understand own
personality, tries out for various role to build the career. At this stage,
employees are relatively unstable and less productive.
• Establishment: Employees tries to settle down in his career,
productivity increases.
• Maintenance: Productivity reaches in the peak, employee feels that
he has to contribute something for the next generation.
• Decline: Productivity of the person is declining.
Holland’s Typology of Personality and Congruent Occupation
Type
Personality Characteristics
Congruent Occupations
Realistic: Prefers physical
activities that require skill,
strength and coordination
Shy, genuine, persistent, stable,
conforming, practical
Mechanics, drill press operator,
assembly line worker, farmer
Investigative: Prefers activities
Analytical, original, curious,
that involve thinking, organizing independent
and understanding
Biologists, economist,
mathematician, news reporter
Social: Prefers activities that
involve helping and developing
others
Sociable, friendly, cooperative,
understanding
Social worker, teacher counselor,
clinical psychologists
Conventional: Prefers ruleregulated, orderly, and
unambiguous activities
Conforming, efficient, practical,
unimaginative, inflexible
Accountant, corporate manager,
bank teller, file clerk
Enterprising: Prefers verbal
activities where there are
opportunities to influence others
and attain power
Self-confident, ambitious,
energetic, domineering
Lawyer, real estate agent, public
relations specialist, small
business manager
Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and
unsystematic activities that
allow creative expression
Imaginative disorderly, idealistic, Painter, musician, writer, interior
emotional, impractical
decorator
Personality Theories
Argyris Immaturity to Maturity Theory
Seven dimensions immaturity-maturity continuum:
IMMATURITY
MATURITY
Passive……………………………………………Active
Dependence……………………………………Independence
Behave in a few ways………………………Behave in many ways
Erratic shallow interest…………………….Deeper Stronger interest
Short time perspective…………………….Long time perspective
Subordinate position……………………….Equal or superordinate position
Lack of self awareness…………………….Awareness and control over self
What are Emotions?
Affect
A broad range of feelings that people experience.
Emotions
Intense feelings that are directed at someone or
something.
Moods
Feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and
that lack a contextual stimulus.
What Are Emotions? (cont’d)
Emotional Labor
A situation in which an employee expresses
organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions.
Emotional Dissonance
A situation in which an employee
must project one emotion while simultaneously feeling
another.
Felt versus Displayed Emotions
Felt Emotions
An individual’s actual emotions.
Displayed Emotions
Emotions that are organizationally required and
considered appropriate in a given job.