MGT 321

Personality and Values

Personality and its importance in OB

• Personality: Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

• Research has shown personality tests are • Research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who is best for a job

• Self-report survey – good or bad?

• Observer rating survey

• Combination of both methods?

Determinants of Personality

EnvironmentHeredity

(Nature)

Environment

(Nurture)Personality

Personality FrameworksThe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Based on the work of Carl Jung• It is a 100-question personality test that asks

people how they usually feel or act in particular situations– Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I)– Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I)– Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N)– Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)– Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)

• These classifications together describe 16 personality types, identifying every person by one trait from each of the four pairs.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I) –Outgoing, sociable, assertive vs. quiet, shy

• Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N) – practical, routine oriented vs. Reliance on unconcious routine oriented vs. Reliance on unconcious processes

• Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F) – logical vs. dependence on personal emotions

• Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P) – order, structure vs. flexible, sponteneous

Personality FrameworksThe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Evidence is mixed about the validity and stability of MBTI. Most of the evidence is against it.

• One problem is that it forces a person into one type or another; Binary system

• MBTI can be a valuable tool for increasing self-awareness and providing career guidance.

• But because results tend to be unrelated to job performance, managers probably shouldn’t use it as a selection test for job candidates.

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• In recent years, researchers have identified five fundamental personality traits that are especially relevant to organizations.

– Extraversion– Extraversion

– Agreeableness

– Conscientiousness

– Emotional stability or Neuroticism

– Openness to experience

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• Extraversion: Reflects a person’s comfort level with relationships

Extraversion

High Low

Extroverts tend to be sociable, talkative, assertive, and open to establishing new relationships

Introverts tend to be less sociable, talkative, and assertive, and more reluctant to begin new relationships

• Extroverts are more likely to be attracted to jobs based on personal relationships, such as sales and marketing positions

• Extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in groups

• Extroverts are more impulsive than introverts; they are more likely to be absent from work and engage in risky behavior

• One study also found extraverts were more likely than introverts to lie during job interviews

establishing new relationships reluctant to begin new relationships

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• Agreeableness: A person’s ability to get along with others

Agreeableness

High Low

Tend to be gentle, cooperative, forgiving, understanding, good-natured

Tend to be irritable, short-tempered, uncooperative, antagonistic toward other people

• Highly agreeable people are better at developing good working relationships with coworkers, subordinates, and higher-level managers; overall high citizenship behavior

• The same pattern might extend to relationships with customers, suppliers, and other key organizational constituents

• Agreeableness is associated with lower levels of career success

natured other people

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• Conscientiousness: This dimension is a measure of reliability. It also refers to the number of goals on which a person focuses

Conscientiousness

High (Fewer goals) Low (Wider array of goals)

Tend to be more organized, systematic, Tend to be more disorganized, careless,

• Research has found that more conscientious people tend to be higher performers than less conscientious people in a variety of different jobs.

• Conscientious people tend to develop higher levels of job knowledge which contributes to higher levels of job performance

Tend to be more organized, systematic, careful, thorough, responsible, and self-disciplined

Tend to be more disorganized, careless, and irresponsible, as well as less thorough and self-disciplined

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• Emotional stability or Neuroticism: a person’s ability to withstand stress

Emotional stability or Neuroticism

High in Neuroticism (Less stable) Low in neuroticism (More stable)

Tend to experience anger, anxiety, Tend to be relatively poised, calm,

• Emotional stability is strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels.

Tend to experience anger, anxiety,depression, and feelings of vulnerability more often; more excitable, insecure, reactive, and subject to extreme mood swings

Tend to be relatively poised, calm, resilient, and secure; expected to better handle job stress, pressure, and tension

Personality FrameworksThe Big Five Personality Model

• Openness to experience: addresses range of interests and fascination with novelty

Openness to experience

High Low

Are open to new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes in

Tend to be less receptive to new ideas and less willing to change their minds;

• People with more openness might be expected to be better performers due to their flexibility and the likelihood that they will be better accepted by others in the organization

• Open people are more likely to be effective leaders because of their creativity, and more comfortable with ambiguity and change

their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes in response to new information; broadinterests and curious, imaginative, and creative

and less willing to change their minds;fewer and narrower interests and less curious and creative

Which trait is most important for managers?

A study of the personality scores of 313 CEO candidates in private equity private equity companies found conscientiousness more important than other traits.

!!!!Food for thought!!!!What do you think about the extraversion,

agreeableness and other dimensions? Do they really matter? Why or why not?

The Dark Triad

• Researchers have found 3 negative traits that are related to organizational behavior

• Dark Triad – do not always occur together

• Machiavellianism: describes behavior directed • Machiavellianism: describes behavior directed at gaining power and controlling the behavior of others

Machiavellianism EmotionDeviant work behaviors

Bargaining skills

The Dark Triad• Psychopathy• In OB context, psychopathy is not

insanity; it is defined as lack of concern for others, and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.

• Narcissism

• describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and is • One line of research suggests that

psychopathy is related to the use of hard influence tactics (threats, manipulation) and bullying work behavior (physical or verbal threatening)

• Have to be cautious while assessing so that there is no discrimination against people who are differently abled

sense of entitlement, and is arrogant

A study found that while narcissists thought they were better leaders than their colleagues, their supervisors actually rated them as worse

Other Theoretical Frameworks / Concepts

Self-Monitoring

• refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors

Core-self evaluation

• people with positive core self-evaluations like themselves and see themselves as effective, situational factors

High self-monitors receive better performance ratings, are more likely to emerge as leaders, and show less commitment to their organizations, tend to be more mobile in their careers, receive more promotions (both internal and cross-organizational), and are more likely to occupy central positions in an organization

themselves as effective, capable, and in control of their environment

Core self evaluationJob satisfaction

Job performance

Can anyone be too optimistic about one’s

self-evaluation?

Other Theoretical Frameworks / Concepts

• Proactive personality

– Those with a proactive personality identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs, persevere until meaningful change occurs, compared to others who passively react to situations

– Proactives are also more likely to challenge the status quo or voice their displeasure when situations aren’t to their liking

Personality and Situations

• Effect of particular personality traits on organizational behavior depends on the situation.

• Two contemporary theoretical frameworks • Two contemporary theoretical frameworks shed light on this issue –

– Situation Strength Theory

– Trait Activation Theory

Personality and SituationsSituation Strength Theory

• Main Thesis and Prediction: The way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation– Situation strength means the degree to which the

norms, cues or standards dictate appropriate behaviornorms, cues or standards dictate appropriate behavior

– Strong situations pressures us to exhibit right behavior

– Weak situations, in contrast, allow any type of behavior and we are freer to express our personality

– Personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations

Personality and SituationsSituation Strength Theory

• Practical Implications in OB: Researchers analyzed situation strength in organizations in terms of four elements– Clarity: degree to which cues about duties and responsibilities

are clear [janitor vs. nanny]– Consistency: the extent to which cues about duties and – Consistency: the extent to which cues about duties and

responsibilities are compatible with one another [acute care nurse vs. manager]

– Constraints: the extent to which individuals’ freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside their control [Bank auditor vs. forest ranger]

– Consequences: the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the organizations [surgeon vs. foreign language teacher]

Personality and SituationsSituation Strength Theory

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High

HighLow

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Clarity

Consistency

ConstraintsConsequences

Personality and SituationsTrait Activation Theory (TAT)

• Prediction: TAT predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others.

• Research Results and Implications: – People act differently based on the trait that gets – People act differently based on the trait that gets

activated– Commission based job activates more extraversion

compared to openness because extraversion is more reward sensitive

– If behaviors are monitored, even electronically, it can activate traits such as fear of failure which can result in lower job performance

Personality Job Fit Theory

• John Holland

• Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a position depend on how well to leave a position depend on how well individuals match their personalities to a job

• The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when personality and occupation are in agreement

Personality Job Fit Theory

Personality Job Fit Theory

• The key points of this model are that

– there do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals,

– there are different types of jobs, and – there are different types of jobs, and

– people in jobs congruent with their personality should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than people in incongruent jobs.

Person-Organization Fit

• If an organization faces a dynamic and changing environment and requires employees able to readily change tasks and move easily between teams, it’s more important that employees’ personalities fit with the overall organization’s cultureoverall organization’s culture

• The person–organization fit essentially argues that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and they leave organizations that are not compatible with their personalities.

Person-Organization Fit

• Using the Big Five terminology– people high on extraversion fit well with aggressive

and team-oriented organizational cultures

– people high on agreeableness match up better with a – 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

Values

• Values contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable

• All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. We find it in the relative value system. We find it in the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, and equality

• Are values flexible? Generally no.

• How is value relevant to organizations?

Types of values

• Rokeach Value Survey: two sets of values, each containing 18 individual value items

• Terminal values: Refers to desirable end-states. These are the goals a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime– Prosperity and economic success, Freedom, Health and well-being,

World peace, Social recognition, and Meaning in lifeProsperity and economic success, Freedom, Health and well-being, World peace, Social recognition, and Meaning in life

• Instrumental values: Refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values– Self-improvement, Autonomy and self-reliance, Personal discipline,

kindness, Ambition, and Goal-orientation

• Different groups hold different values which may lead to conflicts

Generational Values

Cohort Entered Work Force

Approximate Current Age

Dominant Work Values

Boomers 1965 – 1985 Mid 40s to mid 60s Success, Achievement, Ambition, Dislike to Authority, Loyalty to career

Dominant Work Values in Today’s Workforce

career

Xers 1985 – 2000 Late 20s to early 40s Work life balance, Team –oriented, Dislike of rules, Loyalty to relationships

Millennials 2000 -present

Under 30 Confident, Financial success, Self –reliant but team – oriented, Loyalty to both self and relationships

Source: Robbins & Judge (2016)

International ValuesResearch by Geert Hofstede

• Power distance: The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

• Individualism: The degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups and believe in individual rights above all else

• Masculinity: The degree to which the culture favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control, as opposed to viewing men and women as equals. A high masculinity rating indicates the culture has separate roles for men and women, with men dominating the society

International ValuesResearch by Geert Hofstede

• Uncertainty avoidance: The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations

• Long-term versus short-term orientation • Long-term versus short-term orientation (Pragmatism): Measures a society’s devotion to traditional values

• Indulgence: The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised

International Valueshttp://geert-hofstede.com/bangladesh.html