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Chapter 5: Personality and Values

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the
factors that shape it.
Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality
framework and its strengths and weaknesses.
Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at
work.
Describe how the situation affects whether personality
predicts behavior.
Contrast terminal and instrumental values.
Compare generational differences in values.
Identify Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national
culture.

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LO 1 Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It

Defining Personality
 Personality is a dynamic concept describing the
growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system.
 The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
to and interacts with others.

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LO 1 Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
Managers need to know how to measure
personality.
 Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and
help managers forecast who is best for a job.
The most common means of measuring personality
is through self-report surveys.

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LO 1 Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
Personality Determinants
 Is personality the result of heredity or
environment?
 Heredity refers to those factors that were
determined at conception.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate
explanation of an individual’s personality is the
molecular structure of the genes, located in the
chromosomes.

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.

LO 1 Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
Early research tried to identify and label enduring
personality characteristics.
 Shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal,
and timid.
These are personality traits.
 Early efforts to identify the primary traits that
govern behavior often resulted in long lists that
were difficult to generalize from and provided little
practical guidance to organizational decision
makers.
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LO 2 Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Personality Framework and Its Strengths
and Weaknesses
One of the most widely used personality frameworks
is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Individuals are classified as:
 Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
 Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
 Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
 Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
INTJs are visionaries.
ESTJs are organizers.
ENTPs are conceptualizers.
Some organizations using it include Apple Computer, AT&T, Citigroup,
GE, and 3M. Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.
LO 3

Extraversion is a comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious,

assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
Agreeableness is Individual’s propensity to defer to others. People who are high on
agreeableness are cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness is indicated by
people who are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.
Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is
responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this
dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
Emotional stability describes 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 suggests the range of interests and fascination with novelty.
Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the
other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

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 LO 4

The study found that conscientiousness—in the form of persistence, attention to

detail, and setting of high standards—was more important than other traits.
These results attest to the importance of conscientiousness to organizational
success. Although conscientiousness is the Big Five trait most consistently
related to job performance, other traits are also important.

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LO 4

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 LO 4

The five factors appear in almost all cross-cultural

studies.
Generally, the findings corroborate what has been
found in U.S. research
 Of the Big Five traits, conscientiousness is the best
predictor of job performance.

These studies have included a wide variety of diverse cultures—such as China,

Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States.
Generally, the findings corroborate what has been found in U.S. research, that of
the Big Five traits, conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance.

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LO 4

Dark Triad is a group of negative personality traits including

1. Machiavellianism – the degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes
that ends can justify means.
2. Narcissism – the tendency to be arrogant, have a
grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive
admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.
3. Psychopathy – the tendency for a lack of concern for
others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions
cause harm.

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LO 4

Approach-Avoidance
 The approach-avoidance framework – casts
personality traits as motivations.
Approach motivation is attraction to positive
stimuli.
Avoidance motivation is our aversion to
negative stimuli.
The approach-avoidance framework helps to organize traits and can
help explain how they predict work behavior

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LO 4 Demonstrate How The Big Five
Traits Predict Behavior At Work
Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
 Core Self-Evaluation – bottom line conclusions
individuals have about their capabilities, competence,
and worth as a person.
 Self-Monitoring – measures an individual’s ability to
adjust his or her behavior to external, Individuals high
in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability.
They are highly sensitive to external cues, can behave
differently in different situations, and are capable of
presenting striking contradictions between their public
persona and their private selves.
 situational factors.
 Proactive Personality – people who identify
opportunities, show initiative, take action, and
persevere until meaningful change occurs.
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LO 5

Personality and Situations

 Situation strength theory – indicates that the way
personality translates into behavior depends on the
strength of the situation.
The degree to which norms, cues, or standards
dictate appropriate behavior. Situation strength in
an organization can be analyzed in terms of
Clarity
Consistency
Constraints
Consequences
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 LO 5

Trait activation theory predicts that some situations, events, or interventions

“activate” a trait more thanCopyright
others.© 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.
LO 6

Values – basic convictions about what is right, good, or

desirable.
Value system An individual’s set of values ranked in terms of
intensity is considered the person’s value system
The Importance and Organization of Values
 Values lay the foundation for understanding of attitudes
and motivation.
 Values generally influence attitudes and behaviors.
Terminal values – desirable end-states of existence. These
are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or
her lifetime
Instrumental values – preferred modes of behavior or means
of achieving terminal values.

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LO 7
Compare Generational
Differences in Values

Generational classifications may help us understand our own and

other generations better, but we must also appreciate their limits.

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LO 7 Compare Generational Differences in Values

Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the
propensity to leave a job depends on the degree to which individuals
successfully match their personalities to an occupational environment. He
identifies six personality types: realistic, investigative, social, conventional,
enterprising, and artistic. Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.
 LO 7 Compare Generational Differences in Values

Holland developed the Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire to help

develop personality profiles that could be used to understand the relationship
between personality and job fit. The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and
turnover lowest when personality and occupation are in agreement. The key
points of this model are that there do appear to be intrinsic differences in
personality among individuals, that there are different types of jobs, and
that people in jobs congruent with their personality should be more
satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than people in incongruent
jobs. Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.
LO 7

Person-Organization Fit
 People high on extraversion fit well with
aggressive and team-oriented cultures.
 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.

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LO 8

Five value dimensions of national culture

1. Power distance
Power distance is the degree to which people in a
country accept that power in institutions and
organizations is distributed unequally. A lot has
happened on the world scene since then. Some of
the most obvious changes include the fall of the
Soviet Union, the transformation of central and
eastern Europe, the end of apartheid in South
Africa, and the rise of China as a global power.
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Individualism versus collectivism
Individualism is the degree to which people in a
country prefer to act as individuals rather than as
members of groups. Collectivism emphasizes a tight
social framework in which people expect others in
groups in which they are a part to look after them
and protect them. Asian countries were more
collectivist than individualistic; United States ranked
highest on individualism

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Masculinity versus femininity
Masculinity is the degree to which values such as the
acquisition of money and material goods prevail.
Femininity is the degree to which people value
relationships and show sensitivity and concern for
others. Germany and Hong Kong rated high on
masculinity
Uncertainty avoidance
degree to which people in a country prefer structured
over unstructured situations.
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Long-term versus short-term orientation
long-term orientations look to the future and value
thrift and persistence. China and Hong Kong had a
long-term orientation
Short-term orientation values the here and now;
they accept change more readily and don’t see
commitments as impediments to change. France
and the United States had short-term orientation.

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LO 8

Different cultural values by nation.

Enormously influential on OB research and
managers, but still criticized.
 Original work is more than 30 years old and
based on a single company (IBM).
 Important social and political changes since then.
 Methodology concerns.

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LO 8

The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Culture

 The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program updated
Hofstede’s research.
Data from 825 organizations and 62 countries.
Used variables similar to Hofstede’s.
Added some news ones.

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As a manager, you are more likely to appreciate,
evaluate positively, and allocate rewards to
employees who fit in, and your employees are more
likely to be satisfied if they perceive they do fit in.
Plan to objectively consider your employees’
performance accordingly.
Consider screening job candidates for high
conscientiousness, as well as the other Big Five traits,
depending on the criteria your organization finds
most important. Other traits, such as core self-
evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant in certain
situations.
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You need to evaluate your employees’ jobs, their work
groups, and your organization to determine the optimal
personality fit.
Take into account employees' situational factors when
evaluating their observable personality traits, and lower
the situation strength to better ascertain personality
characteristics.
Although the MBTI has been widely criticized, it may have
a place in organizations. You may consider the results
helpful for training and development. The results can also
help employees better understand themselves, help team
members better understand each other, open up
communication in work groups, and possibly reduce
conflicts. Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education Ltd.