Personality and Values

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 WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

The dynamic organization within the individual of

those psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustments to his environment. - Gordon
Allport
 The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, the measurable traits a person
exhibits
Measuring Personality
 Helpfulin hiring decisions
 Most common method: self-reporting surveys
 Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality – often better predictors
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 PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS

 Heredity
 Factors determined at conception: physical stature,
facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle
composition and reflexes, energy level, and bio-
rhythms
 This “heredity approach” argues that genes are the
source of personality
 Twin studies: raised apart but very similar
personalities
 There is some personality change over long time
periods

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 PERSONALITY TRAITS

Enduring characteristics that describe an

individual’s behavior
 The more consistent the characteristic and the
more frequently it occurs in diverse situations,
the more important the trait.
Two dominant frameworks used to describe
personality:
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
 Big Five Model

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 THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
 Most widely used instrument in the world.
 Participants are classified on four axes to determine
one of 16 possible personality types, such as ENTJ.
Sociable Quiet and
and Shy
Assertive
Practical Unconscious
and Processes
Orderly
Use Reason Uses Values
and Logic & Emotions

Want Order Flexible and

& Structure Spontaneous

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 THE TYPES AND THEIR USES

 Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a

name, for instance:
 Visionaries (INTJ): original, stubborn, and driven
 Organizers (ESTJ): realistic, logical, analytical, and
businesslike
 Conceptualizers (ENTP): entrepreneurial, innovative,
individualistic, and resourceful

 Research results on validity mixed

 MBTI® is a good tool for self-awareness and counseling.
 Should not be used as a selection test for job candidates.

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 THE BIG FIVE MODEL OF
PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS
• Sociable, gregarious, and assertive
Extroversion
• Good-natured, cooperative, and
trusting
Agreeableness
• Responsible, dependable,
Conscientiousness persistent, and organized

• Calm, self-confident, secure under

Emotional stress (positive), versus nervous,
Stability depressed, and insecure under stress
(negative)
• Curious, imaginative, artistic, and
Openness to sensitive
Experience

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HOW DO THE BIG FIVE TRAITS PREDICT BEHAVIOR?

 Research has shown this to be a better framework.

 Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to
higher job performance:
 Highly conscientious people develop more job
knowledge, exert greater effort, and have better
performance.
 Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
 Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.
 Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good social
skills.
 Open people are more creative and can be good leaders.
 Agreeable people are good in social settings.

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 OTHER PERSONALITY TRAITS RELEVANT TO OB
 Core Self-Evaluation
 The degree to which people like or dislike themselves
 Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance
 Machiavellianism
 A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who believes
that ends justify the means
 High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and persuade
more than they are persuaded. They flourish when:
 they have direct interaction with others
 they work with minimal rules and regulations
 emotions distract others
 Narcissism
 An arrogant, entitled, self-important person who needs
excessive admiration
 Less effective in their jobs

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 MORE RELEVANT PERSONALITY TRAITS

 Self-Monitoring
 The ability to adjust behavior to meet external,
situational factors.
 High monitors conform more and are more likely to
become leaders.
 Risk Taking
 The willingness to take chances.
 May be best to align propensities with job
requirements.
 Risk takers make faster decisions with less information.
EVEN MORE RELEVANT PERSONALITY TRAITS
 Type A Personality
 Aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve
more in less time
 Impatient: always moving, walking, and eating rapidly

 Strive to think or do two or more things at once

 Cannot cope with leisure time

 Obsessed with achievement numbers

 Prized in today’s competitive times but quality of the work is low

 Type B people are the complete opposite of Type A’s

 Proactive Personality
 Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and
perseveres to completion
 Creates positive change in the environment

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 VALUES
Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how
to live a life that is personally or socially preferable
– “How To” live life properly.

Attributes of Values:
 Content Attribute: that the mode of conduct or end-state is
important
 Intensity Attribute: just how important that content is
Value System
 A person’s values rank ordered by intensity
 Tends to be relatively constant and consistent

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 IMPORTANCE OF VALUES

 Provide understanding of attitudes, motivation,

and behaviors
 Influence our perception of the world around us
 Represent interpretations of “right” and
“wrong”
 Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are
preferred over others

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CLASSIFYING VALUES – ROKEACH VALUE SURVEY

 Terminal Values
 Desirableend-states of existence; the goals that a
person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime
 Instrumental Values
 Preferablemodes of behavior or means of achieving
one’s terminal values

 People in same occupations or categories tend to

hold similar values
 But values vary between groups
 Value differences make it difficult for groups to
negotiate and may create conflict
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 LINKING 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
 Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI)
 Key Points of the Model:
 There appear to be intrinsic differences in personality between
people
 There are different types of jobs
 People in jobs congruent with their personality should be more
satisfied and have lower turnover

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 RELATIONSHIPS AMONG
PERSONALITY TYPES

The closer The further

the apart the
occupational fields, the
fields, the more
more dissimilar.
compatible.

Need to match personality Source: Reprinted by special permission of the publisher, Psychological
Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, copyright

type with occupation. 1973, 1985, 1992 by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. All rights
reserved.

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STILL LINKING PERSONALITY 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.

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 GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
 Personality
 Do frameworks like Big Five transfer across cultures?
 Yes, but the frequency of type in the culture may vary.
 Better in individualistic than collectivist cultures.
 Values
 Valuesdiffer across cultures.
 Hofstede’s Framework for assessing culture – six value
dimensions:
 Power Distance
 Individualism vs. Collectivism
 Masculinity vs. Femininity
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation

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HOFSTEDE’S FRAMEWORK: 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

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 HOFSTEDE’S FRAMEWORK: INDIVIDUALISM

 Individualism
 Thedegree to which people prefer to
act as individuals rather than as
member 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

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 HOFSTEDE’S FRAMEWORK: MASCULINITY

 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

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 HOFSTEDE’S FRAMEWORK: 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.

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 HOFSTEDE’S FRAMEWORK: TIME ORIENTATION

 Long-term Orientation
 A national culture attribute that
emphasizes the future, thrift,
and persistence

 Short-term Orientation
 A nationalculture attribute that
emphasizes the present and the
here and now

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