Chapter 2 : Personality

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What is personality?
Personality Traits
Determinants of
personality
Types of personality
Matching personalities
and job

Personality may be defined as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others.
Gordon Allport described personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.
Personality is the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and
mental--that characterize a unique individual; "their different reactions reflected their very
different personalities".
Personality means how people affect each other and how they understand and view
themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and personsituation interaction. How people affect others depends primarily on their external
appearance (height, weight, facial features, colour, and other physical aspects) and traits. In
terms of external appearance, a very tall worker will have an impact on other people
different from that of a very short worker.
Rather than looking at parts of a person, personality looks at some aggregate whole that is
greater than the sum of the parts.
Personality is defined as the totality of character attributes and behavioral traits of a person.
Personality Determinants
Heredity
Environment
Situation
Heredity: Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. (e.g. physical
stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, etc.). The heredity approach argues that
the ultimate explanation of an individuals personality is the molecular structure of the
genes, located in the chromosomes.

Most behavioural scientists now agree that genes play a role not only in physical
characteristics and the brain, but also in personality. The genes affect the brain functions
that in turn affect how people interact with their environment and thus their personalities.
However, if personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be
fixed at birth and no amount of experience could alter them. It has been observed that
personality characteristics are not completely dictated by heredity.
Environment: Environment refers to the culture in which one is raised, early conditioning
of the individual, family norms, friends, social groups, and other influences that an
individual experiences.
It has been observed that both heredity and environment are the primary determinants of
personality forces. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an individuals full
potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands and
requirements of the environment.
Situation: An individuals personality, although generally stable and consistent, does
change indifferent situations.
The difference in situations may seem to be very small on the surface, but when filtered by
persons cognitive mediating processes such as perception, they can lead to quite large
subjective differences and diverse behavioural outcomes. In particular, this dimension
suggests that people are not static, acting the same in all situations, but instead are ever
changing and flexible. For example, employees can change depending on the particular
situation they are in interaction with. For instance, it should be understood that even
everyday work experience can change people. There is an evidence that the employees
personality will influence interpersonal behaviour and the perception and the outcomes of
organizational support.
Personality Traits are the enduring characteristics that describe an individuals behavior.
Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and
timid.
A trait is a relatively permanent individual characteristic. For example, most of know
people who are outgoing, friendly, confident, or shy. When we describe these people, we
use these traits to better understand their personality; to better understand who they are.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
MBTI is a personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16
personality types. It is essentially a 100-question personality test that asks people how they
usually feel or act in a particular situation. The MBTI questions relate to how people prefer
to focus their energies (extraversion vs. introversion); give attention and collect information
(sensing vs. intuiting); process and evaluate information and make decisions (thinking vs.

feeling); and orient themselves to the outside world (judging vs. perceiving). This means
that on the basis of the answer given to the test, they are classified as:

Extroverted vs. Introverted (E or I)

Sensing vs. Intuitive (S or N)
Thinking vs. Feeling (T or F)
Judging vs. Perceiving (P or J)

These classifications are then classified into sixteen personality types.

Where do you get your energy?
Extraversion (E)

Introversion (I)

Outgoing
Interacting
Speaks, then thinks
Gregarious

Quiet
Concentrating
Thinks, then speaks
Reflective
What do you pay attention to and collect information on?

Sensing (S)

Intuiting (I)

Practical
Details
Concrete
Specific

General
Possibilities
Theoretical
Abstract
How do you evaluate and make decisions?

Thinking (T)

Feeling (F)

Analytical
Head
Rules
Justice

Subjective
Heart
Circumstance
Mercy
How do you orient yourself to the outside world?

Judging (J)

Perceiving (P)

Structures
Time Oriented
Decisive
Organised

Flexible
Open ended
Exploring
Spontaneous

The Big Five Personality Traits

The Big Five personality trait identifies five core traits that shape personality of an
individual. These five personality traits are as follows:
Core Traits

Descriptive Characteristics of High Scorers

Conscientiousness

Dependable, hardworking, organized, self- disciplined,

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

Importantly, not only is there now considerable agreement on what are the core
personality dispositions, but there is also accumulated research that these five best predict
performance in the workplace. Recently, the Big Five have been extended through metaanalytical studies to demonstrate a positive relationship with performance motivation
(goal-setting, expectancy, and self-efficacy) and job-satisfaction. Although the five traits
are largely independent factors of personality, they can be mixed in countless proportions
and with other characteristics to yield a unique personality whole.
The real value of the Big Five to organize behaviour is that it does bring back the
importance of predispositional traits, and these traits have been clearly shown to relate
job performance. Importantly, it should also be noted that these five traits are quite stable.
Personality Attributes Influencing OB
1. 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.
2. Self-Esteem (SE)
Individuals degree of liking or disliking themselves.

High SEs believes that they possess the ability they need in order to succeed at work.
Individuals with high self esteem will take more risks in job selection and are more likely
to choose unconventional jobs than people with low self esteem.
Characteristics of people with low SEs
- are more susceptible to external influence
- are dependent on receipt of positive evaluations from others
- are more prone to conform to the beliefs and behaviors of those they respect
- are more concerned with pleasing others, in managerial positions
- are less satisfied with their jobs.
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to
external, situational factors.
Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability in adjusting their
behaviour to external situational factors. They are:
- highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in different situations
- capable of presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and
their private self.
- People who pay closer attention to the behaviours of others and are more
conforming.
- More mobile in their careers and receive more promotions
Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to display their true
disposition and attitudes in every situation; hence there is high behavioural consistency
between who they are and what they do.
Machiavellianism
The personality characteristic of Machiavellianism is named after Niccolo Machiavelli,
who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to gain and use power.
An individual high in Machiavellianism is:
pragmatic
maintains emotional distance
believes that ends can justify means
If it works, use it is consistent with high-Mach perspective.
A high- Mach:
a. win more
b. are persuaded less
c. persuade others more
High-Machs flourish well
1. when they interact face to face with others rather than indirectly
2. when the situation has minimum numbers of rules and regulations, thus allowing
latitudes of improvisation

3. when emotional involvement with details irrelevant to winning distracts low

Machs.
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
Personality Types
Type As
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 Bs
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.
Proactive Personality
1.
Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and perseveres until
meaningful change occurs.
2.
Creates positive change in the environment, regardless or even in spite of
constraints or obstacles.
Matching Personalities and Job
John Hollands personality- job fit theory. The theory is based on the notion of fit
between an individuals personality characteristics and his or her occupational
environment. Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and
propensity to leave a job depends on the degree to which individuals successfully match
their personalities to an occupational environment.