Unit 4

Personality

Presented by: Bal Ram Chapagain, M. Phil.

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Please write a One Sentence Definition of Personality

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Concept of Personality
Traditionally, personality referred to how people influence others through their external appearances and actions. But, today personality is regarded as an interaction of physiological, mental and psychological characteristics. To be noted, though psychologists and social scientists unanimously agree to the importance of personality, they are unable to come out with a unanimous definition.
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Definitions of Personality
According to S.P. Robbins and S. Sanghi, Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. According to Moorhead and Griffin, Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes that distinguish one person from another.

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Nature/Characteristics of Personality
It is a sum total feature of an individual. Different individuals have different personality traits. It is partly born and partly acquired or developed. Over time personality traits of an individual can be changed. Personality influences an individuals behavior. Personality determines how an individual interacts with others. It is most often described in terms of measurable traits such as extroversion, agreeableness, emotional stability etc. that a person exhibits.
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Personality Traits/Characteristics
Characteristics that are frequently exhibited in most situations are called personality traits or characteristics. Thus, the more consistent the characteristic and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the more important that trait is in describing the individual. Allport and Odbert have found that there are three thousand to five thousand words that describe personal qualities and more than fifty different definitions of personally.

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Personality Traits/Characteristics

Reserved vs. outgoing Less intelligent vs. more intelligent Emotionally stable vs. Emotionally unstable Practical vs. Imaginative Trusting vs. Suspicious Self-assured vs. Apprehensive Conservative vs. Experimenting Relaxed vs. Tense .etc.

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Big Five Personality Traits

A century ago personality experts derived 17,953 words that represent individual traits. They aggregated these traits first into 171 clusters and finally into Big five personality dimensions. The Big five model/ five factor model encompasses the following dimensions.

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Big Five Personality Traits

1. Extroversion People can be extroverts or introverts. Extroverts people are talkative, sociable, assertive and outgoing. They want to interact with people and get involved in events. Introverts are reserved, quiet, timid and sensitive. They prefer to work independently.
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Big Five Personality Traits

2. Agreeableness This dimension refers to an individuals propensity to defer/agree to others. Highly agreeable people are courteous, cooperative, warm, and trusting. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

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Big Five Personality Traits

3. Conscientiousness This dimension is a measure of reliability/conscientiousness. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, and consistent. Those who score low in this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

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Big Five Personality Traits

4. Emotional stability This dimension captures a persons ability to withstand stress. Emotionally stable people are calm, selfconfident, secure and relaxed. Emotionally unstable people are nervous, depressed, anxious and insecure.

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Big Five Personality Traits

5. Openness to experience
This dimension addresses ones range of interests and attraction with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Closed persons are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

It is believed that Big five model is helpful in predicting the behavior of people at work and thereafter job performance.
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Determinants of Personality
1. Heredity
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Each parents contributes 23 chromosomes containing thousands of genes which largely determine physical status, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition etc. Researchers have found that heredity/genetics accounts for 50% of personality difference and more than 30% of variation in occupational and leisure interest.
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Determinants of Personality
2. Environment
Overall socio-cultural, organizational and family environment also shapes an individuals personality. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an individuals full potential will be determined by environmental factors. Environmental factors like cultures in which we are raised, our early conditioning, our family, our organization, friends, social groups play substantial role in shaping our personality.
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Determinants of Personality
3. Situational differences
Personality, although stable and consistent, does change in different situations. So we shouldnt look the personality pattern in isolation. For instance, employment interview constrain many behavior; other situations-- e.g., picnic or gettogether with friends constrain relatively few.

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Major Personality Traits/Attributes Influencing OB

1. Locus of Control (Internal Vs. External) 2. Machiavellianism (High Mach Vs. Low Mach) 3. Self-Esteem(High Self-Esteem Vs. Low SelfEsteem) 4. Self-Monitoring/Adjusting (High SelfMonitoring Vs. Low Self-Monitoring) 5. Risk-taking (High Vs. Low) 6. Personality Type( Type A Vs. Type B)
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Matching Personality and Jobs

The manager's concern is more towards how to match the personality and jobs so that both organization and employees will be relatively benefited. For this, John Holland has offered Personality Job-Fit Theory. This theory identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality types and occupational environment determines job satisfaction and employee turnover.
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Matching Personality and Jobs

Personality Type Realistic: Prefers physical activities that require skills, strength, and coordination Personality Characteristics Shy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming, practical Congruent Occupation Mechanic, drill press operator, assembly line worker, farmer Biologist, economist, mathematician, news reporter Social worker, teacher, counselor, clinical psychologist Accountant, Corporate manager, bank teller, file clerk Lawyer, real estate agent, public relations specialist, small business manager Painter, musician, writer, interior decorator
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Investigative: Prefers activities Analytical, original, that involve thinking, curious, independent organizing , and understanding Social: Prefers activities that involve helping and developing others Conventional: Prefers ruleregulated, orderly and unambiguous activities Sociable, friendly, cooperative, understanding Conforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative, inflexible

Enterprising: Prefers verbal Self confident, ambitious, activities in which there are energetic, dominant opportunities to influence other and attain power Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and unsystematic activities that August 26, 2013 allow creative expression Imaginative, disorderly, idealistic, emotional, balram.chapagain@gmail.com impractical

Matching Personality and Jobs

But, in recent years, interest has expanded to include the person-organization fit. Why? because managers today are less interested in an applicants ability to perform a specific job than with his or her flexibility to meet changing situation and the employees personality fit with the overall organizations culture.

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Personality and Behavior

B = f(P, E)
The person (P) The environment (E) 1. Key personal biographical factors: 1. Key environmental factors Economic conditions, political Sex, age, education, abilities, situations, Socio-cultural norms material status etc. and values, competitive forces etc. 2 Organizational factors: 1. Psychological factors: Attitudes, values, beliefs, Physical facilities, organizational motivation, perception, structure and design, leadership styles, reward system etc. personality etc.

Though personality and behavior and related, there are so many factors influencing individual behavior. Thus, personality is not a sole and consistent predictor of individual behavior.
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