PERSONALITY

What is Personality?

When we talk of personality, we don’t mean that a person has

charm, a positive attitude toward life, a smiling face, or is a
Happiest and Friendliest person.
When psychologists talk of personality, they mean a dynamic
concept describing the growth and development of a person’s
whole psychological system.
Rather than looking at parts of the person, personality looks at
some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the
parts.

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 What is Personality?

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 Personality Determinants

• Heredity
• Environment
• Situation

Heredity: refers to those factors that were determined at conception.

Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, energy
level etc.
Environment: Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality
formation are the culture in which we are raised, our early conditioning,
the norms among our family, friends and social groups etc.
Situation: A third, the situation, influences the effects of heredity and
environment on personality. An individual’s generally stable and
consistent, does change in different situations.

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 Personality Traits

Sixteen
Primary
Traits

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 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI is one of the most widely

used personality frameworks
which has no hard evidence as
valid measure of personality.

Personality Types
• Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
• Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
• Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
• Perceiving or Judging (P or J)

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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 Extroverted Introverted Quiet and

and (E) (I) Shy
Assertive
Practical Sensing Intuitive Unconscio
(S) (N) us
and
Orderly Processes
Use Thinking Feeling Uses
(T) (F) Values &
Reason
and Logic Emotions
Want Order Judging Perceiving Flexible
(J) (P) and
& Structure
Spontaneo
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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
– Conceptualizer (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,
persistent, and organized
Conscientiousness
• Calm, self-confident, secure under stress
(positive), versus nervous, depressed,
Emotional Stability 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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 Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

 Locus of control
 Machiavellianism
 Self-esteem
 Self-monitoring
 Propensity for risk taking
 Type A personality

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 Locus of Control

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 Machiavellianism

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction
• Minimal rules and regulations
• Distracting emotions

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 Self-Esteem and Self-Monitoring

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 Risk-Taking
 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.
 Risk Propensity
– Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job
requirements should be beneficial to organizations.

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 NARCISSISM
 The tendency to be arrogant have a grandiose
sense of self-importance, require excessive
admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.

 They tend to be selfish and exploitive and carry

the attitude that exist for their benefits.

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 Personality Types

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

4–17
 Personality Types

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 Achieving Personality-Job Fit

Personality Types
• Realistic
• Investigative
• Social
• Conventional
• Enterprising
• Artistic

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 Relationships Among Personality Types

The closer the

occupational The further
fields, the more apart the
compatible. fields, the
more
dissimilar.
Need to match personality
type with occupation.

Source: Reprinted by special permission of the publisher, Psychological

Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, copyright
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.

Summary and Managerial Implications

 Personality
– Screen for the Big Five trait of conscientiousness
– Take into account the situational factors as well
– MBTI® can help with training and development

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