Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NATURE OF PERSONALITY
• Personality refers to a set of unique characteristics that
make an individual different from others.
1. Personality has both internal and external elements. The
external traits are the observable behaviors that we
notice in an individual’s personality, for eg, sociability.
The internal states represents the thought, values and
genetic characteristics that we infer from the observable
behaviors.
2. An individuals personality is stable. If it changes at all, it
is only after a very long time.
3. An individual’s personality is both inherited as well as
shaped by the environment. Our personality is partly
inherited genetically from our parents. However, these
genetic personality characteristics are altered some what
by life experiences.
4. Each individual is unique in behavior. There are striking
differences among individuals.
DEFINITION
• Maddi(1980), defines personality as a stable set of
characteristics and tendencies that determine those
commonalities and differences in the psychological behavior
of people (thoughts, feelings and actions), have continuity in
time, and may not be easily understood as the sole result of
the social and biological pressures of the moment.
• The above definition indicates that people have some traits
in common with others and also different from others in
certain respects. That is why managers cannot follow
uniform pattern of rewards or motivational techniques to
influence every employee’s behavior.
• Maddi’s definition does not imply that people do not ever
change. Changes in personality occur slowly over a long
time.
• By understanding certain dimensions of personality,
managers would, to a great extend, be able to predict the
behavior of individual employees at work.
DETERMINANTS OF
PERSONALITY.
• Certain factors enter into shaping
of personality. Main factors are
• Hereditary
• Cultural values
• Family background
• Life experience
• People we interact
HERIDITARY
• There are some genetic factors that
partly determine certain aspects of
who we are and what we become.
• Whether we are tall/short, healthy or
sick … all such characteristics are
traceable in most cases to hereditary.
• Our personality is also shaped by how
we learn to handle other’s reactions
to us ( eg- our appearance, expertise
etc)
CULTURAL VALUES
• People born in different cultures
may have different values that
shape different personality which
in turn influence their behavior.
• People in the west tend to be
assertive
FAMILY BACKGROUND
• Socio economic status, no of children,
their birth order, the background,
education of parents and family
members shape personality
appreciably. First born usually have
different experiences during the
childhood than those born later.
Members of the family mould the
character of the children, from birth in
several ways.
LIFE EXPERIENCE
NO PERSONALITY FACTORS
1 NEED PATTERN
2 LOCUS OF CONTROL
3 TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY
4 SELF ESTEEM AND SELF CONCEPT
5 AUTHORITARIANISM AND DOGMATISM
6 MACHIAVELLINISM
7 SELF MONITORING
NEED PATTERN
• STEERS AND BRAUNSTEIN (1976) have
developed a scale for four personality needs
which are important in work setting. They are
1. Achievement (engage themselves actively in
work behavior to feel good about their
achievements and successes)
2. Affiliation(like to work co-operatively with
others)
3. Autonomy( function best when not closely
supervised,
4. And Dominance(very effective while operating
where they can actively enforce their legitimate
authority- as in the case of Police Dept)
LOCUS OF CONTROL
• The concept has to do with whether people believe that
they are in the control of events, or events control them.
• Those high on internal locus of control(internals)believe
that they control and shape the course of events in their
lives.
Those on external locus of control(externals) tend to
believe that events in life occur due to factors that are
beyond their control and these are shaping their destiny.
• INTERNALS seek and process more job related
information, influence others at work, seek opportunities
for advancement and rely on their own abilities.
• EXTERNALS are sensitive to factors that surround them,
experience less job satisfaction and involve less in their
jobs than internals.
TOLERENCE FOR AMBIGUITY
• This personality characteristic indicates the level of
uncertainty that people can tolerate without
experiencing undue stress, and continue to work
normally and effectively. Managers are expected to
maintain their performance levels even under
working under conditions of extreme uncertainty
and insufficient information, especially when there
is rapid change in organization’s external
environment.
• Managers with high tolerance for ambiguity are able
to cope well under these conditions. Managers with
low tolerance would find it impossible to operate
effectively under conditions of rapid change.
SELF ESTEEM AND SELF
CONCEPT.
1.Prior commitments
2.Insufficient information
PRIOR COMMITMENTS