PERSONALITY

PERSONALITY

Characteristic patterns of thinking,

feeling and acting.

The importance of personality theory in O.B

Biological influences
Social influences
Changes over the lifespan
Relationship to learning, motivation and health
Disorders
DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY

NURTURE
NATURE Income
Housing
Genetics
Nutrition
Education
Access to health
facilities
Parenting Styles
Play
Opportunities
Weather
APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY
THEORY

Historical Approaches
Psychoanalytic (Freud)
Humanistic (Maslow & Rogers)

Contemporary Approaches
Trait theory
Social-Cognitive theory
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
Trying to understand physical problems that made no
physical sense
Childhood experiences are important
Anxiety or social constraints prevent direct expression of
drives
Social restrictions influence our personality
Each stage of life presents us with issues we must
successfully resolve
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Denial: claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.
Displacement: redirecting emotions to a substitute target.
Projection: attributing uncomfortable feelings to others.
Rationalization: generate self-justifying explanations to hide the
real reasons for our actions.
Reaction Formation: overacting in the opposite way to the fear.
Regression: going back to acting as a child.
Repression: pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the
subconscious. (underlies all other defense mechanisms)
Sublimation: redirecting 'wrong' urges into socially acceptable
actions.
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Abraham
Maslows
Self-Actualizing
Person
Carl Rogers
Person-Centered
Perspective

Healthy rather than Sick

Individual as greater than the sum of test scores
ROGERS PERSON-CENTERED
PERSPECTIVE
People are basically good.
Genuineness, Acceptance,
Empathy

Given the right

environmental
conditions, we will
develop
to our full potentials.

Self Concept - central feature

of personality (+ or -)
HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT
OURSELVES?
Self esteem = feelings of self worth

Self serving bias = overall we tend to have positive

perception of ourselves and abilities; we take more
responsibility for good events that bad.

Positive self illusions (at least modest ones) appear to

be beneficial to us. We tend to think we are better than
average!
 TRAIT THEORY

Describes peoples characteristics and conscious

motives

Trait theorists are less concerned with explaining

traits than describing them.

Factor analysis is used to cluster traits into groups.

Example: Big Five personality characteristics
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
Behavior learned through
conditioning &
observation

What we think about our

situation
affects our behavior

Interaction of
Environment & Intellect
PERSONALITYASSESSMENT
APPROACHES

Ratings by acquaintances (expensive)

Questionnaires (objective assessment)
e.g. MBTI and BIG 5
Projective techniques
o Inkblot techniques
o Story telling techniques
o TAT
Behavioral assessment (act frequency)
Situational testing (with ratings or act counts)
SAMPLE TAT CARD (12F)
RORSCHACH-LIKE CARD
BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS
 THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
Extraversion E Introversion I
Where you focus your
attention and energy? Outgoing, speaks out, Quiet, concentrating,
How you acquire or gather gregarious, interacting thinks, reflective
information? Sensing S Intuitive I
How you make decisions or
Practical, details, General,
judgments?
How you relate to the outer concrete, specific possibilities,
world? theoretical, abstract
Thinking T Feeling F
Analytical, head, rules, Subjective , heart,
justice circumstances,
A personality test that taps mercy
four characteristics and
classifies
Judging J Perceiving P
people into 1 to 16 Structured, time Flexible, open
personality types. oriented, decisive, ended, exploring,
organized spontaneous
AFFECTIVITY

Positive Affectivity: The tendency to experience

positive moods and feelings in a wide range of
settings and under many different conditions.

Negative Affectivity: The tendency to experience

negative moods in a wide range of settings and
under many different conditions.
SELF-EFFICACY

Individuals beliefs concerning their ability to perform

specific tasks successfully.
Judgments of self-efficacy consist of three components:

Magnitude: The level at which an individual believes she or

he can perform.
Strength: The persons confidence that she or he can
perform at that level.
Generality: The extent to which self-efficacy in one
situation or for one task extends to other situations and
other tasks.
SELF-MONITORING

A personality trait involving the extent to which

individuals adapt their behavior to the demands of
specific situations so as to make good impressions on
others.
Consequences of self-monitoring:
Work Performance: High self-monitors tend to do better than low
self-monitors in jobs requiring boundary-spanning activities.
Career Success: High self-monitors tend to obtain more
promotions than low self-monitors.
Interpersonal Relationships: High self-monitors tend to form less
stable and shallower personal relationships with others than low
self-monitors.
 MACHIAVELLIANISM

Niccol Machiavelli
(1469 1527)

A personality trait involving willingness to manipulate others for ones

own purposes.
Machiavellian tactics:
Neglecting to share important information (e.g., claiming to forget to
tell you about key meetings and assignments).
Finding subtle ways of making you look bad to management (e.g.,
damning you with faint praise).
Failing to meet obligations (e.g., not holding up their end on joint
projects, thereby causing you to look bad).
Spreading false rumors about you (e.g., making up things about you that
embarrass you in front of others).
Type A vs. Type B
Type A Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior involving high levels
of competitiveness, time urgency, and irritability.
Type B Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior characterized by a
casual, laid-back style; the opposite of the Type A behavior pattern.
Task Performance
Type As tend to excel on tasks involving time pressure or solitary
work.
Type Bs have the advantage when it comes to tasks involving complex
judgments and accuracy as opposed to speed.
Interpersonal Relations
Type As tend to annoy coworkers, are more likely to lose their tempers
and lash out at others, are more likely to become involved in conflict
and are more likely to engage in aggressive and counterproductive
behavior.
LOCUS OF CONTROL

External Locus of Control:

Describes people who believe that
fate, luck, or outside forces are
responsible for what happens to
them.

Internal Locus of Control: Describes

people who believe that ability, effort,
or their own actions determine what
happens to them.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Be aware of and identify defensive behaviors .

Screen for the Big Five trait of conscientiousness,

openness to experiences etc

Take into account the situational factors as well

MBTI can help with training and development

Person job fit.

NAMES TO KNOW

Katharine Cook Briggs

Isabel Briggs 1875 - 1968
Myers
1897 - 1980
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_th
e_power_of_introverts.html
REFERENCES
Organizational Behavior (5th Ed., 2011) by Steven L
McShane, Mary Ann Von Glinow, and Radha R Sharma,
Tata McGraw-Hill
Organizational Behavior Stephen Robbins (12th
Edition).