Chapter 4 Personality and Values

Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
Factors that determine personality are both heredity or genetic, and environmentally determined.
Researchers have found that genetics accounts for about fifty percent of personality variation and
more than thirty percent in occupational and leisure interests. Specific dimensions of personality
include shyness, aggression, submissiveness, laziness, loyalty, and timidity. These are collectively
known as personality traits. Traits are believed to be important in employee selection, matching
people to jobs, and in guiding career development decisions.

Assessment tools have been used to measure the strength and variation of personality. The most
widely used personality test in the world is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This test
classifies people as Extroverted vs. Introverted, Sensing vs. Intuitive, Thinking vs. Feeling, or Judging
vs. Perceiving. The MBTI is a valuable tool for increasing self-awareness and for providing career
guidance but is generally unrelated to job performance.

The Big Five Model classifies personality into extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
emotional stability, and openness to experience. Research has found important relationships between
the Big Five dimensions and job performance. Conscientiousness, for example, predicted job
performance for all occupational groups. The impact of other factors tends to vary by occupational
group. For example, extraversion is predictive of performance in managerial and sales positions.

Major personality attributes influencing OB include core self-evaluation, Machiavellianism,

narcissism, self-monitoring, and risk taking. Core self-evaluation refers to the degree to which people
like or dislike themselves and whether they see themselves as capable and effective.

Machiavellianism refers to the degree to which individuals are pragmatic, emotionally distant, and
believe that the ends justify the means. Individuals who are high in Machiavellianism tend to
manipulate more, win more, and are persuaded less than low Machs. This trait is desirable in jobs that
require bargaining skills or that offer substantial rewards for winning.

Narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive
admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and is arrogant. A study found that, while narcissists thought
that they were better leaders than their colleagues, their supervisors actually rated them as worse
leaders.

Self-monitoring behaviour refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behaviour to situational
factors. High self-monitors remake themselves to a situation and are highly sensitive to external cues.
They are behavioural chameleons in that they can change their behaviour depending on the audience.
Low self-monitors show their true feelings regardless of the circumstances. There is high behavioural
consistency between who they are and what they do. High self-monitors tend to receive more
promotions and better performance ratings.

Risk taking refers to an individual’s willingness to take chances. High risk takers make more rapid
decisions and use less information in making their choices than did the low risk-taking managers. The
importance of risk taking as a personality characteristic varies with occupation, with high risk taking
being more valuable in some jobs compared to others.

Individuals may also be described as having Type A or Type B personalities. Types As have been
characterized as being “aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more and
more in less and less time, and if required to so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other
persons.” Type As experience a greater degree of stress than their Type B counterparts.

Finally, proactive personality types are not afraid to buck conventional practices through voicing their
opinion and engaging in civic behaviour. They are more likely to persist in the face of obstacles and to
act as change agents within their organization.
Values describe an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. They are considered
stable and enduring but may be influenced by outside agents that are considered uncontrollable.
Values influence how we feel and behave. Rokeach identified two sets of values, with each set
containing 18 individual value items. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states, while instrumental
values refer to preferable modes of behaviour to achieve the terminal values. Rokeach’s research
demonstrated that people in the same occupations or categories (e.g., corporate managers, union
members, parents, students) tend to hold similar values, as do generational cohorts. Four such
cohorts are Veterans (those entering the workforce through the 1950s and early 1960s); Baby
Boomers (those who entered the workforce from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s); followed by
the Generation Xers, and Nexters. The dominant group in the workforce could have a profound impact
on the way in which they are managed. Nexters, for example, expect relational opportunities and a
greater degree of freedom at work than all of the groups before them. Generational differences may
also contribute to shifts in ethical behaviour. While Veterans tended to be highly loyal to their
employers and were likely to make decisions that were in the best interest of the organization, Baby
Boomers tend to be more self-centered and focused on their individual success.

John Holland’s research examines personality and job fit. He defines six personality types and
proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a job depend on the degree to which individuals
successfully match their personalities to an occupational environment. Additional research investigates
the person-organization fit, the match between the person and the organization.

Culture may also influence interactions at work. Groundbreaking cross-cultural work performed by
Geert Hofstede found that across cultures 5 dominant dimensions existed:

• Power distance
• Individualism vs. collectivism
• Masculinity vs. femininity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Long-term vs. short-term orientation

Employees in the U.S. tend to be very individualistic and short-term in their orientation. The U.S.
scored low on power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Finally, Americans tended to score high on
masculinity, reflecting an emphasis on traditional gender roles.

In the same vein, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) research
identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ:

• Assertiveness
• Future orientation
• Gender differentiation
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Power distance
• Individualism/collectivism
• In-group collectivism
• Performance orientation
• Humane orientation

The GLOBE project confirms that Hofstede’s five dimensions are still valid and provides an updated
measure of where countries stand on each dimension.