BUS104

Organisational Behaviour in the

Technology Era
Jul 2022 Semester
Online Seminar Week 2

Presenter’s Name
Presenter’s Designation
Study Unit 2 Overview
Individual Differences
Unit 2 Learning Outcomes
1. Explain personality and the different approaches of studying personality
2. Discuss the Big Five Personality Model
3. Relate different personality traits to workplace outcomes
4. Explain workplace diversity and the two levels of diversity
5. Outline strategies for diversity management at the workplace
6. Describe perception and the factors that influence perception
7. Recognise the causes of perceptual distortions and errors
8. Explain attribution theory

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Individual Differences
• The individual is the central feature of organisational behaviour
• Features of individuality
– Personality
– Perception
– Diversity

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Personality
• Personality refers to “an individual’s unique set of characteristics and
tendencies that shape a sense of self, and what that person does and
the behaviour they exhibit” (Mullins, 2019, p.687)
• Personality determinants
– Heredity
– Environment
• Personality frameworks
– Help us categorize and study the dimensions of personality
• Other personality traits
– Type A/B, core self-evaluation, self-monitoring, and proactive personality

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Approaches to Study Personality
Nomothetic Approach
• Focus on measurement
• Identification of traits and
personality through tests
• Personality is largely inherited
and not easily changed
Idiographic Approach
• Holistic perspective
• Focus on uniqueness of
individuals
• Personality develops as the
individual interacts with the
environment and people
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Big Five Personality Model
Dimension Describes an individual’s… High Scorer Low Scorer
Openness degree of fascination imaginative, creative, conventional, find comfort in the
towards novelty curious familiar
Conscientiousness reliability dependable, distracted, disorganised,
responsible, inconsistent
organised
Extraversion level of comfort relating to gregarious, assertive, quiet, reserved, timid
others sociable

Agreeableness tendency to defer to others good-natured, cold, antagonistic, intolerant

cooperative, trusting

Emotional Stability ability to withstand stress calm, secure, positive worried, insecure, anxious

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Personality and Stress
Type A Personality
High need for achievement
Extremely competitive, averse to
idleness
Aggressive
Impatient with obstacles to the
completion of tasks
Tendency to move and speak
rapidly
Restless and urgent about time
Type B Personality
Not preoccupied with achievement
Enjoy leisure time
Easy-going
Rarely impatient, not easily frustrated
Move and speak slowly
More relaxed, work at a steady pace
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Discussion 1
1. What does high self-monitor and low self-monitor mean? Do you think
high self-monitors perform better?
2. What does positive core self-evaluations and negative core self-
evaluations mean? Do you think people with positive core self-
evaluations perform better?

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Perception
• Individuals select information (stimuli) from the environment, interpret
and translate it
• Meaning is assigned that will result in a pattern of behaviour or thought
• Process is complex and dynamic

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Cycle of Perception and Behaviour

(Source: Mullins 2019, Fig 6.1)

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What Affects Perception?

External Influences
• Nature and characteristics of
the stimuli
• Context which stimuli occur

Perception
Internal Characteristics
• Individual needs
• Cultural differences
• Psychological factors

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Perceptual Distortions and Errors
Stereotyping Tendency to ascribe characteristics on the basis of
general categorisation and perceived similarities
Halo effect Perception is formed on the basis of a single trait or
impression
Perceptual defence Tendency to disregard perceptually disturbing or
threatening stimuli
Projection Attributing one’s own feelings, motives or characteristics
to other people
Self-fulling prophecy Striving to validate one’s perception of the prophecy
Unconscious bias Unconscious social preferences

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Making Judgments about Others
• Attribution Theory
– An attempt to determine whether a person’s behaviour is internally or
externally caused
• Fundamental Attribution Error
– The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and
overestimate the influence of internal factors when judging others
– In general, we tend to blame the person first, not the situation
– But we never blame ourselves!
• Self-Serving Bias
– The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal
factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors

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Discussion 2
1. Have you had any recent experience of perceptual error that
happened at your workplace? What was the cause of the perceptual
error? Share your experience.

2. How can we minimise the impact of perceptual errors at the

workplace?

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Diversity
• Recognition of individual differences and that people are not
homogeneous
• Levels of diversity

• Easily observed
Surface-level • Eg: gender, race, age, education level

• Not easily recognised

Deep-level • Eg: values, personality, work preferences

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Values
• Represent convictions that “a mode of conduct or end state that is
personally or socially preferable” (Robbins & Judge, 2019, p.152)
• Deeply held belief systems and contain judgmental elements
• Importance of understanding values
– Explain individual differences
– Understand attitudes, motivations and perceptions
– Influence our behaviour at work

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Discussion 3
1. What is person-job fit? What is person-organisation fit? Which is more
important to you?
2. Reflect on your work situation. How diverse is your workplace? What
can managers or employees do to reduce discrimination?

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Any Questions?