Human Behavior in

Organizations

Prepared by: Prof. Maria Theresa R. Requilman

MODUL E 3
MODULE 3 - PERSONALITY, ABILITY, ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Self-Concept, Perceptions and Attributions are important factors that impact employee’s view
of his work environment. Understanding these individual characteristics will surely aid
managers and non-managers in performing their respective roles and jobs more efficiently
and effectively.

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. Describe self-concept as a factor to understand job performance and well being

2. Discuss perception, its process and errors
3. Explain the different attribution models
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
 RATIONALE:

Every workplace behavior cannot be understood

without considering the concepts of personality,
abilities, attitudes, and values.
These are important individual characteristics
that can influence work performance.

They are concepts for predicting and

changing behavior in organizational settings.

Managers who overlook these variables do

themselves, their employees, and their
organizations a disservice.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify and describe personality traits
in the workplace.
2. Identify the abilities that are used to
categorize performers in the organization.
3. Discuss attitudes, its formation and
how to change it.
4. Identify different values found across
culture
 Five Truths About Attitudes
Attitudes have the power to lift up or tear down a team.

An attitude compounds when exposed to others

Bad attitudes compound faster than good one

Attitudes are subjective

Rotten attitudes, left alone, ruin everything

 FIVE THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ATTITUDE

1. You control only what you think.

2. Attitudes can and do change over time.
3. Your attitude affects others.
4. Attitudes of others affect you.
5. Attitudes are unique because they are developed
as a result of emotion.
 Beliefs, Values and Attitudes

A belief is an internal feeling A value is measure of the An attitude is the way a

that something is true, even
though that belief may be
unproven or irrational
I believe that there is life
after death.
worth or importance a person
attaches to something; our
values are often reflected i
the way we live our lives.
I value freedom of speech , or
I value my family.
person expresses or applies
their beliefs and values, and is
expressed through words
and behavior.
I hate school.

Pratima Nayak, KV, FW

Values and Attitudes drive Behavior
 PERSONALITY, ABILITY, ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Personality at Work
• Personality encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns that have
been formed significantly by genetic and environmental factors which have given him identity.
• Understanding someone’s personality offers clues about how that person is expected to act and feel
in a variety of situations.
• Having this knowledge is a practical for placing people in the right jobs in the organization.
• Most experts agree that personality is both a product of nature and nurture.
• Nature means the genetic or hereditary origin of the person inherited from the mother and father of
the individual.
• Nurture consists of the person’s socialization, life experiences, and other forms of interaction in the
environment. Family relationship with parents, siblings and other family members is a significant
force in nurture.
 FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS

Traits are recurring regularities or

trends in peoples with acronym of
CANOE.

 FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS
1. Conscientiousness - refers to the
number of goals on which the person
focuses. People who focus on few goals
are organized, systematic, punctual,
achievement oriented and dependable.
This reflects that they are accomplishment
striving or a strong desire to complete a
task-related goals as a means of
expressing personality.
Conscientiousness is one personality trait
consistently predicts how high a person’s
job performance will be, across a variety
occupations and jobs. It is a trait most
valued by organizations.
They are people with higher level of
motivation to perform, higher retention,
higher attendance, and higher level of
safety performance at work.
Associated to career success and being
satisfied with one’s career over time.
Good trait to posses for entrepreneurs.
2. Agreeableness is the person’s ability to get along with others. This
cause the person to be nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind and warm.
Agreeable people help others at work consistently.

Less likely to get revenge when other people treat them wrongly.

Create a fair environment when they are in leadership positions.

3. Neuroticism refers to the degree to which a person is anxious,
irritable, aggressive, temperamental and moody. These people are likely
to have emotional adjustment problems, and experience stress and
depression on a habitual basis.

Experience a number of problems at work

Tend to experience relationship difficulties

They have lower level of career success.

If they achieve managerial jobs, they tend

to create an unfair climate at work.

4. Openness mirrors a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interests.
People with a high level of openness are original, intellectual, creative,
and open to new ideas.
They are flexible and willing to learn new things.

Highly motivated to study new skills, and they do well in training settings.

Open-mindedness and quick to make adjustments to their new job.

Highly adaptable to change

More likely to start their own business.

5. Extraversion reflects an individual’s comfort level with relationships.
Extroverts tend to be outgoing, talkative and sociable. They tend to be
effective in jobs involving sales and marketing.

They are likely to be valuable as managers and they

show inspirational leadership behaviors.

Introverts are less sociable, talkative, and assertive.

They are reluctant to begin a new relationship.
 MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR

In 1943, MBTI ( a personality test was developed by a mother-

daughter team by Isabel Myers and Katherine Cook Briggs and
designed for learning not for the employment selection process.

1. Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I)

2. Sensing (S) - Intuition (I)
3. Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)
1. Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I) - is a way to describe how people
respond and interact with the world around them. Extroverts tend to be
action-oriented , enjoy more social interaction and feel keyed up after spending
time with people.

2. Sensing (S) - Intuition (I)

This scale engages in looking at how people collect information from the
world around them. All people expend some time sensing and intuiting
depending on the situation.
People who choose to sense are apt to pay more attention to reality, facts
& details, and in getting practical experience.

People who favor intuition pay extra attention to things like patterns &
impressions, thinking about possibilities, visualizing the future & abstracts
theories.
1. Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I) - is a way to describe
how people respond and interact with the world around them.
Extroverts tend to be action-oriented , enjoy more social
interaction and feel keyed up after spending time with people.
2. Sensing (S) - Intuition (I)
This scale engages in looking at how people collect information
from the world around them. All people expend some time
sensing and intuiting depending on the situation.
People who choose to sense are apt to pay more attention to
reality, facts & details, and in getting practical experience.
People who favor intuition pay extra attention to things like
patterns & impressions, thinking about possibilities,
visualizing the future & abstracts theories.
4. Judging (J) - Perceiving (P)

The final scale involves how people deal with the

outside world.
Judging favor structure and firm decisions.

Perceiving people are more open, flexible, and

adaptable.

This scale aids illustrate whether a person is an extravert

when taking in new information (sensing & intuiting) or
when he is making decisions (thinking & feeling)
OTHER PERSONALITY TRAITS IN THE WORKPLACE
1. Proactive personality means a person’s preference
to fix what is supposed as erroneous, change the status
quo, and apply initiative to solve problems. Proactive
people take action to start significant change and get rid
of the obstacles they encounter along the way. They
adjust to their latest jobs speedily for they comprehend
the political environment better and make more friends
more quickly.
Proactive people are eager to learn and engage in many
developmental activities to improve their skills.
2. Machiavellianism describes behavior directed
towards attaining power and controlling the
behavior of other people.

Each person has their own degree of

Machiavellianism. They are rational, non-
emotional, willing to accomplish their
personal goals in life, place less concern on
loyalty and friendship and enjoy manipulating
the behavior of other individuals.
.
3. Risk propensity is the degree of willingness
of a person to take chances and create risky
decisions. A manager with a high-risk
propensity is willing to experiment with new
ideas and many ventures with new products. He
could be a catalyst for innovation or fail the
organization if the risky decision proves to be a
bad one.
The organization’s environment is an
important determinant of the probable
results of risk propensity.
4. Creativity involves the ability to break away from the habit-bound
way of thinking and generate novel and useful ideas. Its produces
innovation which is the lifeblood of a growing number of successful
organizations.
It is a personality trait that must be promoted and expanded inside the
organization by offering employees the opportunity and freedom to think
unconditionally.

.
5. Ability is a person’s talent to perform a mental or
physical task. It includes both the natural aptitudes and
the learned capabilities needed to productively finish a
task.
Aptitudes are the natural talents that aid employees in
learning specific tasks more speedily and executing
better.
Learned capabilities are the skills and knowledge that
a person currently has. They tend to diminish over
time when not in use.
The following abilities help to differentiate between higher and lower
performers in the workplace:

1. Mental ability

2. Emotional intelligence

3. Tacit knowledge

4. Physical ability

.
 TYPES OF MENTAL ABILITY
Mental ability is the acquisition and application of knowledge
in solving problems
1. Verbal ability refers to the ability to understand and
express oral & written communication quickly and
accurately.
There are two abilities:
1. Oral comprehension is the ability to understand spoken
words and sentences.
2. Written comprehension is the ability to understand written
words and sentences,
2. Quantitative ability refers to the two types of
mathematical abilities.

a) Numerical aptitude is the ability to perform

basic mathematical operations quickly and
accurately.

b) Numerical reasoning is the ability to analyze

the logical relationships and to recognize the
underlying principles underlying them.
3. Reasoning ability is the ability to analyze information so
as to make valid judgments on the basis of insights, rules,
and logic.

Four reasoning abilities:

a) Problem sensitivity is the ability to sense that there is a
problem at present or likely to be one in the future.
b) Deductive reasoning is the ability to draw conclusions or
make a choice that logically follows from existing
assumptions and data.
4. Spatial ability is the ability linked to the visual and
mental representation and manipulation of objects and
space.
Two types:
a) Spatial orientation is having a good understanding of
where one is relative to other things in the environment.

b) Visualization is the ability to imagine three-dimensional

forms in space and to be able to manipulate them mentally.
5. Perceptual ability is the ability to perceive,
understand, and recall patterns of information.

a) Speed and flexibility disclosure is the ability to

pick out a pattern of information quickly in the
presence of distracting information even without all
information present.
b) Perceptual speed is the ability to examine and
compare numbers, letters and objects quickly.
Emotional intelligence is the handling of relationships and interactions with
each other.
Four basic components:
1. The ability to recognize and regulate our own emotions (e.g. hold our
temper)
2. The ability to recognize and influence others’ emotions (e.g. to make
them enthusiastic about our ideas)
3. Self-motivation (e.g. to motivate oneself to work long hours and resist the
temptation to give up.
4. The ability to form an effective long-term relationship with others.
Tacit knowledge also called informal knowledge is the unwritten, unspoken,
and hidden vast storehouse of work-related practical know-how that employees
acquire based on their emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observation,
and internalized information.

Examples:
1. How to speak a language 6. Body language
2. Innovation 7. Intuition
3. Leadership 8. Humor
4. Aesthetic sense 9. Snowboarding
5. Emotional intelligence 10. Sales
Physical ability is performing job-related tasks requiring
manual labor or physical skill.

Types of physical abilities:

1. Strength – refers to the degree to which the body exerts

effort force (lift, push, pull heavy objects).
2. Stamina – refers to the ability of the person’s lungs and
circulatory system to work efficiently while he is
engaging in prolonged activity
3. Psychomotor – ability to manipulate and control objects.
4. Sensor ability – capability related to vision & hearing.
 ATTITUDES IN THE WORKPLACE
Attitude is a persistent mental state of readiness to feel and behave in a favorable or unfavorable
manner about a particular person, object, or idea.
Three components of an attitude:
1. Affective – the emotional component of an attitude which includes the feelings of a person about an
object that could be positive, negative, or neutral. For example: “I am afraid of rats”.
2. Cognitive - components consist of a person’s perception, beliefs, and opinions about something.
It refers to the thought processes highlighting rationality and logic.
For example: “I believe rats are dangerous”
3. Behavioral - is the tendency of a person to take action in a definite way toward someone or
something.
For Example: “I will avoid rats and scream if ever I see one.”
 TWO IMPORTANT ATTITUDES IN THE WORKPLACE

1. Job satisfaction is the degree of gratification or fulfillment of an

employee in his work. Personal factors like needs and aspirations
determine are drivers of job satisfaction. Organizational factors like
relationships with co-workers & supervisors, working conditions,
work policies, and compensation also affect job satisfaction.

2. Organizational commitment mirrors the identification and

attachment of individuals to the organization. A highly committed
employee would see himself as a true member of the organization
and would ignore negligible sources of dissatisfaction.
 CHANGE OF ATTITUDE
Managers are active in changing employee attitudes using
these techniques:
1. Persuasive communication is the use of television,
radio, and internet advertisements to persuade people
to change attitudes.
Four elements of persuasive communication:
a) communicator
b) message
c) situation
d) target
 FOUR ELEMENTS OF PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION:

a) Communicator is the individual who embraces a

particular attitude & desires to convince others to share that
attitude.
b) Message is the content intended to stimulate the change in
others’ attitudes.
c) Situation is the surrounding in which the message is
offered.
d) Target – he is a person whose attitude the communicator
desires to change.
Values refer to stable and evaluative life goals
that people have, reflecting what is most
important to them. Values are founded during
one’s life as a result of the collect of life
experiences and they are likely to be relatively
constant.

Value attainment is one reason why people stay

in the company, and when an organization does
not help them attain their values, they are more
likely to decide to leave if they are dissatisfied
with the job itself.
 TYPES OF VALUES

1. Instrumental values define as specific methods of behavior.

Instrumental values are not an end goal, but rather provide the
means by which an end goal is accomplished.
Instrumental values include:

a) Cheerfulness f) Capability
b) Ambition g) Courage
c) Love h) Politeness
d) Cleanliness i) Honesty
e) Self-control j) Obedience
2. Terminal values are the overall goals that people hope to achieve in
their lifetime. This includes inner harmony, social recognition, and a
world of beauty.
Examples of terminal values:

a) A world at peace – free of war and conflict

b) Family security – taking care of loved ones
c) Freedom – independence; free choice
d) Equality - brotherhood; equal opportunity for all
e) Self-respect – self-esteem
1. What is personality? How will you
differentiate between nurture and nature?

2. How will you describe the attitude of a

person in terms of job satisfaction and
organizational commitment?

3. What are the different values found in

different cultures?
Take Myers-Briggs Personality Test: (Post to LMS)

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test