INTRODUCTION TO

INDUSTRIAL &
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Lecture 4

Personality & Values

Dr. Shanshan ZHEN

SS4719
LEARNING POINTS
• Values
• What is personality?
• Value Systems
• MBTI
• Terminal VS. Instrumental Values
• The Big-Five Model
• Linking personality and values to the workplace
• The Dark Triad
• Person-Job Fit
• Other personality trait relevant to OB
• Person-Organization Fit
• Personality and Situations
• Cultural values
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
• A dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system that determines his/her unique adjustments to the
environment (by Gordon Allport).
• The sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with
others.
• Most often describe personality in terms of the measurable traits a person
exhibits
PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviours.
• The more consistent the characteristic over time and the more frequently it occurs
in diverse situations, the more important the trait is in describing the individual.

• E.g., Shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid.

MEASURING PERSONALITY
• Measuring Personality
• Managers need to know how to measure personality.
• Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who is best
for a job.
• The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys.
• E.g., “You usually stay clam, even under a lot of pressure.”
• Social Desirability Bias
• Observer-ratings surveys
• Provide an independent assessment of personality (e.g., rated by a coworker)
• A combination of self-reports and observer reports predicts performance better than any one type
of information
PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS
• Is personality the result of heredity or environment?
• Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.
• The ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, which
are located on the chromosomes.
• The most dominant factor
• Twin studies: raised apart but very similar personalities
• Environmental factors do have some influence
• e.g., experiences, family, culture, education
• Personality appears to be a result of both influences.
• More changeable during adolescence and more stable among adults

Twin study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ZsPZVHYYM
PERSONALITY FRAMEWORKS

• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• The Big Five Model
• The Dark Triad
• Other personality trait relevant to OB:
• Core self-evaluation
• Self-monitoring
• Proactive personality
THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBTI)
• One of the most widely used personality framework is the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
• Developed by Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs
based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality types.

• Individuals are classified as:

• Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
• Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
• Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
• Perceiving or Judging (P or J)

• Classifications combined into 16 personality types (i.e., INTJ or

ESTJ)
MBTI

What energizes you and gets you excited?

• Extraversion (E): Are you a person who draws energy from the outside world of people, things,
activities or interaction most of the time? (Keywords: external, outside thrust, talks out, thinks
of many things, involved with people/things, interaction, action, do-think-do)
• Introversion (I): Are you a person who draws energy from the internal world of ideas,
emotions or impressions most of the time? (Keywords: internal, inside thrust, hold back on
comments, thinks deeply of few things, involved with own thought, work alone, reserve, think-
do-think)
MBTI

Where do you put most of your attention?

• Sensing (S): Do you prefer to take in information through the five senses, noticing what is here
and now most of the time? (Keywords: The five senses, what is real, practical, present
orientation, facts, using established skills, utility, step-by-step)
• Intuition (N): Do you prefer to take in information through a “sixth sense,” noticing what
might be most of the time? (Keywords: sixth sense, hunches, what could be, theoretical, future
possibilities, insight, earning new skills, novelty, leap around)
MBTI

What do you value most when making a decision or judgment?

• Thinking (T): Do you prefer organizing and structuring information and deciding in a logical,
objective way most of the time? (Keywords: head, logical system, objective, justice, critique,
principles, reason, firm but fair)
• Feeling (F): Do you prefer organizing and structuring information to decide in a personal,
value-oriented way most of the time? (Keywords: heart, value system, subjective, mercy,
compliment, harmony, empathy, compassionate)
MBTI

What do you show outwardly most of the time?

• Judging (J): Do you prefer living a planned and organized life and are strong on decision
making most of the time? (Keywords: plan oriented, regulate, control situation, settled, run
one’s life, set goals, decisive, organized)
• Perceiving (P): Do you prefer for living a spontaneous and flexible life and are strong on
information gathering most of the time? (Keywords: spontaneous oriented, flow along, adapt to
situation, tentative, let life happen, gather information, open, flexible)
 e.g., ISFJ: reliable, hardworking, and
always ready to lend a hand. People
with this personality type take pride
in getting the job done and getting it
done well, rarely cutting corners or
balking at a time-consuming task.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoQi9Mvqip0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSPYEbDhAhM
WHY DOES MBTI TEST HAVE LOW RELIABILITY?
• Binary choice—no scale
• Low test-retest reliability
• Difficult to interpret the results
• Not shown to be related to job performance

Not so reliable, but a lot of

More reliable people score here More reliable

Introverted Extroverted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z8J9edf_gw
THE BIG FIVE MODEL
• The Big Five Model (Ocean)
• Openness to experience: The range of interests and fascination with novelty. [imagination,
sensitivity, and curiosity]
• Conscientiousness: A measure of reliability. [responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized]
• Extraversion: Comfort level with relationships. [sociable, gregarious, and assertive]
• Agreeableness: (Individual’s propensity to defer to others. [good natured, cooperative, and trusting]
• Emotional stability/Neuroticism: A person’s ability to withstand stress. [calm, self-confident, and
secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative)]
• Strongly supported relationship to job performance (especially Conscientiousness)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB1FVbo8TSs
 Traits as Dimensions
O
C
E
A
N
Each personality trait is a spectrum. Individuals can fall
anywhere on the continuum for each trait.
HOW DO THE BIG FIVE TRAITS PREDICT BEHAVIOR AT WORK?
Model of How Big Five Traits Influence OB Criteria

• Conscientiousness is the best

predictor of job performance

• Emotional stability is most strongly

related to life satisfaction, job
satisfaction, and low stress levels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXSVkyF9F18
 THE DARK TRIAD
• The Dark Triad (social undesirable traits)
• Machiavellianism (Mach): the degree to which an individual is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
• High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade
others more.
• Narcissism: the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-
importance
• They “think” they are better leaders.
Not always occur together
• Often they are selfish and exploitive.
• Psychopathy: the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of
guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW_0a5cLVYg
MACHIAVELLIANISM
• Pragmatic
• Manipulative
• Ends justify means
• Emotionally detached
❖Their Ethical leadership behavior has little impact on followers
❖Less positively affected by organizations with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
❖Win in short-term, lose in long run
❖More counterproductive behavior
NARCISSISM

• Requires excessive admiration

• Grandiose sense of self-importance
• Sense of self-entitlement
❖Tends to be more charismatic
❖Many leaders score high
❖Enjoy their job better, higher life satisfaction
❖Increased counterproductive behavior in individualistic cultures
❖Overconfident in decision making
PSYCHOPATHY

• Lack of concern for others

• Lack of remorse
❖Little correlation between measures of psychopathy and job performance or CWBs
❖Use hard influence tactics (threats, manipulation)
❖Bullying work behavior (physical or verbal threatening)
❖Gain power but not using it for healthy ends
EXERCISE

What does the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator classification of ‘S or N’ stand for?

A. sensing/intuitive
B. social/thinking
C. stable/informative
D. sensitive/thinking
EXERCISE

Which of the following is not one of the five factors included in the ‘Big Five’ Model?
A. agreeableness
B. conscientiousness
C. intuitiveness
D. emotional stability
OTHER PERSONALITY TRAITS RELEVANT TO OB

• Core Self-Evaluation: bottom line conclusions individuals have about their

capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
• Self-Monitoring: measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her
behavior to external, situational factors.
• Proactive Personality: people who identify opportunities, show initiative,
take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.
CORE SELF-EVALUATION (CSE)
• Positive CSE
• Like themselves
• See themselves as effective, capable, in control of the environment
• They tend to:
• Higher job satisfaction (see more challenge in their jobs)
• Set more ambitious goals, more committed to their goals, persist longer to reach goals
• More popular, better customer service
• Perform better in organizations with high corporate social responsibility (CSR).
• Negative CSE
• View themselves as powerless over environment
• Less happy & less effective than they could
SELF-MONITORING
High Self-Monitors
• Ability to adjust behavior to situations
• Highly sensitive to social cues
• Pay close attention to others and conform
• Public person ≠≠ Private self
• Better performance ratings, more promotions, more likely to emerge as leader/central positions
• Less organizational commitment, more mobile in careers

Low Self-Monitors
• Display true attitudes across situations
• High behavioral consistency
PROACTIVE PERSONALITY

• Unconstrained by situation and make changes

• Identify opportunities and act on them
• Show initiative, take action
• Persevere until meaningful change occurs
❖Have many desirable behaviors that organizations covet
❖Linked to innovativeness, job performance, job satisfaction & career success
EXERCISE

Which of the following terms indicates the degree to which people like or dislike themselves?
A. core self-evaluation
B. authoritarianism
C. self-monitoring
D. Machiavellianism
EXERCISE

Those with a ________ personality identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and
persevere until meaningful change occurs, compared to others who passively react to situations.
A. high self-monitoring
B. proactive
C. high Mach
D. low other-orientation
PERSONALITY AND SITUATIONS

• The effect of particular traits on organization behavior depends on the situation

• Two frameworks:
1. Situation strength theory
2. Trait activation theory

•Behavior is the result of the interaction between the person and the situation/environment
•Example #1: A quiet person may appear sociable in social situations when such behavior is required
•Example #2: An agreeable person may still stand for his rights if offended by someone
SITUATION STRENGTH THEORY

• Situation strength theory: indicates that the way personality translates into behavior
depends on the strength of the situation.
• Strength - the degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate
behavior.
• Strong situations show us what the right behavior is, pressure us to exhibit it, and
discourage the wrong behavior.
• Weak situations: we are freer to express our personality in behavior
• Personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations than in strong ones.
Will you stop your car when the traffic light is red? (rules, norms, standards)
SITUATION STRENGTH THEORY
• Analyze situation strength in term of:
1. Clarity: the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are available and clear
• how clear are expectations?
2. Consistency: the extent to which cues regarding work duties and responsibilities are compatible
with one another
• how often do we ask for similar behaviors?
3. Constraints: the extent to which individuals’ freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside
their control
• how much ability do you have to “break rules”?
4. Consequences: the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the
organization or people
• what happens if you “break rules”?
TRAIT ACTIVATION THEORY (TAT)
• Predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than
others

Situations Personality trait

Example

Sales bonus Extraversion

TRAIT ACTIVATION THEORY
Trait Activation Theory: Jobs in Which Certain Big Five Traits Are More Relevant
Detail Orientation Required Social Skills Competitive Innovation Dealing with Time Pressure
Required Work Required Angry People (Deadlines)

Accountant Therapist Financial Systems analyst Telemarketer Editor

manager

Conscientiousness (+) Extraversion (+) Extraversion (+) Openness (+) Extraversion (+) Conscientiousness
(+)

Blank Agreeableness (+) Agreeableness (–) Blank Agreeableness (+) Neuroticism (–)

Blank Blank Blank Blank Neuroticism (–) Blank

Note: A plus (+) sign means that individuals who score high on this trait should do better in this job. A
minus (–) sign means that individuals who score low on this trait should do better in this job.
EXERCISE

Lydia works as a 911 operator. Her job strength is dictated most likely by ________.
A. clarity
B. consistency
C. constraints
D. comprehension
EXERCISE

Merry is normally a very quiet person who remains somewhat quiet during conversations and
social settings. Merry is also the reigning national debate club champion. According to the Trait
Activation Theory, what happens to Merry at competitions?
A. She becomes highly narcissistic and is rude to the other competitors.
B. Being at the competition causes Merry to draw on normally unused traits.
C. Merry stops pretending to be shy.
D. Being at the competition causes Merry to internalize.
 VALUES
• Values represent basic convictions that a
specific mode of conduct/end state of
existence is more personally and socially
preferable
• Values are often very specific and
describe belief systems rather than
behavioral tendencies.
• Judgemental element– what is right, good, or
desirable
• Values tend to be relatively stable and
enduring
VALUE SYSTEMS

• Values have two attributes: content and intensity.

• The content attribute stresses that a particular code of conduct is important.
• The intensity attribute specifies how important that particulars code of conduct is.
• Value system: rank an individual’s values in terms of their intensity
• In the value system, all of us have a hierarchy of values; which is identified by the relative
importance we assign to different values such as freedom, self respect, honesty, and so on.
TERMINAL VS. INSTRUMENTAL VALUES
• Rokeach Value Survey (RVS): Classifying Values
• Terminal vs. Instrumental Values:
• Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence.
• I want to be rich (the goals a person would like to achieve during a lifetime)
• Instrumental values: preferred modes of behavior or means of achieving terminal values.
• I want to make it my own way; self-reliance
• Each of us places value on both the ends (terminal values) and the means (instrumental values).
A balance between the two is important.
GENERATIONAL VALUES
GENERATIONAL VALUES
Dominant Work Values in Today’s Workforce
Entered the Approximate
Cohort Workforce Current Age Dominant Work Values
Boomers 1960s–1980s 50s to 70s Success, achievement, ambition,
dislike of authority; loyalty to career
Xers 1985–2000 Mid-30s to 50s Work-life balance, team-oriented,
dislike of rules; loyalty to
relationships
Millennials 2000 to To mid-30s Confident, financial success, self-
present reliant but team-oriented; loyalty to
both self and relationships

These classifications lack solid research support

See, for example, N. R. Lockwood, F. R. Cepero, and S. Williams, The Multigenerational
Workforce (Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management, 2009).
EXERCISE

Which of the following terms describes basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end-
state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct?”
A. values
B. attitudes
C. affects
D. customs
EXERCISE

When we rank an individual's values in order of their ________, we obtain the person's value
system.
A. intensity
B. content
C. context
D. social acceptance
LINKING AN
INDIVIDUAL’S
PERSONALITY
AND VALUES
TO THE • Person-Job Fit
WORKPLACE • Person-Organization Fit
PERSON–JOB FIT

• John Holland’s personality–job fit theory: The effort to

match job requirements with personality characteristics
• Holland presents six personality types and proposes that
satisfaction and the propensity to leave a job depends on
the degree to which individuals successfully match their
personalities to an occupational environment.
• People in jobs congruent with their personality should be
more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than
Holland's Hexagon
people in incongruent tasks
Type
Realistic: Prefers physical activities that
require skill, strength, and coordination
Investigative: Prefers activities that
involve thinking, organizing, and
understanding
Social: Prefers activities that involve
helping and developing others
Conventional: Prefers rule-regulated,
orderly, and unambiguous activities
Enterprising: Prefers verbal activities in
which there are opportunities to
influence others and attain power
Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and
unsystematic activities that allow
creative expression
Personality Characteristics
Shy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming,
practical
Analytical, original, curious, independent
Sociable, friendly, cooperative, understanding
Conforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative,
inflexible
Self-confident, ambitious, energetic,
domineering
Imaginative, disorderly, idealistic, emotional,
impractical
Congruent Occupations
Mechanic, drill press operator, assembly-
line worker, farmer
Biologist, economist, mathematician,
news reporter
Social worker, teacher, counselor,
clinical psychologist
Accountant, corporate manager, bank
teller, file clerk
Lawyer, real estate agent, public
relations specialist, small business
manager
Painter, musician, writer, interior
decorator
PERSON-ORGANIZATION FIT
• People are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and leave when
there is no compatibility.
• The Person-Organization Fit is most important for an organization facing a dynamic and changing
environment.
• The fit predicts high job satisfaction, high organizational commitment, and low turnover

Big-five Example:
• People high on extraversion fit well with aggressive and team-oriented cultures.
• People high on agreeableness match up better with a supportive organizational climate than one focused on
aggressiveness.
• People high on openness to experience fit better in organizations that emphasize innovation rather than
standardization.
EXERCISE

The computer age has greatly increased the way companies portray themselves online. Which
theory best explains why this is?
A. personality–job fit
B. Dark Triad
C. work–life balance
D. person–organization fit
CULTURAL
VALUES

• Values differ across cultures

• Hofstede’s framework for
assessing culture

Hofstede surveyed more than 116,000 IBM employees in more than 40 countries about their work-related values (1970s), See
The Hofstede Centre, www.geert-hofstede.com.
HOFSTEDE’S FIVE VALUE DIMENSIONS

• Hofstede’s framework: understanding different cultures

1. Power distance (High versus low)
2. Individualism versus collectivism
3. Masculinity versus femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance (High versus low)
5. Long-term versus short-term orientation
EXERCISE

Which of the following is not one of Hofstede's five dimensions of national culture?
A. power distance
B. flexibility versus rigidity
C. individualism versus collectivism
D. long-term versus short-term orientation
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
• What is personality?

• How do we typically measure it?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five personality
model?

• How do the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-monitoring, and proactive personality help us to understand
personality?

• How does the situation or environment affect the degree to which personality predicts behavior?

• What is the difference between terminal and instrumental values?

• What are the differences between person–job fit and person–organization fit?

• How do Hofstede’s five value dimensions differ?

IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS
• Personality:
• Evaluate the job, group, and organization to determine the best fit
• Big Five is best to use for selection
• MBTI for development and training

• Values:
• Strongly influence attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions
• Match the individual values to organizational culture
NEXT LECTURE: PERCEPTION & INDIVIDUAL DECISION
MAKING