PERSONALITY,

ABILITY,
ATTITUDES
AND
VALUES
 OBJECTIVES
– Define personality in the workplace
– Describe the Big Five Personality traits and the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator in the work setting.
– Explain other personality traits in the workplace.
– Identifying types of abilities that are used to categorize
performers in the organization.
– Discuss attitudes, its formation and how to change it.
– Name the two important attitudes in the workplace
– Differentiate terminal from instrumental values.
– Identify different values found across culture.
PERSONALITY
Personality – encompasses stable 
feelings, thoughts and behavioral 
patterns that give an individual his 
identity

NATURE NURTURE
• It means the genetic • Consists of the
or hereditary origins person’s
of a person socialization, life
experiences and
other forms of
interaction in the
environment
 BIG FIVE 
PERSONALITY 
•
TRAITS
Conscientiousness - refer to the number of goals on which a person
focuses. People who focus on few goals are organized, systematic,
punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable.
• Agreeableness - is the person’s ability to get along with others.
Agreeableness causes a person to be nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting,
kind, and warm.
• Neuroticism - refers to the degree to which a person is anxious,
irritable, aggressive, temperamental, and moody.
• Openness - mirrors a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interests.
People with high levels of openness are original, intellectual, creative,
and open to new ideas.
• Extraversion - reflects an individual’s comfort level with relationships.
Extroverts tend to be outgoing, talkative and sociable.
MYERS­BRIGS TYPE 
INDICATOR
• Extraversion - Introversion – describe how
people respond and interact with the world
around them
• Sensing – Intuition – looking at how people
collect information from the world around them
• Thinking – Feeling – concentrates on how
people formulate decisions depending on the
information that they collected
• Judging – Perceiving – how people deal with the
outside world
 OTHER PERSONALITY 
TRAITS IN THE 
• ProactiveWORKPLACE
Personality – a person’s preference to fix
what is supposed as erroneous, change the status
quo and apply initiative to solve problems
• Machiavellianism – describes behavior towards
attaining power and controlling the behavior of
other people
• Risk Propensity – degree of willingness of a person
to take chances and create risky decisions
• Creativity – ability to break away from the habit-
bound way of thinking and generate novel and
useful ideas
ABILITY
 ABILITY
• Ability is the person’s talent to perform a
mental or physical task.
• Aptitudes – are the natural talents that aid
employees in learning specific task and
execute them better
• Learned Capabilities – are the skills and
knowledge that a
 MENTAL ABILITY
– Mental ability also known as intelligence is a
better predictor if training proficiency and job
success when selecting candidates for a position.
– Mental ability is the acquisition and application
of knowledge in solving problems.
• Verbal Ability - this is the ability to understand and
express oral and written communication quickly and
accurately.
a. Oral Comprehension - ability to understand spoken
words and sentences.
b. Written Comprehension - ability to understand
written words and sentences.
• Quantitative Ability - it refers to the two types of
mathematical abilities.
a. Numerical Aptitude - ability to perform basic
mathematical operations quickly and accurately.
b. Numerical Reasoning - ability to analyze logical
relationships ands to recognize the underlying
principles underlying them.
•Reasoning Ability - ability to analyze information so as to make
valid judgements on the basis of insights, rules and logic.
a. Problem Sensitivity - ability to sense that there is a problem at
present or likely to be one in the future.
b. Deductive Reasoning - ability to draw a conclusion or make a
choice that logically follows from existing assumptions and
data.
c. Inductive Reasoning - ability to identify after observing specific
cases or instances the general rules that govern a process or
that explain an outcome.
d. Originality - ability to develop clever and novel ways to solve
problems.
•Spatial Ability - ability linked to visual and mental representation and
manipulation of objects in space.
a. Spatial Orientation - having good understanding of where one is
relative to others things in the environment.
b. Visualization - ability to imagine three-dimensional forms in space and
to be able to manipulate them mentally.
•Perceptual Ability - ability to perceive, understand and recall patterns of
information. Under this ability are speed and flexibility closure and
perceptual speed.
a. Speed and Flexibility Closure - ability to pick out a pattern of
information quickly in presence of distracting information, even
without all the information present.
b. Perceptual Speed - ability to examine and compare numbers, letters
and objective quickly.
Emotional Intelligence ­ is the 
handling of relationships and 
interactions with others. 

• Ability to recognize and regulate our own

emotions
• Ability to recognize and influence others’
emotions
• Self-motivation
• Ability to form effective long-term
relationships others
MORE APPROPRIATE FACTORS 
OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 
BASED ON RESEARCH

• Appraisal and expression of emotions in

oneself
• Appraisal and recognition of emotions in
others
• Regulation of emotions in oneself
• Use of emotions to facilitate performance
 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 his or her emotions,
experience, insights, intuition, observations and
internalized information.
• How to speak a language - learning a specific language
involves immersion or using the language for long periods of
time.
• Innovation - some individuals exert great effort with
innovation for many decades with modest success. Other
individuals appear to innovate easily for a period of time.
• Leadership - it is difficult to teach a complex social skill like
leadership. Leadership widens from experience.
• Aesthetic Sense - it explains why art and culture is so much
engaging. It is hard to articulate the appeal of a work of art.
• Sales - is another difficult social skill that is quite tricky to
teach. Great salespeople are normally described as “natural”
because it is not easy to transfer the skill to others.
•Body Language - is extremely significant to communication.
However, it is complex to teach.
•Intuition - is the ability to comprehend things with no
application of logic. It is vital to innovation and decision making.
•Humor - it is hard to teach a sense of humor. For instance,
humor needs an exacting timing which is considered intuitive.
•Snowboarding - tasks that necessitate physical coordination
like riding a snowboard or bicycle are regarded as tacit
knowledge.
•Emotional Intelligence - is the ability to read and use emotions
to influence results. It is difficult to teach or express.
Physical Ability ­ is performing job­
related tasks requiring manual labor 
or physical skill. 
• Strength - it refers to the degree to which the body is capable
of exerting force.
a. Static Strength - it refers to the ability to lift, push or pull
heavy objects using hands, arms, legs, shoulders or back.
b. Explosive Strength - it refers to the ability to exert short
bursts of energy to move the body or an object.
c. Dynamic Strength - it is the ability to exert force for
prolonged period of time without becoming overly
fatigued and giving out.
• Stamina - it refers to the ability of person’s lungs and circulatory
system to work efficiently while he is engaging in prolonged
physical activity.
•Flexibility and Coordination - Flexibility means that ability to twist, stretch, bend or
reach. Coordination is the quality of physical movement.
a. Dynamic Flexibility - is needed for a job is repeated and somewhat quick
bends, twists or reaches.
b. Gross Body Coordination - it is the ability to synchronize the movements of
the body, arms and legs to do something while the body is in motion.
c. Gross Body Equilibrium - it is the ability to maintain the balance of the body
in unstable contexts or when the person has to change direction.
•Psychomotor Ability - it means the capability to manipulated and control objects.
a. Five Manipulative Ability - this is the ability to keep the arms and hands
steady while using the ands to do precise work.
b. Control Movement Ability - this is the ability to make precise adjustments
using machinery to complete work effectively.
c. Response Orientation - this is the ability to choose the right actions swiftly
in response to several different signals.
d. Response Time - this is the ability that reflects how quickly a person
responds to signaling information after it happens.
•Sensor Ability - it is the capability related with vision and hearing.
a. Near and Far Vision - it is the ability to see details of an
object up close or at a distance.
b. Night Vision - it is the ability to see things in low light.
c. Visual Color Discrimination - it is the ability to detect
differences in colors and shades
d. Depth Perception - it is the ability to judge relative
distances.
e. Hearing Sensitivity - it is the ability to hear differences in
sounds that vary in terms of pitch and loudness.
f. Auditory Attention - it is the ability to focus on a source
of sound in the presence of the sources.
g. Speech Recognition - it is the ability to identify and
understand the speech of others.
ATTITUDE
 ATTITUDE
• Attitude is a persistent mental state of readiness
to feel and behave in a favorable or unfavorable
manner towards someone or something.
 Attitudes are stable
 Attitudes are directed towards some person,
object or idea
 An attitude on an object or a person relates to
an individual’s behavior towards that object or
person
 ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Affective – emotional component of an attitude

that includes the feelings of a person about an
object
• Cognitive – consists of the person’s perceptions,
beliefs and opinions
 Evaluative Belief – favorable or unfavorable
impression
• Behavioral – tendency of a person to take action
in a definite way toward someone or something
 TWO IMPORTANT 
ATTITUDES IN THE 
WORKPLACE
1. Job Satisfaction – is the degree of
gratification or fulfillment of an
employee in his work
2. Organizational Commitment – mirrors
the identification and attachment of an
individual to an organization
 TWO FACTORS THAT 
AFFECT THE CHANGE 
OF ATTITUDE
1. Persuasive Communication - is the use of the radio,
television, and internet to persuade a person to
change its attitude.
• Communicator – an individual that embraces a
particular attitude and desires to convince others to
share that attitude
a. Communicator’s overall credibility
b. Trust in the intentions of the communicator
c. Similarity of interests of goals and targets
d. Attractiveness of the communicator
• Message – the content intended to stimulate the change in
other’s attitudes
a. Possibility of negative result if no change in
behavior is done
b. The perceived effect of changing behavior
c. The perceived ability to change behavior
• Situation – the surroundings in which the message is offered
• Target – the person whose attitude the communicator
desires to change
a. More rigid and less willing to change their attitude
b. With high self-esteem
c. Locus of control
2. Cognitive Dissonance – is the uneasy feeling
when an individual behaves in a way inconsistent
with existing attitude
• Behavior must be considerably inconsistent with
the attitude rather than slightly inconsistent
• Inconsistent behavior may cause damage or
have a negative effect for others
• Inconsistent behavior must be voluntary and not
forced or at least the person may perceive it
that way
VALUES
 VALUES
• It refers to the stable and evaluative life goals that
people have, reflecting what is most important to
them.
• The values a person holds will affect his employment.
For example, someone who has a drive for
achievement may more readily act as an entrepreneur.
• Value attainment is one reason why people stay in a
company. Therefore, understanding employees at work
requires understanding the value orientations of
employees.
Types of 
Values
Instrumental Values – are not an end 
goal, but rather provide the means by 
which an end goal is accomplished. 
•Imagination
• Cheerfulness
• Ambition •Independence
• Love •Intellect
• Cleanliness •Broad-mindedness
• Self-control •Logic
• Capability •Obedience
• Courage
•Helpfulness
• Politeness
•Responsibility
• Honesty
•Forgiveness
Terminal Values – are the overall 
goals that people hope to achieve in 
their lifetime

•True Friendship
• World Peace
• Family Security •Sense of Accomplishment

• Freedom •Inner Harmony

• Equality •Comfortable Life

• Self-respect •Mature Love
• Happiness •World of Beauty
• Wisdom •Pleasure
• National Security •Social Recognition
• Salvation •Exciting Life
 VALUE CONGRUENCE
• Refers to how similar an individual’s values hierarchy to the
values hierarchy of the organization
a. Person-organization Value Congruence - the employee’s
and the organization’s dominant values are similar.
b. Espouse-enacted Values Congruence – entails how
consistent the values evident in one’s action (enacted
values) with what one says he believes in (espoused
values).
c. Community-organization Value Congruence – compatibility
of an organization’s dominant values with the prevailing
values of the community or society.
 Cross­cultural 
Values
• Individualism – level to which a person values independence
and personal uniqueness.
• Collectivism – extent to which people value duty to groups to
which they belong.
• Power Distance – people allow unequal distribution of power
in a society and in an organization.
• Uncertainty Avoidance – culture programs its members to
feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured
situations.
• Achievement Orientation – when work-related goals come
into conflict with other areas of life, the desire to achieve will
win out.