Micro OB – 3

Personality
 Definition
• There is no agreement among scholars on the
definition.
• Personality is a relatively stable set of
characteristics that influences an individual’s
behaviour
 Cont…
• Personality refers to individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving. The study of personality focuses on
two broad areas:
– Understanding individual differences in particular
personality characteristics, such as sociability or
irritability
– The other is understanding how the various parts of
a person come together as a whole.
Taken from – American Psychological Association
 Cont…
• According to Carl Roger – Personality is an
organized, consistent pattern of perception of
the “I” around which the individual interacts
and has experiences.
• Fred Luthans – how people affect others and
how they understand and view themselves
 Approaches to personality
• Nomothetic – explores the what of personality. They
identify the personality traits and produce effective
measurements of the traits in order to draw
comparisons between individuals. Able to predict
behavior is a major aim and outcome of this approach.
• Idiographic – explores the why of personality. They are
concerned with understanding the uniqueness of
individuals and the development of the self concept.
They regard personality development as a process
which is open to change.
• Complimentary approaches – Freud although come
under idiographic but does not allow personality
growth and change after childhood.
 Nomothetic
Trait theory
• They broke down individual’s behavioral patterns
into a series of observable traits
• Combining these traits into a group forms an
individual’s personality
• There were 1800 traits
• R. B. Cattell - He extracted 171 out of the 1800
and finally 16 traits were finalized
 S. N. Primary Factor Low Range High Range
1 Warmth Reserved, detached Outgoing, likes people
2 Reasoning Less intelligent More intelligent, abstract thinking

3 Emotional stability Reactive, Emotionally unstable Emotionally stable, Mature

4 Dominance Humble, Accommodating Assertive, Stubborn

5 Liveliness Sober, Silent, Serious Lively, cheerful, Happy-go-lucky

6 Rule-consciousness Expedient, Non-conforming, Rule-Conscious, conforming

Disregards rule

7 Social boldness Timid, Shy, Hesitant Venturesome, Socially bold

8 Sensitivity Tough minded, No-Nonsense, Rough Sensitive, Aesthetic, Sentimental

9 Vigilance Trusting, Accepting Suspicious, Skeptical

10 Abstractedness Practical, prosaic, grounded Imaginative, absorbed in ideas

11 Privateness Forthright, open Non-disclosing, Shrewd

12 Apprehension Self assured, complacent, confident Apprehensive, self-doubting

13 Openness to change Traditional, Conservative Experimental, liberal, free-thinking

14 Self-reliance Group dependent, group-oriented Self-sufficient, solitary,

individualistic
15 Perfectionism Casual, flexible, uncontrolled Controlled, organized, self-
disciplined
16 Tension Relaxed, placid, tranquil Tense, high energy, impatient, time
 Big Five
• Psychologists further reduced the number of traits
and brought it down to 5 core personality traits:
1. Extraversion – gregarious, assertive and sociable
(opposed to reserves, timid and quite)
2. Agreeableness – cooperative, warm, agreeable (opposed
to cold disagreeable and antagonistic)
3. Consciousness – hardworking, organized and
dependable (opposed to lazy, disorganized, unreliable)
4. Emotional stability – calm, self-confident and cool
(opposed to insecure, anxious and depressed)
5. Openness to experience – creative, curious and cultured
(opposed to practical with narrow interest)
 Reason for specific traits
• Heredity – gene plays a role in whatever
personality type a person has
• Self-esteem – personality viewed from within
– High self esteem people can handle failure better
(Mixed results)
– If not nurtured properly can be antisocial and
destructive
• Person-situation interaction
• Socialization process
ORGB
 Idiographic
• Emphasis individual’s view of themselves – their
self concept
• Rogger’s theory - entire theory is built on a
single “force of life” he calls the actualizing
tendency. He believes that all creatures strive to
make the very best of their existence.
– Organisms know what is good for them – evolution
has provided us with the sense, the taste and the
discriminations we need – called Organismic
Valuing
 Cont…
• Organisms know what is
good for them.  Evolution
has provided us with the
senses, the tastes, the
discriminations we need -
organismic valuing
• positive regard, umbrella
term for things like love,
affection, attention,
nurturance, and so on
 Cont…
• Another thing that we value is positive self-regard,
that is, self-esteem, self-worth, a positive self-
image.  We achieve this by experiencing the positive
regard others show us over our years of growing
up.  Without this, we feel small and helpless, and
again we fail to become all that we can be
• Our society also leads us astray with conditions of
worth. Society creates conditions of worth
• We get love and affection if and only if we perform
the way they want - conditional positive regard
• Leading us to Ideal self not Real self
 Cont…
• Result is Incongruity
– This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the
“I am” and the “I should” is called incongruity.  The
greater the gap, the more incongruity.  The more
incongruity, the more suffering.  In fact, incongruity is
essentially what Rogers means by neurosis:  Being out
of synch with your own self. 
 Cont…
• Defenses
– You feel incongruity as threatening situation
– Which leads to anxiety
– Result – denial (denying facts), perceptual
disorder (reinterpreting situation so as to feel
good), psychosis – when people’s defenses are
overwhelmed, and their senses of self is shattered
into disconnect pieces, his behaviour has little
consistency
 Complementary Theories
• Sigmund Freud – Id (Child ego – the instinctive
desire), ego (takes reality into count) and Super
ego (conscience, develops through punishment
and ego ideal, develops through reward)
• Ego satisfies the need of id at the same time does
not weakens the super ego.
• Personality is outcome of the part which
becomes stronger
 MBTI
• Carl Jung’s description of personality –
– Psyche – ego, personal unconscious and collective unconscious
– Archetypes (contents of collective unconscious)– animus/
anima, the shadow and the self (equalizer).
– Principle of opposite or equivalence – every wish immediately
suggests its opposite
– Principle of equivalence – the energy created from the
opposition is given to both sides equally
• Functions – Extraversion/ Intraversion, Sensing/ Intuiting,
thinking/ feeling, Judging/ Perceiving (we have all in
different proportion – superior, secondary, tertiary,
inferior)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) inventory was
developed by Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel
Briggs Myers
• Most managers are of ESTJ type
 MBTI Indicators
Where do you get your energy from
Extraversion (E) Introversion (I)
Outgoing Quiet
Interacting Concentrating (get energy from time alone)
Speaks, then thinks Thinks, then speaks
Gregarious Reflective
How do you orient yourself to the outside world
Judging (J) Perceiving (P)
Structured, organized, planned Flexible, spontaneous
Time oriented Open ended, likes to keep options open
Decisive Exploring
Organized Spontaneous
What do you pay attention to and collect information on
Sensing (S) Intuiting (N)
Practical (getting information through five senses) Pays attention to sixth sense
Details Possibilities
Concrete Theoretical
Specific Abstract
How do you evaluate and make decisions
Thinking (T) Feeling (F)
Analytical (logical) Subjective (makes decisions through personal, value oriented way)
Head Heart
Rules Circumstance
Justice Mercy
 MBTI Scales

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ

Introverts

ISTP ISFP INFP INTP

ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP

Extraverts

ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

Sensing Types Intuitive Types

 Personality characteristics in
organisations
• Core self evaluation – broad set of personality traits that
refers to self concept. It comprised of locus of control, self-
esteem, generalised self-efficacy, and emotional stability
– Locus of control (internal –they control what happens to them vs
external – circumstances and other people control their fate)
– Self efficacy – person’s overall view of himself as being able to
perform effectively in a wide variety of situations.
– Self esteem – a general feeling of self-worth
• Self monitoring – high self monitor pay attention to what is
appropriate in particular situations and to the behaviour of
others
 Cont…
• Positive/ Negative affect
– individuals who focus on the positive aspects of
themselves, other people, and the world in general are
said to have positive affect. While those who accentuate
the negative in themselves, other, and the world are said
to possess negative affect
– Individuals with positive affect are more satisfied with
their jobs, they are fewer absentee days, better
performance etc
• The term "affect" can be taken to indicate an
instinctual reaction to stimulation occurring before
the typical cognitive processes occur
Understanding Self – Johari Window
• Used for improving personal effectiveness
Known to Not known
self to self

Known to Arena
others Blind
(public self)

Not known
Closed Dark
to others

Developed by Lutf and Ingham

 Cont…
• Those aspects of a person’s behavior that are
known to him or her (self) and those aspects of
behavior that are known to those with whom he
or she interacts
• A combination of these two dimensions reveals
four areas of knowledge about the self
• Can improve by self- disclosure and feedback
 Cont…
• In most cases, the aim in groups should be to
develop the Open Area for every person.
• Working in this area with others usually allows for
enhanced individual and team effectiveness and
productivity. The Open Area is the ‘space’ where
good communications and cooperation occur, free
from confusion, conflict and misunderstanding.
• Self-disclosure is the process by which people
expand the Open Area vertically. Feedback is the
process by which people expand this area
horizontally.
• By encouraging healthy self-disclosure and sensitive
feedback, you can build a stronger and more
effective team.
 Life Positions
Attitude toward Oneself

Positive I’m OK — I’m OK —

You’re not OK You’re OK
(Be perfect) (Ideal)
Negative I’m not OK — I’m not OK —
You’re not OK You’re OK
(Get nowhere) (Pleasing others)

Negative Positive

Attitude toward Others

24
Management Conflict Styles

Passive I’m Assertive

behavior not OK — I’m OK — behavior
You’re OK You’re OK

High concern Accommodating Collaborating

for others’ style style
needs

Compromising
style

Aggressive
Avoiding Forcing behavior
style style

Low concern High concern

for others’ I’m for own
needs not OK — needs I’m OK —
You’re not OK 25 You’re not OK