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5
Personality
and
Values

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 Learning Objectives
❑ Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors
that shape it.
❑ Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI) personality framework and the Big Five
model.
❑ Discuss how the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-
monitoring, and proactive personality contribute to the
understanding of personality.
❑ Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts
behavior.
❑ Contrast terminal and instrumental values.
❑ Describe the differences between person-job fit and person-
organization fit.
❑ Compare Hofstede’s five value dimensions and the GLOBE
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LO 1
Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
⮚Defining Personality
⮚ Personality is a dynamic concept describing
the growth and development of a person’s
whole psychological system.
⮚ The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts to and interacts with others.

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LO 1
Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
⮚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.

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LO 1
Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It
⮚Personality Determinants
⮚ Is personality the result of heredity or
environment?
⮚ Heredity refers to those factors that were
determined at conception.
⮚ The heredity approach argues that the
ultimate explanation of an individual’s
personality is the molecular structure of the
genes, located in the chromosomes.

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LO 1
Describe Personality, the Way It Is
Measured, and the Factors that Shape It

⮚Early research tried to identify and label

enduring personality characteristics.
⮚ Shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid.
⮚These are personality traits.

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 Personality Frameworks
⮚Many of our behaviors stem from our personalities,
so understanding the components of personality helps us
predict behavior

⮚Important theoretical frameworks and assessment tools help

us categorize and study the dimensions of personality

⮚The most widely used and best known personality

frameworks are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and
the Big Five Personality Model

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LO 2
Strengths and Weakness of
the MBTI and Big Five Model
⮚ The most widely used personality framework is the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
⮚Individuals are classified as:
⮚ Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
⮚ Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
⮚ Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
⮚ Judging or Perceiving (J or P)
These classifications are then combined into sixteen
personality types.
⮚INTJs are visionaries.
⮚ESTJs are organizers.
⮚ENTPs are conceptualizers.
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⮚ Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I). Extraverted individuals are
outgoing, sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.

⮚ Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N). Sensing types are practical and prefer
routine and order, and they focus on details. Intuitives rely on
unconscious processes and look at the “big picture.”

⮚ Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F). Thinking types use reason and logic to
handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal values and
emotions.

⮚ Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P). Judging types want control and
prefer order and structure. Perceiving types are flexible and
spontaneous.

⮚ The MBTI describes personality types by identifying one trait from each
of the four pairs. For example, Introverted/Intuitive/Thinking/Judging
people (INTJs) are visionaries with original minds and great drive. They
are skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn.
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 Weakness of the MBTI
⮚One problem with the MBTI is that the model forces a person
into one type or another; that is, you’re either introverted or
extraverted there is no in between.

⮚ Another problem is with the reliability of the measure: When

people retake the assessment, they often receive different
results
⮚ An additional problem is in the difficulty of interpretation

⮚ Finally, results from the MBTI tend to be unrelated to job

performance

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LO 2
Strengths and Weakness of
the MBTI and Big Five Model
⮚The Big Five Model
⮚ Extraversion
⮚ Agreeableness
⮚ Conscientiousness
⮚ Emotional stability
⮚ Openness to experience

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 Big Five Model
⮚ Extraversion. Comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be
gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and
quiet.
⮚ Agreeableness. Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness
people—cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people—cold,
disagreeable, and antagonistic.
⮚ Conscientiousness. A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is
responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on
this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
⮚ Emotional stability. A person’s ability to withstand stress. People with
positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those
with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and
insecure.
⮚ Openness to experience. The range of interests and fascination with novelty.
Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those
at he other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in
the familiar.
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 5-1 shows the results of research on personality scores of CEO candidates. The study
LO 2 found that conscientiousness was more important than other traits. These results
attest to the importance of conscientiousness to organizational success. Although
conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance, other traits are also
important

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LO 2 Big Five Model have other
implications for work and for life

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LO 2
The Dark Triad
A group of negative personality traits
Machiavellianism: the degree to which an individual
is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and
believes that ends can justify means.
Narcissism: the tendency to be arrogant, have a
grandiose sense of self-importance, require
excessive admiration, and have a sense of
entitlement.
Psychopathy: the tendency for a lack of concern for
others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their
actions cause harm.

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LO 2 Five Additional Aberrant
Compound Traits
⮚An emerging framework to study dark side
traits:
⮚ First, antisocial people are indifferent and
callous toward others.
⮚ Second, borderline people have low self-
esteem and high uncertainty.

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LO 2 Strengths and Weakness of the
MBTI and Big Five Model
⮚ Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric and
disorganized.
⮚ Fourth, obsessive compulsive people are
perfectionists and can be stubborn, yet they
attend to details, carry a strong work ethic, and
may be motivated by achievement.
⮚ Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and
hate criticism.

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LO 3 CSE, Self-Monitoring, and
Proactive Personality
⮚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.

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LO 4
The Situation, Personality,
and Behavior
Research shows that the effect of a particular trait on organizational behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical
frameworks that can help explain this are the situation strength theory and trait activation theory .

⮚Situation strength theory: indicates that the

way personality translates into behavior depends
on the strength of the situation.
⮚ The degree to which norms, cues, or
standards dictate appropriate behavior.
Situation strength in an organization can be
analyzed in terms of:
⮚Clarity
⮚Consistency
⮚Constraints
⮚Consequences
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⮚ Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and
responsibilities are available and clear.
⮚ Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work
duties and responsibilities are compatible with one another.
⮚ Constraints, or the extent to which individuals’ freedom to
decide or act is limited by forces outside their control.
⮚ Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions
have important implications for the organization or its
members, clients, supplies, and so on.

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Trait Activation Theory (TAT)

TAT predicts that some situations, events,

or interventions “activate” a trait more
than others.

Using TAT, we can foresee which jobs suit

certain personalities

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LO 4 The Situation, Personality,
and Behavior

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LO 5

Values
⮚Values: basic convictions about what is right,
good, or desirable.
⮚ Value system: ranks values in terms of
intensity.
The Importance and Organization of Values
⮚ Values:
⮚Lay the foundation for understanding of
attitudes and motivation.
⮚Influence attitudes and behaviors.

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LO 5 Contrast Terminal and
Instrumental Values
⮚How can we organize values?
⮚One researcher—Milton Rokeach—argued that
we can separate them into two categories

⮚ Terminal values: desirable end-states of

existence.
⮚ Instrumental values: preferred modes of
behavior or means of achieving terminal
values.

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 Contrast Terminal and
Instrumental Values
⮚ Some examples of terminal values are prosperity and
economic success, freedom, health and well-being, world
peace, and meaning in life

⮚ Examples of instrumental values are autonomy and self-

reliance, personal discipline, kindness, and goal-orientation

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LO 5
Generational Values

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Linking an Individual’s Personality and
Values to the Workplace
⮚ The Person-Job Fit
⮚ This concern is best articulated in John Holland’s
personality-job fit theory.

⮚ 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.

⮚ The six personality types are: realistic, investigative, social,

conventional, enterprising, and artistic. (Exhibit 5-5)

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LO 6 Person-Job Fit vs.
Person-Organization Fit

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LO 6 Person-Job Fit vs.
Person-Organization Fit
⮚Person-Organization Fit
⮚ 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.

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LO 6 Person-Job Fit vs.
Person-Organization Fit
⮚Other Dimensions of Fit
⮚Although person-job fit and person-organization
fit are considered the most salient dimensions
for workplace outcomes, other avenues of fit are
worth examining.
⮚Person-group fit
⮚Person-supervisor fit

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LO 7 Hofstede’s Five Value
Dimensions and GLOBE
⮚Hofstede’s Framework
⮚ Power distance
⮚ Individualism versus collectivism
⮚ Masculinity versus femininity
⮚ Uncertainty avoidance
⮚ Long-term versus short-term orientation

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 Hofstede’s Value Dimensions

• Power Distance
• Is the degree to which people in a country accept that
power in institutions and organizations is distributed
unequally
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• The degree to which people in a country prefer structured
over unstructured situations.
• Individualism versus collectivism:
• Is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as
individuals rather than as members of groups
• Masculinity versus femininity:
• Is the degree to which values such as the acquisition of
money and material goods prevail.

long-term orientations look to the future and value thrift and persistence. Short-term
orientation values the here and now; they accept change more readily and don’t see
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LO 7 Hofstede’s Five Value
Dimensions and GLOBE
⮚The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Culture
⮚ The Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research
program updated Hofstede’s research.
⮚Data from 825 organizations and 62
countries.
⮚Used variables similar to Hofstede’s.
⮚Added some news ones.

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GLOBE Research Project Dimensions

• This dimension refers

to how much people in
a society are expected
Assertiveness
Assertiveness to be tough,
confrontational, and
competitive versus
modest and tender

•This dimension
measures the
Performance
Performance Orientation
Orientation importance of
performance
improvement and
excellence in society

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GLOBE Research Project Dimensions

•The level of
importance a society
Future
Future Orientation
Orientation attaches to future-
oriented behaviors
such as planning and
investing in the future

•This dimension
measures the extent
to which a society
Humane
Humane Orientation
Orientation encourages and
rewards people for
being fair, altruistic,
generous, caring, and
kind.
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 Implications for Managers
⮚Consider screening job candidates for high
conscientiousness—as well as the other Big
Five traits—depending on the criteria your
organization finds most important. Other
aspects, such as core self-evaluation or
narcissism, may be relevant in certain
situations.
⮚Although the MBTI has faults, you can use it for
training and development; to help employees
better understand each other, open up
communication in work groups, and possibly
reduce conflicts.
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 Implications for Managers
⮚Evaluate jobs, work groups, and your
organization to determine the optimal
personality fit.
⮚Take into account employees' situational factors
when evaluating their observable personality
traits, and lower the situation strength, to better
ascertain personality characteristics.
⮚The more you consider people’s different
cultures, the better you will be able to determine
their work behavior and create a positive
organizational climate that performs well.

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