Caveats about personality testing in organizations

• Personality is clearly an important concept for

understanding ,predicting,and changing behavior in
ofganizational settings.
• A second issue is that personality is a relatively weak
predictor of a person performance.some experts dispute
this claim,pointing to strong associations between a few
personality traits and specific types of performance. Still
the effect of personality on a person behavior and
performance is generally low,and thus personality testing
could cause companies to wrongly reject applicants who
would have performed well.
• Self concept: the “I” in organizational
behavior
• Self concept an individuals self beliefs and self
evaluations.
• People also have poorer pshychological
adjustment when their self concept is less
clear and includes conflicting elements.
• self enchancement : a key ingredient in self concept is the desire
to feel valued. People are inherently motivated to promote and
protect a self view of being
competent,attractive,lucky,ethical,and important. This self
enchanment is observed in many ways.
• Self verification: self verification stabilizes an individuals self
concept,which,in turn,provides an important anchor that guides
his or her thoughts and actions.
• Self evaluation:almost everyone strives to have a positive self
concept but some people have a more positive evaluations of
themselves than do others. this self evaluation is mostly defined
by three concepts: self esteem,self efficacy,and locus of control.
• Self esteem :self esteem the extent to which
peoplr like,respect,and are statisfied with
themselves represents a global self evaluation.
• Self efficacy: a person believe that he or she has
the ability,motivation,correctrole perceptions,and
favorable situation to complete a task successful.
• Locus of control: a person general belief about
the amount of control he or she has over
personal life events
A second type of value congruence involves how consistent
the values apparent our actions (enacted values) are with
we say we believe in (espoused values). This espoused-
enacted-value congruence is especially important for
people in leadership position.

A third type of value congruence involves the compatibility

of an organization’s dominant values with the prevailing
values of the community or society in which it conducts
business.
 Values Across Culture
Need to be sensitive to the fact that
cultural differences exist and,
although often subtle, can influence
decisions, behavior, and
interpersonal relations.
 Individualism and Collectivism
Individualism is a cross-cultural value describing
the degree to which people in a culture
emphasize independence and personal
uniqueness.

Collectivism is a cross-cultural value describing

the degree to which people in a culture
emphasize duty to groups tho which people
belong and to group harmony.
 Power Distance
Power distance is a cross-cultural value
describing the degree to which people in a
culture accept unequal distribution of power
in a society.
 Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is a cross-cultural value
describing the degree to which people in a
culture tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty
avoidance) or feel threatened by ambiguity
and uncertainty (high uncertainty avoidance).
Achievement-nurturing orientation
Achievement-nurturing orientation is a cross-
cultural value describing the degree to which
people in a culture emphasize competitive
versus cooperative relations with other
people.
 Ethical Values and Behavior
The most important important factor in most surveys is
honesty/etics.
Three ethicsl principles:
1. utilitarianism. This principle advises us to seek the greatest
good for the greatest number of people.
2. Individual rights. This principle reflects the belief that
everyone has entitlements that let her or him actin a cerain
way
3. Distributive justice. This principle suggest that people who
are similar to each other should receive similar benefits and
burdens; those who are dissimilar should receive different
benefits and burders in proportions to their dissimilarity
 Moral intensity, ethical sensitivity, and
situational influences
Moran intensity is the degree to which an issue
demands the applications of ethical principle.

Ethical sensitivity is a personal characteristic that

enables people to recognize the presence of an
ethical issue and determaine is relative
importance.

Situational factors do not justify unethical conduct.

 Supporting ethical behavior
Critics point out that ethics codes alone do little
to reduce an ethical conduct.
To supplement ethics codes, many firms provide
ethics training.
Some companies have also introduced
procedures whereby employees can
communicate possible ethical violations in
confidance.
“If you don’t have a culture of
ethical decision making to begin
with, all the controls and
compliance regulations you care
to deploy one necessarily
prevent ethical misconduct”.