CHAPTER IV

Individual and group Behavior dynamics

1-1
 Contents
1. Personality
2. Determinants of personality
3. Perception
4. Stages of perception
5. Attitude

1-2
 PERSONALITY

The word personality is derived from a Greek word

“persona” which means “to speak through.”
Personality is the combination of characteristics or
qualities that forms a person’s unique identity. It
signifies the role which a person plays in public.
Every individual has a unique, personal and major
determinant of his behavior that defines his/her
personality.

1-3
 MEANING OF PERSONALITY

Personality Traits:
 Personality can be defined as:

Group #2
 The sum total of ways in which an individual interacts
with people and reacts to situations.

 The traits exhibited by a person during these

interactions. 4
 Determinants of Personality

Heredity Environment Family

Personality

Social Situational
 Determinants of
Personality

Heredity Environment

Nature: It advocates that Nurture: It advocates argue that

Part of personality finds its personality finds its basis in
Origins in biology (heredity) Life experiences (early life mostly)

Situation

It can be described as how we react and act in

different situation
 Inherited Characteristics
The features an individual acquires from their
parents or forefathers, in other words the gifted
features an individual possesses by birth is
considered as inherited characteristics. It
consists of the following features:

1-7
 Cont…

Color of a person’s eye

Religion/Race of a person
Shape of the nose
Shape of earlobes

1-8
Learned Characteristics
Nobody learns everything by birth. First, our
school is our home, then our society, followed
by educational institutes. The characteristics an
individual acquires by observing, practicing, and
learning from others and the surroundings is
known as learned characteristics.

1-9
Learned characteristics includes the following features
 Perception − Result of different senses like feeling,
hearing etc.
 Values − Influences perception of a situation, decision
making process.
 Personality − Patterns of thinking, feeling,
understanding and behaving.
 Attitude − Positive or negative attitude like expressing
one’s thought.

1-10
 Traits of Personality

Personality traits are the continuing features

that define an individual’s behavior. A
personality trait is a unique feature in an
individual. Psychologists resolved that there are
five major personality traits and every individual
can be categorized into at least one of them.
These five personality traits are

1-11
 Extrovert
 Neurotic
 Open
 Agreeable
 Conscientious

1-12
 Cont…
Extroversion
 This trait is sometimes called "surgency." A high
score means you're:
 sociable
 fun-loving
 affectionate
 friendly
 talkative
 you derive energy from social activity
1-13
 Cont…
Neuroticism
A high score means:
• you worry a lot
• you're insecure
• self-conscious
• unpredictable
That same self study mentioned above found that
neurotic people are more likely to make a duck face

1-14
 Cont…
Openness to experience
A high score means you're:
• innovative
• imaginative
• daring
• have broad interests
• generally prefer variety over fixed routines

1-15
 Cont…
One review of studies found that, in business
settings, openness is a strong predictor of who
will become and succeed as a leader.
Another study found that you can tell how open
someone is based on their self, specifically
based on whether they display positive
emotions.

1-16
 Agreeableness
A high score means you're:
 compassionate
 kind
 affectionate
 likely to engage in pro-social behavior and
volunteerism

1-17
 Cont…
Research suggests that agreeable people tend to
be happier, possibly because they try to avoid
negative experiences. On the other hand,
disagreeable people may be more likely to
succeed at work because they're better at getting
their ideas heard. Interestingly, one study found
that people who have a looser gait tend to be
more agreeable (and less conscientious).

1-18
 Conscientiousness
A high score means you're:
 hardworking
 ambitious
 energetic
 persevering
 like planning things in advance

1-19
 Cont…
Psychologists say conscientiousness is the best
predictor of both personal and professional
success. It's also the strongest predictor of
leadership in different contexts, including
business, government, and school.

1-20
 4.3-Major Personality Attributes
Locus of Control
Locus of control is a term in psychology which
refers to a person's belief about what causes the
good or bad results in his or her life, either in
general or in a specific area such as health or
academics.
. One's "locus" (Latin for "place" or "location") can either be internal
(meaning the person believes that they control their life) or external
(meaning they believe that their environment, some higher power, or other
people control their decisions and their life).

1-21
 Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they are
masters of their own fate.

Internals
Individuals who believe that they
control what happens to them.

Externals
Individuals who believe that what
happens to them is controlled by
outside forces such as luck or
chance.
 Internal locus
Locus of control refers to the extent to which
individuals believe that they can control events
that affect them. Individuals with a high internal
locus of control believe that events result
primarily from their own behavior and actions.

1-23
 External locus
• Those with a high external locus of control believe
that powerful others, fate, or chance primarily
determine events. Those with a high internal locus of
control have better control of their behavior, tend to
exhibit more political behaviors, and are more likely to
attempt to influence other people than those with a
high external locus of control; they are more likely to
assume that their efforts will be successful. They are
more active in seeking information and knowledge
concerning their situation.

1-24
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism is being practical, emotionally
distant, and believing that ends justify means.
Machiavellians are always wanting to win and
are great persuaders. Here are the significant
features of a high-mach individuals

1-25
 Machiavellianism

 Machiavellianism refers to the degree to which an

individual is practical in his approach, maintains an
emotional distance from others, and believes that ends
justify the means.
 Individuals who score high on Mach are good at

Group #2
manipulating others and try to win by any means.
 People having a high Mach perform well in situations that
involve face-to-face meetings. They are especially
productive in jobs that require the use of bargaining
(persuasion) skills and in jobs that offer substantial
rewards for the achievement of goals. 26
 Cont…
o High-Muchs prefer precise interactions rather
than beating about the bush.
o High-Machs tend to improvise; they do not
necessarily abide by rules and regulations all
the time.
o High-Machs get distracted by emotional
details that are irrelevant to the outcome of a
project.

1-27
 Self-esteem
It is the extent up to which people either like or
dislike themselves. Self-Esteem is directly related
to the expectations of success and on-the-job
satisfaction.
Individuals with high self-esteem think that they
have what it takes to succeed. So, they take more
challenges while selecting a job.

1-28
 Self-esteem

 The degree of liking an individual has for himself is referred to as self-

esteem.
 People with high self-esteem are generally confident.
 Individuals with low self-esteem lack confidence, look for approval

Group #2
from others, and are not likely to take a stand which opposes others’
views.
 People who have high self-esteem do not care about pleasing others
and fail to be influenced by external factors.
 People with high self-esteem derive more satisfaction from their jobs
than people with low-esteem.
29
 Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring is the capability of regulating
one’s behavior according to social situations.
Individuals with high self-monitoring skill easily
adjust their behavior according to external,
situational factors. Their impulsive talents allow
them to present public persona which are
completely different from their private
personalities.

1-30
 Risk taking
Generally, managers are reluctant on taking risks.
However, individual risk-taking inclination affects the
bulk of information required by the managers and
how long it takes them to make decisions.
Thus, it is very important to recognize these
differences and align risk-taking propensity with
precise job demands that can make sense.

1-31
Risk taking

 People who are highly risk-taking in their

behavior make decisions quickly without
searching for much information.
 Risk-averse people do not make decisions in a

Group #2
hurry and gather a lot of information before
making any decision.
 In organizations, the suitability of a person’s risk-
taking or risk-averse behavior depends on the
duties and responsibilities of his job. 32
 PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS:
Personality does not evolve by a single factor. It
is a mixture of a lot of things. Some of those
factors are psychological, some are physical,
some are biological and some are even
hereditary. So, I have compiled some of the
basic factors that hold great importance when
we talk about PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS:

1-33
 1. Brain
Brain is one of the most important factors of
personality determinant. It is generally believed
that the father and the child adopt almost the
same type of brain stimulation and the later
differences are the result of the environment in
which the child has been grown up.

1-34
 2. Physical Factors
One of the most important factors in determining
personality is the ‘Physical Characteristics’ of an
individual. It is believed that this factor plays a vital
role in determining one’s behavior in any
organization. Physical features may involve the
height of a person (short or tall), his color (white or
black), his health status (fat or skinny) and his
beauty (handsome or ugly).

1-35
 3. Social Factors
Social factors also play a vital role in determining
one’s personality. The things that revolve and
evolve around us on a regular basis determine
our personality. The society that we live in, the
cultural environment that we face daily, the
community we get interacted to, all are included
in this factor.

1-36
 Cont…
Relationships, co-ordination, co-operation,
interaction, environment in the family,
organizations, workplaces, communities,
societies all contribute in way or another as
personality determinants.

1-37
 4. Cultural and Religious Factors:
The culture in which one lives in, that may
involve traditional practices, norms, customs,
procedures, rules and regulations, precedents
and values, all are important determinants of
personality.
Moreover, the creed, religion and believes are
also very important factors of personality
determinants.

1-38
 5. Heredity Factor:
Perhaps, the most surprising and astonishing
factor (at least in my eyes) is the “Heredity
Factor”.

1-39
 PERCEPTION
Perception is process through which short-run
changes are made in behavior in response to
inputs from work environment. The process
itself consists of two major actions – i ) attention
to incoming stimuli and ii) translation of such
stimuli into a message that leads to a
meaningful behavioral response.

1-40
 Cont…
An individual’s motives, previous learning and
personality will influence perception. Managers
must take such consideration into account in
predicting the way their actions and order will be
perceived by others. Perception is the process of
interpreting something that we see or hear in our
mind and use it later to judge and give a verdict
on a situation, person, group etc.

1-41
 Cont…
It can be divided into six types −
• Of sound − The ability to receive sound by identifying
vibrations.
• Of speech − The competence of interpreting and
understanding the sounds of language heard.
• Touch − Identifying objects through patterns of its
surface by touching it.
• Taste − The ability to receive flavor of substances by
tasting it through sensory organs known as taste buds.

1-42
 Cont…
Other senses − They approve perception through
body, like balance, acceleration, pain, time, sensation
felt in throat and lungs etc.
Of the social world − It permits people to understand
other individuals and groups of their social world.
Example − Priya goes to a restaurant and likes their
customer service, so she will perceive that it is a good
place to hang out and will recommend it to her
friends. Priya’s perception about the restaurant is good.

1-43
 Five Stages in Perceptual Process:
Stage I: Observation Phase – It depicts the
environmental stimuli being observed by the five
senses of the perception.
Stage II: Selection of the Stimuli: This is
governed both by factors external to the
perceived, such as the characteristics of the
stimulus, and internal to the individual, such as
the personality disposition and motivations of
the perceiver.
1-44
 Cont…
Stage III: Organizing Stage – In this stage, the
perceiver is influenced by figure and ground,
grouping, and several perceptual errors such as
stereotyping and halo effects, projection and
perceptual defense.
Stage IV: Interpretation Stage: This stage is
governed by the perceivers assumptions of people
and events and attributions about causes of
behavior and feelings.

1-45
 Cont…
Stage V: Behavior Response: In this stage the
response of the perceiver takes on both covert
and overt characteristics. Covert response will
be reflected in the attitudes, motives, and
feelings of the perceiver and overt responses
will be reflected in the actions of the individual.

1-46
 ATTITUDE
Attitudes can be defined as an individual’s
feelings about or inclinations towards other
persons, objects, events, or activities. Attitudes
encompass such affective feelings as likes and
dislikes, and satisfactions and dissatisfactions.
Our needs, past experiences, self- concept, and
personality shape the beliefs, feelings, and
opinion we hold towards the perceived world.

1-47
 Cont…
behavioral scientists have divided attitudes into
two major groups: i) those that are cognitive (for
example, beliefs or expectations about cause-
effect relationships between events) and ii)
those that are evaluative (for example, liking or
disliking for event).

1-48
 Cont…
SOURCES OF ATTITUDEs
 FAMILY MEMBERS
 PEERS/FRIENDS
 SOCIETY
 REFERENCE GROUPS

1-49
 ETHICS
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of
philosophy that involves systematizing,
defending, and recommending concepts of right
and wrong conduct. The term ethics derived
from the Ancient Greek word ἠθικός ethikos,
which is derived from the word ἦθος ethos
(habit, "custom").

1-50
 Cont…
Ethics are the principles and values an individual
use to govern his activities and decisions. In an
organization, a code of ethics is a set of
principles that guide the organization in its
programs, policies and decisions for the
business.

1-51
 Cont…
An organization is formed when individuals from
different backgrounds and varied interests come
together on a common platform and work
towards predefined goals and objectives.
Employees are the assets of an organization and
it is essential for them to maintain the decorum
and ambience of the workplace.

1-52
 What is Organization Ethics?
The way an organization should respond to external
environment refers to organization ethics.
Organization ethics includes various guidelines and
principles which decide the way individuals should
behave at the workplace.
It also refers to the code of conduct of the
individuals working in a particular organization.

1-53
 Cont…
Every organization runs to earn profits but how
it makes money is more important. No
organization should depend on unfair means to
earn money. One must understand that money
is not the only important thing; pride and honor
are more important.

1-54
 Cont…
Children below fourteen years of age must not be
employed to work in any organization. Childhood is
the best phase of one’s life and no child should be
deprived of his childhood.
Employees should not indulge in destruction or
manipulation of information to get results. Data
Tampering is considered strictly unethical and
unprofessional in the corporate world. Remember if
one is honest, things will always be in his favor.

1-55
 Cont…
Employees should not pass on company’s
information to any of the external parties. Do
not share any of your organization’s policies and
guidelines with others. It is better not to discuss
official matters with friends and relatives.
Confidential data or information must not be
leaked under any circumstances.

1-56