2

Individual Behavior,
Personality, and
Values
 D. After reading this chapter, we should be able to

A. Identify the four drivers of individual behavior and results. Describe three types of
ways to match individual competencies to job requirements.
B. Identify types of individual behavior in organizations.
C. Understand personality
D. Understand the personality concepts - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
E. Identify the “Big Five” personality dimensions.
F. Explain how personality relates to Holland’s model of vocational choice.
G. Define values and explain why values congruence is important.
 A. Four factors that Influence Individual Behavior (MARS) and
Performance : Performance= person (indv characteristic) x
situatuion (External influence)
MARS Model of Individual Behavior (most commonly mentioned
predictor of individual behavior and performance)
•An individual’s voluntary behavior and performance is influenced
by
• 1. Motivation,
•2. Ability,
•3. Role perceptions, and
•4. Situational factors,
Acronym= MARS
Need to understand all the four factors to diagnose and influence
individual behavior and performance
 MARS Model of Individual Behavior (cont)
(Motivation,Ability,Role perceptionare within individual, Situational factors
external to individuals).

Situational
Individual characteristic
factors
Personality Motivation
Values

Self-concept Individual
Ability behavior and
Perceptions
results
Emotions & attitudes

Stress Role
perceptions
 1. Employee Motivation
• Internal forces within a person that affect a
person’s voluntary choice of behavior such as
- direction -- directed by goals
- intensity -- amount of effort allocated
- persistence -- amount of time that effort is
exerted
S
M
A BAR

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 2. Employee Ability

Natural aptitudes and learned capabilities required to successfully complete

a task
 Aptitudes – natural talents that help people learn specific tasks more
quickly and perform them better
 Learned capabilities – skills and knowledge
Both are main elements of broder concept i.e competencies.
Competencies are abilities lead to superior performance (action oriented
result),some expert include individual values, personality traits and other
characteristics of people .
• Challanges to Person-job matching (needed competencies) – to produces
higher performance and to increase the employee’s well-being by
 Select applicants who demonstrate the required competencies
 Provide training to enhance individual performance and results
 Redesign the job so employees perform only tasks they are currently
able to perform
 3. Role Perceptions
• Understand the job duties expected of us.
• Role perceptions are clearer (role clarity) when we:
– understand our tasks or accountable consequences
– understand task/performance priorities
– Understand the preferred behaviors/procedures
• Clarifying role perceptions
- Provide information about tasks and priorities
- Provide frequent and meaningful performance feedback.
- Provide training on preferred work processes
• Benefits of clear role perceptions:
– More accurate/efficient job
S
performance
M
– Better coordination with others
– Higher motivation A BAR

R
 4. Situational Factors
• Environmental conditions beyond the individual’s
control that constrain or facilitate behavior
• Constraints – time, budget, facilities, etc
• Cues – e.g. signs of nearby hazards
 Situational factors can influence individual behavior
and performance.
 If an employee is motivated,skilled and know their
role obligations, he will not perform if theSsituation is
M
not conducise to him. A BAR
R
 B. Types of Individual Behavior
(five categories)
a. Task performance
is Goal-directed behaviors under the individual’s control that support
organizational objectives
Includes physical behaviors and mental processes
Involve working with people, data, things, and ideas
Jobs have several performance dimensions, each requiring specific skills
and knowledge
• Performance includes:
 Proficiency -- working efficiently
 Adaptability -- responding to, coping with, and supporting new
circumstances and work patterns
Proactivity -- anticipates and initiates new work patterns aligned with
environmental changes
b. Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)
• Various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others-support the organization’s
social and psychological context
•Performance beyond the required job duties – e.g., Avoiding unnecessary conflicts,
helping others, tolerating impositions, being involved, performing beyond normal role
requirements
•Directed toward:
individuals -- e.g. adjusting work schedule to accommodate coworkers
 organization -- e.g., supporting the company’s public image
• OCBs are not necessary “discretionary” behaviors (employees don’t have to perform
them) because:
➡(a) employees believe some OCBs are part of their job
➡(b) companies consider some OCBs a condition of employment
•• OCBs increase individual and team performance (due to mutual support),but may
contribute to work-family conflict and limit career progress, are u agree?
 Types of Individual Behavior (cont)
c. Counterproductive work behaviors
– Voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization
e.g. abuse of others, threats, work avoidance, work sabotage, overt acts
d. Joining & staying with the organization
– Forming the employment relationship and staying with the organization
– Attracting and retaining employees – “War for Talent”
e.g Successful firms attract employee talent by applying many OB topics
e. Maintaining work attendance
Absenteeism caused by:
– situational factors – weather, traffic, illness
– motivation – job dissatisfaction, stress, access to sick leave
– absence norms – what employees believe are acceptable absence levels e.g medical leave
– Presenteeism – attending scheduled work when one’s capacity to perform is significantly
diminished by illness or other factors
Personality and Values
 C. Personality
• Have you ever said something to one person, and received a certain
response, then said exactly the same thing to another person, and
received a totally different response?
• The basic reason they respond differently is that people have different
personality styles! You said the same thing, but what they "heard" was
not the same.
• Different is not bad, it's just different! A lack of understanding of
ourselves and others can lead to real problems such as tension,
disappointment, hurt feelings, unmet expectations and poor
communication.
• It is hard to work with a problem, especially if we do not understand
what is going on inside the mind of another person.
Personality, how it is measured, and factors
that determine an individual’s personality
• Personality is a complex and dynamic concept
• Describing the development of a person’s psychological system
• Personality, refer to evidence, a kind of quality or entity a person
possesses. example "She has a good personality", or "He has the
personality of a garbage truck," neither of which explains much about the
true qualities or nature of the person.
• Your personality , characteristics by which others can identify you as a
unique person, individual and different from every other person.
• Defining Personality
– personality as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to
and interacts with others.

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personalitytest.pdf
Personality cover a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and
behavioral patterns.
• understanding someone’s personality gives us clues how a person is likely
to act and feel in a variety of situations.
• To manage effectively, helpful to understand the personalities of
different employees. Is also useful for placing people into jobs and
organizations
• Personality is stable, does this mean that it does not change? It
changed and evolved as a result of life experiences, parenting style and
attention you have received in early childhood, successes and failures you
experienced, and otherl ife events.
• Even though we treat personality as relatively stable, change occurs.
 Behavior and Personality
• Is our behavior in organizations dependent on our
personality? To some extent, yes, and to some extent, no.
• This does not mean that their personality will immediately
affect their work behavior. At work, we have a job to do and a
role to perform.
• Therefore, our behavior may be more strongly affected by
what is expected of us, as opposed to how we want to
behave.
• Jobs that involve a lot of autonomy, or freedom, personality
tends to exert a strong influence on work behavior.
philosophy - What Is Personality.pdf
 Personality, how
it is measured, and factors
that determine an individual’s 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.
• Observer-ratings surveys provide an
independent assessment of personality.

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 Personality, how
it is measured, and factors
that determine an individual’s personality (cont)
• Personality appears be influences both by heredity and of environment (Nature
vs. Nurture of Personality)
• Heredity:
– The heredity approach explain an individual’s personality is influenced by
the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes e.g
researchers have studied thousands of sets of identical twins that were separated
at birth.
– Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid. These are personality traits.
• Nurture : influence by environment or experiences.
• Early efforts to identify the primary traits that govern behavior often resulted in
long lists that were difficult to generalize from and provided little practical
guidance to organizational decision makers.

5-20
 D. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework

One of the most widely used personality frameworks is the

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Individuals are classified as:
• Orientation to World - Extroverted or Introverted (E or I).
• Take in Information - Sensing or Intuitive (S or N).
• Make Decisions - Thinking or feeling (T or F).
• Deal with outside world - Perceiving or Judging (P or J).
These classifications are then combined into sixteen
personality types.
Clips of all 16 Myers Briggs Personality Types in their Ele
ment (1).mp4

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 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)
• Participants are classified on four axes to
determine one of 16 possible personality
types, such as ENTJ.
Sociable and Quiet and
Assertive Shy

Practical and Unconscious

Orderly Processes

Use Reason Uses Values

and Logic & Emotions

Want Order Flexible and

& Structure Spontaneous

4-22
 Myers Briggs applications
The Myers Briggs model of personality tells us about
some of those similarities and differences. By raising
awareness of ourselves and others, it can improve
our relationships.
• These are used to determine the best match-ups in
terms of friends, spouses, co-workers and the like.
• It can also help us make better decisions about our
future, our career, and our development.
Knowing your type can help you:
• 􀂃 choose a career that might be a good match for your personality
• 􀂃 understand others
• 􀂃 understand your own behavior
• 􀂃 communicate better with others
• 􀂃 work more cooperatively in groups with others
• 􀂃 manage people better in a work situation
• 􀂃 appreciate individual differences
• 􀂃 and more…
• Unfortunately, the MBTI has been shown to be unrelated to job performance and should not be
used solely as an employment selection tool.
Designing Recruitment, Selection & Talent Management Model tailored to meet UNJSPF's Business
Development Needs.pdf
• MBTI is widely used in practice. Some organizations using it include Apple Computer, AT&T,
Citigroup, GE, 3M Co. and others. Myers-Briggs for Careersimpt.pdf
Coaching_Leaders_MBTI (2) (1).pdf
 E. The
Big Five Personality Model
Body of research supports that five basic dimensions underlie all other personality
dimensions. The five basic dimensions are:
• Extraversion is a comfort with relationships. Tend to be gregarious, assertive, and
sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
• Agreeableness is Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness
people are cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people are cold,
disagreeable, and antagonistic.
• Conscientiousness is 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/Neuroticism describes 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 (Neuroticism) tend to be nervous,
anxious, depressed, and insecure . And lastly,
• Openness to experience suggests the range of interests and fascination with
novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive.
Those at the other end of the openness category are conventional and find
comfort in the familiar. The big five personality traits (1).mp4
• Each of these 5 personality traits describes, relative to other
people, the frequency or intensity of a person's feelings,
thoughts, or behaviors.
• Everyone possesses all 5 of these traits to a greater or lesser
degree. For example, two individuals could be described as
‘agreeable’ (agreeable people value getting along with
others). But there could be significant variation in the degree
to which they are both agreeable.
• In other words, all 5 personality traits exist on a continuum
rather than as attributes that a person does or does not
have.
 Demonstrate example how the Big Five
traits predict behavior at work

The Big Five Traits predict behavior at work as shown above. Research has shown
relationships between these personality dimensions and job performance. Employees who
score higher for example in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge.
Conscientiousness is as important for managers as for front-line employee.The study found
conscientiousness—in the form of persistence, attention to detail, and setting of high
standards—was more important than other traits. These results attest to the importance of
conscientiousness to organizational success. Although conscientiousness is the Big Five trait
most consistently related to job performance, there are other traits are related to aspects
of performance in some situations 5-31
 Demonstrate how the Big Five
traits predict behavior at work (cont)

5-32
All five traits also have other implications for work and for life.. Exhibit 5-2 summarizes the points.
• Emotional stability is most strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels.
More likely to be positive and optimistic and experience fewer negative emotions. People low on
emotional stability are hypervigilant (looking for problems or impending signs of danger) and are
especially vulnerable to the physical and psychological effects of stress.
• Extraverts tend to be happier in their jobs and in their lives as a whole. Experience more positive
emotions , and more freely express these feelings. They tend to perform better in jobs that require
significant interpersonal interaction, because they have more social skills—usually have more friends and
spend more time in social situations than introverts. Finally, extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of
leadership emergence; more socially dominant, “take charge” sorts of people, are generally more
assertive than introverts. One downside is that extraverts are more impulsive than introverts; they are
more likely to be absent from work and engage in risky behavior, and other impulsive or sensation-seeking
acts. One study also found extraverts were more likely than introverts to lie during job interviews.
• High on openness to experience are more creative in science and art than those who score low. creativity
is important to leadership, open people are more likely to be effective leaders, and more comfortable with
ambiguity and change. They cope better with organizational change and are more adaptable in changing
contexts. Recent evidence also suggests, however, that they are especially susceptible to workplace
accidents.
• Agreeable people to be happier than disagreeable people. When people choose partners, friends, or
organizational team members, agreeable individuals are usually their first choice. Agreeable individuals
are better liked than disagreeable people, which explains why they tend to do better in interpersonally
oriented jobs such as customer service. They also are more compliant and rule abiding and less likely to
get into accidents as a result.
• People who are agreeable are more satisfied in their jobs and contribute to organizational performance by
engaging in citizenship behavior. They are also less likely to engage in organizational deviance. One
downside is that agreeableness is associated with lower levels of career success (especially earnings).
 Identify other personality
traits relevant to OB

• Positive core self-evaluation see themselves as effective,

capable, and in control. People who have a negative core self-
evaluation tend to dislike themselves. Some can be too positive.
in this case, someone can think he or she is capable, but he or
she is actually incompetent?

• Machiavellianism an individual high in Machiavellianism is

pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends
can justify means. High Machs manipulate more, win more, are
persuaded less, and persuade others more. High Machs make
good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or that offer
substantial rewards for winning.

• Narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-

importance. They “think” they are better leaders. Often they are
selfish and exploitive.
• Self-Monitoring refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational
factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are highly sensitive to
external cues, can behave differently in different situations, and are capable of presenting striking
contradictions between their public persona and their private self.

• The propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it takes managers
to make a decision and how much information they require before making their choice. High risk-taking
managers make more rapid decisions and use less information in making their choices. Managers in large
organizations tend to be risk averse; especially in contrast with growth-oriented entrepreneurs.

• Proactive Personality is a person who actively takes the initiative to improve his or her current
circumstances while others sit by passively. Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, take action,
and persevere.

• Some people just naturally to think about other people a lot, being concerned about their well-being and
feelings while others behave like “economic actors,” primarily rational and self-interested. Those who are
other-oriented feel more obligated to help others who have helped them (pay me back),
• whereas those who are more self-oriented will help others when they expect to be helped in the future
(pay me forward). Employees high in other-orientation also exert especially high levels of effort when
engaged in helping work or prosocial behavior. personality-disorders.pdf teague3.pdf
 F. Individual’s
Personality and Values to the Workplace
• The concept of Person-Job Fit is best articulated in
John Holland’s personality-job fit theory.
lisa_heiser_faculty_development_handout.pdf
• 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.
• He identifies six personality types. They are
realistic, investigative, social, conventional,
enterprising, and artistic .
holland's codes (RIASEC).mp4
 Linking an Individual’s
Personality and Values to the Workplace

5-37
Relationships Among Personality Types

The closer the

occupational The further apart
fields, the more the fields, the
compatible. more dissimilar.

Need to match personality

type with occupation.
Source: Reprinted by special permission of the publisher, Psychological
Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, copyright 1973,
1985, 1992 by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.

4-38
 Linking an Individual’s
Personality and Values to the Workplace

• 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.
• Research on person–organization fit has also looked at whether
people’s values match the organization’s culture. This match predicts
job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and low turnover

5-39
VALUE
 G.Values,
• Values deal with beliefs rather than behaviors. Values
require judgment.
• Values have both content and intensity attributes.
1. Content. This is how important the mode of conduct or end-
state of existence is to the individual.
2. Intensity. This is how important this value is in relation to
other values.
• An individual’s set of values ranked in terms of intensity is
considered the person’s value system.
• Values in the Workplace : Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for
outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations
 Define right/wrong, good/bad
 Tell us what we “ought” to do (moral compass)
 Direct our motivation and, potentially, our decisions and behavior
• Values differ from personality traits
 Values are evaluative (what we ought to do); personality traits are descriptive
(what we tend to do)
 Values conflict with each other (e.g. valuing excitement conflicts with valuing
stability); personality traits have minimal conflict
 Values affected more by nurture (socialization, reinforcement) than nature
(heredity); personality about equally affected by nature and nurture
 The importance
of values, and contrast terminal
and instrumental values

– Importance of Values
• Values lay the foundation for the
understanding of attitudes and motivation.
• Values generally influence attitudes and
behaviors.
• We can predict reaction based on
understanding values. CtC - Values.pdf

5-43
 Terminal
and instrumental values
Terminal and Instrumental Values are seen in the results from
the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) ;.
 Terminal Values refer to desirable end states of existence.
These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during
his or her lifetime.
 Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behavior.
That is, the means of achieving the terminal values.
This two sets of values each with 18 value items
 Values in the Rokeach Survey

Results have shown that people in the same occupations or categories tend to
hold similar beliefs. This can explain some of the conflict shown when members
of different categories attempt to negotiate with each other over common
4-45
concerns.
 Contrast terminal
and instrumental values

5-46
 Schwartz’s Values Model

• Dominant model of personal values was

developed and tested by social psychologist
Shalom Schwartz and many others
• Clusters 57 specific values into 10 broad value
categories which are further clustered into
four quadrants
 Schwartz’s Values Model
• Openness to change –
motivation to pursue
innovative ways
• Conservation -- motivation
to preserve the status quo
• Self-enhancement --
motivated by self-interest
• Self-transcendence --
motivation to promote
welfare of others and
nature
Values Included in Schwartz’s (1992) Value Inventory
Personal Values and Behavior
•Values direct our motivation, so guide our decisions, behavior, and performance
•But there is a “disconnect” between values and behavior because:
 Situation -- may prevent or discourage people from acting consistently with their
values.
Awareness (salience) -- we apply values when we actively think about them and
understand their relevance to the situation
To increase values-consistent behavior:
 Maintain work environment that supports and is consistent with personal and
organizational values (e.g., resources, rewards)
 Remind employees of their (and company’s) most important values
 Improve employee sensitivity to values relevance
 Contemporary Work Cohorts

• The nature of the society in which the employee grew up affects values.. These
cohorts, and the descriptions of them, are intuitive and should not be taken as
universal traits. Still, the observations may be useful in describing general trends.
• Understanding that an individual’s values differ from, but tend to reflect, the
societal values of the period in which they grew up can be a valuable aid in
predicting behavior.

Different generations hold different work values.

• Boomers (Baby Boomers)—entered the workforce during the 1960s through the
mid-1980s.
• Xers—entered the workforce beginning in the mid-1980s.
• The most recent entrants to the workforce, the Millennials(also called Netters,
Nexters, Generation Yers, and Generation Nexters).
• Generational classifications may help us understand our own and other
generations better, but we must also appreciate their limits.
Designing Recruitment, Selection & Talent Management Model tailored to meet U
NJSPF's Business Development Needs.pdf
 Compare generational
differences in values and identify
the dominant valuesin today’s workforce

5-52
 Generational Values
Entered Approximate
Cohort Dominant Work Values
Workforce Current Age
Veterans 1950-1964 65+ Hard working, conservative,
conforming; loyalty to the
organization
Boomers 1965-1985 40-60s Success, achievement, ambition,
dislike of authority; loyalty to
career
Xers 1985-2000 20-40s Work/life balance, team-
oriented, dislike of rules; loyalty
to relationships
Nexters 2000-Present Under 30 Confident, financial success, self-
reliant but team-oriented;
loyalty to both self and
relationships

E X H I B I T 4–5
4-53
• Thank you