ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Senior Lecturer: Dr. Chau Ly

1
 Personality and Values
Diversity in Organizations

MAN201: Organizational Behaviour Class 3

By Dr. Chau Ly
February 2, 2023
 The Big-5 Personality Traits

 Extroversion-Introversion: Extroverts are outgoing and tend to gain energy in social

situations; Introverts tend to be more reserved and have less energy to expend in social
settings.
 Conscientiousness: Highly conscientious people tend to be organized and mindful of
details. They plan ahead, think about how their behaviour affects others, and are mindful of
deadlines.
 Openness to experience: People who are high in this trait are curious about the world
and other people and eager to learn new things and enjoy new experiences. People low in
this trait are often much more traditional and less adventurous, and may struggle with
creativity and abstract thinking.
 Agreeableness: People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative, while
those low in this trait tend to be more competitive and sometimes even manipulative.
 Neuroticism/Emotional Stability: Individuals who are high in this trait tend to
experience mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and sadness. Those low in this trait tend to be
more stable and emotionally resilient.
The Big-5 Personality Traits
 Values:
Terminal vs Instrumental Values
 Terminal values (desirable end-states):
 Values based on things a person would like to achieve during their
lifetime.
 e.g. Health and wellbeing; Economic security; Independence.

 Instrumental values (how to achieve these end-states):

 Values based on behaviours or means for achieving terminal values.
 e.g. Self-reliance -> Economic security
 e.g. Personal development -> Health and wellbeing
 Generational Values in the Workplace

 Traditionalists (< 1943): Value workplaces that are conservative, hierarchical

and have a clear chain of command and top-down management.
 Baby Boomers (1943-1964): Value workplaces that have flat hierarchies,
democratic cultures, humane values, equal opportunities, and warm and friendly
environments.
 Generation X (1965-1976): Values workplaces that are positive, fun, efficient,
fast-paced, flexible, informal and have access to leadership and information.
 Millennials (1977-1997): Value workplaces that are collaborative,
achievement-oriented, highly creative, positive, diverse, fun, flexible and
continuously providing feedback.
 Generation Z (> 1997): Motivated by security, may be more competitive, wants
independence, will multi-task, is more entrepreneurial, wants to communicate
face-to-face, is truly digital- native and wants to be catered to.
 BUT people in all working generations mostly value the same things. Values are
much more a reflection of individual personalities than generational values.
 Person-Job-Organization Fit
 Job satisfaction and turnover depend on how well
individuals match their personalities to a job.
 People in jobs that match their personality should be
more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than
people who don't match their jobs.
 Person-job fit should be assessed during the selection
process.
 Predicts performance and job knowledge.
 People are attracted to organisations that match their
values, and leave organisations that are not compatible
with their personalities.
 For adaptable organisations, it is more important that
employees’ personalities fit with the overall organisation’s
culture than with the characteristics of any one specific job.
 Cross-Cultural Values
 Hofstede’s Five Value Dimensions of National Culture:
Power distance; individualism/collectivism; short/long-term orientation;
masculinity/femininity; uncertainty avoidance.
 The GLOBE Framework For Assessing Cultures:
Retains power distance, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty
avoidance, gender differentiation (masculinity/femininity), and
short/long-term orientation, and adds performance orientation and
humane-orientation.
 The latest research suggests that it has become more difficult to attribute
distinct values based on culture alone.
 Frameworks like Hofstede and GLOBE are becoming less useful and
meaningful in an increasingly global business landscape.
Demographic (Group/Surface-Level) Diversity
 All people are members of a variety of population groups.
 Population groups have qualities that are different from and similar to
other population groups. These are called demographics.
 Demographic diversity is an increasing source of concern for modern
organizations and leadership; particularly since more cultures are striving
to achieve greater workplace equality and inclusion for people of different
e.g. genders; ethnicities; sexual orientation; region of origin (e.g. Vietnam)
 This topic is often very controversial and inflammatory, and this is
understandable based on how different population groups have been (and
unfortunately continue to be) disadvantaged in the workplace.
 But this topic can also be approached in a very measured, democratic, and
humane manner: the key is open dialogue about diversity in groups.
Individual (Idiosyncratic/Deep-Level) Diversity
 But people are not just members of population groups. They are also
individuals who are unique and distinctive even when compared to other
people within their population groups.
 Individual diversity is about the combination of all the different variables
which make you you. No other person on Earth – past, present, or future
– has the exact same combination of variables.
 This combination is responsible for your “deep”, idiosyncratic qualities:
your personality; your values; your interests; your experiences; your
emotional repertoire; your imagination.
 These qualities represent what people can offer an organization in terms of
improving its performance and effectiveness. (“What can you bring to the
table that someone else can’t?”)
 Diversity in Modern Organizations
 Demographic and individual diversity work hand-in-hand.
 By promoting a greater commitment to demographic diversity in hiring,
selection and recruitment processes, organizations will widen their talent
pool and increase the degree of individual diversity available to them.
 This has a two-pronged effect:
Greater fairness and equity in the workplace, and better representation
of marginalized or underrepresented population groups in organization.
A diversification of the range of individual approaches to problem-
solving; creativity; solutions analysis; innovation; strategic thinking; and
other qualities that organizations value when trying to recruit the best
talent.
 The ethical case for diversity and the business case also go hand-in-hand.
 Benefits of Workplace Diversity
1. Diversity leads to more creativity within teams
2. Diverse teams are better at solving problems
3. Teams that are diverse make better business decisions
4. Diverse companies report productivity levels that are at least 33% higher than non-diverse companies
5. Diverse companies are at least 35% more profitable than non-diverse companies
6. Diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets
7. Companies with diverse management teams have 45% revenue increases directly related to innovation
8. Workplace diversity leads to 68.3% improved employee retention
9. Diversity and inclusion leads to engaged employees
10. A diverse workforce improves company culture
11. 76% of job seekers are looking at diversity when making a final decision about accepting a job offer
12. Diverse companies attract 73.2% more top talent than non-diverse companies
13. Being publicly committed to ensuring diversity leads to a positive reputation of the employer brand
 Challenges in Workplace Diversity
 Meritocracy is still important. The best individual candidate for the job
should be hired regardless of their demographic qualities.
 But biases in attitudes and discrimination in policies and practice can
sometimes prevent demographic minorities from being given the chance
to prove they are the best candidate.
 There are sometimes innocent, non-discriminatory explanations for
demographic underrepresentation (e.g. women in information technology;
men in nursing and care professions).
 Diversity training programmes have not been proven to be especially
effective (because most people aren’t actually e.g. racist or sexist).
 Generational changes can take time, and people’s attitudes are often a
product of the generation they are from.
 Equitable Distribution of Contributions and Benefits

 Fairness matters a lot to people in groups. It’s built into the prosocial aspects of
human nature.
 Unfairness can be incredibly toxic in groups; reducing performance and causing
individuals and groups to exert less discretionary and cooperative effort.
 When employees believe that organizational resources are allocated fairly,
processes for decision making are fair, and the organization treats them fairly:
 They are more motivated
 They are more likely to cooperate and support group decisions, and develop effective
working relationships with others
 They are more likely to be creative and happy at work
 They are more likely to internalize the organization's values and promote its shared
identity
 Trust in the organization will be higher, and uncertainty is lower