MGT 104 Exam 3

• Personality


  The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others
• Personality


  The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment
• Personality traits


  • Most often described in terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits, such as shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal and timid

  
• Factors that determine personality

  • Heredity
  • Situation
  • Environment
• Heredity approach


  • Genetics more influential than parents
  • Traits like shyness, fear, and distress are most likely caused by inherited genetic characteristics
  • Genetics accounts for about 50 percent of the variation in personality differences and over 30 percent of occupational and leisure interest variation
  • Individual job satisfaction is remarkably stable over time, indicating that satisfaction is determined by something inherent in the person
• Personality characteristics are not completely dictated by heredity
• Environment approach


  • The culture in which we are raised
  • Early conditioning
  • Norms among our family
  • Friends and social groups
• Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an individual's full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment
• Situation approach


  • Influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality
  • The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one's personality
  • There is no classification scheme that tells the impact of various types of situations
  • Situations seem to differ substantially in the constraints they impose on behavior
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

  A personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types

  
• Myers-Briggs personality types


  • Extroverted vs. Introverted (E or I)
  • Sensing vs. Intuitive (S or N)
  • Thinking vs. Feeling (T or F)
  • Judging vs. Perceiving (J or P)
• A Myers-Briggs Score can be valuable for self-awareness and career guidance, but should not be used as a selection tool because it has not been related to job performance
• The Big Five model of personality dimensions is widely accepted today because this model presents a blueprint for understanding the main dimensions of personality, and experts have found that these traits are universal and provide an accurate portrait of human personality
• The Big Five personality dimensions

  • Extroversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Openness to Experience
  • Emotional Stability
• Extroversion


  Sociable, gregarious, and assertive
• Agreeableness


  Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
• Values


  The principles or standards of behavior. The core beliefs that guide and motivate attitudes and actions. They help decide whether something is good or bad, right or wrong.
• Conscientiousness


  Reliable, responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized
• Values


  • They are different for each person
  • They may be specific or general
  • They can provide standards of competence and morality
  • They are relatively permanent
  • They are learned early in life from family, friends, schools, media, and society
  • They differ from culture to culture and person to person
  • They influence behavior and serve as criteria for evaluating others' actions
  • They help create norms to guide day-to-day behavior
  • They serve as a personal compass for employee conduct in the workplace
• Openness to Experience


  Imaginativeness, artistic, sensitivity, and intellectualism
• Emotional Stability


  Calm, self-confident, secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative)
• Terminal values


  Desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime

  
• Individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful, thorough, able to plan, organized, hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have higher job performance in most if not all occupations
• Instrumental values


  Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one's terminal values
• Emotional stability is most strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels
• Rokeach Value Survey


  • Exhibit 4.2
• Individuals who score high on openness to experience are more creative in science and art than those who score low, and are more likely to be effective leaders and more comfortable with ambiguity and change
• Mean value rankings of executives, union members, and activists

  • Exhibit 4.3
• Extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in groups; extraverts are more socially dominant, "take charge" sorts of people, and they are generally more assertive than introverts
• Values can strongly influence employee conduct in the workplace
• Major personality attributes influencing organizational behavior

  • Core Self-Evaluation (Self-Esteem, Locus of Control)
  • Machiavellianism
  • Narcissism
  • Self-Monitoring
  • Risk Taking
  • Type A vs. Type B Personality
  • Proactive Personality
• Dominant work values in today's workforce

  • Exhibit 4.4
• Core Self-Evaluation


  People who have positive core self-evaluations like themselves and see themselves as effective, capable, and in control of their environment. Those with negative core self-evaluations tend to dislike themselves, question their capabilities, and view themselves as powerless over their environment.
• Power distance


  • The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organisations is distributed unequally
  • Low distance: Relatively equal power between those with status/wealth and those without
  • High distance: Extremely unequal power distribution between those with and without status/wealth
• Components of Core Self-Evaluation


  • Self-Esteem
  • Locus of Control
• Educational level best explains power distance. Higher educational level means lower power distance score.
• Hofstede's cultural dimensions


  • Power distance
  • Individualism vs. Collectivism
  • Masculinity vs. Femininity
  • Uncertainty Avoidance
  • Long-term and Short-term Orientation
• Self-Esteem


  Individuals' degree of liking or disliking themselves, degree of thinking they are worthy or unworthy as a person
• Power Distance


  • The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organisations is distributed unequally
  • It indicates the concentration of authority in the superior, acceptance of hierarchical authority structures, and an inability of the inferior to decide for themselves, precluding autonomy
• Locus of Control


  • The degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate
  • Internals (Internal locus of control) - Individuals who believe that they control what happens to them
  • Externals (External locus of control) - Individuals who believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance