Lesson 3

• Trait


  • Consistent, stable, and varies from person to person
  • Relatively stable characteristic that causes individuals to behave in certain ways
• Personality Determinants


  • Heredity
  • Environment
  • Situation
• Trait Theory


  Suggests that people have certain basic traits and it is the strength and intensity of those traits that account for personality differences
• The Big 5 Personality Traits

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

  
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

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

  
• Core Self-Evaluation


  Two main components: Self-esteem and Locus of control
• Machiavellianism (Mach)


  Personality trait characterized by the use of manipulation to achieve power
• Narcissism


  Self-centered personality style characterized by excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others
• Self-Monitoring


  Personality trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors

  
• Risk-Taking Managers


  • High risk-taking: Make quicker decisions, use less information, operate in smaller/more entrepreneurial organizations
  • Low risk-taking: Slower to make decisions, require more information, exist in larger/more stable organizations
• Type A vs. Type B Personality

  Type A: Proactive, ambitious, competitive, impatient

  Type B: Relaxed, patient, less driven
• Proactive Personality


  Recognizes opportunities, takes initiative and action, and perseveres until a meaningful change takes place
• Perception


  Our understanding of the world around us; the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment
• Factors Influencing Perception


  • The Perceiver (attitudes, motives, interests, experiences, expectations)

  The Target (novelty, motions, sounds, size, background, proximity, similarity)

  The Situation (time, work setting, social situation)
• Barriers to Social Perception

  • Selective Perception

  Stereotype

  First Impression Error

  Projection

  Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
• Attribution Theory


  Explains how we pinpoint the causes of our own behavior (and performance) and that of other people
• Attributional Biases


  • Fundamental Attribution Error

  Self-Serving Bias
• Specific Applications in Organizations

  • Employment Interview

  Performance Expectations

  Ethnic Profiling

  Performance Evaluations

  Employee Effort
• Steps in the Rational Decision-Making Model

  • Define the problem

  Identify the decision criteria

  Allocate weights to the criteria

  Develop the alternatives

  Evaluate the alternatives

  Select the best alternative