Topic 2

• Individual Differences


  Variation in how people respond to the same situation based on personal characteristics
• Consequences of Individual Differences

  • People differ in productivity
  • People differ in the quality of their work
  • People react differently to empowerment
  • People react differently to any style of leadership
  • People differ in terms of need for contact with other people
  • People differ in terms of commitment to the organization
  • People differ in terms of level of self-esteem
• What Makes People Different from Each Other

  • Demographics
  • Aptitude and ability
  • Personality
• Sources of demographic diversity

  • Gender
  • Generational differences and age
  • Culture
• Generational difference


  A worker that belongs to a certain generation may behave differently from a worker who belongs to another
• Culture


  The learned and shared ways of thinking and acting among a group of people or society
• Dimensions of culture

  • Social culture
  • Organizational culture
• Aptitude


  The capacity of a person to learn or acquire skills
• Ability


  An individual's capacity to perform the various tasks in a job
• Factors that make up a person's overall abilities

  • Physical ability
  • Intellectual or mental ability (referred to as intelligence)
• Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

  • Cognitive
  • Social
  • Emotional
  • Cultural
• Multiple Intelligences

  • Linguistic
  • Logical-Mathematical
  • Musical
  • Spatial
  • Bodily-kinesthetic
  • Intrapersonal
  • Interpersonal
  • Naturalist
• Personality


  A relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual's behavior
• Determinants of Personality

  • Heredity/Hereditary
  • Environment
• Hereditary Factors

  • Physical stature
  • Physical attractiveness
  • Gender
  • Temperament
  • Muscle composition and reflexes
  • Energy level
  • Biological rhythms
• Environmental Factors

  • Cultural factor
  • Social factor
  • Situational factors
• Personality Factors

  • Emotional stability
  • Extraversion
  • Openness to experience
  • Agreeableness
• Personality Characteristics In Organizations

  • Locus of Control
  • Self-Esteem
  • Self-Efficacy
  • Self-Monitoring
• Another eminent researcher, Howard Gardner, developed a very useful means of understanding intelligence. It is referred to as the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
• Environmental Factors Are those that exert pressures on the formation of an individual's personality.
• Hereditary factors are those factors that are determined at conception.
• Cultural factor - established norms, attitudes and values that are passed along from one generation to the next.
• Situational factors indicate that the individual will behave differently in different situations. Ex. a teenager will be less talkative in the presence of strangers and more relaxed when he is among his friends and relatives.
• Social factor refer to those that reflect family life, religion and the many kinds of formal and informal groups
• Linguistic intelligence


  People who possess this component of intelligence are sensitive to language, meanings, and the relations among words
• Linguistic intelligence


  • novelists, poets, copywriter, scriptwriter, editors, magazine writers, public relations directors, and speech writers
• Logical-Mathematical intelligence


  This intelligence component covers abstract thought, precision, counting, organizations, and logical structure, enabling the individual to see relationship between objects and solve problems in algebra and actuarial concerns
• Logical-Mathematical intelligence


  • mathematicians, scientists, engineers, animal trackers, police investigators, and lawyers
• Musical intelligence


  This intelligence component gives people the capacity to create and understand meanings made out of sounds and to enjoy different types of music
• Musical intelligence


  • performers, composers, conductors, musical audience, recording engineers, and makers of musical instruments
• Spatial intelligence


  This intelligence component enables people to perceive and manipulate images in their brain and to re-create them from memory, such as in making graphic designs
• Spatial intelligence


  • architects, painters, sculptors, navigators, chess players, theoretical physicians, and battlefield commanders
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence


  This intelligence enables people to use their body and perceptual and motor systems in skilled ways, such as dancing, playing sports, and expressing emotion through facial expressions
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence


  • athletes, dancers, actors, inventors, mimers, surgeons, karate teachers, and the mechanically gifted
• Intrapersonal intelligence


  The person with this kind of intelligence has highly accurate understanding of himself or herself. He or she is sensitive to his or her values, purpose, feelings, and has a developed sense of self
• Intrapersonal intelligence


  • novelists, counselors, wise elders, philosophers, gurus and persons with deep sense of self
• Interpersonal intelligence


  This intelligence component makes it possible for persons to recognize and make distinctions among the feelings, motives, and intentions of others, as in managing people and parenting children
• Interpersonal intelligence


  • politicians, teachers, religious leaders, counselors, salesmen and managers
• Naturalist intelligence


  A person with this intelligence possesses the ability to seek patters in the external physical environment. As a result, the opportunity to enrich all the other seven intelligences is provided
• Locus of Control


  An individual's generalized belief about internal (self) versus external (situations or others) control