PERSONALITY
Beauty gets the attention but
personality gets the heart
PERSONALITY
Characteristic patterns of
thinking, feeling and acting.
The importance of personality theory in O.B
✓ Biological influences
✓ Social influences
✓ Changes over the lifespan
✓ Relationship to learning, motivation and
health
✓ Disorders
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NATURE
NURTURE Genetics
▪Income
▪Housing
▪Nutrition
▪Education
▪Access to health
facilities
▪Parenting Styles
▪Play Opportunities
▪Weather
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STRUCTURE OF
PERSONALITY
Psychoanalytic
Perspective
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DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Denial: claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.
Displacement: redirecting emotions to a substitute target.
Projection: attributing uncomfortable feelings to others.
Rationalization: generate self-justifying explanations to hide the real reasons
for our actions.
Reaction Formation: overacting in the opposite way to the fear.
Regression: going back to acting as a child.
Repression: pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the subconscious. (underlies
all other defense mechanisms)
Sublimation: redirecting 'wrong' urges into socially acceptable actions.
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THE
HUMANISTIC
PERSPECTIVE
Abraham Maslow’s
Self-Actualizing
Person
Self Concept Carl Roger’s
Person-Centered
central feature of personality (+ or -)
Perspective
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PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
APPROACHES
▪ Ratings by acquaintances (expensive)
▪ Questionnaires (“objective” assessment)
e.g. MBTI and BIG 5
▪ Projective techniques
o Inkblot techniques
o Story telling techniques/ TAT
▪ Behavioral assessment (“act frequency”)
▪ Situational testing (with ratings or act counts)
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BIG FIVE
PERSONALITY
TRAITS
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A personality test that taps four
characteristics and classifies people
into 1 to 16 personality types.
THE
MYERS-
BRIGGS
TYPE
INDICATOR
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SELF EFFICACY
Individuals’ beliefs concerning their ability
to perform specific tasks successfully.
Judgments of self-efficacy consist of three
components:
✓Magnitude: The level at which an individual
believes she or he can perform.
✓Strength: The person’s confidence that she
or he can perform at that level.
✓Generality: The extent to which self-efficacy
in one situation or for one task extends to
other situations and other tasks.
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A personality trait involving the extent
to which individuals adapt their behavior
to the demands of specific situations so as
to make good impressions on others.
SELF- Consequences of self-monitoring:
MONITORING ▪ Work Performance: High self-monitors tend to do
better than low self-monitors in jobs requiring
boundary-spanning activities.
▪ Career Success: High self-monitors tend to obtain
more promotions than low self-monitors.
▪ Interpersonal Relationships: High self-monitors
tend to form less stable and shallower personal
relationships with others than low self-monitors.
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MACHIAVELLIANISM
A personality trait involving willingness to manipulate others
for one’s own purposes.
Machiavellian tactics:
▪ Neglecting to share important information (e.g., claiming to
“forget” to tell you about key meetings and assignments).
▪ Finding subtle ways of making you look bad to management
(e.g., damning you with faint praise).
▪ Failing to meet obligations (e.g., not holding up their end on
joint projects, thereby causing you to look bad).
▪ Spreading false rumors about you (e.g., making up things
about you that embarrass you in front of others).
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LOCUS OF CONTROL
External Locus of Control: Describes people
who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are
responsible for what happens to them.
Internal Locus of Control: Describes people
who believe that ability, effort, or their own
actions determine what happens to them.
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Type A Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior
involving high levels of competitiveness, time
urgency, and irritability.
Type A Type B Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior
characterized by a casual, laid-back style; the
opposite of the Type A behavior pattern.
vs. Task Performance
Type B • Type As tend to excel on tasks involving time pressure or
solitary work.
• Type Bs have the advantage when it comes to tasks involving
complex judgments and accuracy as opposed to speed.
Interpersonal Relations
• Type As tend to annoy coworkers, are more likely to lose their
tempers and lash out at others, are more likely to become
involved in conflict and are more likely to engage in
aggressive and counterproductive behavior.
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▪Be aware of and identify your defensive
behaviors. Awareness and guidance helps
you use them less often, improving
personal effectiveness.
KEY ▪Screen for the Big Five trait of
TAKEAWAYS conscientiousness & openness to
experiences while hiring.
▪Take into account the situational factors as
well; use behavioral event interviews
▪MBTI® can help in decisions regarding
person =- job fit and team effectiveness
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Questions
16
