UNIT-2

•PERSONALITY
•PERCEPTION
•LEARNING
Learning Objectives
Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape
it.
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) personality framework and the Big Five model.
Discuss how the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-monitoring,
and proactive personality contribute to the understanding of
personality.
Describe how personality affects job search and unemployment.
Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts
behavior.
Beth Comstock
GE
NBCUniversal
and GE
In charge of the
Business model
Linking and Individual Personality and Values to
the Workplace
• Person – Job Fit
• Person – Organization Fit
• Person – Job fit
• Person-group fit
• Person-Superior fit
Describe Personality, the Way It Is Measured, and the Factors
that Shape It

•Defining Personality
– Personality is a dynamic concept describing the
growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system.
– The sum of ways in which an individual reacts to
and interacts with others.
Definition
• Rather than looking at part of the person, personality
looks at some aggregate use whole that is greater than
the sum of the parts.
• Personality refers to the total of ways in which an
individual reacts and interacts with others.
• Personality may be understood as the characteristic
pattern of behavior and modes of thinking that determine
a person’s adjustment to the environment.
Describe Personality, the Way It Is Measured, and the Factors
that Shape It

• Measuring Personality
– Managers need to know how to measure personality.
▪Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help
managers forecast who is best for a job.
– The most common means of measuring personality is
through self-report surveys.
– Participants may lie or practice impression management.
– Observer rating surveys – co-worker
Describe Personality, the Way It Is Measured, and the Factors
that Shape It

•Early research tried to identify and label

enduring personality characteristics.
–Shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid.
▪These are personality traits.
Foundation of Individual behavior
Describe Personality, the Way It Is Measured, and the Factors
that Shape It
• Personality Determinants
– Is personality the result of heredity or environment?
– Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at
conception.
▪ The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation
of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of
the genes, located in the chromosomes.
▪ Researchers on twins separated at birth and raised apart. 50
personality similarity and 30 occupational similarity.
▪ Dependability
Determinants of personality
1. Heredity: Traits like physique, eye color, hair color, height,
temperament, energy level, intelligence, reflexes.
2. Environment: Comprises of culture, family, social and situational
factors:
"Culture is the sum total of learned behavior traits which are
manifested and shared by the members of the society." - Hoebel.
3. Family: Socio-Economic level of the family, Family size, Birth order,
Race, Religion, Parent's educational level, and Geographic location.
4. Social: process by which an infant acquires from the enormously wide
range of behavioral potentialities
5. Situational: kind of situation in which he is placed that determines
his actions
Theory of personality
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five Model
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used
personality framework.
• Individuals are classified as:
– Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
– Sensing (practical, prefer routine, ordered) or Intuitive (Rely on unconscious process, looks for
bigger picture) (S or N)

– Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
– Perceiving (flexible and spontaneous) or Judging (want control, expect order and
structured) (P or J)

▪ INTJs are visionaries.

▪ ESTJs are organizers.
▪ ENTPs are conceptualizers.
 How they feel and act in a situation
• E v/s I: Extrovert individuals are outgoing, sociable, and assertive.
Introverts are quiet shy and happy.
• S v/s I: Sensing are practical and prefer routine and order. They focus
on details. Intuitive rely on unconscious processes and are not
systematic.
• T v/s F: Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems.
Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions.
• J v/s P: Judging types want control and prefer their world to be
ordered and structures. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.
MBTI Preferences
16 personality traits
Favourable,
advantageous
Big Five Personality Traits

Sources: P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae, The NEO-PI Personality Inventory (Odessa, Fla.: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1992); J. F. Salgado, “The
Five Factor Model of Personality and Job Performance in the European Community,” Journal of Applied Psychology 82 (1997): 30-43.
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five
Model
Traits That Matter Most to Business Success at Buyout Companies

Most Important Less Important

Persistence Strong oral communication
Attention to detail Teamwork
Efficiency Flexibility/adaptability
Analytical skills Enthusiasm
Setting high standards Listening skills

Source: Based on S. N. Kaplan, M. M. Klebanov, and M. Sorensen, “Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?”
The Journal of Finance 67, no. 3 (2012): 973–1007.
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five Model

Model of How Big Five Traits Influence OB Criteria

Personality Characteristics
in Organizations

Locus of Control
Internal External
I control what People and
happens to me! circumstances
control my fate!
 Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five
Model
• The Dark Triad
– Machiavellianism: the degree to which an individual is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify
means.
– “ My other name means smart and successful, and that’s what I am – I
do whatever I have to get ahead”
– Narcissism: the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of
self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of
entitlement.
– Psychopathy: the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack
of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm. Hard influence
tactics, cunning behavior (bullying)
Machiavellianism
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five
Model
• An emerging framework to study dark side traits:
– First, antisocial people are indifferent and callous (heartless)
toward others.
– Second, borderline people have low self-esteem and high
uncertainty.
Strengths and Weakness of the MBTI and Big Five
Model (7 of 7)
– Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric (peculiar)
and disorganized. Highly creative and susceptible to
work stress.
– Fourth, obsessive-compulsive (OCD) people are
perfectionists and can be stubborn, yet they attend to
details, carry a strong work ethic, and may be motivated
by achievement.
– Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and hate
criticism.
Approach-avoidance
• Degree to which we reach to stimuli;
• Approach is our attraction to positive stimuli
• Avoidance motivation is aversion to negative stimuli
• Individual performance depends on level of motivation
• Net effect depends on which dominates more
• Eg: Competitive pressure
CSE, Self-Monitoring, and Proactive Personality
• Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
– Core Self-Evaluation: bottom-line conclusions individuals
have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a
person. Positive and negative. Eg: Ratan Tata, Insurance
call
– Self-monitoring: measures an individual’s ability to adjust
behavior to external, situational factors. Eg, Sarah – “I am
true to myself”
– Proactive Personality: people who identify opportunities,
show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful
change occurs – Eg: Job search
The Situation, Job Search, and Unemployment
• What personality characteristics predict job search behaviors
among the unemployed?
– Conscientiousness and extraversion are the two strongest
predictors of job search behavior,
▪ Self-esteem and self-efficacy (parts of Core
Self-Evaluation) are also important.
The Situation, Personality, and Behavior (1 of 3)

• Situation strength theory: indicates that the way personality

translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation.
• Strong situations – norms, cues or standards dictate performance
• Eg1: You are in a meeting
– The degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate
appropriate behavior.
▪ Clarity – High clarity, strong situations, Eg, Housekeeping
▪ Consistency – Nurse vs managers
▪ Constraints- limited discretion, Bank examiner
▪ Consequences – important consequences, strong situations.
Eg: Surgeon job
The Situation, Personality, and Behavior
Exhibit 5-3 Trait Activation Theory: Jobs in Which Certain Big Five Traits Are More
Relevant

Detail Orientation Required Social Skills Competitive Innovation Dealing with Time Pressure
Required Work Required Angry People (Deadlines)
Jobs scoring high (the traits blank blank blank blank blank
listed here should predict
behavior in these jobs)
Air traffic controller Clergy Coach/scout Actor Correctional Broadcast news
officer analyst
Accountant Therapist Financial Systems analyst Telemarketer Editor
manager
Legal secretary Concierge Sales Advertising writer Flight attendant Airline pilot
representative
Jobs scoring low (the traits blank blank blank blank blank
listed here should not predict
behavior in these jobs)
Forester Software engineer Postal clerk Court reporter Composer Skincare
specialist
Masseuse Pump operator Historian Archivist Biologist Mathematician
The Situation, Personality, and Behavior
[Exhibit 5-3 Continued]
Detail Orientation Required Social Skills Competitive Innovation Dealing with Time Pressure
Required Work Required Angry People (Deadlines)

Model Broadcast Nuclear reactor Medical technician Statistician Fitness trainer

technician operator

Jobs that score high activate these blank blank blank blank blank
traits (make them more relevant to
predicting behavior)

Conscientiousness (+) Extraversion (+) Extraversion (+) Openness (+) Extraversion (+) Conscientiousness
(+)

Blank Agreeableness (+) Agreeableness (–) Blank Agreeableness (+) Neuroticism (–)

Blank Blank Blank Blank Neuroticism (–) Blank

Explain the Link Between Perception and
Decision Making
• Individuals make decisions – choosing from two or more alternatives.
• Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem.
– There is a discrepancy between some current state of affairs and some
desired state, requiring consideration of alternative courses of action.
▪ One person’s problem is another’s satisfactory state of affairs.
PRICELESS FOR BEING CREATIVE
• Anup Nair – Local Economic Development Society
• Micro enterprises established to improve livelihood
• Majority do not generate profit
• Home shop owners and coconut growers
• Socially committed processionals
• Leveraging team by target rural market for sourcing and selling
• Distibution network – “HomeShops” started in 2009, LEDS has 1350 Home Shops with
75 microentrepreneurs.
• Incubation services
Learning Objectives
Explain the factors that influence perception
Describe attribution theory.
Explain the link between perception and decision making.
Contrast the rational model of decision making with bounded rationality
and intuition.
Explain how individual differences and organizational constraints affect
decision making.
Explain the Factors That Influence Perception (1 of 2)

• Perception is a process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their
environment.
• It is important to the study of OB because people’s behaviors are
based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.
• According to Joseph Reitz, "Perception includes all those processes by which
an individual receives information about his environment - seeing, hearing,
feeling, tasting and smelling. The study of these perpetual processes shows
that their functioning is affected by three classes of variables-

– The objects or events being perceived,

– The environment in which perception occurs and
– The individual doing the perceiving."
Explain the Factors That Influence Perception (2 of 2)

Factors That Influence Perception

THE PERCEPTION PROCESS:
THE PERCEPTION PROCESS:
• I Perceptual Inputs:
A number of stimuli are constantly confronting people in the form of information,
objects, events, people etc. in the environment. These serve as the inputs of the
perceptual process.
• II Perceptual Mechanism:
When a person receives information, he tries to process it through the following sub
processes of selection, organization and interpretation.
• [Link] Selectivity
• Many things are taking place in the environment simultaneously. However, one
cannot pay equal attention to all these things, thus the need of perceptual selectivity.
Interest, belief and experience.
• B. Perceptual Organization
• After having selectively absorbed the data from the range of stimuli we are exposed,
we then try to organize the perceptual inputs in such a manner that would facilitate
us to extract meaning out of what we perceive
• Figure and Ground. This principle simply implies that the perceived object or
person or event stands out distinct from its back ground and occupies the
cognitive space of the individual.
• Perceptual Grouping. Grouping is the tendency to curb individual stimuli into
meaningful patterns
• (a) Similarity. The principle of similarity states that the greater the similarity of
the stimuli, the greater the tendency to perceive them as a common group.
• (b) Proximity. The principle of proximity or nearness states that a group of
stimuli that are close together will be perceived as a whole pattern of parts
belonging together.
(c) Closure. The principle of closure relates to the tendencies of the people to perceive
objects as a whole, even when some parts of the object are missing

C. Perceptual Interpretation
• Perceptual interpretation is an integral part of the perception process. Without
interpretation, the selection and organization of information do not make any sense.
• More important are perceptual set, attribution, stereotyping, halo effect etc.
D. Checking
• After data have been received and interpreted, the perceiver checks whether his
interpretations are right or wrong.
E. Reacting
• The last stage in perception is the reaction. The perceiver shall indulge in some action in
relation to the perception.
Explain Attribution Theory
• Clarification of the differences between internal and external causation – Judge
people
• Attempt to determine
– Internally caused – those that are believed to be under the personal control
of the individual.
– Externally caused – resulting from outside causes.
Eg: Vinita: same level performance
Current Task - Low distinctiveness, task- low consensus and performance -
high consistency
Explain Attribution Theory
• Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s
behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or
externally caused.
• Eg: Late coming employee
• Determination depends on three factors (DCC)
– Distinctiveness- Different behavior in different situations. Arrive
late today regularly follows the norms (unusual-external)
– Consensus – Everyone who faces a similar situation responds
the same way (route) (high consensus – external)
– Consistency – Respond same way over a period of time. Not late
for several months. (Low consistency – external)
Explain Attribution Theory
Attribution Theory
Experiential learning on attribution from their own real experience

• Students will be asked to assess a person’s behaviour and dissect

three factors of internal and external attribution.
• “Elon Musk lashes out at Thai cave rescuer”
• Consistent, consensus, Distinctiveness can be discussed from
various news articles.
Explain Attribution Theory
• Fundamental attribution error
– We tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal or personal factors. Eg: Sales agents
• Self-serving bias
– Individuals attribute their own successes to internal factors.
– Ambiguous information as flattering; accept positive feedback and reject
negative feedback.
▪ Eg1: If someone sues you and you win the case, should he pay your legal
cost? 80%
▪ Eg2: Korean Manager – accepts group failure
• Asian manager – blame group
• US – Individual vs collectivism
 Explain Attribution Theory

• Common Shortcuts in Judging Others

– Selective perception
▪ Any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out
will increase the probability that it will be perceived.
▪ We select according to our interests, background, experience and
attitude.
▪ Draw unwarranted conclusion
▪ Since we can’t observe everything going on around us, we engage
in selective perception.
▪ Eg1: US Stock market
 Explain Attribution Theory
• Halo effect
– The halo effect occurs when we draw a general impression based on a single
characteristic.
– Our general view contaminate our specific ones.
– Exercise: If you are a critic of PM Narendra Modi, try listing ten things you
admire about him.
• Contrast effects
– We do not evaluate a person in isolation.
– Our reaction to one person is influenced by other persons we have recently
encountered.
– Eg: Job interviews
– Eg: “Never follow an act that has kids or animals in it”
 Explain Attribution Theory
• Stereotyping
– Judging someone based on one’s perception of the group to which
that person belongs.
▪ We have to monitor ourselves to make sure we’re not unfairly
applying a stereotype in our evaluations and decisions.
▪ Eg1: Inaccurate generalization that women lack mental,
emotional and strength for police job.
▪ Eg2: Men aren’t interested in childcare.
▪ Eg3: Life-and-death decisions
▪ Eg4: Leaders as whites.
Game based learning for stereotypes and group behaviours

• A. Stereotypes: Some of the groups/race/ethnicity upon which

stereotypes are common will be identified.
• The names of such groups will be written on the board. Students need to
come voluntarily and write the first word that comes to their mind.
• Avoid making any judgements on choice of word. This will be followed by
a class room discussion linking it with stereotypes and judgments.
Explain Attribution Theory (8 of 10)
• Applications of Shortcuts in Organizations
– Employment Interview – predicting job performance.
▪ Evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual judgments
that are often inaccurate.
– Interviewers generally draw early impressions that become
very quickly entrenched.
– Studies indicate that most interviewers’ decisions change very
little after the first four or five minutes of the interview.
– Good applicant - Absence of unfavorable characteristics than
the presence of favorable ones.
Explain Attribution Theory (9 of 10)
• Performance Expectations
– Evidence demonstrates that people will attempt to validate their
perceptions of reality, even when those perceptions are faulty.
▪ Self-fulfilling prophecy, or the Pygmalion effect, characterizes the
fact that people’s expectations determine their behavior.
▪ Others expectation of target person affect the target person’s
performance.
▪ Goelem effect: low expectations leads to decreased performance
– Expectations become reality.
Explain Attribution Theory (10 of 10)
• Performance Evaluation
– An employee’s performance appraisal is very much dependent upon
the perceptual process.
▪ Many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms.
▪ Subjective measures are problematic because of selective
perception, contrast effects, halo effects, and so on.
Explain the Link Between Perception and
Decision Making
• Individuals make decisions – choosing from two or more alternatives.
• Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem.
– There is a discrepancy between some current state of affairs and
some desired state, requiring consideration of alternative courses of
action.
▪ One person’s problem is another’s satisfactory state of affairs.
Learning
• Learning – “Its what we did when we went to school”
• Learning “ any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a
result of experience”
• Change may be good or bad
• Change ingrained – reflexive or fatigue (sudden burst of energy)
• Experience is necessary for learning. – directly or observation.
• Does experience result in permanent change?
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning
Learning
Any relatively permanent change in behavior
that occurs as a result of experience.

Learning
•Involves change
•Is relatively permanent
•Is acquired through experience

2–76
 © 2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning
• Learning
▪ Almost all complex behavior is learned.
▪ Learning is a continuous, life-long process.
▪ The principles of learning can be used to shape behavior
• Theories of learning:
– Classical conditioning
– Operant conditioning
– Social learning

14–77
Theories of Learning
Theories of Learning
• Classical Conditioning – Individual response to stimuli
Few Classical condition examples
• Eg1: Nursery rhymes – Pleasant memories and feeling of euphoria
• Eg2: Manufacturing plant - Top executive visit.
Exercise
Write two incidents that conditioned in your mind and discuss that
with your peer and get it ratified.
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Learning (cont’d)

Operant Conditioning
A type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a
reward or prevents a punishment.

Key Concepts
•Reflexive (unlearned) behavior
•Conditioned (learned) behavior
•Reinforcement

2–81
 © 2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning (cont’d)
• Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
– The theory that behavior is a function of its consequences and is
learned through experience.
– Operant behavior: voluntary or learned behaviors
▪ Behaviors are learned by making rewards contingent to
behaviors.
▪ Behavior that is rewarded (positively reinforced) is likely to be
repeated.
▪ Behavior that is punished or ignored is less likely to be
repeated.
14–82
Operant Conditioning
• Behavior is a function of its consequences.
• People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid
something they don’t want.
• Voluntary learning behavior against reflexive or unlearned behavior
• Creating pleasing consequences to follow specific forms of behavior.
• Eg1: Professor marking contribution for class behavior.
• Behaviorism - Behavior follows stimuli
• Eg2: Commissioned salesperson
• Eg3: Boss behavior for overtime
 Operant Conditioning

withholding
payment until
a job is
complete

Putting a child
in a time-out
until they can
decrease their
The most
aggressive
common example behavior,
of this is
disciplining (e.g.
scold/criticise) a
child for
misbehaving
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Types of Reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement
– Providing a reward for a desired behavior.
• Negative reinforcement
– Removing an unpleasant consequence when the desired behavior
occurs (Eg: stopped scolding)
• Punishment
– Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an undesirable
behavior (Eg, Suspension for not attending a training session)
• Extinction
– Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its cessation (Eg:
2–85 Keeping quite over undesired behavior and it stops)
Social learning theory
• Bandura's Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one
another, via observation, imitation, and modeling:
• People learn by observing others' behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of
these behaviors.
• It is also known as observational learning
 © 2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning (cont’d)
• Social Learning
– The theory that individuals learn through their observations of
others and through their direct experiences.
– Attributes of models that influence learning:
▪ Attentional: the attractiveness or similarity of the model
▪ Retention: how well the model can be recalled
▪ Motor reproduction: the reproducibility of the model’s
actions
▪ Reinforcement: the rewards associated with learning the
model behavior
14–87
Social Learning theory
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Theories of Learning (cont’d)

Shaping Behavior
Systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves an
individual closer to the desired response.

Key Concepts
•Reinforcement is required to change behavior.
•Some rewards are more effective than others.
•The timing of reinforcement affects learning speed and permanence.

2–89
 © 2007 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

Shaping: A Managerial Tool

• Shaping Behavior
– Attempting to “mold” individuals by guiding their learning in
graduated steps such that they learn to behave in ways that
most benefit the organization.
– Shaping methods:
▪ Positive reinforcement: rewarding desired behaviors.
▪ Negative reinforcement: removing an unpleasant
consequence once the desired behavior is exhibited.
▪ Punishment: penalizing an undesired behavior.
▪ Extinction: eliminating a reinforcement for an undesired
14–90
behavior.
Continuous
Reinforcement
A desired
behavior is
reinforced each
time it is
demonstrated. Fixed-Interval
Schedule
Intermittent Rewards are
Reinforcement spaced at
A desired behavior is uniform time
reinforced often intervals.
enough to make the
behavior worth
repeating but not
every time it is Variable-Interval
demonstrated. Schedule
Rewards are
initiated after a
fixed or constant
number of
responses.
Schedule of Reinforcement
Nature of reinforcement Effect on Behavior Example
Reward given after each Fast learning of new behaviour Compliments
desired behaviour but rapid extinction

Reward given at fixed time Average and irregular Weekly pay checks
intervals performance with rapid
extinction
Reward given at variable time Moderately high and stable Pop quizzes
intervals performance with slow
extinction
Reward given at fixed amounts High and stable performance Piece-rate pay
of output attained quickly but also with
rapid extinction

Reward given at variable Vey high performance with Commissioned sales

amounts of output slow extinction
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Behavior Modification

OB Mod
The application of reinforcement concepts to individuals in
the work setting.

Five Step Problem-Solving Model

1. Identify critical behaviors
2. Develop baseline data
3. Identify behavioral consequences
4. Develop and apply intervention
5. Evaluate performance improvement
2–95
 © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

OB MOD Organizational Applications

• Well Pay versus Sick Pay
– Reduces absenteeism by rewarding attendance, not absence.
• Employee Discipline
– The use of punishment can be counter-productive.
• Developing Training Programs
– OB MOD methods improve training effectiveness.
• Self-management
– Reduces the need for external management control.

2–96
Copyright