Personality and Values
The definition of personality used in the book is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. Personality is most often described in terms of the measurable traits a person exhibits.
Two things that can determine personality are heredity and environment.
Heredity refers to factors determined at conception. Things like physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structures of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
A personality trait is a behavior which is exhibited in a large number of situations. the more frequently a trait occurs in divers situations, the more important that trait is in describing the individual.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The most widely used personality assessment test in the world. 100 question test that asks people how they usually feel or act in particular situations.
On the basis of the answers, individuals are classified as Extraverted or Introverted, Sensing or Intuitive, Thinking or Feeling, and Judging or Perceptive.
Despite its popularity most of the evidence suggests that it is isn’t valid.
The Big Five Personality Model
Has stronger evidence than the MBTI. The five factor model is called the big five for short.
The Big Five Factors are:
Extraversion: Captures one’s comfort level with relationships.
Agreeableness: Refers to an individual’s propensity to defer others.
Conscientiousness: Measure of the reliability of a person.
Emotional Stabability: Measures a persons ability to withstand stress.
Openness to Experience: Addresses ones range of interests and fascination with novelty.
Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
Core Self-Evaluation: The way in which people tend to view themselves and whether they see themselves as capable and effective.
Self-Monitoring: An individuals ability to adjust their behavior to external situational factors.
Type A Personality: People with type A personalities are very competitive and suffer from a sense of time urgency.
Type B Personality: People with Type B personalities are very laid back and rarely worry about time.
Proactive Personality: People who take active measures to improve their current state or create a new state while others passively react.
Values
Values represent basic basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence.”
When we rank a persons values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that person’s value system.
Values are important to the study of orgazational behavior because they lay the foundation for our understanding of people’s attitudes and motivation and because they influence our perceptions.
Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states.
Instrumental Values refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values.
Generational Values:
Veterans grew up during World War II and believe in hard work, the status quo, and authority figures.
Boomers are born after World War II they are pragmatic, hard working, require a sense of accomplishment, and social recognition.
The Xers value flexibility, life options, and the achievement of job satisfaction. In contrast to the Veterans they are quite skeptical, especially of authority.
The most recent workforce generation are the Nexters. They have high expectations and and seek meaning in their work. Nexters are at eas with diversity and are the first generation to take technology for granted.
Linking Personality and Values to the Workplace
John Holland’s personality-job theory presents six personality types and proposes that job satisfaction and the propensity to leave a position depend on the degree to which individuals successfully match their personality to each job. Holland developed the Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire, which contains 160 occupational titles. Responders indicate which of these occupations they like or dislike and their answers form a hexagonal diagram. Research strongly supports this diagram and test. The key to this theory is that there are different types of jobs, people personalities have intrinsic differences, and that people in jobs which match their personality should be more satisfied and less likely to resign.
Person-Organization Fit
The person-organization fit argues that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their personalities, and leave organizations that are no compatible with their personalities. The fit of a persons values with the culture of the organization predicts job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and turnover.
Geert Hofstede’s Framework for Assesssing Cultures
Is one of the most widely referenced approaches for analyzing variations among cultures and was done in the late 1970s.
Power Distance describes the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
Individualism is the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of a group.
Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part of to look after them and protect them.
Masculinity is the degree to which the culture favors traditional masculine roles as opposed to viewing men and women as equals.
Femininity means that the culture sees men and women as equals with little difference between them.
Uncertainty Avoidance is the degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations.