Personality (cont.
)
Perception and distortions
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Personality: How can it be measured?
Main factors that determine an individual’s personality
Big Five Model. Other traits relevant to OB
Perception: definition and relevance to OB
Some distortions
Exercise 2: Identifying Big Five and other traits in a job advertisement
Measuring personality
§ Self-report measures:
§ Individuals evaluate themselves on a series of
factors
Problems???
Lies, impressive management…
§ Observer-ratings (co-worker)
Biased
Personality determinants
Result of heredity or environment?
An early debate in research…
Heredity: factors determined at conception (the ultimate
explanation is the molecular structure of the genes)
§ Research with sets of identical twins who were separated at birth
and raised separately: were found to have much in common and
presented behavioral similarity (e.g. same leisure interests, habits)
Environment also matters: socialization processes (the role of
education and culture and significant others, such as parents,
teachers, leaders, etc.)
Frameworks for identifying and
classifying traits (e.g. Big Five Model)
What it is that makes us behave the way we do?
Early efforts often resulted in long lists – difficult to
generalize from and with little practical guidance to
organizational decision makers
What are the primary traits that govern behavior?
Big Five Model: very good job at predicting how people
behave in a variety of real-life situations (at home and the
workplace); have proven highly relevant to OB
The Big Five Model
Extroversion: Individuals characterized by positive energy, sociability and assertiveness
Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and social and talkative. Introverts tend to be
reserved, timid, and quiet.
Agreeableness: An individual’s propensity to defer to others
Highly agreeable people tend to be compassionate, cooperative, warm, and trusting. People
who score low on this dimension are cold, disagreeable, suspicious, and antagonistic
Conscientiousness: Highlights qualities of being organized, dependable, self-disciplined and
the perseverance to aim for achievement
A highly conscientious person is responsible, trustworthy, and persistent. Those who score
low are easily distracted, disorganized, unreliable, and more likely to procrastinate.
Emotional stability (its converse, neuroticism): Person’s ability to withstand stress
People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those
with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
Openness to experience: One’s range of interests and fascination with novelty
Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. The other are
conventional and find comfort in the familiar.
Measuring Big Five personality traits
How to measure the Big Five
An example of a short scale...
Gosling et al (2003)
The role of Big Five model in predicting
attitudes and behaviors
How the Big Five traits apply in the workplace?
What does research say?
According to research, when hiring employees, the Big
Five are strong predictors of future performance
Main empirical findings…
The Big Five Model: some empirical
findings
ì Conscientiousness ì Performance ì Organizational Citizenship
Behaviors
ì Emotional stability ì Performance ì Life satisfaction ì Job
satisfaction
ì Neuroticism ì Stress and burnout
ì Extroversion ì Better job performance (jobs that require significant
interpersonal interaction) ì Job and Life satisfaction
ì Openness to experience ì Adaptable to change ì Creativity
ì Agreeableness è Levels of deviant behavior
Other relevant personality traits?
Big 5 do not exhaust the range of traits that can
describe someone’s personality!
Other personality traits also influence attitudes
and behaviors at work...
...and help to understand business leaders’
behaviors and success
Other personality attributes influencing
behavior at work
§ Self-esteem
§ Locus of control
§ Machiavellianism
§ Self-monitoring
§ Narcissism
§ Risk-taking
§ Proactive personality
Self-esteem: definition and
some empirical evidence
Self-esteem: the degree to which they think they are worthy or
unworthy as people; individuals’ degree of liking or disliking themselves
Those with high self-esteem
…are more likely to deal with failure
...are more risk-taking
...tend to choose more complex and challenging jobs and careers
Those with low self-esteem
...are more vulnerable to external influences
...depend more on positive evaluations from others
...are more likely to seek approval
...try to please others
...find it more difficult to make decisions
Locus of control
Some empirical evidence
Locus of control: the degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate
Internals: individuals who believe that they control what happens to them. According to
research:
ì levels of job satisfaction
ì interest in participation
î absenteeism
ì performance in complex tasks
ì salaries and pay increases
ì propensity for management roles
ì favorable reactions to meritocratic systems
Externals: individuals who believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside
forces, such as luck or chance. Studies show that:
ì anxiety
ì propensity to follow orders
ì preference for structured roles
Machiavellianism
Some empirical evidence
Machiavellianism: an individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends (money, power,
status) can justify means
High Machs versus low Machs:
…manipulate more
…win more
…more difficult to be persuaded
…perform better in jobs that require negotiation skills
Situational moderators:
- face to face interactions with others
- the situation has a minimum of rules and regulations (improvisation)
Self-monitoring
Some empirical evidence
Self-monitoring: Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable
adaptability in adjusting their behavior to external, situational factors;
highly sensitive to external cues
High self-monitors (chameleons) versus low self-monitors:
…tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of others
…more capable of adjusting their behavior
…tend to receive better performance ratings
…more likely to emerge as leaders
…tend to be more mobile in their careers and receive more
promotions
…more likely to occupy central positions in organizations
Narcissism
Some empirical evidence
Narcissism: individuals with a grandiose sense of self-importance, that
require excessive admiration, and are arrogant. They often want to gain
the admiration of others and receive affirmation of their superiority,
treating others as if they were inferior.
Narcissists tend to be selfish, manipulative, exploitive and believe others
exist for their benefit
Evidence suggests that:
- narcissists are more charismatic and thus more likely to emerge as
leaders, and they may even display better psychological health (at
least as they self-report)
- their bosses rate them as less effective at their jobs than others,
particularly when it comes to helping people
Risk-taking and proactive personality
Some empirical evidence
Risk-taking: propensity to take chances, a quality that affects how much time
and information individuals need to make a decision
Some evidence: a high/low risk-taking may lead to more effective
performance according to specific job demands (stock trader versus an
accountant)
Proactive personality: people who actively take the initiative to improve
their current circumstances or create new ones. Those who identify
opportunities, show initiative, and take action.
Some evidence: proactives tend to…
…stimulate positive change in their environment
…are more likely to be seen as leaders and to act as change agents
…more likely to be satisfied with work and help others more with their tasks
…tend to show more entrepreneurial initiative
…and more likely to achieve career success
Perception and some distortions
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Perception: definition and relevance to OB
Factors affecting perception
Some distortions/errors
Perception: the definition
“Perception is a process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment.” (Robbins, 1993: 135)
Perception is a subjective, active and creative cognitive process
through which we assign meaning to sensory information to
understand others and ourselves
However...
…what we perceive can be substantially different from objective
reality
Perception: Relevance to OB?
Why is perception important in the study of OB?
It matters because:
- Individuals behavior is based on their perception of what
reality is, not on reality itself
- People behave on the basis of their perception
- Every individual tends to perceive the world and address
life/work problems in a particular way
- People perceive the same situation differently
- If the perception of reality is distorted, the behavior will also
be distorted
Factors affecting perception
Perception is strongly influenced by:
- Personal characteristics (of the perceiver): personality, motives,
needs, interests, past experiences, preconceptions,
expectations, etc.
- Target characteristics (the person being perceived): physical
characteristics (e.g. body language, gestures, voice),
sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. age, sex, race, ethnicity,
educational background, occupation, hobbies)
- Situational factors: the situation in which the person, object or
event is perceived by individuals (e.g. time, place)
Distortions or errors in perception
Stereotyping: judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which
he/she belongs; the use of shortcuts
Halo/horn effect: drawing a general impression about an individual on the
basis of a single characteristic (e.g. intelligence, sociability, or appearance)
Similarity: the tendency to rate more positively those who are similar to ourselves
(e.g. who exhibit the same interests, points of view, values)
Selective perception: when people selectively interpret what they see on the basis
of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
Contrast effect: evaluating a person’s characteristics by comparisons with other
people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.
Primacy effect: refers to the tendency to recall primary information presented (the
role of first impressions)
Projection: the tendency to assume that others think, feel, judge, or perceive more
or less what we do – to see our traits and characteristics in other people
Exercise 2 - Identifying Big Five and other traits
1. Choose a job advertisement from https://expressoemprego.pt
2. What dimensions (from the Big Five) is the company searching for
in the job candidates/applicants? Identify and explain each
dimension that can be found in the job offer/announcement.
3. Discuss other personality traits (besides Big Five) that the company
is seeking out in the applicants for this job position.
*The exercise is due today (by email). Don’t forget to indicate the group
members’ names and ID at the top or the bottom of the report.
