Chapter No: 2 Individual differences: personality and ability

PERSONALITY: Personality is the pattern of relatively enduring ways that a person feels, thinks, and
behaves.

Personality has been shown to influence career choice, job satisfaction, stress, leadership, and some
aspects of job performance.

Determinants of Personality: Nature and Nurture

Why are some employees happy and easygoing and others intense and critical?

An answer to this question can be found by examining the determinants of personality: nature and
nurture. Personality is partially determined by nature, or biological heritage. The genes you inherited
from your parents influence how your personality has unfolded. Although specific genes for personality
have not yet been identified, psychologists have studied identical twins in an attempt to discover the
extent to which personality is inherited.

Personality and the Situation

literature in psychology and a growing set of studies in organizational behavior suggest that personality
is useful for explaining and predicting how employees generally feel, think, and behave on the job.

Personality have 2 determinants 1) nature (biological heritage) 2 Nurture (life experience)

In addition to personality, the organizational situation also affects work attitudes and behaviors. In some
organizations, strong situational constraints and pressures (such as job requirements or strict rules and
regulations) force people to behave in a certain way, regardless of their personalities.

For example, an employee on an assembly line manufacturing bicycles must put handlebars on each
bicycle that passes by. A bike passes by every 75 seconds, and the employee has to be sure that the
handlebars are properly attached to each bicycle within that time frame. It doesn’t matter whether the
employee is shy or outgoing; regardless of his or her personality, the employee has a specific task to
perform day in and day out in the same manner. Because the employee is not free to vary his or her
behavior, personality is not useful for understanding or predicting job performance in this situation.

Consider another example. Employees at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants follow clearly
specified procedures for preparing large quantities of burgers, fries, and shakes and serving them to
large numbers of customers. Because each employee knows exactly what the procedures are and how
to carry them out (they are spelled out in a detailed manual), the food is always prepared in the same
manner, regardless of the employees’ personalities.

These two examples show, in organizations in which situational pressures on employees’ behaviors are
strong, personality may not be a good predictor of on-the-job behavior.
Personality: A Determinant of the Nature of Organizations

Organizational researcher at the University of Maryland, has come up with an interesting view of the
way in which personality determines the nature of whole organizations.

He calls his schema the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) framework. Schneider proposes that the
“personality” of a whole organization is largely a product of the personalities of its employees. He
suggests that individuals with similar personalities tend to be attracted to an organization (attraction)
and hired by it (selection), and individuals with other types of personalities tend to leave the
organization (attrition).

ATTRACTION-SELECTIONATTRITION (ASA) FRAMEWORK

 The idea that an organization attracts and selects individuals with similar personalities and loses
individuals with other types of personalities.
 ASA processes operate in numerous ways. When organizations hire new employees, they
implicitly size up the extent to which prospective hires fit in with the organization—that is, the
extent to which their personalities match the personalities of current members. This sizing up is
especially likely to occur in small organizations.

The Big Five Model of Personality

A trait is a specific component of personality that describes the particular tendencies a person has to
feel, think, and act in certain ways, such as in a shy or outgoing, critical or accepting, compulsive or
easygoing manner.

The Big Five model of personality

Extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Each of the Big Five traits is composed of various specific traits.

Extraversion: Extraversion, or positive affectivity, the tendency to experience positive emotional states
and feel good about themselves and about the world around them. Extraverts—people high on the
extraversion scale—tend to be sociable, affectionate, and friendly as is Indra Nooyi in the opening case.

 Introverts people low on the extraversion scale—are less likely to experience positive emotional
states and have fewer social interactions with others.
 At work, extraverts are more likely than introverts to experience positive moods, be satisfied
with their jobs, and generally feel good about the organization

NEUROTICISM

 The tendency to experience negative emotional states, feel distressed and view oneself and
the world around one negatively; also called negative affectivity.
 Individuals high on neuroticism are more likely than individuals low on neuroticism to
experience negative emotions and stress over time and across situations.
 Individuals who are high on neuroticism are more likely to experience negative moods at
work, feel stressed, and generally have a negative orientation toward the work situation.
 Agreeableness

o Agreeableness is the trait that captures the distinction between individuals who get
along well with other people and those who do not. Likability in general and the ability
to care for others and to be affectionate characterize.
o Individuals who are high on agreeableness as is Indra Nooyi in the opening case.
o Individuals low on agreeableness are antagonistic, mistrustful, unsympathetic,
uncooperative, and rude.
o A low measure of agreeableness might be an advantage in jobs that require a person to
be somewhat antagonistic, such as a bill collector or a drill sergeant.
o Agreeable individuals generally are easy to get along with and are team players.

Conscientiousness

o Conscientiousness is the extent to which an individual is careful, scrupulous, and

persevering.
o Individuals high on conscientiousness are organized and have a lot of self-discipline.
o Conscientiousness is important in many organizational situations and has been found to
be a good predictor of performance in many jobs in a wide variety of organizations.
o In the opening case, it is also clear that Indra Nooyi is high on conscientiousness.

Openness to Experience

o Openness to experience, captures the extent to which an individual is original, open to a wide
variety of stimuli, has broad interests, and is willing to take risks as opposed to being narrow-
minded and cautious.
o The extent to which a person is original, has broad interests, and is willing to take risks. Recall
Indra Nooyi’s openness to experience.
o In the opening case. For jobs that change frequently, require creativity and innovation, or
involve considerable risk, individuals who are open to experience may have an advantage. For
openness to experience to be translated into creative and innovative behavior in organizations,
however, the organization must remove obstacles to innovation.

Other Organizationally Relevant Personality Traits

EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL

o The locus-of control trait captures this difference among individuals.

o Describes people who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible for what happens
to them. They see little connection between their own actions and what happens to them.

INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL

o “Internals,” or individuals with an internal locus of control, think their own actions and
behaviors have an impact on what happens to them.
o When people with an internal locus of control perform well, they are likely to attribute their
performance to qualities within themselves, such as their own abilities or efforts.
 o When people with an external locus of control perform well, they are likely to attribute their
performance to external forces such as luck, the effects of powerful people, or simply the fact
that the task was easy. In organizations, internals are more easily motivated than externals.

SELF-MONITORING

o The extent to which people try to control the way they present themselves to others.
o High self-monitors want their behavior to be socially acceptable and are attuned to any social
cues that signal appropriate or inappropriate behavior.

Self-Esteem

o Self-esteem is the extent to which people have pride in themselves and their capabilities.
o Individuals with high self-esteem think they are generally capable and worthy people who can
deal with most situations.
o Individuals with low self-esteem question their self-worth, doubt their capabilities, and are
apprehensive about their ability to succeed in different endeavors.
o Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely than individuals with low self-esteem to choose
challenging careers and jobs.
o Once they are on the job, individuals with high self-esteem may set higher goals for themselves
and be more likely to tackle difficult tasks.

Type A and Type B Personalities

o TYPE A. A person who has an intense desire to achieve, is extremely competitive, and has a
strong sense of urgency.
o Such individuals have a strong need to get a lot done in a short time period and can be difficult
to get along with because they are so driven.
o TYPE B A person who tends to be easygoing and relaxed.

NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT: The desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet one’s own high
standards.

NEED FOR AFFILIATION: The desire to establish and maintain good relations with others.

NEED FOR POWER: The desire to exert emotional and behavioral control or influence over others.

The Nature of Ability

ABILITY The mental or physical capacity to do something.

Two basic types of ability affect performance: cognitive or mental ability and physical ability.

Cognitive Ability: Psychologists have identified many types of cognitive ability and grouped them in a
hierarchy. The most general dimension of cognitive ability is general intelligence.

o Verbal ability
o Reasoning ability
o Ability to see relationships
o Spatial ability
 o Numerical ability
o Deductive ability
o Ability to remember
o Perceptual ability

Physical Ability

o Two types of physical abilities are motor and physical skills.

o A motor skill is the ability to physically manipulate objects in an environment.
o A physical skill is a person’s fitness and strength

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE The ability to understand and manage ones own feelings and emotions and
the feelings and emotions of other people.

The Management of Ability in Organizations

There are three fundamental ways to manage ability in organizations to ensure that this match-up
happens: selection, placement, and training.

 Selection: Managers can control ability in organizations by selecting individuals who have the
abilities they need. This first involves identifying the tasks they want the employees to
accomplish and the abilities they need to do them. Once these abilities are identified, managers
then have to develop accurate measures of them.
 Placement: Once individuals are selected and become part of an organization, managers must
accurately match each employee to a job that will capitalize on his or her abilities. Again,
managers need to identify the ability requirements of the jobs to be filled, and they need
accurate measures of these abilities.
 Training: Selection and placement relate to the nature aspects of ability. Training relates to the
nurture aspects of ability. Training can be an effective means of enhancing employees’ abilities.
We often think that the goal of training is to improve employees’ abilities beyond the minimum
level required. Frequently, however, organizations use training to bring employees’ skills up to
some minimum required level.