Big Five Personality Model

Individual Differences and the Big Five Personality Model

• Individual differences, like personality traits, are valuable in forecasting organizational attitudes and behaviors
• Research indicates that five basic dimensions underlie all personality dimensions

The Five Basic Dimensions of Personality

• Extraversion reflects comfort with relationships; extroverts are gregarious, assertive, and sociable, while introverts are reserved, timid, and quiet
• Agreeableness is the tendency to defer to others; high agreeableness involves being cooperative, warm, and trusting, while low agreeableness involves being cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic
• Conscientiousness measures reliability; high conscientiousness means being responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent, while low conscientiousness means being easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable
• Emotional stability refers to the ability to withstand stress; positive emotional stability means being calm, self-confident, and secure, while negative emotional stability means being nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure
• Openness to experience is the range of interests and fascination with novelty; highly open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive, while those at the opposite end are conventional and prefer familiarity

Big Five Traits and Workplace Behavior

• Research demonstrates connections between personality dimensions and job performance
• Conscientiousness helps employees develop higher levels of job knowledge
• Conscientiousness is vital for managers and front-line employees; persistence, attention to detail, and high standards contribute to organizational success
• Conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance, but other traits also influence performance in specific situations

Implications of the Big Five Traits

• Emotional stability is strongly linked to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low-stress levels
• Extraverts thrive in jobs requiring significant interpersonal interaction
• Open individuals are more likely to be effective leaders and are comfortable with ambiguity
• Agreeable people are generally better liked and excel in interpersonally-oriented jobs like customer service

Cross-Cultural Validity of the Big Five Model

• The five personality factors are consistent across various cultures, including China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States
• Studies generally confirm that conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance

Personality and Situations

• The effect of traits on behavior depends on the situation
• Situation strength theory suggests that personality translates into behavior based on the strength of the situation
• Situation strength is the degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate suitable behavior
• Personality traits are better predictors of behavior in weak situations versus strong ones
• Situation strength in organizations can be analyzed through four elements: Clarity, Consistency, Constraints, and Consequences

Understanding Situation Strength

• Clarity refers to the availability and clarity of cues about work duties and responsibilities
• Consistency is the extent to which cues regarding work duties are compatible
• Constraints are the limits on an individual's freedom to act due to external forces
• Consequences are the implications of decisions or actions for the organization

Organizational Situations

• Organizations are sometimes considered strong situations due to imposed rules and norms
• Trait Activation Theory (TAT) predicts that certain situations, events, or interventions activate specific traits
• Specific traits like narcissism, proactivity, and Machiavellianism are relevant in particular situations
• Proactive personalities take initiative to improve circumstances, show initiative, take action, and persevere
• Individuals high in Machiavellianism are pragmatic, emotionally distant, and believe ends justify means; they are manipulative and persuasive

Core Self-Evaluations

• Core self-evaluations reflect how people perceive themselves
• Understanding differences between trait activation theory and situation strength theory is crucial

Linking Personality and Values to the Workplace

• Person-Job Fit, articulated in John Holland’s theory, emphasizes aligning personality with job characteristics
• Person-Organization Fit suggests people seek organizations that match their values and leave those that don't align with their personalities Other dimensions of fit include Person-Group fit and Person-Supervisor fit, which impact workplace outcomes

Cultural Values

• Hofstede's Framework assesses cultures based on five value dimensions
• Power distance is the degree to which people accept unequal power distribution
• Individualism versus collectivism reflects preferences for individual or group actions; individualism favors individual actions, while collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework
• Masculinity versus femininity indicates whether a culture favors traditional masculine roles or views men and women as equals
• Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which people prefer structured situations
• Long-term versus short-term orientation focuses on valuing the future versus the present
• Asian countries are generally more collectivistic than individualistic
• The United States ranks high on individualism
• Germany and Hong Kong rate high on masculinity
• Russia and The Netherlands rate low on masculinity
• China and Hong Kong exhibit a long-term orientation
• France and the United States exhibit a short-term orientation

Implications for Managers

• Personality influences organizational behavior; it sets the stage but does not explain all behavior
• The Big Five traits are essential, but the Dark Triad also matters
• Individuals should be placed in situations aligning with their personality to optimize performance
• Consider screening for high conscientiousness and other relevant Big Five traits
• Job and work group evaluations should determine the optimal personality fit
• Situational factors should be considered when evaluating personality traits, and cultural differences must be respected to promote a positive organizational climate

Defining Motivation

• Motivation varies both between individuals and within individuals at different times.
• Motivation encompasses the processes accounting for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal
• Organizational goals should be the target in the workplace
• Intensity, Direction and Persistence are the key elements

Early Theories of Motivation

• The 1950s saw the formulation of three specific theories
• Early theories provide a foundation for contemporary theories

Hierarchy of Needs Theory

• Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs orders five needs
• Physiological needs relate to hunger, thirst, shelter, and bodily needs
• Safety needs relate to security and protection from harm
• Social needs relate to affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship
• Esteem needs include internal factors like self-respect and external factors like recognition
• Self-actualization involves achieving one's potential and self-fulfillment
• A satisfied need no longer motivates, and Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders

McClelland's Theory of Needs

• McClelland's theory focuses on achievement, power, and affiliation
• The need for achievement (nAch) involves excelling and achieving standards; successful performance requires a 50/50 probability of success and acceptance of reasonable risk

Contemporary Theories of Motivation

• Contemporary theories share reasonable supporting documentation
• Self-determination theory proposes people prefer control over their actions; obligations undermine this motivation
• Cognitive evaluation theory suggests that extrinsic rewards reduce intrinsic interest
• People seek competence, positive connections, and autonomy
• Rewards for accepting imposed standards can feel coercive
• Self-concordance considers how strongly reasons for pursuing goals align with interests and values
• Choose jobs for intrinsic rather than extrinsic reasons to promote job satisfaction
• Managers should provide both intrinsic and extrinsic incentives

Goal-Setting Theory

• Edwin Locke proposed that intentions to work toward a goal greatly impact work motivation
• Goals clarify expectations and effort requirements
• Specific and difficult goals, if accepted, improve performance; feedback then further increases performance
• Specific, hard goals outperform generalized goals
• The Contingencies in goal-setting theory include goal commitment, task characteristics, and national culture
• Goal commitment is when someone believes that they can achieve a goal; goals affect performance most when tasks are simple and independent
• On interdependent tasks, group goals are preferable
• In collectivistic and high-power distance cultures, moderate goals are more motivating
• Goals related to performance may hurt adaptation and creativity
• Goals may cause an employee to strongly focus on a single standard, excluding all other
• Goals are powerful in shaping behavior

Promotion and Prevention Focus

• Some people have a promotion focus and strive for accomplishments
• Others have a prevention focus and strive to fulfill obligations

Self-Efficacy Theory

• It refers to a belief that a person is capable of performing a task
• The more self-efficacy, the easier to have the confidence for success
• Higher self-efficacy will help a person to be more engaged in their tasks
• Enactive mastery is gaining relevant experience
• Vicarious modeling includes gaining confidence due to someone else being seen doing the task
• Verbal persuasion involves being more confident since someone persuaded convinces a person that they have the skills to do said task
• Arousal helps to lead to an energized state driving a person to complete the task
• verbal persuasion can occur through the Pygmalion or Galatea Effect

Equity Theory/Organizational Justice

• A person needs to contribute job-related inputs and outcomes relative to other individuals to eliminate any inequalities
• Equity exists when a person has a ratio to relevant others with whom the person compares them to
• People will attempt to alter their inputs/outputs if inequity rises or leave
• Organizational justice is how workers are treated with justice along four dimensions

Distributive Justice

• Includes fairness of outcomes, like pay
• Although a fair outcome is important, the method of dispensing it is also important

Procedural Justice

• Addresses how outcomes are allocated
• Direct influence over how decisions are made creates control
• Employees perceive that procedures are fair if decision makers follow said rules

Combination of Justice

• Procedural and distributive justice can influence perceptions of fairness Informational and interpersonal justice are important during interactions with other parties

Expectancy Theory

• Claims a person will act depending on the expectation that they can complete an action and their beliefs in achieving desirable outcomes
• A person is motivated to perform at a high level if they believe such
• A good effort will lead to a good appraisal
• Good appraisal will lead to organizational rewards
• Rewards will lead to them achieving personal goals

Key Relationships

• The effort-performance relationship means the probability that a person puts in effort and it leads to success
• Performance-reward relationship is the belief that performing at a good level will lead to reward
• Rewards-personal goal relationships are when rewards achieved and work-related items will lead to an interest in a person's personal goals

Using other theories

• Goal setting theory is important since goals will result in high productivity
• Reinforcement theory is important to maintain work quantity, rates and consistency

Motivating by Job Design

• The job characteristics model determines that a job can be analyzed along with the dimensions of the following:
• Skill variety with using a number of talents and capabilities in the workplace
• Task identity, making them complete a task fully
• The measure of what a job helps the lives of other people
• Autonomy is when that job provides a sense of worker freedom and the ability to schedule work and determine their own procedures
• Feedback generates direct information about any person's performance

Job Redesign

• Repetitive jobs can result in people seeking opportunities, and autonomy or motivation will need to arise
• Job rotation refers to shifting an individual from tasks periodically which can also be referred to as cross-training
• Boredom can be reduced, and employees can get a better understanding of the work contributions

Important factors

• There can be draws such as disruptions and extra training time
• Maslow and McClelland's theories do not have widespread support

Effective Leadership

• Leadership is the process of influencing others to mobilize individual and collective efforts
• This is toward the accomplishment of goals or objectives
• A wider view considers the interaction between the leader behaviors, traits, roles
• The factors of the follower's (readiness, motivation, behaviors, traits, roles), and the context (time, task, outcome criteria)

Trait Theories

• Trait theories of leadership focus on personal qualities and characteristics
• Leaders who can assert themselves (extraverted), who are disciplined and are creative
• Leaders do have key traits in common

Behavioral Theories

• Behavioral theories imply we can train people to be leaders
• The Ohio State Studies narrow the list of leadership to two categories: initiating structure and consideration
• Initiating structure is the search for goal attainment
• Consideration is in relationships that are characterized by respect, trust and regard

Contingency Theories

• Page | 2 Tough-minded leaders are important when there is tough times
• The Fiedler Model determines with contingency on group performance from the proper match with the degree in the situation to control the other leaders

Identifying leadership style

• Key is a key factor in basic leadership
• To measure leadership as a base he uses the LPC questionnaire
• To measure the task use the relationship-oriented checklist
• Leader-member relations are an advantage when there is confidence, respect, and trust to their leader

Situation Characteristics

• Task structure refers to the nature of jobs
• Position power will help by hiring, firing, determining salary, etc
• Fiedler's is one of the best models

Situational Leadership Theory

• Says successful leadership can be achieved with the followers level of readiness
• Robert House made leadership on expectancy and research on initial structure and consideration
• Leader-Participation model
• Leader-participation model helps make a better decision Task structure must reflect structure

Relational Theories

• Leaders establish relationships with followers
• There are individuals making good impressions that are trustworthy
• Leader will categorize the follower with in or out style and relationship will need to be stable

Charismatic Leadership

• Leaders act as a form of hero worship
• This can occur through actions like making a new vision
• There needs to a effective charismatic leadership
• This can be used when there is high-stress or uncertainty

Transformational Leaders

• They increase follower self-efficacy
• This creates a can-do attitude
• Vision helps explain how charismatic and transformational
• Need to instill commitment from others

Trust

• Leads a person to become riskier
• Encourages taking risks
• Will trust in facilitators
• Leads to enhance and provide positive performance of others

Challenges to Leadership

• Often relies on external factors
• Attribution makes it based on other leaders which is based on something
• In some cases, there is irrelevant actions
• The behavioral had major results
• Contemporary theories has studies on leadership
• It requires transformational capabilities and can work through other
• Need to build good positive relationships