Chapter 5: Personality and Individual Differences

• Personality and individual differences are key to organizational behavior because they influence job attitudes, performance, and turnover.

Person-Job Fit vs. Person-Organization Fit

• Person-job fit involves matching job positions with personality traits.
• Person-organization fit is when people are attracted to and selected by organizations that share their values, leading to higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover.
• Mismatch may result in people leaving the organization

Person-Organization Fit and Online Image

• Online image is important to manage
• Job seekers view company websites and social media presence to evaluate Person-Organization Fit
• Websites should provide company policies, philosophies, and CSR

Other Dimensions of Person Fit

• Person-group fit and person-supervisor fit are also important
• Poor Person-supervisor fit leads to lower job satisfaction and reduced performance

Personality Defined

• Personality: The ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with the world around them.
• Personality traits: Consistent attributes exhibited across situations over time.

Measuring Personality

• Self-report surveys are common, but applicants may fake responses to appear more desirable.
• Observer-ratings surveys can predict job success better than self-ratings.
• Combining both self-report and observer reports provides the best prediction of performance.
• Technology like AI aid in scoring personality tests and reducing faking.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator classifies individuals into personality types based on four pairs of traits:
• Extroverted (E) vs. Introverted (I)
• Sensing (S) vs. Intuitive (N)
• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
• It lacks empirical evidence and validity, forces people into one type or another, often produces different results when retaken.

Big Five Personality Model

• The Big Five Model proposes that five basic dimensions encompass most of the differences in human personality:
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional stability
• Extroversion
• Openness
• Agreeableness
• It is supported by an impressive body of research.

Big Five: Conscientiousness

• Conscientiousness: Measures personal consistency and reliability; predicts job performance
• High: Responsible, organized, dependable
• Low: Easily distracted, disorganized, unreliable

Big Five: Emotional Stability

• Emotional stability: Measures ability to withstand stress and is related to life and job satisfaction, reduced burnout
• High: Calm, self-confident, secure
• Low: Anxious, nervous, insecure

Big Five: Extroversion

• Extroversion: Captures relational approach toward the social world
• High: Gregarious, assertive, sociable
• Low: Thoughtful, reserved, timid, quiet

Big Five: Openness

• Openness to experience: Measures range of interests and fascination with novelty
• High: Creative, curious, artistically sensitive
• Low: Conventional and finds comfort in the familiar

Big Five: Agreeableness

• Agreeableness: Refers to an individual's propensity to defer to others
• High: Cooperative, warm, and trusting
• Low: Cold and antagonistic

Dark Triad

• The Dark Triad comprises Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy
• They are undesirable traits with negative consequences, but are not clinical pathologies.

Dark Triad: Machiavellianism

• Machiavellianism: Pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, believes ends justify means
• High Machs manipulate more, win more, and are persuaded less by others
• Ethical implications because High-Mach job seekers are less positively affected knowing that an organization is engaged in a high level of CSR

Dark Triad: Narcissism

• Narcissism: Arrogant, has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration
• Narcissists often have fantasies of grand success, a tendency to exploit situations and people
• One of the largest predictors if increased CWB in individualistic cultures

Dark Triad: Psychopathy

• Psychopathy: Lack of concern for others, lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm
• Related to the use of hard influence tactics, bullying work behavior, and inappropriate interpersonal behavior during meetings

Core Self-Evaluations (CSEs)

• Core self-evaluations: Bottom-line conclusions about capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
• People with positive CSEs perform better because they set more ambitious goals, are more committed to their goals, and persist longer in attempting to reach them.

Self-Monitoring

• Self-monitoring: Individual's ability to adjust behavior to external, situational factors
• High self-monitors show adaptability, sensitivity to external cues, and can behave differently in varying situations
• Low self monitors display true dispositions and attitudes in every situation.

Proactive Personality

• People with a proactive personality identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs
• Improves current circumstances or generate new ones
• Proactive individuals have higher levels of job performance creativity and do not need much oversight

Situation Strength Theory

• A theory proposing that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation
• Strong situations show us what the right behavior is, pressure to exhibit it and discourage the wrong behavior.
• Weak situations- anything goes

Trait Activation Theory (TAT)

• TAT predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others.
• Used to foresee which jobs suit certain personalities (extrovert vs open people)

Ability Defined

• Ability: An individual's current capacity to perform (intellectual and physical)

Intellectual Abilities

• These abilities are needed to perform mental activities—thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving
• They are number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and memory

Physical Abilities

• These are needed in the performance of physical tasks, such as dynamic and trunk strength

Values

• Basic convictions that some actions and outcomes are more preferable than others
• They contain a judgmental element because they carry an individual's ideas about what is right, good, or desirable
• Has content and intensity attributes.

Terminal vs. Instrumental Values

• Terminal values: Desirable end-states
• Instrumental values: Preferable modes of behavior or means