Individual Differences in the Workplace: Personality, MG2001 Lecture 2 PDF

Individual Differences in the Workplace: Personality MG2001: People & Organisation Lecture 2 Dr. Ultan Sherman  “Don't be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring kind of conformity”. Are you a stud or a dud? Which animal ar...

Individual Differences in the Workplace: Personality MG2001: People & Organisation Lecture 2 Dr. Ultan Sherman  “Don't be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring kind of conformity”. Are you a stud or a dud? Which animal are you? Phrenology Skull Morphology Analysis Volunteers.....????? Graphology Handwriting Analysis Overview To analyse why individual differences in organisational behaviour matters To discuss the contribution of psychometrics to our understanding of behavior in organisations Discuss the key debates in the ‘personality’ literature Introduction ‘Psychometric’ is an abbreviation for ‘psychological measurement’ All branches of applied psychology are linked in their need for measurement Clinical, educational, forensic, organisational etc. [psychology] seek to understand the psychology of the individual through measurement Often referred to as ‘Psychological Testing’ Psychometrics is the study of individual differences (Kline, 1997) Significant line of enquiry in Organisational Behaviour Prevalence of Psychometric Testing As of 2020…….. 80% of Fortune 500 companies (US) 75% of Times Top 100 Companies (UK) Psychological Assessment at Work ….is designed to – Describe – Predict – Explain – Help make decisions Can be used for – Selection – Coaching – Career guidance – Etc. Example: Psychometric Profile Personality Kluckhohn & Murray (1953) ‘ …….every person is, in certain respects, like all other people, like some other people, and like no other person who has lived in the past or will exist in the future’.  Personality "Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical traits that determine his unique adjustments to his environment." (Allport, 1937, p. 48). Today, traits are understood as components of emotional, motivational, and social behavior. They are proposed to describe and explain, as well as predict interindividual differences in human behavior and experience (Herrmann, 1991; McCrae & Costa, 1995). Personality: Where does it come from? Nature v Nurture Dispositional characteristics: (genetic make-up etc.) Social factors: (environment, socialization etc.) Cultural factors: (US in a very individualistic culture) Situational factors: (some impactful event) Anxiety: Trait and state? Trait anxiety State anxiety the general level of anxiety reflects the anxiety provoked which each individual has, if by some event or thought nothing particularly arising occurred e.g. visits to the dentist, exams etc. Traits and states Traits States – Relatively constant – transient enduring characteristics – Short-lived, lasting for of an individual minutes or hours, rather – Useful descriptions of than months or years how individuals Mood or emotions generally behave Motivational states Personality traits Reflect a person’s style of behaviour Broad generalisations – How we behave is also influenced by situations Can be useful in helping to predict how individuals will probably behave most of the time Practical Applications of Personality Tests Used since 1920 in industry for personnel selection purposes Until 1990, the main conclusion of narrative and empirical reviews was that personality measures were poor predictors of organisational criteria, including job performance, training proficiency, job satisfaction etc. However, personality measures were used frequently in W&O psychology The research on the Five Factor Model of Personality and new developments in related areas, led to a changing opinion on the validity and utility of personality at work. Big Five/ Five Factor Model of Personality Open Big five to structure experiencedoes –closed not imply to experience that personality (grounded) traits can be reduced to only 5 traits Conscientious-spontaneous These 5 dimensions represent personality at the broadest level Extraversion-introversion of abstraction Agreeable-Assertive Each dimension summarises a large number of distinct, more Anxious (neurotic)-stable specific personality characteristics OCEAN NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) The NEO PI-R Facets of the Big Five C Conscientiousness vs. lack of direction – Competence (efficient) – Order (Organised) – Dutifulness (not careless) – Achievement striving (thorough) – Self-discipline (not lazy) – Deliberation (not impulsive) N Neuroticism vs. emotional stability – Anxiety (tense) – Angry hostility (irritable) – Depression (not contented) – Self-consciousness (shy) – Impulsiveness (moody) – Vulnerability (not self-confident) The NEO PI-R Facets of the Big Five E –Extraversion vs. introversion – Gregarious (sociable) – Assertiveness (forceful) – Activity (energetic) – Excitement-seeking (adventurous) – Warmth (Outgoing) A Agreeableness vs. antagonism – Trust (forgiving) – Straightforwardness (not demanding) – Altruism (warm) – Compliance (not stubborn) – Modesty (not show-off) – Tender-mindedness (sympathetic) The NEO PI-R Facets of the Big Five O Openness vs. closedness to experience – Ideas (curious) – Fantasy (imaginative) – Aesthetics (artistic) – Actions (wide interests) – Feelings (excitable) – Values (unconventional) Bell Curve Distribution Five Factor Model and Job Performance Barrick & Mount (1991) Began a series of meta-analysis spanning 12 years Conscientiousness – Valid predictor for all occupational groups and for all criteria – Generalised across all studies Extraversion and Agreeableness – Predicted job performance in managerial occupations Openness to experience – Valid predictor for training proficiency Five Factor Model and Job Performance EU data (Salgado, 1997; 1998) Replicated the former findings of Barrick & Mount But, important addition: – Emotional stability was found to be a valid predictor for all occupational groups and it generalised validity across samples and criteria Barrick et al (2001) re-analysed all meta-analyses – Concluded that: Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability were valid predictors of job performance for all occupational groups The other three personality dimensions were valid predictors for some jobs and some criteria Other evidence Hurtz & Donovan (2000) found that conscientiousness was the best predictor of job performance across all contexts but the other dimensions only predicted performance in certain contexts Managers scored higher than non-managers on conscientiousness, emotional stability and agreeableness (Lounsbury et al., 2016) Random Other Evidence Low emotional stability links to transactional psychological contract (Raja et al., 2004) Conscientiousness predicts academic performance consistently, openness predicts academic performance in early years of school (Mammadov, 2022). Dishonest Extraverts are more harmful than dishonest Introverts at work (Oh et al., 2011) Schmitt et al., (2008) study Previous research suggested that sex differences in personality traits are larger in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities equal with those of men. In this article, the authors report cross- cultural findings in which this unintuitive result was replicated across samples from 55 nations (N 17,637). On responses to the Big Five Inventory, women reported higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than did men across most nations. These findings converge with previous studies in which different Big Five measures and more limited samples of nations were used. Overall, higher levels of human development—including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, Matching Personality Profile with Job Profile Personality Dimensions Responsibilities Carry out safety checks Welcoming passengers on- board Demonstrate safety procedures Addressing passenger queries Serving meals & refreshments Selling duty-free products Assisting pilot and co-pilot Provide first aid if necessary Assisting emergency landing Completing paperwork Work effectively in team Criticism of trait theory Trait theory is not a theory of personality – Does not say how personality develops – Does not claim to say what is normal or abnormal personality – Does not suggest how personality can or should be changed Trait theory is a system for describing and measuring personality Personality Tests 16 Personality Factor questionnaire (16PF) Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) DiSC Etc.  Other Personality Approaches: Type Attempts to understand human personality by identifying those behaviours or characteristics that go together This results in a ‘typology’ of human personalities ‘She is a ‘….’’. Type A v Type B personalities (Friedman, 1987) Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) ‘I/E’ –’S/N’ –’T/F’ –’ J/P’- the most widely used ‘personality’ test in the world (80% of fortune 500 companies) Most psychologists do not consider the MBTI to be a valid measure of personality and is largely discredited in academia Summary of Personality Traits Personality traits have been found to be valid predictors of occupational performance. In simple terms, personality matters in the workplace (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011) Sample Exam Question A likely antecedent of effective leadership could be… (A) …high extraversion (B) …high conscientiousness (C) …low extraversion (D) All of the above References Barrick, M.R., & Mount, M.K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26. Barrick, M.R., Mount, M.K., & Judge, T.A. (2001). Personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where do we go next? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, 9-30. Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2007). Personality and individual differences. Oxford: Blackwell. Hurtz, G. M., & Donovan, J. J. (2000). Personality and job performance: the Big Five revisited. Journal of applied psychology, 85(6), 869. Kline, P. (2013). Handbook of psychological testing. Routledge. Kluckhohn, C., & Murray, H. A. (Eds.). (1969). Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture. Alfred A. Knopf. Lounsbury, J. W., Sundstrom, E. D., Gibson, L. W., Loveland, J. M., & Drost, A. W. (2016). Core personality traits of managers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(2), 434-450. Salgado, J.F. (1997). The Five Factor Model of personality and job performance in the European Community. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 30-43. Salgado, J.F. (1998). Big Five personality dimensions and job performance in Army and civil occupations: A European perspective. Human Performance, 11, 271-288.