Chapter FOUR

Personality
and
Values
What Is Personality?
Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, measurable traits a person exhibits

Personality
Personality
Personality Traits
Determinants
Determinants
Enduring characteristics • •Heredity
that describe an Heredity
• •Environment
individual’s behavior Environment
• •Situation
Situation
Measuring Personality
Personality Is Measured by:

 Self-Report Surveys
 Observer-Rating Surveys
 Projective Measures
 Rorschach Inkblot Test
 Thematic Apperception Test
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
A personality test that taps four characteristics and
classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types
Meyers-Briggs (cont’d)

A Meyers-Briggs Score
 Can be a valuable too for self-awareness and career
guidance
BUT
 Should not be used as a selection tool because it has
not been related to job performance!
The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions
Extroversion
Talkative, energetic, and assertive

Agreeableness
sympathetic, kind, affectionate

Conscientiousness
organized, thorough, and planner
Emotional Stability (Neuroticism)
Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus
nervous, depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)
Openness to Experience
Curious, imaginative, artistic, and having wide interests
Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

 Core Self-Evaluation
 Self-Esteem
 Locus of Control
 Machiavellianism
 Narcissism
 Self-Monitoring
 Risk Taking
 Type A vs. Type B Personality
 Proactive Personality
Core Self-Evaluation: Two Main Components

Self-Esteem
Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking themselves

Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they are masters of
their own fate
• Internals (Internal locus of control)
Individuals who believe that they control what
happens to them
• Externals (External locus of control)
Individuals who believe that what happens to
them is controlled by outside forces such as luck
or chance
Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism (Mach)
Degree to which an individual is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes that
ends can justify means
“Never tell anyone the real reason you did
something unless it is useful to do so”

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interactionwith
withothers
others
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
Narcissism

A Narcissistic Person
• Has grandiose sense of self-importance
• Requires excessive admiration
• Has a sense of entitlement
• Is arrogant
• Tends to be rated as less effective
Self-Monitoring

Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an
individual’s ability to adjust his or
her behavior to external, situational
factors

High
HighSelf-Monitors
Self-Monitors
••Receive
Receivebetter
betterperformance
performanceratings
ratings
••Likely
Likelytotoemerge
emergeas
asleaders
leaders
Risk-Taking

 High Risk-Taking Managers

 Make quicker decisions
 Use less information to make decisions
 Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations
 Low Risk-Taking Managers
 Are slower to make decisions
 Require more information before making decisions
 Exist in larger organizations with stable environments
 Risk Propensity
 Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job requirements
should be beneficial to organizations
Personality Types
Type As
1. Are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
2. Feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place
3. Strive to think or do two or more things at once
4. Cannot cope with leisure time
5. Are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms
of how many or how much of everything they acquire

Type Bs
1. Never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its
accompanying impatience
2. Feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or
accomplishments
3. Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their
superiority at any cost
4. Can relax without guilt
Personality Types

Proactive Personality
Identifies opportunities,
shows initiative, takes
action, and perseveres until
meaningful change occurs
Creates positive change in
the environment,
regardless or even in spite
of constraints or obstacles
Values
 Definition: Mode of conduct or end state is personally
or socially preferable (i.e., what is right and good)
 Terminal Values
 Desirable end states
 Instrumental Values
 The ways/means for achieving one’s terminal values

 Value System: A hierarchy based on a ranking of an

individual’s values in terms of their intensity
Importance of Values
 Provide understanding of the attitudes,
motivation, and behaviors of individuals and
cultures
 Influence our perception of the world around us
 Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong”
Types of Values—Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)

Terminal Values
Desirable end-states of existence;
the goals that a person would like
to achieve during his or her lifetime

Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or
means of achieving one’s terminal
values
 Values in the
Rokeach
Survey

Source: M. Rokeach, The Nature of Human

Values (New York: The Free Press, 1973).

E X H I B I T 4-3
E X H I B I T 4-3
 Values in the
Rokeach
Survey
(cont’d)

Source: M. Rokeach, The Nature of Human

Values (New York: The Free Press, 1973).

E X H I B I T 4-3 (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 4-3 (cont’d)
 Mean Value Rankings of
Executives, Union
Members, and Activists

Source: Based on W. C. Frederick and J. Weber, “The Values of

Corporate Managers and Their Critics: An Empirical Description and
Normative Implications,” in W. C. Frederick and L. E. Preston (eds.)
Business Ethics: Research Issues and Empirical Studies (Greenwich,
CT: JAI Press, 1990), pp. 123–44.

E X H I B I T 4-4
E X H I B I T 4-4
Values, Loyalty, and Ethical Behavior

Ethical Values and

Behaviors of Leaders

Ethical
Ethical Climate
Climate in
in
Values
ValuesAcross
Across Cultures:
Cultures: Hofstede’s
Hofstede’s Framework
Framework

 Power Distance
 Individualism vs. Collectivism
 Masculinity vs. Femininity
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Long-term and Short-term Orientation
 Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing Cultures

Power Distance
The extent to which a society accepts that power
in institutions and organizations is distributed
unequally.
Low distance: Relatively equal power between
those with status/wealth and those without
status/wealth
High distance: Extremely unequal power
distribution between those with status/wealth
and those without status/wealth
Hofstede’s Framework (cont’d)
Individualism vs.
The degree to which
people prefer to act as
individuals rather than a
member of groups
Collectivism
A tight social framework in
which people expect others
in groups of which they are a
part to look after them and
protect them
 Hofstede’s Framework (cont’d)

Masculinity
The extent to which the
society values work roles
vs.
of achievement, power,
and control, and where
assertiveness and mater-
ialism are also valued
Femininity
The extent to which
there is little differ-
entiation between roles
for men and women
Hofstede’s Framework (cont’d)
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by
uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid
them
• High Uncertainty Avoidance: A country with a high Uncertainty
Avoidance score will have a low tolerance towards uncertainty
and ambiguity. As a result it is usually a very rule-orientated
society and follows well defined and established laws,
regulations and controls.

Low Uncertainty Avoidance:

society that is less concerned about ambiguity and uncertainty and
has more tolerance towards variety and experimentation. Such a
society is less rule-orientated, readily accepts change and is
willing to take risks.
 Hofstede’s Framework (cont’d)
Long-term Orientation vs.
In long term oriented
societies, people value
actions and attitudes that
affect the future
Short-term Orientation
In short term oriented
societies, people value
actions and attitudes that
are affected by the past or
the present: normative
statements, immediate
stability, protecting one's
own face, respect for
tradition, and reciprocation
of greetings, favors, and
gifts.
 Example: UK
Power Distance: The UK's score in this dimension is 35. This indicates that rank, status
and inequalities between people are reasonably low. On a micro level this is witnessed in
the office where the relationship between superiors and subordinates is relatively casual
and incorporates little ceremony.

Individualism: The UK scores 89 for Individualism. This is high and therefore points to
that fact that British culture values and promotes individuality. On a micro level, in the
business environment the individual may be more concerned with themselves rather
than the team.

Uncertainty Avoidance: For this dimension the UK scores 35 which is quite low. This
means British culture is relatively open to taking risks and dealing with changeOn a
micro level, conflict or disagreement in the workplace, even with superiors, is
considered healthy.

Masculinity: The UK scores 66 which indicates that it is somewhere in the middle. This
may reflect the fact that British society and culture aims for equality between the sexes,
yet a certain amount of gender bias still exists underneath the surface.
Achieving Person-Job Fit
Personality-Job Fit Theory
(Holland)
Identifies six personality Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
types and proposes that the
••Realistic
Realistic
fit between personality type
and occupational ••Investigative
Investigative
environment determines ••Social
Social
satisfaction and turnover ••Conventional
Conventional
••Enterprising
Enterprising
••Artistic
Artistic
 Holland’s
Typology of
Personality
and
Congruent
Occupations

E X H I B I T 4–8
E X H I B I T 4–8
Person-Organization fit
 Person-Organization Fit is the congruence of an
individual‘s beliefs and values with the culture,
norms, and values of an organization.“
 The elements of P-O Fit are rather soft
 Helpful for identifying most important values to
look for in an organization (in efforts to create a
good fit)
 P-O Fit is most often measured in terms of the
congruence between a set of work-related values
held by a
candidate and the culture of an organization.
 Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) identifies the
following major dimensions:
 Innovation
 Stability
 Orientation towards people (fair and supportive)
 Orientation towards outcomes (results-oriented,
achievement-oriented)
 Easygoing vs. aggressive
 Attention to detail
 Team orientation