CHAPTER 3: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 261 GABRIELLE DUREPOS Personality & Identity

Outline Towards an understanding of Personality Personality and OB: why we should care Theories of Personality:  Situational Theories of Personality  Person [trait] Theories of Personality  Interactional Theory of Personality Examining the concept of ‘fit’:  Supplementary Fit  Complementary Fit  Person-Job Fit  Person-Organization Fit  Person-Workgroup Fit Conclusions

Towards an Understanding of: Personality  Refers to all the mental and behavioral characteristics that make up and define the uniqueness of an individual  Characteristics are called personality traits  Examples include: shy, kind, anxious, trustworthy, outgoing  Personality is shaped by both genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) influences  Personality traits remain stable over time  This is unlike identity which is fluid Personality can be said to provide general direction for an individual’s choices and behaviors

Towards an Understanding of: Personality  Two Perspectives on Personality: 1) Behavioral  Personality can be ‘observed’ by others  Personality is public, stable, objective and describable  Personality can be used by others to:  Describe your personality traits based on past behavior  Predict your future behavior based on your unique set of personality traits 2) Mental  Personality has internal components which others can not see  Ex: decisions made by individuals are influenced by their personality traits but through observation, we can not tell which personality traits affected the decision

Personality and Organizational Behavior: Why we should care  Our unique make up of personality traits affects:  Our behavior in an organization  How well we fit in a workgroup  How well we fit in an organization  How well we fit in a job  Our choice of career  How well we fit in a job & career can affect:  Our performance at work  Our job satisfaction  Our level of stress  Our level of efficiency

Theories of Personality  There are many theories of personality  Most are derived from the Psychology literature  Contributors include Freud, Maslow, Skinner, Piaget and etc.  We cover a basic overview  Personality and the nature – nurture debate  Nature  External factors do not shape individual personality  individuals are born with unique sets of personality traits  These personality traits help explain their behavior in organizations  Nurture  External factors contribute to and shape an individuals personality after birth  Individuals develop personality traits based on interpersonal situations  The organization is one site in which individual personality traits are shaped

Theories of Personality: Situational Theories of Personality  Falls on the NURTURE side of the continuum  The environment / situation is a key determinant of personality  An individual is not born with an innate set of personality traits  The organization is an example of an environment where personality is shaped  Situational theorists focus on ‘the context’ of the individual to understand:  The causes of an individuals job satisfaction  Job performance  Other work attitudes  Example: Pavlov’s dogs salivating after hearing the bell  Criticisms  Everyone in the same situation will have the same personality?  We know this not to be the case, how do we account for differences?

Theories of Personality: Person [trait] Theories of Personality  Falls on the NATURE side of the continuum  An individual is born with an innate, stable set of personality traits  The environment / situation is not a key determinant of personality  Individuals within a same situation / organization will:  Interact and respond differently based on their unique make up of personality traits  Person [trait] theorists focus on identifying an individual’s personality traits:  But do not focus to an individual’s situation  Fit a person to a job: Try and match personality traits of an individual with traits that are required to do a job  To predict future performance, attitudes, stress levels, ability to work with others

Theories of Personality: Interactional Theory of Personality  Falls in the middle of the NATURE-NURTURE continuum  An individual’s personality is a result of:  The personality traits they are born with  The situation / environment in which they interact  An ‘interaction’ of specific situations and individual predispositions  Organizations are a result of the people that are in them [nature]  Individuals bring their personalities to work and shape the organization  Individuals do not check their personalities at the door – like their coat  Individuals are influenced by the organization [nurture]  Individuals are shaped by ‘the dominant ways of acting’ that have been engrained in the organization

Examining the concept of ‘fit’  Our interest is in finding a good ‘match’ or ‘fit’ between an individual and a:  Job, Organization, Workgroup, Profession  We ask:  Are potential employees ‘compatible’ with their job, organization, workgroup, profession?  Do they have the right knowledge? qualification? skills? attitudes?  The right ‘fit’ is important as:  ‘Win-Win’  Employees Win: efficiency, productivity, satisfaction  Organization Wins: productivity, profitability  The lack of ‘fit’ can lead to:  High turnover, high recruiting costs, low productivity, decreased employee morale, decreased employee self-esteem, etc.

Examining the concept of ‘fit’: Supplementary Fit  A theory of ‘fit’ from the organizations perspective  Theory states that:  The hired employee has the SAME set of characteristics as those who are currently employed in the organization  Characteristics include: skill sets, work experience, educational background  Supplementary fit forms the basis for vocational choice  People prefer to work in organizations or professions with others who share similar characteristics

Examining the concept of ‘fit’: Complementary Fit  A theory of ‘fit’ from the organization’s perspective  Theory states that:  The hired employees has a DIFFERENT set of characteristics than those currently employed  The organization identifies deficiencies in skill sets, knowledge, skills, etc. in their current workgroups  The hired employee ‘complements’ the organization by filling a void

Examining the concept of ‘fit’: Person-Job Fit Employee selection is traditionally based on person-fit Examines the perspective of ‘fit’ between the individual and some aspect of work  Is the person suitable for a set of interrelated tasks?  Does the person posses the ‘right’ set of personality traits that will enable them to fulfill the set of interrelated tasks needed for the job? A ‘good’ fit means that a job applicant’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) correspond with the job requirements  Job requirements are developed by an organization and listed in a job analysis  A job analysis is an explicit identification of all the requirements needed to fulfill a job or set of interrelated tasks  A job analysis may not mention specific needed personality traits Person-Job fit is important because:  Acts as a basis for standardizing employment practices  It ensures consistency in recruiting and hiring processes Criticisms:  Assumes that jobs are stable / unchanging over time  Assumes that a given job will always be needed or relevant

Examining the concept of ‘fit’: Person-Organization Fit Examines the perspective of ‘fit’ between the individual and some aspect of work:  Is the person suitable for a specific organization?  Is the person’s needs, goals and values compatible with the organizations values, goals, culture and reward systems? A ‘good’ fit between an individual and organization may lead to:  Greater motivation on the individual’s behalf to perform well The downside of too much person-organization alignment:  discrimination towards those who do not ‘fit’  narrowed vision, low adaptability to change, less competitiveness  too much agreement, not enough questioning and thus unethical choices  ex: Challenger Space Shuttle disaster

Examining the concept of ‘fit’: Person-Workgroup Fit Examines the perspective of ‘fit’ between the individual and some aspect of work:  Do the personality traits of an individual make them good candidates to work in a given group?  Is the person’s needs, goals, attitudes and values compatible with the workgroup values, goals, work ethic? Person-Workgroup fit may more important in certain organizations  Organizations whose workflows are organized around self managed work teams The downside of too much person-workgroup alignment:  discrimination towards those who do not ‘fit’  narrowed vision, low adaptability to change, less competitiveness  too much agreement, not enough questioning and thus unethical choices

Conclusions  Is personality shaped nature or nurture?  What is the implication for the organization?  Does this subject remind you of organizational culture?  What are the similarities?  What are the differences?  Personality is at the individual level = culture at the organizational level?  IF personality is based on nurture – can we CHANGE PERSONALITY of employees to match the CULTURE of the organization?  What are the ethical concerns?