Chapter 9 Personality and Cultural Values McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 9-2 Learning Goals  What is personality, and how can it be distinguished from ability? What are cultural values?  Is personality driven by nature or by nurture? How can we tell?  What are the “Big Five?” Are there other taxonomies that can used to describe personality other than the Big Five?  What are Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural values?  How does personality affect job performance and organizational commitment?  Are personality tests a useful tool for organizational hiring?

Slide 9-3 Discussion Question  How is personality different from mood?

Slide 9-4 Definition of Personality Personality – a relatively stable set of characteristics that influences an individual’s behavior

Slide 9-5 Personality and Cultural Values  Personality refers to the structures and propensities inside a person that explain his or her characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior.  Personality captures what people are like.  Traits are defined as recurring regularities or trends in people’s responses to their environment.  Cultural values, defined as shared beliefs about desirable end states or modes of conduct in a given culture, influence the expression of a person’s traits.

Slide 9-6 Personality Determinants  How does personality develop?  Nature  Study of identical twins  Genes  Nurture  Surrounding  Experiences

Slide 9-7 Changes in Big Five Dimensions Over the Life Span Figure 9-2

Slide 9-8 The Big Five Personality Traits  Conscientiousness - dependable, organized, reliable, ambitious, hardworking, and persevering.  Conscientiousness has the biggest influence on job performance.  Conscientious employees prioritize accomplishment striving, which reflects a strong desire to accomplish task-related goals as a means of expressing personality.  OB on Screen  The Break-Up

Slide 9-9 The Big Five Personality Traits, Cont’d  Agreeableness - warm, kind, cooperative, sympathetic, helpful, and courteous.  Prioritize communion striving, which reflects a strong desire to obtain acceptance in personal relationships as a means of expressing personality.  Beneficial in some positions but detrimental in others.  Agreeable people focus on “getting along,” not necessarily “getting ahead.”

Slide 9-10 The Big Five Personality Traits, Cont’d  Extraversion - talkative, sociable, passionate, assertive, bold, and dominant.  Easiest to judge in zero acquaintance situations — situations in which two people have only just met.  Prioritize status striving, which reflects a strong desire to obtain power and influence within a social structure as a means of expressing personality.  Tend to be high in what’s called positive affectivity — a dispositional tendency to experience pleasant, engaging moods such as enthusiasm, excitement, and elation.

Slide 9-11 The Big Five Personality Traits, Cont’d  Neuroticism - nervous, moody, emotional, insecure, and jealous.  Synonymous with negative affectivity —a dispositional tendency to experience unpleasant moods such as hostility, nervousness, and annoyance.  Associated with a differential exposure to stressors, meaning that neurotic people are more likely to appraise day-to-day situations as stressful.  Associated with a differential reactivity to stressors, meaning that neurotic people are less likely to believe they can cope with the stressors that they experience.

Slide 9-12 The Big Five Personality Traits, Cont’d  Neuroticism, continued  Neuroticism is also strongly related to locus of control, which reflects whether people attribute the causes of events to themselves or to the external environment.  Tend to hold an external locus of control, meaning that they often believe that the events that occur around them are driven by luck, chance, or fate.  Less neurotic people tend to hold an internal locus of control, meaning that they believe that their own behavior dictates events.

Slide 9-13 The Big Five Personality Traits, Cont’d  Openness to experience - curious, imaginative, creative, complex, refined, and sophisticated.  Also called “Inquisitiveness” or “Intellectualness” or even “Culture.”  Openness to experience is also more likely to be valuable in jobs that require high levels of creativity, defined as the capacity to generate novel and useful ideas and solutions.  Highly open individuals are more likely to migrate into artistic and scientific fields.

Slide 9-14 Openness to Experience and Creativity Figure 9-4

Slide 9-15 Trait Adjectives Associated with the Big Five Figure 9-1

Slide 9-16 Big 5 Personality Traits Conscientiousness: Your most committed and reliable people. Agreeableness: Important for interpersonal relations and team building. Openness to Experience: Creativity and “outside the box” thinking, but lacks practicality.

Slide 9-17 Other Taxonomies of Personality  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) evaluates individuals on the basis of four types of preferences:  Extraversion (being energized by people and social interactions) versus Introversion (being energized by private time and reflection).  Sensing (preferring clear and concrete facts and data) versus Intuition (preferring hunches and speculations based on theory and imagination).  Thinking (approaching decisions with logic and critical analysis) versus Feeling (approaching decisions with an emphasis on others’ needs and feelings).  Judging (approaching tasks by planning and setting goals) versus Perceiving (preferring to have flexibility and spontaneity when performing tasks).

Slide 9-18 Personality Characteristics in Organizations Locus of Control InternalExternal I control what happens to me! People and circumstances control my fate!

Slide 9-19 External and Internal Locus of Control Table 9-2

Slide 9-20 Personality Characteristics in Organizations Self-Efficacy – beliefs and expectations about one’s ability to accomplish a specific task effectively Sources of self-efficacy Prior experiences and prior success Behavior models (observing success) Persuasion Assessment of current physical and emotional capabilities

Slide 9-21 Personality Characteristics in Organizations Self-Esteem Feelings of Self Worth Success tends to increase self-esteem Failure tends to decrease self-esteem

Slide 9-22 Personality Characteristics in Organizations Self-Monitoring Behavior based on cues High self monitors  flexible: adjust behavior according to the situation and the behavior of others  can appear unpredictable and inconsistent Low self monitors  act from internal states rather than from situational cues  show consistency  less likely to respond to work group norms or supervisory feedback

Slide 9-23 Who Is Most Likely to... Low self monitors High self monitors Get promoted Change employers Make a job-related geographic move Accomplish tasks, meet other’s expectations, seek out central positions in social networks Self-promote Demonstrate higher levels of managerial self-awareness; base behavior on other’s cues and the situation

Slide 9-24 Personality Characteristics in Organizations Positive Affect – an individual’s tendency to accentuate the positive aspects of oneself, other people, and the world in general Negative Affect – an individual’s tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of oneself, other people, and the world in general

Slide 9-25 Personality Traits for People Contingencies X PeoplePersonality Trait Y People ExternalLocus of Control Internal LowSelf Monitoring High NegativeAffect (outlook) Positive

Slide 9-26 Equity Theory Remember… A sudden personality or attitude shift on the part of an employee could signal an “Equity” issue. Person Comparison other EquityOutcomes=Outcomes Inputs Inputs

Slide 9-27 Dimensions of Culture Power Distance Individualism Uncertainty Avoidance Masculinity / Femininity Long-term/ Short-term Orientation McGraw-Hill© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Quality of Life

Slide 9-28 Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Values Table 9-3

Slide 9-29 Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Values, Cont’d Table 9-3

Slide 9-30 Cultural Dimension Comparison

Slide 9-31 Culture & Leadership Expectations SURVEY of INTERNATIONAL WORKERS: Percentage of workers who agreed that managers should have immediate answers to questions. Andre Laurent-INSEAD-”The Cultural Diversity of Western Conceptions of Management.

Slide 9-32 How Can We Describe What Employees Are Like? Figure 9-7

Slide 9-33 Importance of Personality and Cultural Values  Conscientiousness affects job performance.  It is a key driver of what’s referred to as typical performance, reflecting performance in the routine conditions that surround daily job tasks.  More likely to engage in citizenship behaviors.  Tend to be more committed to their organization.  An employee’s ability is a key driver of maximum performance, reflecting performance in brief, special circumstances that demand a person’s best effort.

Slide 9-34 Effects of Personality on Performance and Commitment Figure 9-8

Slide 9-35 Takeaways  Personality refers to the structures and propensities inside a person that explain his or her stable characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior. Personality captures what people are like (unlike ability, which reflects what people can do ).  Cultural values are shared beliefs about desirable end states or modes of conduct in a given culture that influence the expression of traits.  Although both nature and nurture are important, personality is affected significantly by genetic factors. Personality can be changed, but such changes are only apparent over the course of several years.

Slide 9-36 Takeaways, Cont’d  The “Big Five” includes conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion. Although the Big Five is the dominant taxonomy of personality, other taxonomies include the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and Holland’s RIASEC model.  Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural values include individualism–collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity, and short-term vs. long-term orientation.

Slide 9-37 Takeaways, Cont’d  Conscientiousness has a moderate positive relationship with job performance and a moderate positive relationship with organizational commitment. It has stronger effects on these outcomes than the rest of the Big Five.  Personality tests are useful tools for organizational hiring, team building, and team decision making.