Personality & Identity Chapter 3: Organizational Behavior 261 Gabrielle Durepos

Reminders for Today  Attendance  Group project outlines  Will be marked by Monday Nov 7 th

Outline  Toward an understanding of Personality  Personality Test:  The Five Factor Model  Vocational Choice Theory  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator  Criticisms of Personality Tests  Toward an understanding of Identity  Social Identity Theory  Social Identity & The Organization  Conclusions

Toward an Understanding of: Personality  Refers to all the mental and behavioral characteristics that make up and define the uniqueness of an individual  These characteristics are called personality traits  Examples include: shy, kind, anxious, trustworthy, extraverted, introverted, conscientious  Personality is shaped by:  genetic (nature)  environment (nurture)  Personality traits remain stable over time  This is unlike identity which is fluid

Personality Test: The Five Factor Model 1/3  A framework developed to characterize personality  Used by organizations for hiring and assessing leadership styles  The model represents five basic dimensions of personality:  Extraversion – outgoing, assertive, active, excitement seeking  Agreeableness – the degree to which someone is warm, likeable, kind, gentle, trusting  Conscientiousness – dependability, conformity  Emotional stability – opposite includes anxious, neurotic, fearful, depressed, moody  Openness to experience – creative, imaginative, perceptive, thoughtful

Personality Test: The Five Factor Model 2/3 Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional stability Openness to experience Each dimension represents a continuum

Personality Test: The Five Factor Model 3/3  Different test instruments (NEO) are used to measure where individuals fall on each continuum  The only good predictor of job performance  conscientiousness  Interviews are sometimes used to assess personality traits  Studies show that interviewers can not assess traits that are good predictors of job performance  Example: Conscientiousness  Reliability of The Five Factor Model is high

Personality Test: Vocational Choice Theory 1/3  Holland’s Vocational Choice looks at the individual’s:  Distinct personality traits  Choices of occupation  Their level of satisfaction & productivity level within the occupation  The premise of Vocational Choice Theory:  People select occupations based on their personality traits  Best-fit between an individual and occupation leads to:  high performance, high satisfaction, low stress  Lack of fit between an individual and occupation leads to:  High stress, high absenteeism, low moral, low productivity

Personality Test: Vocational Choice Theory 2/3 Holland’s occupational classification system: personalities & occupations are grouped in 6 categories:  realistic  investigative  artistic  social  enterprising  conventional  Each category represents an interaction of:  Cultural forces  Personal forces  example: biological heredity, parents, peers, social class

Personality Test: Vocational Choice Theory 3/3 Individuals match: Their personality characterization  with an occupation’s characterization Example: Someone is characterized as enterprising This means they are ambitious, extroverted, self- confident, energetic They will seek out occupations that have been categorized in the enterprising category i.e. they will seek out occupations that are consistent with these traits, such as business executive Vocational choice theory is less reliable

Personality Test: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 1/2  The Myers-Briggs test is a personality type indicator  Myers-Briggs Test was designed to:  Help individuals understand their & others personality type  Enables:  Finding your proper niche of work  Productivity at work  Good person-organization fit  Myers and Briggs develop a typology of 16 psychological types  Individuals are classified into the typology  The instrument:  Self-report questionnaire  Individuals report their personal preference on certain situations  Answers are used to classify individuals into 1 of 16 personality types

Personality Test: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 2/2 EI SN TF JP ExtraversionIntroversion SensingIntuition Thinking Feeling JudgmentPerception Each personality type is designated by 4 letters of personality preference designated Each of the 16 combinations or personality types has a description associated with it

Criticisms of Personality Test 1/2 REVIEW: Personality tests are used to assess the personality of individuals to see if they fit a: –Job –Workgroup –Organization 1. Is there a relationship between personality traits & job performance? –Two meta-analyses were conducted –Only some aspects of personality tests are found to be “good predictors” of job performance

Criticisms of Personality Test 2/2 2. High costs of administering personality test 3. Assumes that jobs remain stable over time 4. Rely on self-reportage: people can lie on tests 5. Scores on personality tests can lead to individuals being classified rigidly and can lead to stereotypes or discrimination ** Hiring decisions, promotion or termination should never be based solely on results of personality tests – they should accompany other methods

Toward an Understanding of: Identity  Is the ‘sense of self’ that we experience in different situations, that we develop over time, as we are socialized through various experiences  Fluid, it changes based on situation and role within a situation  Ex: At work I have a different ‘identity’ than at the pub on Friday  Shaped by the various groups (musical band; soccer team; Amnesty International) and social categories (sex, gender, race, occupation) to which we belong  Is what we use to tell others ‘who we are’  Is subject to many different interpretations

Social Identity Theory 1/4  Social Identity theory states that:  People develop and attach meaning to an ‘identity’as a result of their membership with various social groups or categories  The premise is that:  All individuals have multiple identities: some of which are social identities  which is defined by their self identification with a social category: race, age, gender, sex  Through time and experience, we come to associate meaning and values with certain social categories:  “oh yeah… you know how irresponsible they are at that age…”  “…and he didn’t apologize? typical man...”  “well he is one of us, strong, determined and pays attention to detail. He will do well in the reserves…”  The meaning we attach to the social categories to which we belong shapes our identity

Social Identity Theory 2/4  The downside: stereotyping  Making generalizations of a person based on the social group or category to which they are associated  Example:  “I don’t know her but she is a feminist and you know how they are…”

Social Identity & the Organization 3/4  The organization influences identity through:  The establishment of norms that affect individuals  such as professional codes of conduct, dress codes  Categorizing and classifying individuals through:  the use of titles  allocation of physical space  location in the hierarchy  roles / sets of tasks and their ascribed importance  occupation  department  workgroup

Social Identity & The Organization 4/4 Silos  Silos in organizations:  Groups who become closely knit and do not interact with other groups  often to their detriment  Silos can be due to:  hierarchal structures  social identity of members  Members of silos:  perceive themselves to be different and unique from members of other groups  may want to maintain that sense of uniqueness  Downside includes:  lack of communication & coordination  duplication of work  stereotyping  discrimination

Conclusions  What are the downsides of hiring practices based on personality tests?  What does assimilation mean in terms of identity?  To what degree should or can an organization shape an individuals identity?