Individual Differences Chapter 3 Personality and Abilities

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 2 Learning Objectives 1. Define personality and describe its role in the study of organizational behavior. 2. Identify the big five dimensions of personality and describe what is meant by positive and negative affectivity. 3. Describe the Type A and Type B behavior patterns and describe the nature of Machiavellianism. 4. Define achievement motivation (or need for achievement) and describe the difference between learning, performance, and avoidance goal orientations. 5. Describe the differences between morning and evening persons and the relevance of this individual difference to on-the-job behavior. 6. Define cognitive intelligence, practical intelligence, emotional intelligence, and successful intelligence.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 3 Personality Concepts Personality Personality: The unique and relatively stable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions shown by individuals. Interactionist Perspective Interactionist Perspective: The view that behavior is a result of a complex interplay between personality and situational factors. Person-Job Fit Person-Job Fit: The extent to which individuals possess the traits and competencies required to perform specific jobs.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 4 The Interactionist Perspective

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 5 Measuring Personality Objective Tests Objective Tests: Questionnaires and inventories designed to measure various aspects of personality. Reliability Reliability: The extent to which a test yields consistent scores on various occasions. Validity Validity: The extent to which a test actually measures what it claims to measure.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 6 The Big Five Dimensions of Personality  Five basic dimensions of personality that are assumed to underlie many specific traits. –Conscientiousness –Extraversion-Introversion –Agreeableness –Emotional Stability –Openness to Experience

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 7 Conscientiousness The extent to which individuals are hardworking, organized, dependable, and persevering (high conscientiousness) versus lazy, disorganized, and unreliable (low conscientiousness).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 8 Extraversion-Introversion The degree to which individuals are gregarious, assertive, and sociable (extraverts) versus being reserved, timid, and quiet (introverts).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 9 Agreeableness The extent to which individuals are cooperative and warm (highly agreeable) versus cold and belligerent (highly disagreeable).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 10 Emotional Stability The degree to which individuals are insecure, anxious, depressed, and emotional (emotionally unstable) versus calm, self-confident, and secure (emotionally stable).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 11 Openness to Experience The extent to which individuals are creative, curious, and cultured (open to experience) versus practical and with narrow interests (closed to experience).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 12 Affectivity  Positive Affectivity  Positive Affectivity: The tendency to experience positive moods and feelings in a wide range of settings and under many different conditions.  Negative Affectivity  Negative Affectivity: The tendency to experience negative moods in a wide range of settings and under many different conditions.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 13 Self-Efficacy  Individuals’ beliefs concerning their ability to perform specific tasks successfully.  Judgments of self-efficacy consist of three components:  Magnitude  Magnitude: The level at which an individual believes she or he can perform.  Strength  Strength: The person’s confidence that she or he can perform at that level.  Generality  Generality: The extent to which self-efficacy in one situation or for one task extends to other situations and other tasks.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 14 Self-Efficacy General Self-efficacy General Self-efficacy: People’s overall beliefs about their general capacity to perform tasks successfully. Beliefs about self-efficacy develop through:  Direct Experience  Direct Experience: Feedback from performing similar tasks in the past.  Vicarious Experience  Vicarious Experience: Observations of others’ performance on these tasks.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 15 Self-Monitoring A personality trait involving the extent to which individuals adapt their behavior to the demands of specific situations so as to make good impressions on others. Consequences of self-monitoring:  Work Performance  Work Performance: High self-monitors tend to do better than low self-monitors in jobs requiring boundary-spanning activities.  Career Success  Career Success: High self-monitors tend to obtain more promotions than low self-monitors.  Interpersonal Relationships  Interpersonal Relationships: High self-monitors tend to form less stable and shallower personal relationships with others than low self-monitors.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 16 Self-Monitoring

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 17 Machiavellianism A personality trait involving willingness to manipulate others for one’s own purposes. Machiavellian tactics: Neglecting to share important information (e.g., claiming to “forget” to tell you about key meetings and assignments). Finding subtle ways of making you look bad to management (e.g., damning you with faint praise). Failing to meet obligations (e.g., not holding up their end on joint projects, thereby causing you to look bad). Spreading false rumors about you (e.g., making up things about you that embarrass you in front of others).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 18 Type A vs. Type B Type A Behavior Pattern Type A Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior involving high levels of competitiveness, time urgency, and irritability. Type B Behavior Pattern Type B Behavior Pattern: A pattern of behavior characterized by a casual, laid-back style; the opposite of the Type A behavior pattern.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 19 Type A vs. Type B Task Performance  Type As tend to excel on tasks involving time pressure or solitary work.  Type Bs have the advantage when it comes to tasks involving complex judgments and accuracy as opposed to speed. Interpersonal Relations  Type As tend to annoy coworkers, are more likely to lose their tempers and lash out at others, are more likely to become involved in conflict, and are more likely to engage in aggressive and counterproductive behavior.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 20 Achievement Motivation The strength of an individual’s desire to excel – to succeed at difficult tasks and to do them better than other persons.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 21 High Need Achievers Prefer moderately difficult tasks. In terms of career success, tend to be Promoted more rapidly. Less inclined to delegate. More interested in performance feedback. More interested in merit-based pay than seniority-based pay.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 22 Goal Orientations

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 23 Morning vs. Evening Persons  Morning Persons  Morning Persons Individuals who feel most energetic and alert early in the day.  Evening Persons Individuals who feel most energetic and alert late in the day.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 24 Abilities Mental and physical capacities to perform various tasks. Cognitive Intelligence Cognitive Intelligence: The ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles by careful thought. Practical Intelligence Practical Intelligence: Adeptness at solving the practical problems of everyday life.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 25 Tacit Knowledge  Knowledge about how to get things done.  Major characteristics: action oriented –Tacit knowledge is action oriented; it involves knowing how to do something as opposed to knowing that something is the case. practically useful –Tacit knowledge is practically useful; it allows individuals to achieve goals they personally value. acquired without direct help from others –Tacit knowledge is acquired without direct help from others.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 26 Emotional Intelligence  A cluster of skills relating to the emotional side of life.  Major components: The ability to recognize and regulate our own emotions. The ability to recognize and influence others’ emotions. Self motivation. The ability to form effective long-term relationships with others.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 27 Successful Intelligence Intelligence that represents a good balance between cognitive intelligence (IQ), practical intelligence, and creative intelligence.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 28 Other Cognitive Abilities  Perceptual Speed  Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly recognize similarities and differences in visual stimuli.  Example: A designer recognizing irregular patterns in a fabric.  Number Aptitude  Number Aptitude: The ability to work with numbers in a quick and accurate manner.  Example: An accountant spotting an error in a financial report.  Spatial Visualization  Spatial Visualization: The ability to imagine how various objects will look when rotated or moved in space.  Example: An architect planning a change in a building design.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 29 Physical Abilities  People’s capacities to engage in the physical tasks required to perform a job.  Common types: –Strength –Strength: The capacity to exert physical force against various objects. –Flexibility –Flexibility: The capacity to move one’s body in an agile manner. –Stamina –Stamina: The capacity to endure physical activity over prolonged periods. –Speed –Speed: The ability to move quickly.