1. Personality & Individual Differences
“Be yourself” is the worst
advice you can give some
people.
--T. Masson

2. First, a few administrative things…
Collect Student Information
Digital Photos

3. Student Information
Full name (and preferred name)
Year
Major/Minor
E-mail address
Hometown
Any special needs?
List work experience
What are your long term career goals?
Anything else you feel is important for me to know

4. Learning Objectives
Define the key biographical characteristics & how
they affect the OB dependent variables
Identify two types of ability & the importance of
ability-job fit
Explain the factors that determine an individual’s
personality
Describe personality traits & discuss the
personality-job fit theory
Define Emotional Intelligence (EQ) & Why it is
relevant to the workplace

5. Developmental Key Concepts 5
What makes us unique?
PERSONAL QUALITIES
Personality
Intelligence
Moral values
Mental health
GROUP IDENTITIES
Race
Culture
Gender

6. Factors that influence
Individual Behavior:
Biographical Characteristics
Abilities
Personality
Emotional Intelligence

7. Biographical Characteristics
These variables are more manageable when it comes to
finding and analyzing variables that have an impact on
turnover, satisfaction, etc.
Age- older workers are less likely to resign
Gender - women have higher rates of absence
Marital Status – Married employees have fewer absences,
less turnover, & more satisfied.
Tenure- negatively related to turnover, positively related
to satisfaction

8. Who Cares… what value do biographical characteristics
have for managers and organizations?
It can help in making choices
among job applicants.

9. Abilities
Intellectual Abilities
That required to do mental activities.
*Found to be strong predictors of future job
performance.
Physical Abilities
That required to do tasks demanding stamina,
dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

10. Ability-Job Fit
The Ability - Job Fit
Employee performance is enhanced when there
is a high ability - job fit.
We need to keep this in mind from an HR
perspective as well as an individual trying to
make a job decision.
What predictions can we make if the fit is poor?
If employees lack the required abilities?
If employees abilities far exceed the
requirements of the job?

11. Personality
What is Personality?
The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts to and interacts with others
Measurable traits that a person exhibits.
An enduring combination of motives, emotions,
values, interests, attitudes and competencies.

12. Determinants of Personality
Heredity/ Physiological Determinants
physical differences, IQ, potential,
temperament
Environment
culture, norms of family, friends & social
groups, other influences
Situation
in class vs. at a party
on-the-field/court vs. off-the-field/court

13. Personality Traits
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (next class)
Extraverted/Introverted
Sensing/Intuitive
Thinking/Feeling
Judging/Perceiving
Big 5 Model
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Openness to Experience

14. 66
The Big Five Model of Personality
Extroversion: The tendency to experience positive
emotional states and feel good about oneself and the world
around.
Neuroticism(Emotional stability): The tendency to
experience negative emotional states and view oneself and
the world around negatively.
Agreeableness: The tendency to get along well with
others.
Conscientiousness: The extent to which a person is
careful, scrupulous, and persevering.
Openness to Experience: The extent to which a person is
original, has broad interests, and is willing to take risks.

15. 77
Insert Figure 2.3 here

16. Chapter 2: Understanding Individual
Differences
16
The “Big Five” Personality Factors
Agreeableness
Adjustment
(Stable, confident, effective) (Nervous, self-doubting, moody)
Sociability
(Gregarious , energetic, self-dramatizing) (Shy, unassertive, withdrawn)
Conscientiousness
(Planful, neat, dependable) (Impulsive, careless, irresponsible)
(Warm, tactful, considerate) (Independent, cold, rude)
Intellectual Openness
(Imaginative, curious, original) (Dull, unimaginative, literal-minded)
Source: Developed from Hogan, R. T. Personality and personality measurement. In M. D. Dunnette and L. M. Hough (eds.), Handbook of
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2nd ed. Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1991, 878-879; McCrae, R. R., and
Costa, P. T. A five-factor theory of personality. In L. A. Pervin and O. P. John (eds.), Handbook of Personality, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford,
1999, 139-153.

17. 99
Insert Figure 2.7 here

18. Locus of Control
Internal Locus of Control:
Describes people who believe
that ability, effort, or their own
actions determine what
happens to them.
www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/LocusofContr
ol-intro.html
External Locus of Control:
Describes people who believe
that fate, luck, or outside forces
are responsible for what
happens to them.

19. 1111
Self-Monitoring
The extent to which
people try to control the
way they present
themselves to others.
Can be high or low

20. 1212
Self-Esteem
The extent to which
people have pride in
themselves and their
capabilities.
Can be high or low
Not situation specific

21. Type A’s & Type B’s
Type A Personality
Always moving, walking, and eating rapidly.
Feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place.
Strive to think or do two or more things at once.
Cannot cope with leisure time.
Are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how
many or how much of everything they acquire.
Type B Personality
Never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying
impatience.
Feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or
accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation.
Play for fun & relaxation, instead of exhibit their superiority at any cost.
Can relax without guilt.
stress.about.com/library/Type_A_quiz/bl_Type_A_quiz.htm

22. 1414
McClelland’s Needs
Need for Achievement: The
desire to perform challenging
tasks well and to meet one’s
own high standards.
Need for Affiliation: The
desire to establish and maintain
good relations with others.
Need for Power: The desire to
exert emotional and behavioral
control or influence over others.

23. Assess your own personality…with the
major personality attributes influencing OB
Locus of control: internal…………………………….external
Machiavellianism low……………………………………high
Self-Esteem: low…………………………………….high
Self-Monitoring low…………………………………….high
Risk Taking low……………………………………..high
Type A Personality “B”………………………………………”A”

24. The Person-Job Fit
Today, managers are more interested in an
applicant’s flexibility to meet changing situations
(instead of ability to perform a specific job)
Holland’s personality-job fit theory captures the
notion of matching the job requirements with
personality characteristics

25. Holland’s
Personality-Job Fit Theory
Holland, a career development scholar, suggests
that career success and satisfaction depends on
the degree of fit between the person and his or her
work environment
Degree of congruence between personality traits
and work environment determines person’s
performance, satisfaction, length of time in career
Holland contends there are 6 types or themes that
represent characteristics of both the work
environment and the traits and interests of people
working in those environments.

26. Few people fall squarely into 1 type
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
The Career Key Test is a mini version of Holland’s
assessment. What do you think of your results on this test?
Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory

27. Person-Organization Fit
What is Personality-Organization Fit?
Examples
Why might managers today pay more attention to
the person-organization fit rather than the person-
job fit?

28. Emotional Intelligence
What is Emotional IQ?

29. Five Dimensions of EQ
Self-awareness - impact on others, aware of feelings
Self-management - manage own emotions and impulses
Self-motivation - ability to persist in face of failures
Empathy – ability to sense how others are feeling
Social skills - ability to handle emotions of others
What was your EQ? Do you agree with the results?
How can managers increase their EQ?

30. Practicing Emotional Intelligence
1. Label their feelings, rather than labeling people or situations"
2. Distinguish between thoughts and feelings.
3. Take responsibility for their feelings.
4. Use their feelings to help them make decisions.
5. Show respect for other people's feelings.
6. Feel energized, not angry.
7. Validate other people's feelings.
8. Practice getting a positive value from their negative emotions.
9. Don't advise, command, control, criticize, judge
or lecture others.
10. Avoid people who invalidate them, or don't respect
their feelings.

31. Who Cares?
So why is it important that we understand
personality & individual differences?
What relevance does it have for managers?
What relevance does it have for organizations?

32. Why is it important that we understand
personality & individual differences?
To help you learn more about the dimensions of
your own personality.
To understand why individuals think, feel, and act
differently.
To help managers create a good fit between people
and jobs.
By selecting people with the right attributes
By redesigning jobs to fit individuals’ strengths
To help organizations create a good person-
organization fit

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Advice to Managers
Realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to
be positive and enthusiastic because of their personalities. Similarly,
realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to
complain and experience stress because of their personalities.
Provide an extra measure of direct supervision to workers who don’t
take the initiative to solve problems on their own and always seem to
blame someone or something else when things go wrong.
Provide additional encouragement and support to workers with low
self-esteem who tend to belittle themselves and question their
abilities.
Realize and accept that Type A individuals can be difficult to get
along with and sometimes have a hard time working in teams.
Let subordinates who seem overly concerned about other people
liking them know that sometimes it is necessary to give honest
feedback and be constructively critical (such as when supervising
others).