The Role of Individual Attributes in Understanding Organizational Behavior

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The Role of Individual Attributes in
Understanding Organizational Behavior

• Personality Dimensions

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Individual Attributes

• Individual Performance Individual Differences X
  Motivation X Organizational Support
• Individual Differences the capacity to perform
• Motivation the willingness to perform
• Organizational support the opportunity to
  perform

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Individual Attributes

• Dispositional factors account for 30-50 of the
  differences in an individuals behavior
• Examples
• Personality traits
• Values and attitudes
• Cognitive, emotional, and physical competencies
• Skills and knowledge
• Demographic variables

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What is personality?

• Definition
• Set of unique traits and other mental
  characteristics that give consistency to an
  individual's behavior across situations
• Source Nature vs. Nurture?
• University of Minnesota twin studies
• The role of genes
• The role of environment, including culture
• Genes X environment interactions

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Personality Development

• Does personality change across the life span?
• Are there windows of opportunity for
  personality change?

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How do we measure personality?

• 1. Observation
• 2. Projective tests such as inkblots and TAT's
  (see on next slides)
• 3. Validated paper and pencil (or computerized)
  tests and inventories

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Projective Test TAT
Just look at the picture briefly (10-15 seconds)
and write the story it suggests.
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Just look at the picture briefly (10-15 seconds)
and write the story it suggests.
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Problems in personality measurement

• People must give reliable and truthful answers
• People must understand the language used
• Responses may be affected by mood
• People may have multiple identities across
  situations and find it difficult to portray
  their "real" personality

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So, Lets do some self assessment!
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Locus of control (Green)

• Definition the extent to which one believes
  that the things that happen to them are under
  external or internal control
• Sphere specific locus of control personal,
  interpersonal, or sociopolitical locus of control
• Important in the following areas Motivation,
  leadership, job selection and design, stress, and
  change
• Cultural differences in locus of control

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Locus of Control Internals

• Believe their own abilities and efforts control
  the things that happen to them
• Are independent, like to participate in
  decisions, are involved in work, adjust to work
  and handle job stress well, like to influence
  others, are future rather than present oriented,
  are achievement oriented, and may chafe under too
  many rules, restrictions, and rigidity

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Locus of Control Externals

• Believe that others, situations, and fate control
  what happens to them.
• They prefer structure, do not like to work
  independently, have few expectations based on
  past successes or failures, and are susceptible
  to influence attempts

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Means and Ranges of MBA Students NUWC/NAVY
Managers (SSLC)
Class Personal Interpersonal Sociopolitical
Mean Range Mean Range Mean
Range N EMBA III 59 43-69 54
38-64 48 38-68 21 KMBA 2000 54
32-68 53 24-64 39 22-55 18 KMBA
2001 54 34-66 54 38-65 40 24-66
23 KMBA 2002 53 32-65 47
34-64 40 30-56 18 PMBA 2002
58 46-65 51 32-62 40 20-54 25 NUWC 2002
55 40-64 55 45-62 40 27-54 10 KMBA 2003
54 41-62 50 38-63 39 26-50 24 NUWC 2003
58 46-67 53 36-65 41 14-57 23 NAVY 2003
51 28-61 54 43-62 38 24-49 13 NUWC 2004
55 45-65 47 27-63 42 30-53 13 PMBA 2004
56 41-66 52 34-64 41 24-58 26 AVERAGE
55 52 41
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Machiavellianism (Blue)

• Degree to which one uses deceit, lying, and
  compromising ethics to attain ones own self
  interest strong believers in the end justifies
  the means
• High Machs
• Have lots of self confidence and self esteem
• Are cool and calculating
• Try to manipulate ambiguous situations to control
  them
• Do not let feelings and loyalty to get in the way
  of obtaining own ends

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Machiavellianism

• Differences between locus of control
  (interpersonal sphere) and Machiavellianism
• They are positively related, but internals use
  legitimate methods of influence while high
  Machs use more duplicitous techniques

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Means (Ranges) of Machiavellian Scores
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Kolb McIntyre Learning Style (yellow)

• Measures the ways people prefer to learn
• Why important?
• Determines how we train others and help them to
  change and adapt
• Helps us understand why "some people never learn
• May be linked to other dispositional variables
  risk taking, being creative, emotionality
• Helps us see there are variable ways to determine
  the "truth"

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CE
Sensing
Horizontal arrow Information evaluation
Divergers
Accommodators
RO
AE
Extraversion
Introversion
Assimilators
Convergers
Vertical arrow Information gathering
AC
Intuition
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Model of Emotional Intelligence(purple)
Managing Self
Individual Motivation
Self Awareness And Regulation
Emotional Trigger
Emotional Response
Behavioral Response
Managing Others
Empathy
Motivational Influence
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Emotional Intelligence
Self-Awareness
Social Awareness

• Emotional self awareness
• Accurate self-assessment
• Self-confidence

• Empathy
• Organizational awareness
• Service orientation

Self-Management
Relationship Management

• Emotional self-control
• Trustworthiness
• Conscientiousness
• Adaptability
• Optimism
• Achievement-orientation
• Initiative

• Development of others
• Inspirational leadership
• Influence
• Communication
• Change catalyst
• Conflict management
• Bond building
• Teamwork and collaboration

Definition A persons abilities to perceive,
identify, understand, and successfully manage
emotions in self and others
http//www.eiconsortium.org
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Big Five Personality Variables(booklet with pink
descriptions)

• General personality variables that are said to
  cover the most important traits that
  differentiate us from each other
• Extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness,
  openness to experience, and conscientiousness

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Correlations of Traits with Satisfaction,
Leadership, and Motivation
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Research on the Big Five Traits

• Absenteeism
• Extraversion is positively related to absenteeism
• Conscientiousness is negatively related to
  absenteeism
• No differences found between racial groups, and
  thus less adverse impact when using for selection
  purposes compared to cognitive ability tests

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Research on the Big Five Traits

• Agreeableness
• Needed for jobs requiring teamwork and good
  interpersonal facilitation skills
• However, negatively related to career
  satisfaction
• Extraversion
• Related to positive affectivity and interpersonal
  facilitation
• Positively related to salary levels, promotions,
  and career satisfaction

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Research on the Big Five Traits

• Dark side to conscientiousness
• Not helpful for jobs that require creativity,
  innovation, spontaneity, or quick decision making
  ("analysis paralysis")
• Openness to experience
• Needed for jobs requiring innovation, creativity,
  and spontaneity
• May be predictive of cross-cultural sensitivity
  and success in international assignments
• Negatively related to salary levels obtained

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Research on the Big Five Traits

• Emotional Stability (Neuroticism)
• Related to negative affectivity (whiners?)
• Cope poorly with stress
• Negatively related to career satisfaction

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Research on the Big Five Traits European
Samples

• Conscientiousness and emotional stability are
  valid predictors across job criteria and
  occupational groups (police, professionals,
  managers, salespeople, and skilled labor)
• Extraversion positively related to extrinsic
  career success (salary, promotion) more for
  European than US executives
• Neuroticism negatively related to extrinsic
  success more for US than European executives

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Other personality traits

• Authoritarianism
• Rigid adherence to conventional values, belief in
  rigid hierarchies and status systems
• Prefers highly structured work situations and
  directive leadership
• Obeys authority unquestionably
• Dogmatism
• Rigidity and inability to change
• Closemindedness

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Other personality traits

• Self Monitoring
• Extent to which people try to control the way
  they present themselves to others
• High self monitors
• Behave in socially acceptable ways
• Manage others impressions of them well
• Low self monitors
• Insensitive to cues about how to behave and are
  not concerned about how others see them
• May provide open and honest feedback

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Other Personality Traits

• Type A/Type B personality syndrome
• Type A's are impatient, cynical, and sometimes
  hostile connection to coronary heart disease has
  been made
• Type B's are laid back, relaxed, pace themselves.
  May be related to career success vs. quality of
  life cultural values

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Other Dispositional Variables Self Concept

• General set of TCV's that one perceives makes up
  one's self
• Perceived and ideal self concepts (strong vs.
  weak due to reinforcement history, inner vs.
  other-directed for standards, fixed vs. ordinal
  standards used to evaluate level of one's self
  concept, high vs. low)
• Social identities (role and global)

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Why is studying personality important to managers?

• Useful in selection, training, motivation,
  communication, and change
• Job/career fit and success
• Affects how we make decisions, solve problems,
  handle conflicts, deal with politics, and cope
  with stress
• Helps us understand how others are different from
  us, despite similar experiences and situations

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Why is studying personality important to managers?

• Personality predicts how well we do in terms of
  "contextual performance" (i.e., commitment,
  absenteeism, involvement, dedication,
  interpersonal facilitation)
• Abilities and job experiences predict task
  performance better
• Cultural differences may impact personality may
  determine one's success in managing
  cross-culturally