What is Personality?

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Personality Traits

Personality Determinants
• Heredity
• Environment
• Situation

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 Theories of Personality
• Trait Theory
• Type Theory
• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Behaviourist Theory
• Cognitive Theory
• Humanistic Theory
• Biopsychological Theory

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The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator

Personality Types
• Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
• Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
• Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
• Perceiving or Judging (P or J)

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Sixteen
Primary
Traits

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The Big Five
Model

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 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
 Locus of control
 Machiavellianism
 Self-esteem
 Self-monitoring
 Propensity for risk taking
 Type A personality

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Locus of Control

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Machiavellianism

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction
• Minimal rules and regulations
• Distracting emotions

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Self-Esteem and Self-
Monitoring

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 Risk-Taking
 High Risk-taking Managers
 Make quicker decisions.

 Use less information to make decisions.

 Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations.

 Low Risk-taking Managers

 Are slower to make decisions.

 Require more information before making decisions.

 Exist in larger organizations with stable environments.

 Risk Propensity
 Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job requirements

should be beneficial to organizations.

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Personality Types

Type B Personality
Where as type B
personality on other,
tended to be relaxed,
less competitive &
lower in risk

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Personality Types

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Felt versus Displayed Emotions

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 Facial Expressions Convey
Guess Emotions
which
emotion
I’m
feeling
now!

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 OB Applications of Personality
 Ability and Selection
 Personality affect employee effectiveness.

 Decision Making
 Personality are an important part of the decision-making

process in organizations.
 Motivation
 Personality commitment to work and high motivation are

strongly linked.
 Leadership
 Personality are important to acceptance of messages from

organizational leaders.

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 OB Applications of Personality
 Interpersonal Conflict
 Conflict in the workplace and individual emotions are

strongly intertwined.
 Deviant Workplace Behaviors
 Negative emotions can lead to employee deviance in

the form of actions that violate established norms and

threaten the organization and its members.
 Productivity failures

 Property theft and destruction

 Political actions

 Personal aggression

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