Personality•Determinants of personality

•Major personality attributes influencing OB

AZIM PREMJI

His father started an oil mill in 1947 making vanaspati.

On his death, Azim Premji had to come back and look after the business.

Today he has led Wipro to achieve the Software Superpower statusHis personality….

Premji is a champion of integrity.

Premji is a picture of calm and has a quiet determination about everything he does.

Premji always aims high.

Premji is an incorruptible person

Opening Case

“Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of

those psychophysical systems that determines his unique

adjustment to his environment “

--Gordon Allport

Personality is one of the psychological factors that influences individual behavior.

Personality of an individual represents personal characteristics and traits which can lead to consistent patterns of behavior.

Behavior is the outcome of a complex interaction between the person and the situation.

What is Personality?What is Personality?

PERSONALITY

• Stable pattern of behavior.

• Consistent internal state that explain persons behavior tendencies.

• It has both internal and external elements.

• Personality refers to the set of traits and behaviors that characterize an individual.

ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY

• 1. Personality has both internal and external elements.

• 2. An individuals personality is relatively stable.

• 3. An individual’s personality is both inherited as well as shaped by the environment.

• 4. Each individual is unique in behavior.

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY

Heredity

Social

Personality

Environment

Situational

Family

HEREDITY

• The role of heredity in the development of personality is an old argument of personality theory.

• Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.

• Physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex, character, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be imported either completely or substantially from one’s parents.

• .

HEREDITY

• The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of genes located in the chromosomes.

• The chromosomes contain thousands of genes, which seem to be the transmitters of the traits.

• It is clearly shown that both physical and psychological characteristics can be transmitted through heredity

INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS• Physical structure

• Reflexes(response to external stimuli, blinking of eyes)

• Innate drives (impulses to act based on physiological tensions; but these must bee linked through learning with activities which will reduce the tensions.)

• Intelligence(the capacity to learn, to modify responses)

• Temperaments(patterned and recurrent responses associated with basic emotional make up. Eg. Phlegmatic(unemotional/calm) ,excitable or lethargic.)

ENVIRONMENT

• If all personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at birth and no amount of experience could alter them.

• Personality development owes as much to environment around it as it does to heredity.

• Environment is a broad term and includes such factors as culture which influences norms, attitudes, and values that are passed along from one generation to the next and creates consistencies over time.

CONTINUE………..

• Anthropologists have clearly demonstrated the important role of culture plays in the development of human personality.

• The methods by which an infant is fed and is toilet-trained, and makes the transition from adolescence to adulthood are all culturally determined.

• Child learns to behave in ways expected by the culture of the family into which he or she is born.

• Most culture expect different behaviors from males and females.

• Sex role may vary from culture to culture.

PERSONALITY• Personality is relatively stable.

• Individuals personality changes at all, only over a long time or as a result of a traumatic event.

• Personality explain:

Behavior tendencies because behavior is influenced by situations as well as personality traits.

• Personality traits are less evident in situations where social norms, reward system, and other conditions constrain behavior.

• Eg: talkative people remain calm in the library because of rules.

• An individuals personality is both inherited and shaped from the environment.

• Personality is partially inherited genetically from our parents.

• Genetic personality can be altered due to life experience.

FAMILY

• The family has considerable influence on personality development

• The parent play an important role in the identification process which is important to an individual’s early development.

• Usually the parents of the same sex as the child will serve as the model for child’s identification.

• Sibling also contribute to personality development.

FAMILY• 1. Identification can be viewed as the similarity of the

behavior(including feeling and attributes) between child and model.

• 2, Identification can be looked upon as the child’s motive or desire to be like the model

• 3. Identification can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes of the model.

• The identification process is fundamental to the understanding of personality development.

• Sibling also contribute to personality development.

SOCIALIZATION PROCESS

• Personality also developed through socialization process

• Process is not confined to early childhood, but takes place throughout one’s life.

• Evidence is accumulating that socialization may be one of the best explanation of why employees behave the way they do in today’s organization.

• Socialization involves the process by which a person acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioral patterns that are customary and acceptable to the standards of ,initially ,the family and the later the social group and the employing organization.

• Socialization starts with the initial contact between a mother and her infant.

• After infancy other members of the immediate family (father, brothers, sisters and close relatives or friends.

• Then social groups( peer, school, friends, teachers, close relatives and members of working group.

SITUATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Immediate situation which may predominate personality.

• Eg. Worker whose developmental history has shaped a personality which incorporates a high need for power and achievements.

• If they placed a high bureaucratized work situation, this individual may become frustrated and behave aggressively.

• Worker may appears to be lazy or trouble maker, yet developmental history would predict that the individual is very hard worker, striving to get ahead.

• Personality is a complex concept that reflects many influences both within and outside the individual.

• Personality progress through identifiable stages and never really stops developing.

• One can examine personality at any point of time within its developmental sequence in order to compare and contrast individual personalities.

Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective

People are basically goodwith actualizing tendencies.

Given the right environmentalconditions, we will develop

to our full potentials

Determinants of personality

Environment

BIG FIVE PERSONALITY

Conscientiousness

Emotional Stability

Openness to experience

Agreeableness

Extroversion

Careful, dependable,self-disciplined

Poised(self confident), Secure, Calm

Sensitive, Flexible, Creative, Curious

Courteous/polite, good natured, empathetic, caring

outgoing, talkative,sociable, assertive

The Big Five ModelThe Big Five Model

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS• Conscientiousness-refers to the number of goals that a person

focuses on.

• A highly conscientious person focuses on relatively few goals at one time.

• He or she is likely to be organized, systematic, careful, responsible, self disciplined and achievement oriented.

• Extent that people are careful, dependable, and self disciplined.

• People with low conscientiousness tend to be careless, disorganized and irresponsible

• A person with a low conscientious nature tends to focus on a higher number of goals at one time.

EMOTIONAL STABILITY

• People with high emotional stability are poised, secure and calm

• Those with emotional instability tend to be depressed, anxious, indecisive and subject to mood swings.

• Emotional stability focuses on individuals ability to cope up with stress.

• A person with high emotional stability tend to be enthusiastic.

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

• It refers to the extend that people are sensitive, flexible, creative, and curious.

• Those who are low on this dimension tend to be resistant to change, closed to new ideas, and fixed in their ways.

• They are willing to listen new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs and attitudes in response to new information.

• People with low openness tend to be less receptive to new ideas and less willing to change their minds.

• They also tend to have fewer and narrow interests and be less curious and creative.

AGREEABLENESS

• This dimension includes the trait of being courteous, good natured, empathetic,and caring.

• People with low agreeableness tend to be uncooperative, short tempered and irritable.

EXTRAVERSION

• People will be outgoing, talkative, sociable and assertive.

• Extroverts are sociable, talkative, assertive, and open to establishing new relationships.

• Introverted are quiet, shy, and cautious. They are more inclined to direct their interests to ideas than to social events. They feel quite comfortable being alone, whereas extroverts not like that.

Major Personality Attributes Influencing OBMajor Personality Attributes Influencing OB

• Locus of control• Machiavellianism• Self-esteem• Self-monitoring• Propensity for risk taking• Type A personality

Locus of ControlLocus of Control

MachiavellianismMachiavellianism

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction

•Minimal rules and regulations

• Distracting emotions

Conditions Favoring High Machs

• Direct interaction

•Minimal rules and regulations

• Distracting emotions

Self-Esteem and Self-MonitoringSelf-Esteem and Self-Monitoring

Risk-TakingRisk-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

Personality TypesPersonality Types

Personality TypesPersonality Types