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Personality
CHAPTER

Understanding Organizational Behaviour

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Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will:

Understand personality.
Discuss and distinguish the important personality theories.
Identify factors that determine personality.
Explain the personality traits used in Myers-Briggs type
indicator and the Big Five model.
Describe the major personality attributes influencing OB.
Differentiate personality fit in terms of personalityjob fit
and personalityorganization fit.
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3.1

What is Personality?

Personality is the sum total of ways in

which an individual reacts to and
interacts with others.

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3.2

Personality Theories

Type Theory of Personality

Trait Theory of Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Social Learning Theory of Personality
The Humanistic Approach

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3.2.1

Type Theory of
Personality

Type theory relates the features of face or body to

the personality.
E.g
-short plum person (endomorph)- slow, steady,
sociable, relaxed and even tempered
-muscular person (mesomorph) noisy, insensitive,
fond of physical activities
Type theory is simple and subjective, but it fails to
explain the complexities of the personalities.
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3.2.1

Type Theory of
Personality

Psychologist Carl Jung divided all personalities

into introvert and extrovert based on sociability
and interpersonal relationship orientation
introvert

Extrovert

Introverts tend to recharge by

spending time alone. They lose
energy from being around people
for long periods of time,
particularly large crowds.

Extroverts, gain energy from

other people. Extroverts actually
find their energy is sapped when
they spend too much time alone.
They recharge by being social

relaxed

Out spoken

passion

sociable

shy

brave

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3.2.1

Type Theory of
Personality

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3.2.2

Trait Theory of
Personality

Trait theory describes personalities by a set of

features based on the following:
Determining the basic traits that provide a
meaningful description of personalities.
Finding some way to measure the traits.

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3.2.2

Trait Theory of
Personality (cont.)

To assess personality traits, two methods are

generally used:
Self-assessment whereby a person describes
him/herself by answering a set of questions
related to his/her personality or
Someone else describes the personality
through observation or answering questions
related to his/her personality.

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3.2.2

Trait Theory of
Personality (cont.)

A set of questionnaire called personality inventory

is used for this purpose.
It is asset of questions related to the attitudes,
feelings and behavior
Rating scale is a device for recording judgment
about trait such as excellent to very poor

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3.2.3

Psychoanalytic Theory of
Personality

Psychologist Sigmund Freud suggests that personality is

composed of three elements: id, ego and super ego.
Personality is determined internally in the individuals.
The id refers exclusively to innate component of
personality inherited at birth.
The ego relates to reality.
The super ego is a set of norms, values, ethics and
attitudes which are reasonably compatible with the
society. It judges whether an action is wrong or right.
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3.2.3

Psychoanalytic Theory of
Personality

Psychoanalytic Theory

Businessman

Criminal

Id
personality inherited at
birth

-wealth parents heredity

-healthy live
environment
-dependent since
childhood

-poor parents heredity

-unhealthy live
environment
-independent since
childhood

Ego
reality

-risk taker (normal)

-Independent
-stable of emotion

-Risk taker (abnormal)

-independent
-unstable of emotion

Super Ego
norms, values, ethics
and attitudes which
reflected to society.

-polite
-social
-persuasion in making
decision

-rude
-antisocial
-aggressive in making
decision

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3.2.4

Social Learning Theory

of Personality

Social learning theory of personality regards the

situation to be an important determinant of
behaviour.
Humans learn by direct experience (learning
through reinforcement) and vicarious learning
(learning by observing).
Eg A strict person may be regarded differently
within a military setting compered to an office
setting
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3.2.5

The Humanistic
Approach

Personality is studied with emphasis on the persons

potentials for self-direction and freedom of choice.
Using Rogers theory, personality is explained by looking
at two concepts, namely, self and self-actualization.
Self contains ideas, perceptions and identity.
E.g elegant, flexible, formal, creative, innovative,
Self-actualization is the basic motivating factor
influencing personality.
E.g professionalism, leadership, integrity,
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3.3
Personality
Determinants/ Factors
Heredity: Factors that were determined when personality
was first conceived such as physical stature, facial
attractiveness, gender and temperament. It is also
influenced by parents.
E.g parents ability and talent, body features
Environment: The culture in which we are raised; our early
conditioning; the norms among our family, friends and social
groups; and other influences that we experience.
Eg. Most of juveniles who commit crime had pressured by
unstable of family condition.
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3.3

Personality Determinants

Situation: Different demands of different situations call forth

different aspects of ones personality.
E.g professionally in office setting vs strict discipline military,
urgency of life and death situation among doctors (chaos) vs
regular health checking among patient (calm)
Family influences personality whereby values are inculcated by
the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles as well as siblings.
Eg Old parents are more conservative (moderate and culture
preserve) in molding childrens behavior as compared to
modern parents who are more openness and liberal .

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3.3 Personality Determinants (cont.)

Social: Begins from the initial contact between
the mother and the infant, other members of the
family, and social groups like peers, school
friends and members of the work group.
E.g peer pressure, friends and social unjust

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3.4

Personality Traits

Personality traits are enduring characteristics

that describe an individuals behaviour. Over
the years philosophers and psychologists have
tried to isolate personality traits.
In 1930s, Allport identified more than 17,000
traits and since then numerous studies have
embarked to identify key traits or primary traits.

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3.4

Personality Traits (cont.)

The Chinese have perfected the art of

identifying the characteristics of certain
animals whereby people born in the particular
year are said to possess the characteristics or
personalities of the animals in the Chinese
Zodiac.
Recent researches have condensed these
into measurable models.

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3.4.1

Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator

MBTI is personality test that measures four

characteristic and classifies people into 16
Four dichotomous
extroversion vs introversion (E vs I)
sensing vs intuition (S vs N)
thinking vs feeling (T vs F)
judging vs perceiving (J vs P)
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3.4.1

Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator
Characteristics

Description of the Individual

How you focus your

attention

E Extraversion

Outgoing, sociable and assertive

I Introversion

Quiet and shy

How you collect

information

S Sensing

Practical and prefer routine and order Focus

on details

N Intuition

Rely on unconscious processes and look at

the big picture

T Thinking

Use reason and logic to handle problems

F Feeling

Rely on their personal values and emotions

How you evaluate

information

How you orient

J Judging
yourself to the outside
world
P Perceiving
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Want control, and prefer their world to be

ordered and structured
Flexible and spontaneous
Spontaneous in decision making
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3.4.2

The Big Five Model

Openness to experience: Someone who has imagination,

sensitivity and curiosity
Conscientiousness: Someone who is responsible,
dependable, persistent and organized.
Extroversion: Someone who is sociable, gregarious and
assertive.
Agreeableness: Someone who is good-natured, cooperative
and trusting.
Neuroticism (Emotional stability): Someone who is calm, selfconfident, secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed and
insecure (negative).
.
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3.4.2

The Big Five Model

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3.5

Major Personality Attributes

Influencing Organizational
Behaviour

3.5.1 Locus of Control

3.5.2 Machiavellianism
3.5.3 Self-Esteem
3.5.4 Self-Monitoring
3.5.5 Risk Taking
3.5.6 Type A Personality
3.5.7 Proactive Personality
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3.6

Personality and National

Culture

A study conducted in 26 countries found a universal

pattern of sex differences on the Big Five model
(Costa, Terracciano and McCrae, 2001).
A cross-cultural study conducted in 55 countries
validated the Big Five instrument across diverse
cultures (Schmitt, Realo, Voracek and Allik, 2008).
It is important to note that personality types vary
across cultures as well as within the respective
cultures, so you can find different types of personality
regardless of which culture you belong to.
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3.7

Achieving Personality
Job Fit

Personalityjob fit theory is a theory that

identifies six personality types and proposes
that the fit between personality type and
occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover.

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3.7.1

The PersonalityJob Fit

John Holland proposed a model of personality

job fit based on the notion of fit between an
individuals personality characteristics and his or
her occupational environment.
Holland proposes six personality types, namely
Social, Enterprising, Conventional, Artistic,
Realistic, and Investigative.

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3.7.1 The PersonalityJob Fit

(cont.)
Hollands Model suggested the following:
There are intrinsic differences in personality
among individuals
There are different types of jobs, and
People in job environments that are congruent
with their personality types should be more
satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign
(Robbins, 1996).
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3.7.1

The PersonOrganization
Fit

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3.7.1

The PersonOrganization
Fit

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3.7.1

The PersonOrganization
Fit

Personorganization fit: People find compatibility at

work when their personality matches with the
organization.
If individuals know their personality (either via MBTI or
Big Five) and find a compatible organization given their
respective personality, they will find a better fit with the
organizational culture.
As for yourself, if you are an extrovert, what kind of
organization would fit you better?
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3.8

Values

Values are a set of beliefs about particular things

that we hold as important to us as individuals.
Such personal values are reflected in our value
system. This system holds our organization of
beliefs relating to our preferred modes of conduct
or end-states, that is the notion of how we would
like to behave and how we would like things to be.
We may have many values, but their importance
to us are relative between each one of the values
which we hold over time.
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3.8

Values

The values we hold can be divided into two

types: Instrumental values and terminal values
which can be discussed in the context of means
and ends.
Instrumental values refer to means by which
we achieve desired ends. They are instruments
or tools that guide our behaviours or how we act.
For example, honesty, ambitious, loving and
independent.
Terminal values refer to desired end-states or
life goals. For example, world peace, happiness,
wisdom, freedom and security.
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3.9

Value Conflicts

As humans, we may share common ideas and

opinions about the relative importance of the
things around us. However we may hold some
values that contradict with each other.
This is called intrapersonal value conflict.
Have you ever had internal conflict about values
that you hold dear?

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3.10

Malaysian Work Values

Preference for relationships.

Trust and relationship building, preserving face, we
orientation, teamwork, harmony, cooperation and
personalized relationships.
The Malaysian workforce place high premium in
maintaining relationships in the workplace. As such,
building relationships is seen as an important activity and
is highly valued.
Expatriate managers who may be more task-oriented
may have to be sensitive to this value if they want to get
the best out of their Malaysian employees.
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3.10

Malaysian Work Values

Preference for hierarchy.

Respect for senior/elderly people, nonassertiveness, respect for loyalty, status, good
manners and courtesy, respect for hierarchy,
respect for differences, non-aggressiveness,
status differential and power distance.
Deference to authority and hierarchy among the
Malaysian workforce.
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3.10
Malaysian Work Values
(cont.)
Therefore, in supervisorsubordinate
relationships, much respect must be shown
between the boss and the employees.
In Malaysia, honorific titles are important
whereas people may go on first name basis in
an American-based multinationals.

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3.11

Review Questions

1. What is personality?
2. Discuss and distinguish the important personality
theories.
3. What determines personality?
4. What are the major personality traits used in Myers
Briggs type indicator and the Big Five?
5. How can one achieve personality fit in terms of
personalityjob fit and personalityorganization fit?
6. What are values?
7. What are the two Malaysian work values?
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