Chapter 4

Personality and
Emotions
OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter,
you should be able to:

1. Explain the factors that determine an

individual’s personality.
2. Describe the MBTI personality framework.
LEARNING

3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five

personality model.
4. Explain the impact of job typology on the
personality/job performance relationship.
5. Differentiate emotions from moods.
6. Contrast felt versus displayed emotions.
O B J E C T I V E S (cont’d)
After studying this chapter,
you should be able to:

7. Explain gender-differences in emotions.

8. Describe external constraints on emotions.
9. Apply concepts on emotions to OB issues.
LEARNING
What is Personality?

Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others.

Personality Traits
Enduring Personality
Personality
characteristics that Determinants
Determinants
describe an • •Heredity
Heredity
individual’s behavior
• •Environment
Environment
(e.g. shy, aggressive,
• •Situation
submissive, lazy, Situation
ambitious, loyal)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A personality test that taps four characteristics
and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality
types.
Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
• •Extroverted
Extroverted(outgoing,
(outgoing,sociable)
sociable)vs. vs.
Introverted
Introverted(quiet
(quietand
andshy)
shy)(E(Eor
orI)I)
• •Sensing
Sensing(practical,
(practical,orderly)
orderly)vs.
vs.Intuitive
Intuitive
(unconscious
(unconsciousprocesses,
processes,looking
lookingatatthethebig
big
picture) (S or
picture) (S or N)N)
• •Thinking
Thinking(logical
(logicalproblem
problemsolving)
solving)vs.vs.Feeling
Feeling
(emotional problem solving) (T
(emotional problem solving) (T or F)or F)
• •Judging
Judging(prefer
(prefercontrol
control&&structure)
structure)vs. vs.
Perceiving
Perceiving (flexible & spontaneous) (Por
(flexible & spontaneous) (P orJ)J)
 The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions

Extroversion
Comfort level with relationships (Sociable, outgoing, and assertive)

Agreeableness
Individual’s propensity to defer to others - Good-natured, cooperative, and
trusting.
Conscientiousness
A measure of reliability -Responsible, dependable, persistent, & organized.

Emotional Stability
A person’s ability to withstand stress - Calm, self-confident, secure
(positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative).

Openness to Experience
Interest & fascination with novelty -Imaginativeness, artistic, sensitivity,
and intellectualism.
Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB
 Locus of control
 Machiavellianism
 Self-esteem
 Self-monitoring
 Risk taking
 Type A personality
Locus of Control

Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe
they are masters of their own fate.

Internals
Individuals who believe that
they control what happens to
them.
Externals
Individuals who believe
that what happens to them
is controlled by outside
forces such as luck or
chance.
Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism (Mach)
Degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance,
and believes that ends can justify
means.

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Emotions
Emotionsdistract
distractfor
forothers
others
Self-Esteem and Self-Monitoring

Self-Esteem (SE)
Individuals’ degree of
liking or disliking
themselves.
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that
measures an individuals
ability to adjust his or her
behavior to external,
situational factors.
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.
 Personality Types
Type A’s
1. are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;
2. feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;
3. strive to think or do two or more things at once;
4. cannot cope with leisure time;
5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in
terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.

Type B’s
1. never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its
accompanying impatience;
2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements
or accomplishments;
3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their
superiority at any cost;
4. can relax without guilt.
Personality Types

Proactive Personality
Identifies
opportunities, shows
initiative, takes
action, and
perseveres until
meaningful change
occurs.
Creates positive
change in the
environment,
regardless or even in
spite of constraints or
Achieving Person-Job Fit

Personality-Job Fit
Theory (Holland) Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
••Realistic:
Realistic:Stable,
Stable,practical,
practical,
Identifies six shy,
shy,persistent
persistent
personality types and
••Investigative:
Investigative:Analytical,
Analytical,
proposes that the fit Curious,
Curious,Independent
Independent
between personality
••Social:
Social:sociable,
sociable,friendly,
type and occupational cooperative
friendly,
cooperative
environment
••Conventional:
Conventional:conforming,
determines satisfaction efficient,
conforming,
efficient,inflexible
inflexible
and turnover.
••Enterprising:
Enterprising:self
selfconfident,
confident,
energetic,
energetic,ambitious
ambitious
••Artistic:
Artistic:imaginative,
imaginative,
disorderly,
disorderly,emotional
emotional
 Holland’s
Typology of
Personality
and
Congruent
Occupations

E X H I B I T 4–2
 Relationships
among
Occupational
Personality
Types

Source: Reprinted by special permission of the publisher, Psychological

Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, copyright 1973, E X H I B I T 4–3
1985, 1992 by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Please record question no. and your score for each
question (e.g. Q1 3)
Statement Disagree Neutral Agree
A lot A Little A Little A lot
1- The best way to handle people is to tell them 1 2 3 4 5
what they want to hear

2- When you ask someone to do something for 1 2 3 4 5

you, it is better that you give them the real reason
why you want it rather than reasons that carry more
weight
3- Anyone who completely trusts someone else is 1 2 3 4 5
asking for trouble

4- It is hard to get ahead without cutting corners 1 2 3 4 5

here and there

5- it is safest to believe that all people have a 1 2 3 4 5

vicious streak that will come out when needed

6- one should take action only when it is morally 1 2 3 4 5

right

4–17
 Please record question no. and your score for each
question (e.g. Q1 3)
Statement Disagree Neutral Agree
A lot A Little A Little A lot
7- Most people are basically good and kind 1 2 3 4 5

8- There is no excuse for lying to someone else 1 2 3 4 5

9- Most people forget more easily the death of their 1 2 3 4 5

father than the loss of their property

10- Generally speaking, people will not work hard 1 2 3 4 5

unless forced to do so.

Scoring
-Add up the numbers you checked for questions 1,3,4,5,9 and 10
-Reverse the number you have checked for questions 2,6,7 and 8 so that 5
becomes 1, 4 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4 and 1 becomes 5
-Total both sets of numbers to find your score

4–18
Emotions- Why Emotions Were Ignored in OB
 The “myth of rationality”
– Organizations are not emotion-free.
 Emotions of any kind are disruptive to
organizations.
– Original OB focus was solely on the effects of
strong negative emotions that interfered with
individual and organizational efficiency.
What Are Emotions?

Affect
A broad range of emotions
that people experience.

Emotions Moods
Intense feelings that are Feelings that tend to be
directed at someone or less intense than
something. emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus.
What Are Emotions? (cont’d)

Emotional Labor
A situation in which an employee
expresses organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal
transactions.
Emotional Dissonance
A situation in which an employee
must project one emotion while
simultaneously feeling another.
Felt versus Displayed Emotions

Felt Emotions
An individual’s actual
emotions.
Displayed Emotions
Emotions that are
organizationally required and
considered appropriate in a
given job.