Chapter 3

PERSONALITY,
PERCEPTION,
AND ATTRIBUTION
Variables Influencing
Individual Behavior
THE
THE PERSONS ENVIRONMENT
 SKILLS AND
PERSONALITY
 PERSONALITY  ORGANISATION
 PERCEPTION  WORK GROUP
 ATTITUDES  JOB
 VALUES
 PERSONAL LIFE
 ETHNICS

BEHAVIOR
B=Ƒ(P,E)
Big Five Personality Traits
Gregarious, assertive,
Extraversion
sociable

Cooperative, warm,
Agreeableness
agreeable

Conscientiousnes Hardworking, organized,

s dependable

Emotional stability Calm, self-confident, cool

Openness to
Creative, curious, cultured
experience
 PERSONALITY

DEFINITION- A RELATIVELY STABLE SET OF

CHARACTERSTICS THAT INFLUENCE AN
INDIVIDUAL’S BEHAVIOR
 PERSONALITY THEORIES

 TRAIT THEORY- The personality theory that states that in

order to understand individual’s we must break down behavior

patterns into a series of observable traits.

 INTEGRATIVE APPROACH- The broad theory that describes

personality as a composite of an individual’s psychological
processes.
Personality Characteristics in
Organization
 Core Self-Evaluations(CSE):- is a broad set of personality that refers
to self concept.
 It is comprised of locus of control
 Self Esteem - It is an individual feeling of self worth.
 Success tends to increase self-esteem.
 Failure tends to decrease self-esteem
 Self efficacy
It is the beliefs and expectations about one’s ability to accomplish a specific task
effectively
 Self Monitoring - It is the behavior based on cues from others & situations
Application of Personality Theory

To apply this theory, managers must measure the personalities of

their organisation’s members.

Common personality measurement tools

 Projective test
 Behavioural measures
 Self report questionnaire
 Carl Jung and the Myers-Briggs type indicator instrument
 Type Theory preferences and descriptions

1. Extraversion: An individual is energized by interaction with other people.

2. Introversion: An individual is energized by spending time alone.
3. Sensing: Gathering information through the five senses.
4. Intuition: Gathering information from the “sixth sense”, focusing on what could be than what
actually exists.
5. Thinking: Making decisions in a logical, objective manner.
6. Feeling: Making decisions in a personal, value-oriented way.
7. Judging: Preferring closure and completion in making decisions.
8. Perceiving: Preferring to explore many alternatives and flexibility
THE SIXTEEEN TYPE
• The are sixteen type of preference combinations by combining these four
scale dichotomies, which are as follows:

a. Extroverted(E) /Introverted(I)
b. Thinking(T)/Feeling(F)
c. Judging(J)/Perceiving(P)
d. Sensing(S)/Intuition(N)

On the basis of these combinations, an organization decides the point of view

of individuals and help them develop interpersonal skills and it also help
individuals to appreciate differences.
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
• It is an another psychological process that creates individual
differences.
• The process of interpreting information via five senses (touch, smell,
hearing, vision, taste) about another person.

Factors affecting Social perception

• Culture is one factor
• There are three major factors
a. Characteristics of ourselves, as perceiver
 Familiar/unfamiliar
 Negative/positive attitude
 happy/ depressed mood
 Negative/positive Self concept

b. Characteristics of the target person, the person being perceived.

 Physical appearance- height, weight, age, race, gender and clothing etc.
 Physical attractiveness
 Verbal communication – voice tone, accent, knowledge about the topic he/she
speaks.
 Non Verbal communication – eye contact, facial expressions, body movements and
postures.
 Intentions of the target person
c. Characteristics of the situation in which the interaction is taking place.
 Context of the interaction whether it is a formal interaction or informal interaction.
 Strength of situational cues.
BARRIERS TO SOCIAL PERCEPTION
• SELECTIVE PERCEPTION :

Selective perception is tendency to choose information that supports our view points,
Individuals often ignore information that makes them feel uncomfortable or threatens
their view points.

• FIRST IMPRESSION ERROR :

First impressions error are lasting impressions. We tend to remember what we perceive
first about a person, and some times we are quite reluctant to change our initial
impressions. First - impression error means the tendency to form lasting opinions about
an individual based on initial perceptions

• STEREOTYPE :

A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people. When we judge someone on

the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she belongs, we are using the
shortcut called stereo typing.
• PROJECTION :

This tendency to attribute one's own characteristics to other people is called

projection.

• SELF FULFILLING PROPHECIES :

Self-fulfilling prophecies are the situation in which our expectations about

people affect our interaction with them in such a way that our expectations are
fulfilled.

• ATTRIBUTION IN ORGANISATIONS :

Attribution theory explains how we pin point the causes of our own behaviour
and that for other people

• INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTION :

Attribution theory proposes that the attributions people make about events and
behaviour can be classed as either internal or external
• ATTRIBUTION BIASES :

The attribution process may be affected by two very common errors :

1) Fundamental attribution error – is the tendency to make attributions to internal

causes then focussing on someone else’s behaviour .

2) Self serving bias : the tendency to attribute ones own successes to internal causes
and ones failure to external causes