PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION: THE MEANING OF

PERSONALITY
• Personality refers to the relatively enduring
characteristics that differentiate one person
from another and that lead people to act in a
consistent and predictable manner, both in
different situations and over extended periods
of time
 Determinants of Personality
• 1. Hereditary
• 2. Personal Factors(age, gender, ability)
• 3.Cultural Factors.
• 4. Situational Factors.
 Major personality traits
• 1. Authoritarianism : it establish the personality
of a person with formal authority, obedience to
superiors, respect of rules and regulations, rigid
behaviour, negative attitude towards people.
• 2.Machiavellianism :it means manipulating the
people. People have power and they manipulate
others for personal interests. For their benefits they
take the advantage of others’ innocence and
emotions.
• 3.Exteroversion: these are sociable, unreserved,
open and gets along with others in a friendly manner.
In organizations such persons are more successful in
activities which involve public relations like sales,
publicity.
• 4. Introvert: these are reserved, shy, less sociable,
quiet and does not easily mix up with others to build
relationships.
• 5. locus of control: some people believe that they
are the masters of their own fate, other people see
themselves as pawns of fate, believing that whatever
happens to them in their lives is due to their luck or
fate.
• 6. Self Esteem: “self esteem refers to the
feeling of like or dislike for oneself.” it is the
degree of respect a person has for himself.
• 7. Self Monitoring :it is personality trait that
measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her
behaviour to the external situational factors.
• 8. “Type A” and “Type B” personality: type A
personality people are very fast, are always in hurry,
think only of work and prefer to work alone. Type B
people are more patient, focus on interpersonal
relations , understand people and prefer to work in
teams.
 Theories of personality
• 1. Freudian Stages or Psycho-Analytical theory.
• 2. Chris Argyris’s Immaturity- Maturity Theory.
• 3.Traits Theory.
• 4. Self Theory
 Freudian Stages or Psycho-Analytical
theory.
• Freud’s theory suggest that personality is
composed of the id, the ego, and the superego.
• Id: Id is the foundation of unconscious behaviour and
is the base of Iibido Drives. The unorganized, inborn
part of personality whose purpose is to seek
immediate satisfaction relating to biological needs.
Id has animalistic instincts of aggression, power, and
domination. It demands immediate pleasure at
whatever cost. As an individual matures he learns to
control the Id.
• The Ego: the Ego is associated with the
realities of life. Just as Id is the unconscious
part of human personality, Ego is the
conscious and logical part as it is linked with
the realities of external environment. The ego
of a person keeps the Id in check whenever it
demands immediate pleasure and can be
granted at an appropriate time and place and
in an appropriate manner.
• The Super Ego: the super ego is the higher
level force to restrain the Id and is described
as the conscious of a person. The super ego
represents the norms of the individual, his
family and the society and is an ethical
constraint on the behaviour. The conscious of
the person is continuously telling him what is
right or what is wrong.
 Chris Argyris’s Immaturity- Maturity
Theory
• This theory was given by Chris Argyris.
• He proposes that a human personality rather
than going through precise(exact, strict)
stages, progresses along a continuum from
immaturity as an infant to maturity as an
adult. However , at any age, people can have
their degree of development plotted
according to the seven dimensions as shown
in the table
 Trait theory
• Some psychologists have tried to understand
personality on the basis of individual’s traits.
Traits are the characteristic of a person in which
he/she differs from another.
• Trait theory based on following assumptions:
• Traits are common to many individuals but vary in
absolute amounts between the individual.
• Traits are relatively stable. Their consistent
occurrence influences the human behavior.
• One’s trait can be inferred by measuring his/her
behavioural indicators.
 Trait theory
• Cattell has identified sixteen source traits .the
sixteen traits having two dimensions are
noted in the following table.
 Self Theory
• The most common contribution to self theory
was given by Carl Rogers.
• He has defined the self or self concept as an
organised, consistent, conceptual ,composed
of perceptions of “I” and “Me”. The
relationship of “I” and “Me” with others and
to various aspects of life has been analysed by
Rogers. There are four factors of self concept:
• 1. Self Image: Self image is the way one sees
oneself. Every person has certain beliefs about
who or what he is.
• 2. Ideal Self : the ideal self denotes the way
one would like to be.
• 3. Looking Glass Self : it is the way one thinks
people perceive about him and the way
people actually see him.
• 4. Real Self: The real self is what one really is.
 Application of Personality to OB
• 1. Active person job fit.
• 2. Introduce change.
• 3. Develop human relations.
• 4. Design training programmes .
• 5. Design a motivational plan