Module 2: Personality

By: Pallabi Mund

 PERSONALITY
• The term “Personality” is derived from the Latin word
“Persona” which means a theatrical mask used by actors in
those days to indicate their role in theatrical play.
• Personality can be defined as “The sum total of ways in
which an individual reacts and interacts with others”.
• Its considered to be made up of both hereditary and
environmental factors, moderated by situational conditions.

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 Nature of Personality
• Personality Traits : Personality is the sum of different
traits of a person. It is a composition of physical
appearance, emotional attributes, sociability, objectivity,
friendliness, and so on.
• Personality reflects individual differences : No two
individuals are exactly alike, because the characteristics
that constitute an individual’s personality are unique
combination of factors.
• Personality is consistent and enduring : Few personality
traits are consistent and stable throughout the life.
• Personality can change : It may still change under
certain circumstances like death of a loved one, career
promotion or birth of a child.
Determinants of Personality/Factors
Affecting Personality
1. Hereditary Factors: “Like Father like Son”;
“Like Mother Like Daughter”

 Physical Structure
 Eye/Hair color
 Facial attractiveness
 Gender
 Temperament
 Muscle composition
 Reflexes
 Intelligence
 Energy level 4
 Determinants oaf
Personality/Factors Affecting
Personality
2. Environmental Factors:
a) Culture: Culture establishes norms, attitudes and values
that are along with us from generation to generation.
Persons belonging to different cultural groups
generally have different personalities and different
attitudes towards independence, aggression,
competition, cooperation, and artistic talent.
b) Family: Families influence the behavior and personality
of a person especially in the early stages. The nature of
such influence depends on socio-economic level of the
family, family size, religion, parent’s educational
level, etc.
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 Determinants oaf
Personality/Factors Affecting
Personality
2. c) Social:
 Initially socialization starts with the contact of the infant with the
mother when he grows up.
 Later, contacts with the other members of the family and social
groups influence his socialization process.
 A man is known by the company he keeps, therefore all the social
groups in contact with him influence the behavior of the
individuals.
3. Situational: Life is a collection of experiences. An individual’s
personality may change or differ from another individual based on
certain situation or experiences he has faced in life. A particular
situation may either provide a constraint or push to an individual.
Ex: Traumatic event.
 Why Personality is Important
at Workplace ?
Why recruiters look for more than simply what one has
majored in and how much work experience an individual
has??

When you are spending 8 hours a day with the same

colleagues, it’s not really their experiences or education that
will determine what type of relationships you will have with
them…….

…………………it’s their personalities!

 Why Personality is Important at
Workplace ?
• An individual’s personality which also forms an
individual’s character is essential:
In predicting how people interact and behave with one
another.
In determining how well they fit with the tasks and
responsibilities required for a position.
In determining the success of an individual at workplace
which depends on certain personality attributes like
“perseverance” and “conscientiousness”.
 Why Personality is Important at
Workplace ?
Knowing about an employee’s personality helps in:
• Motivating employees: monetary incentives and perks
can help uplift an employee’s spirits to some extent but
that is also temporary. Knowing about what types of
projects and work environments can be linked to
employee’s innate drive would mean long-term
motivation and happiness. Ex: service-oriented people
getting demotivated in a competitive environment.
• Reducing turnovers: An employee fit assessment can
increase retention rates because it ensures your employees
are built for the job, or at least have the innate potential to
be successful. Identifying the right person for the right
 Why Personality is Important at
Workplace ?
• Decreasing conflicts and improving collaboration:
Personalities clash can cause a ripple effect of destruction in
your organization. Predicting which people might need to
make more of an effort when working together and, more
specifically, which personality dimensions could be the
culprits in these conflicts so that one knows what to work on.
Ex: High achievement oriented, aggressive or dominating
employee or low self esteemed employees.
• Preventing burnouts: Understanding or knowing which
employees are more susceptible to high nervous tension,
episodes of low energy or are unable to detach, for ex: Need
for positive reinforcement, or holding back frustrations due
to fear of conflicts in future; can help in reducing burnouts in
employees to a large extent.
 Why Personality is Important at
Workplace ?
• Communicating effectively with their workforce:
Sometimes a person might give a confused or blank look
when you try to explain him/her about certain concepts. Such
a person requires more visuals and concrete examples of
how this idea would be transposed into his day-to-day reality.
• How we learn, what information we need to feel at ease
making a decision, and how much time we need to allow this
information to set in can differ from one employee to the next.
So personality at work is important for making sure you
are approaching someone the best way possible, and are
equipped with what this person needs to feel comfortable.
Personality and Poor Job Fit
What is Person – Job fit?
 Personality-Job Fit Theory
“People are happier and most productive when
they are placed into jobs that match their
personality”
-- John L. Holland

This theory was developed in the 1950s.

It groups people on the basis of their suitability for six different
categories of occupations. The six types yield the RIASEC
acronym, by which the theory is also commonly known.
Holland believed certain types of people work best when
paired with jobs that not only utilize their strengths but are
tailored to how they work best, resulting in more work getting
done and of high quality.
 Personality-Job Fit Theory
The typology has come to dominate the field of career
counselling and has been incorporated into most of the
popular assessments used in the organizations today.
This theory classifies people into their respective
categories by evaluating how a person approaches life
situations.
According to him, there are six key categories that define
the modern worker. Those are : Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
He also viewed that most people fall into more than one
category and people with the same personality type tend
to work best with others of their type, but certain types
work best alone or with specific groups over others.
Personality-Job Fit Theory
Personality-Job Fit Theory
Personality-Job Fit Theory
 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
1. Locus of Control – The extent to which people believe that they
can control the events affecting their lives.
a) Internal Locus of Control: They believe that they are the masters
of their own fate. Such people are very successful in life. They
work the best in stressful situations. They are independent and
more active socially. They prefer participative style of
management.
b) External Locus of Control: They see themselves as pawns of fate
believing that whatever happens to them in their lives is due to luck
or fate. Externals do well on jobs that are well structured and
routined. Such people prefer directive management and can break
under pressure.
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 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
2. Machiavellianism – also known as Mach is named after
Niccolo Machiavelli.
The degree to which an individual is pragmatic in nature.
 Such a person maintains emotional distance and believes that
ends can justify means.
A high Machiavellianism have high self esteem and self
confidence. They are more manipulative, win more and are
persuaded less.
These people are successful when the situation has a
minimum number of rules and regulations.
 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
3. Self Esteem: People differ in the degree to which they like or
dislike themselves.
 Individuals with high self-esteem will take more risks in job
selection and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs
than people with low self-esteem.
 Low self esteems are more susceptible to external influence
than are high self esteems.
 High self esteems are more satisfied with their jobs than are
low self esteems.
 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
4. Self monitoring: Self monitoring is a personality trait that
measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to
external situational factors.
High self monitors change their behavior easily based on
situational requirements while low self monitors reveal their
moods which may contradict situational requirements.
The high self monitors are more successful in managerial
positions, are better leaders, better conversationalists and can
work efficiently with people of different departments.
 Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
5. Risk taking:
 It is the willingness to take chances, rapid decision making capability.
 Managers in large organizations tend to be risk-averse, especially in
contrast to growth-oriented entrepreneurs who actively manage small
businesses.
 Risk taking behavior differs based on the nature or demand of work.
6. Type A and Type B personalities:
 Type A personality are not creative people. They are impatient,
aggressive and highly competitive. Such people are always in a hurry
and can't deal with leisure.
 Type B personality are easy going, laid back and non competitive.
They are not concerned about time and relax without feeling guilty.
 Personality Traits
Versus
Personality Types
Personality Trait Personality Type

It refers to the enduring characteristic It refers to the psychological

that describe an individual’s classification of different types of
behaviour. individuals.

It refers to the quantitative It refers to the qualitative differences

differences between individuals. between people.

For example: introversion and For example: introverts and

extraversion are part of a continuous extraverts are two fundamentally
dimension, with many people in the different categories of people.
middle.

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 Personality Traits

1. Enduring characteristics that describe individual’s Behavior

are: Shy, Aggressive, Submissive, Lazy, Ambitious, Loyal and
Timid
2. Big Five Personality Trait Theory: are five broad domains or
dimensions of personality that are used to describe human
personality. The theory based on the Big Five factors is
called the Five Factor Model (FFM).

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 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL
The initial model was advanced by Ernest Tupes and
Raymond Christal in 1961, but failed to reach an academic
audience until the 1980s.
In 1990, J.M. Digman advanced his five factor model of
personality, which Goldberg extended to the highest level of
organization.
At least four sets of researchers have worked independently for
decades on this problem and have identified generally the same
Big Five factors: Tupes & Cristal were first, followed by
Goldberg at the Oregon Research Institute, Cattell at the
University of Illinois, and Costa and McCrae at the National
Institutes of Health.
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 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL contd..
• Human resources professionals often use the Big Five
personality dimensions to help place employees. That is
because these dimensions are considered to be the underlying
traits that make up an individual’s overall personality.
1. Neuroticism
2. Extraversion
3. Openness to Experience
4. Agreeableness
5. Conscientiousness
 Hence the widely used abbreviations as NEOAC, CANOE
or OCEAN.
 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE FACTOR MODEL
contd..
1.Neuroticism and Emotional
Stability: This dimension
relates to one’s emotional
stability and degree of negative
emotions like anxiety,
depression, anger, and
impulsiveness.
This is a personality dimension
that characterizes some one as
calm, self confident , secure
(Positive) verses nervous,
depressed and insecure
(negative).
 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL contd..
2. Extraversion: Tendency
to experience positive
emotions and excitement
seeking. Someone who is
characterized as outgoing
and social - get along with
many people.
 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL contd..
3. Openness to Experience:
Tendency to engage in
Intellectual abilities and
experience new sensations and
ideas.
They like to learn new things
and enjoy new experiences.
Creativity, Intellect and Culture
is involved here.
People with this tendency are
characterized as Dreamy,
Imaginative, inventive and non-
conservative in their thoughts.
 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL contd..
4. Agreeableness: or Sociability.
Individuals are characterized as
caring, warm, friendly and having a
considerate behavior. Eager to
cooperate and avoid conflict.
 BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE
FACTOR MODEL contd..
5. Conscientiousness: is related
to responsibility and self-
discipline.

Individuals having this trait

are known for their
competence, order, dutifulness.

These type of individuals are

best identified for their
reliability, efficiency,
determination and productivity.
BIG FIVE THEORY OR FIVE FACTOR MODEL contd..
 Personality Type
• Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MTBI): Initially
proposed by Carl Jung (1921) and later refined by two
American women - Katharine Cook Briggs and her
daughter Isabel Briggs Myer, has become an extremely
widely used personality theory in self-help, business
management, counselling and spiritual development
contexts, but it is not commonly used in academic research
where, like all type theories, it is treated sceptically.
• The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is an introspective self-
report questionnaire with the purpose of indicating
differing psychological preferences in how people
perceive the world around them and make decisions.
Myers – Briggs Type Indicator
(MTBI)
The MBTI is made up of 4 different scales:
a) Extraversion (E) and Introversion (I)
b) Sensing (S) and Intuition (N)
c) Thinking (T) and Feeling (F)
d) Judging (J) and Perceiving (P)

 Each person uses all these functions at different times

depending on their preferences and circumstances .
Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MTBI) Contd.
 Myers – Briggs Type Indicator
(MTBI) Contd.
• The MBTI sorts these into four opposite pairs, or dichotomies,
resulting in 16 possible psychological types as below:

ISTJ ISTP ISFJ ISFP INFJ INFP INTJ INTP

ESTP ESTJ ESFP ESFJ ENFP ENFJ ENTP ENTJ

 Myers – Briggs Type Indicator
(MTBI)
1. Extraversion: “Outgoing” or “People Person”, action- oriented,
comfortable in groups, wide range of friends, do not think
enough before acting.
2. Introversion: “Reflective” or “Reserved”, thought-oriented,
feel comfortable to be alone, have few friends, take time in
reflecting or thinking before jumping into action.
3. Sensing: Likely to trust information that is in the present,
tangible, and concrete, Solve problems based on facts,
pragmatic in nature.
4. Intuition: Likely to trust information that is more abstract or
theoretical, more interested in future possibilities and hunches.
Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MTBI)
Contd.
5. Thinking: Decide things from a more detached standpoint,
Decision seems to be reasonable, logical and matching a given set
of rules. Not tactful and give direct feedback to others.
6. Feeling: Decide things by associating or empathizing with the
situation, looking at it 'from the inside' and considering the needs
of the people involved. They are Tactful and do not prefer saying
the cold truth.
7. Judging: Task-oriented, prefer making a list of things to do.
Prefer planned and systematic work done before playing.
8. Perceiving: Loose and casual, keep plans to minimum, mix
work and play. Stimulated by an approaching deadline.