Personality and Values: Earning Bjectives

Chapter 5 Personality and Values
Page 147
CHAPTER
Personality and Values

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it.
2. Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and its strengths and
weaknesses.
3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
4. Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work
5. Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts behavior.
6. Contrast terminal and instrumental values.
7. Compare generational differences in values.
8. Identify Hofstedes five value dimensions of national culture.
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Instructors may wish to use the following resources when presenting this chapter.
Learning Catalytics Questions: Instructor Directions and Follow-Up
Organizational
Behavior Concept
Terminal and
instrumental values
MBTI
LC Question
Instructor Directions and Follow-Up
Indicate your top three

values by typing a single
value in each of the three
spaces indicated.
Introduce this question after you discuss the difference

between terminal and instrumental values.
Select whether you think

you are more introverted
or more extraverted.
a. Introverted
b. Extraverted
Display the word cloud. Point out any trends with

reporting more instrumental or more terminal values in
the class and any other patterns that the class notices.
Introduce this question after discussing the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator. Discuss what the difference between the
E versus I dimension of the MBTI is and what types of
preferences and behaviors might be attributed to E versus
I. Make the connection between participation in class and
on student teams with this preference.
Copyright 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Page 148
Text Exercises
Myth or Science?: We Can Accurately Judge Individuals Personalities a Few Seconds

After Meeting Them
glOBalization!: Is the Personality Profile of an Entrepreneur the Same Across the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Germany?
An Ethical Choice: Do You Have a Cheating Personality?
Point/Counterpoint: Millennials Are More Narcissistic
Question for Review
Experiential Exercise: What Organizational Culture Do You Prefer?
Ethical Dilemma: Generational Values and Staying Put
Text Cases
Case Incident 1: On the Costs of Being Nice

Case Incident 2: The Power of Quiet
Instructors Choice
This section presents an exercise that is NOT found in the student's textbook. Instructor's Choice
reinforces the text's emphasis through various activities. Some Instructor's Choice activities are
centered on debates, group exercises, Internet research, and student experiences. Some can be
used in class in their entirety, while others require some additional work on the student's part.
The course instructor may choose to use these at any time throughout the classsome may be
more effective as icebreakers, while some may be used to pull together various concepts covered
in the chapter.
Web Exercises
At the end of each chapter of this Instructors Manual, you will find suggested exercises and
ideas for researching OB topics on the Internet. The exercises Exploring OB Topics on the
Web are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to your class, and
make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as an out-of-class activity
or as lab activities with your class.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Personality matters to organizational behavior. It does not explain all behavior, but it sets the
stage. Emerging theory and research reveal how personality matters more in some situations than
others. The Big Five has been a particularly important advancement, though the Dark Triad and
other traits matter as well. Moreover, every trait has advantages and disadvantages for work
behavior. There is no perfect constellation of traits that is ideal in every situation. Personality can
help you to understand why people (including yourself!) act, think, and feel the way we do, and
Page 149
the astute manger can put that understanding to use by taking care to place employees in
situations that best fit their personality.
Why is it important to know an individuals values? Values often underlie and explain attitudes,
behaviors, and perceptions. So knowledge of an individuals value system can provide insight
into what makes the person tick.
As a manager, you are more likely to appreciate, evaluate positively, and allocate rewards to
employees who fit in, and your employees are more likely to be satisfied if they perceive
they do fit in. Plan to objectively consider your employees performance accordingly.
Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousnessas well as the other Big Five
traits, depending on the criteria your organization finds most important. Other traits, such as
core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant in certain situations.
You need to evaluate your employees jobs, their work groups, and your organization to
determine the optimal personality fit.
Take into account employees' situational factors when evaluating their observable personality
traits, and lower the situation strength, to better ascertain personality characteristics.
Although the MBTI has been widely criticized, it may have a place in organizations. You may
consider the results helpful for training and development; the results can also help employees
better understand themselves, help team members better understand each other, open up
communication in work groups, and possibly reduce conflicts.
This chapter opens with a discussion about Matthew Corrin, the founder and CEO of restaurant chain
Freshii. The success of the Freshii chain has been attributed in part to Corrins personality. He is known
not only for his ambition, but also for the high standards he expects of himself and his employees. Some
have also suggested that Corrin is narcissistic and enjoys being the center of attention.
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Personality
A. What Is Personality?
1. Personality is a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a
persons whole psychological system.
2. Defining personality
a. The text defines personality as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
to and interacts with others.
3. Measuring personality
a. The most important reason managers need to know how to measure personality is
that research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help
managers forecast who is best for a job.
b. The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys,
with which individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors.
c. While narcissism seems to have little relationship with job performance, it is
fairly strongly related to increased counterproductive work behaviors and is
linked to other negative outcomes.
Page 150
i. A study found that while narcissists thought they were better leaders than their
colleagues, their supervisors rated them as worse.
4. Personality determinants
a. Introduction
i. An early argument centered on whether personality was the result of heredity
or environment.
ii. Personality appears to be a result of both influences.
b. Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.
i. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individuals
personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the
chromosomes.
ii. Researchers have studied thousands of sets of identical twins that were
separated at birth to better understand the role of heredity in determining
personality.
c. Personality traits
i. Enduring characteristics that describe an individuals behavior include shy,
aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid. These are
personality traits.
ii. Early efforts to identify the primary traits that govern behavior often resulted
in long lists that were difficult to generalize from and provided little practical
guidance to organizational decision makers.
B. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
1. One of the most widely used personality frameworks is the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI).
2. Individuals are classified as:
a. Extroverted or Introverted (E or I).
b. Sensing or Intuitive (S or N).
c. Thinking or Feeling (T or F).
d. Perceiving or Judging (P or J).
3. These classifications are then combined into sixteen personality types. For example:
a. INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great drive. They are
characterized as skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn.
b. ESTJs are organizers. They are realistic, logical, analytical, decisive, and have a
natural head for business or mechanics.
c. The ENTP type is a conceptualizer. He or she is innovative, individualistic,
versatile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas. This person tends to be
resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments.
4. MBTI is widely used in practice. Some organizations using it include Apple
Computer, AT&T, Citigroup, GE, 3M Company, and others.
C. The Big Five Personality Model
1. An impressive body of research supports that five basic dimensions underlie all other
personality dimensions. The five basic dimensions are:
a. Extraversion. Comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious,
assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
Page 151
b. Agreeableness. Individuals propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness

peoplecooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness peoplecold,
disagreeable, and antagonistic.
c. Conscientiousness. A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is
responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this
dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
d. Emotional stability. A persons ability to withstand stress. People with positive
emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high
negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
e. Openness to experience. The range of interests and fascination with novelty.
Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at
the other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the
familiar.
2. How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work?
a. Research has shown relationships between these personality dimensions and job
performance.
b. Employees who score higher, for example, in conscientiousness develop higher
levels of job knowledge.
c. Conscientiousness is as important for managers as for front-line employees.
(Exhibit 5-1)
i. The study found conscientiousnessin the form of persistence, attention to
detail, and setting of high standardswas more important than other traits.
ii. These results attest to the importance of conscientiousness to organizational
success.
d. Although conscientiousness is the Big Five trait most consistently related to job
performance, there are other traits that are related to aspects of performance in
some situations.
3. All five traits also have other implications for work and for life. Lets look at these
one at a time. (Exhibit 5-2)
a. Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most strongly related to life
satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels.
b. Extraverts tend to be happier in their jobs and in their lives.
c. Individuals who score high on openness to experience are more creative in
science and art than those who score low.
d. Agreeable individuals are better liked than disagreeable people, which helps
explain why they tend to do better in interpersonally-oriented jobs such as
customer service.
4. The five personality factors identified in the Big Five model appear in almost all
cross-cultural studies.
a. These studies have included a wide variety of diverse cultures such as China,
Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States.
b. Generally, the findings corroborate what has been found in U. S. research: of the
Big Five traits, conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance.
D. The Dark Triad
Page 152
1. With the exception of neuroticism, the Big Five traits are what we call socially
desirable, meaning we would be glad to score high on them.
2. Researchers have found that three other socially undesirable traits, which we all have
in varying degrees, are relevant to organizational behavior.
a. They are: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
b. Owing to their negative nature, researchers have labeled these three traits the
Dark Triad.
3. Machiavellianism
a. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional
distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
b. High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others
more.
c. Machiavellianism does not significantly predict overall job performance.
4. Narcissism
a. Narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
b. They think they are better leaders.
c. Often they are selfish and exploitive.
5. Psychopathy
a. In the OB context, psychopathy is defined as a lack of concern for others, and a
lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.
i. Measures of psychopathy attempt to assess the persons motivation to comply
with social norms; willingness to use deceit to obtain desired ends and the
effectiveness of those efforts; impulsivity; and disregard, that is, lack of
empathic concern, for others.
b. The literature is not consistent about whether psychopathy or other aberrant
personality traits are important to work behavior.
c. Organizations wishing to assess psychopathy or other aberrant traits need to
exercise caution.
i. Given the relative newness of research on the Dark Triad, using
psychopathology in employment decisions may carry more risks for now than
rewards.
E. Approach-Avoidance
1. The approach-avoidance framework has cast personality traits as motivations.
2. Approach and avoidance motivation represent the degree to which we react to stimuli;
approach motivation is our attraction to positive stimuli and avoidance motivation our
aversion to negative stimuli.
F. Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
1. Core self-evaluation (self-perspective)
a. People who have a positive core self-evaluation see themselves as effective,
capable, and in control.
b. People who have a negative core self-evaluation tend to dislike themselves.
c. Some can be too positive. In this case, someone can think he or she is capable, but
he or she is actually incompetent.
2. Self-monitoring
Page 153
a. This refers to an individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,

situational factors.
b. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are
highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different situations, and
are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and
their private self.
3. Proactive personality
a. Actively taking the initiative to improve their current circumstances while others
sit by passively.
b. Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere.
G. Personality and Situations
1. Increasingly, we are learning that the effect of particular traits on organizational
behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical frameworks help explain how this
works.
a. Situation strength
i. Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into
behavior depends on the strength of the situation.
(a) By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues, or
standards dictate appropriate behavior.
b. Research suggests that personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations
than in strong ones.
c. Researchers have analyzed situation strength in organizations in terms of four
elements:
i. Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are
available and clear.
ii. Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work duties and
responsibilities are compatible with one another.
iii. Constraints, or the extent to which individuals freedom to decide or act is
limited by forces outside their control.
iv. Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions have important
implications for the organization or its members, clients, supplies, and so on.
d. Some researchers have speculated that organizations are, by definition, strong
situations because they impose rules, norms, and standards that govern behavior.
These constraints are usually appropriate.
e. Trait Activation Theory (TAT)
i. TAT predicts that some situations, events, or interventions activate a trait
more than others.
ii. Exhibit 5-3 shows jobs in which certain Big Five traits are more relevant.
II. Values
A. Introduction
1. Values represent basic convictions.
2. A specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially
preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.
3. They have both content and intensity attributes.
Page 154
4. An individuals set of values ranked in terms of intensity is considered the persons

value system.
5. Values have the tendency to be stable.
B. The Importance and Organization of Values
1. Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation.
2. We enter an organization with preconceived notions of what ought and ought not
be.
a. These notions are not value-free; on the contrary, they contain our interpretations
of right and wrong and our preference for certain behaviors or outcomes over
others.
3. Values cloud objectivity and rationality; they influence attitudes and behavior.
C. Terminal Versus Instrumental Values
1. How can we organize values?
2. Milton Rokeach separates them into:
a. Terminal Valuesrefer to desirable end states.
b. Instrumental Valuesrefer to preferable modes of behavior.
D. Generational Values
1. Contemporary work cohorts
i. Exhibit 5-4 segments employees by the era during which they entered the
workforce.
ii. Because most people start work between the ages of 18 and 23, the eras also
correlate closely with employee age.
(a) Boomers (Baby Boomers)entered the workforce during the 1960s
through the mid-1980s.
(b) Xersentered the workforce beginning in the mid-1980s.
(c) The most recent entrants to the workforce are the Millennials.
2. Though it is fascinating to think about generational values, remember these
classifications lack solid research support.
3. Generational classifications may help us understand our own and other generations
better, but we must also appreciate their limits.
III. Linking an Individuals Personality and Values to the Workplace
A. The Person-Job Fit
1. This concern is best articulated in John Hollands personality-job fit theory.
2. Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the
propensity to leave a job depends on the degree to which individuals successfully
match their personalities to an occupational environment.
3. The six personality types are: realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising,
and artistic. (Exhibit 5-5)
a. Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire contains 160 occupational titles.
Respondents indicate which of these occupations they like or dislike; their
answers are used to form personality profiles. (Exhibit 5-6)
i. The key point of this model is that people in jobs congruent with their
personality should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than
people in incongruent jobs.
B. The Person-Organization Fit
Page 155
1. The personorganization fit essentially argues that people are attracted to and selected
by organizations that match their values, and they leave organizations that are not
compatible with their personalities.
IV. International Values
A. Hofstedes Framework for Assessing Cultures
1. Five value dimensions of national culture:
a. Power distance: the degree to which people in a country accept that power in
institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
b. Individualism versus collectivism: individualism is the degree to which people
in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups;
collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in
groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.
c. Masculinity versus femininity: masculinity is the degree to which the culture
favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control, as
opposed to viewing men and women as equals.
d. Uncertainty avoidance: the degree to which people in a country prefer structured
over unstructured situations.
e. Long-term versus short-term orientation: long-term orientations look to the
future and value thrift and persistence. In a short-term orientation, people value
the here and now; they accept change more readily and dont see commitments as
impediments to change.
2. Hofstedes research findings (Exhibit 5-7)
a. Asian countries were more collectivistic than individualistic.
b. United States ranked highest on individualism.
c. German and Hong Kong rated high on masculinity.
d. Russia and The Netherlands were low on masculinity.
e. China and Hong Kong had a long-term orientation.
f. France and the United States had short-term orientation.
3. Hofstedes culture dimensions have been enormously influential on OB researchers
and managers, but his research has been criticized.
a. First, although the data have since been updated, the original work is more than
30 years old and was based on a single company (IBM).
b. Second, few researchers have read the details of Hofstedes methodology closely
and are therefore unaware of the many decisions and judgment calls he had to
make (for example, reducing the number of cultural values to just five).
c. Despite these concerns, Hofstede has been one of the most widely cited social
scientists ever, and his framework has left a lasting mark on OB.
4. Hofstedes recent research
a. Studies investigated the relationship of cultural values and a variety of
organizational criteria at both the individual and national level of analysis.
b. Overall, the five original culture dimensions were equally strong predictors of
relevant outcomes, meaning researchers and practicing managers need to think
about culture holistically and not just focus on one or two dimensions.
Page 156
c. The researchers also found that measuring individual scores resulted in much
better predictions of most outcomes than assigning all people in a country the same
cultural values.
B. The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures
1. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) began
updating Hofstedes research with data from 825 organizations and 62 countries.
2. Variables similar to Hofstedes.
3. Which framework is better?
a. We give more emphasis to Hofstedes dimensions here because they have stood
the test of time and the GLOBE study confirmed them.
b. Researchers continue to debate the differences between these frameworks, and
future studies may, in time, favor the more nuanced perspective of the GLOBE
study.
V. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Personality matters to organizational behavior.
1. It does not explain all behavior, but it sets the stage.
B. Emerging theory and research reveal how personality matters more in some situations
than others.
C. The Big Five has been a particularly important advancement, though the Dark Triad and
other traits matter as well.
1. Moreover, every trait has advantages and disadvantages for work behavior.
2. There is no perfect constellation of traits that is ideal in every situation.
D. Personality can help you understand why people (including yourself!) act, think, and feel
the way we do, and the astute manger can put that understanding to use by taking care to
place employees in situations that best fit their personality.
E. Why is it important to know an individuals values?
1. Values often underlie and explain attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions.
2. So knowledge of an individuals value system can provide insight into what makes
the person tick.
a. As a manager, you are more likely to appreciate, evaluate positively, and allocate
rewards to employees who fit in, and your employees are more likely to be
satisfied if they perceive they do fit in. Plan to objectively consider your
employees performance accordingly.
b. Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousnessas well as the
other Big Five traitsdepending on the criteria your organization finds most
important. Other traits, such as core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant
in certain situations.
c. You need to evaluate your employees jobs, their work groups, and your
organization to determine the optimal personality fit.
d. Take into account employees' situational factors when evaluating their observable
personality traits, and lower the situation strength, to better ascertain personality
characteristics.
e. Although the MBTI has been widely criticized, it may have a place in
organizations. You may consider the results helpful for training and development;
the results can also help employees better understand themselves, help team
Page 157
members better understand each other, open up communication in work groups,

and possibly reduce conflicts.
EXPANDED CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Personality
A. What Is Personality?
1. Personality is a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a
persons whole psychological system.
2. Defining personality
a. Gordon Allport coined the most frequent used definition.
b. The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.
c. The text defines personality as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
to and interacts with others.
3. Measuring personality
a. The most important reason managers need to know how to measure personality is
that research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help
managers forecast who is best for a job.
b. The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys,
with which individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors.
c. Though self-report measures work well when well-constructed, one weakness is
that the respondent might lie or practice impression management.
4. Personality determinants
a. Introduction
b. An early argument centered on whether personality was the result of heredity or
environment.
c. Personality appears to be a result of both influences.
d. Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception.
e. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individuals
personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
f. Researchers have studied thousands of sets of identical twins that were separated
at birth.
i. Genetics accounts for about 50 percent of the variation in personality
differences and over 30 percent of occupational and leisure interest variation.
ii. The personalities of identical twins raised in different households are more
similar to each other than to the personalities of siblings with whom the twins
were raised.
iii. Peoples scores on measures of dependability tend to increase over time, as
when young adults take on roles like starting a family and establishing a
career that require great responsibility.
Page 158
5. Personality traits
a. Introduction
i. Early work revolved around attempts to identify and label enduring
characteristics.
ii. Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid. These are personality traits.
iii. The more consistent the characteristic, the more frequently it occurs, the more
important it is.
iv. Early efforts to identify the primary traits that govern behavior often resulted
in long lists that were difficult to generalize from and provided little practical
guidance to organizational decision makers.
B. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
1. One of the most widely used personality frameworks is the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI).
2. It is a 100-question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in
particular situations.
3. Individuals are classified as:
a. Extroverted or Introverted (E or I).
b. Sensing or Intuitive (S or N).
c. Thinking or Feeling (T or F).
d. Perceiving or Judging (P or J).
4. These classifications are then combined into sixteen personality types. For example:
a. INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great drive. They are
characterized as skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn.
b. ESTJs are organizers. They are realistic, logical, analytical, decisive, and have a
natural head for business or mechanics.
c. The ENTP type is a conceptualizer. He or she is innovative, individualistic,
versatile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas. This person tends to be
resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments.
5. MBTI is widely used in practice. Some organizations using it include Apple
Computer, AT&T, Citigroup, GE, 3M Company, and others.
C. The Big Five Personality Model
1. An impressive body of research supports that five basic dimensions underlie all other
personality dimensions. The five basic dimensions known as the Big Five Model are:
a. Extraversion. Comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious,
assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
b. Agreeableness. Individuals propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness
peoplecooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness peoplecold,
disagreeable, and antagonistic.
c. Conscientiousness. A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is
responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this
dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
d. Emotional stability. A persons ability to withstand stress. People with positive
emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high
negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
Page 159
e. Openness to experience. The range of interests and fascination with novelty.

Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at
the other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the
familiar.
2. How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work?
a. Research has shown relationships between these personality dimensions and job
performance.
b. Employees who score higher, for example, in conscientiousness develop higher
levels of job knowledge.
c. Conscientiousness is as important for managers as for front-line employees.
(Exhibit 5-1)
i. The study found conscientiousnessin the form of persistence, attention to
detail, and setting of high standardswas more important than other traits.
ii. These results attest to the importance of conscientiousness to organizational
success.
iii. Conscientious people live longer because they take better care of themselves
(they eat better and exercise more) and engage in fewer risky behaviors like
smoking, drinking and drugs, and risky sexual or driving behavior.
iv. Probably because theyre so organized and structured, conscientious people
dont adapt as well to changing contexts.
v. They are generally performance-oriented and have more trouble learning
complex skills early in the training process because their focus is on
performing well rather than on learning.
vi. Finally, they are often less creative than less conscientious people, especially
artistically.
d. Although conscientiousness is the Big Five trait most consistently related to job
performance, there are other traits that are related to aspects of performance in
some situations.
3. All five traits also have other implications for work and life. Lets look at these one at
a time. (Exhibit 5-2)
a. Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most strongly related to life
satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels.
i. High scorers are more likely to be positive and optimistic and experience
fewer negative emotions.
ii. They are happier than those who score low.
iii. People low on emotional stability are hyper vigilant (i.e., looking for problems
or impending signs of danger) and are especially vulnerable to the physical
and psychological effects of stress.
b. Extraverts tend to be happier in their jobs and in their lives as a whole.
i. They experience more positive emotions than do introverts, and they more
freely express these feelings.
Page 160
ii. They also tend to perform better in jobs that require significant interpersonal
interaction, perhaps because they have more social skillsthey usually have
more friends and spend more time in social situations than introverts.
iii. Finally, extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in
groups; extraverts are more socially dominant, take charge sorts of people,
and they are generally more assertive than introverts.
iv. One downside is that extraverts are more impulsive than introverts; they are
more likely to be absent from work and engage in risky behavior such as
unprotected sex, drinking, and other impulsive or sensation-seeking acts.
v. One study also found extraverts were more likely than introverts to lie during
job interviews.
c. Individuals who score high on openness to experience are more creative in
science and art than those who score low.
i. Because creativity is important to leadership, open people are more likely to
be effective leaders, and more comfortable with ambiguity and change.
ii. They cope better with organizational change and are more adaptable in
changing contexts.
iii. Recent evidence also suggests, however, that they are especially susceptible to
workplace accidents.
iv. You might expect agreeable people to be happier than disagreeable people.
(a) They are, but only slightly.
(b) When people choose romantic partners, friends, or organizational team
members, agreeable individuals are usually their first choice.
d. Agreeable individuals are better liked than disagreeable people, which explains
why they tend to do better in interpersonally-oriented jobs such as customer
service.
i. They also are more compliant and rule abiding and less likely to get into
accidents as a result.
ii. People who are agreeable are more satisfied in their jobs and contribute to
organizational performance by engaging in citizenship behavior.
iii. They are also less likely to engage in organizational deviance.
iv. One downside is that agreeableness is associated with lower levels of career
success (especially earnings).
4. The five personality factors identified in the Big Five model appear in almost all
cross-cultural studies.
a. These studies have included a wide variety of diverse cultures such as China,
Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States.
b. Generally, the findings corroborate what has been found in U.S. research: of the
Big Five traits, conscientiousness is the best predictor of job performance.
D. The Dark Triad
1. With the exception of neuroticism, the Big Five traits are what we call socially
desirable, meaning we would be glad to score high on them.
2. Researchers have found that three other socially undesirable traits, which we all have
in varying degrees, are relevant to organizational behavior.
a. They are: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
Page 161
b. Owing to their negative nature, researchers have labeled these three traits the
Dark Triad.
3. Machiavellianism
a. Named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to
gain and use power.
b. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional
distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
c. High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others
more.
d. Machiavellianism does not significantly predict overall job performance.
4. Narcissism
a. Narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
b. They think they are better leaders.
c. Often they are selfish and exploitive.
5. Psychopathy
a. In the OB context, psychopathy is defined as a lack of concern for others, and a
lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.
i. Measures of psychopathy attempt to assess the persons motivation to comply
with social norms; willingness to use deceit to obtain desired ends and the
effectiveness of those efforts; impulsivity; and disregard, that is, lack of
empathic concern, for others.
b. The literature is not consistent about whether psychopathy or other aberrant
personality traits are important to work behavior.
c. Organizations wishing to assess psychopathy or other aberrant traits need to
exercise caution.
i. Given the relative newness of research on the Dark Triad, using
psychopathology in employment decisions may carry more risks for now than
rewards.
E. Approach-Avoidance
1. The approach-avoidance framework has cast personality traits as motivations.
2. Approach and avoidance motivation represent the degree to which we react to stimuli;
approach motivation is our attraction to positive stimuli and avoidance motivation our
aversion to negative stimuli.
F. Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB
1. Core self-evaluation (Self-perspective)
a. People who have a positive core self-evaluation see themselves as effective,
capable, and in control.
b. People who have a negative core self-evaluation tend to dislike themselves.
c. People with positive core self-evaluations perform better than others because they
set more ambitious goals, are more committed to their goals, and persist longer in
attempting to reach these goals.
d. Some can be too positive. In this case, someone can think he or she is capable, but
he or she is actually incompetent. One study of Fortune 500 CEOs, for example,
showed that many are overconfident, and their perceived infallibility often causes
them to make bad decisions.
Page 162
2. Self-monitoring
a. This refers to an individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
b. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are
highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different situations, and
are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and
their private self.
c. Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to display
their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation, resulting in a high
behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.
d. Evidence suggests:
i. High self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of others.
ii. High self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers and
receive more promotions.
3. Proactive personality
a. Actively taking the initiative to improve their current circumstances while others
sit by passively.
b. Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere.
c. Create positive change in their environment.
d. More likely to be seen as leaders and change agents.
e. More likely to achieve career success.
G. Personality and Situations
a. Increasingly, we are learning that the effect of particular traits on organizational
behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical frameworks help explain how
this works.
b. Situation strength
i. Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into
behavior depends on the strength of the situation.
(a) By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues, or
standards dictate appropriate behavior.
c. Research suggests that personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations
than in strong ones.
d. Researchers have analyzed situation strength in organizations in terms of four
elements:
i. Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are
available and clear.
ii. Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work duties and
responsibilities are compatible with one another.
iii. Constraints, or the extent to which individuals freedom to decide or act is
limited by forces outside their control.
iv. Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions have important
implications for the organization or its members, clients, supplies, and so on.
e. Some researchers have speculated that organizations are, by definition, strong
situations because they impose rules, norms, and standards that govern behavior.
These constraints are usually appropriate.
Page 163
f. Trait Activation Theory (TAT)

i. TAT predicts that some situations, events, or interventions activate a trait
more than others.
ii. Exhibit 5-3 shows jobs in which certain Big Five traits are more relevant.
II. Values
A. Introduction
1. Values represent basic convictions.
2. A specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially
preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.
3. They have both content and intensity attributes.
4. An individuals set of values ranked in terms of intensity is considered the persons
value system.
5. Values have the tendency to be stable.
6. Many of our values were established in our early years from parents, teachers,
friends, and others.
B. The Importance and Organization of Values
1. Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation.
2. We enter an organization with preconceived notions of what ought and ought not
be.
a. These notions are not value-free; on the contrary, they contain our interpretations
of right and wrong and our preference for certain behaviors or outcomes over
others.
3. Values cloud objectivity and rationality; they influence attitudes and behavior.
C. Terminal Versus Instrumental Values
1. How can we organize values?
2. Milton Rokeach separates them into:
a. Terminal Valuesrefer to desirable end states of existence; the goals that a
person would like to achieve during his/her lifetime.
b. Instrumental Valuesrefer to preferable modes of behavior; the means of
achieving the terminal values.
D. Generational Values
1. Contemporary work cohorts
i. Exhibit 5-4 segments employees by the era during which they entered the
workforce.
ii. Because most people start work between the ages of 18 and 23, the eras also
correlate closely with employee age.
(a) Boomers (Baby Boomers)entered the workforce during the 1960s
through the mid-1980s.
(b) Xersentered the workforce beginning in the mid-1980s.
(c) The most recent entrants to the workforce are the Millennials.
2. Though it is fascinating to think about generational values, remember these
classifications lack solid research support.
3. Generational classifications may help us understand our own and other generations
better, but we must also appreciate their limits.
Page 164
III. Linking an Individuals Personality and Values to the Workplace

A. The Person-Job Fit
1. This concern is best articulated in John Hollands personality-job fit theory.
2. Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the
propensity to leave a job depends on the degree to which individuals successfully
match their personalities to an occupational environment.
3. The six personality types are: realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising,
and artistic. (Exhibit 5-5)
a. Each one of the six personality types has a congruent occupational environment.
b. Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire contains 160 occupational titles.
Respondents indicate which of these occupations they like or dislike; their
answers are used to form personality profiles. (Exhibit 5-6)
c. The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when
personality and occupation are in agreement.
i. The key point of this model is that people in jobs congruent with their
personality should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than
people in incongruent jobs.
B. The Person-Organization Fit
1. The personorganization fit essentially argues that people are attracted to and selected
by organizations that match their values, and they leave organizations that are not
compatible with their personalities.
2. Using the Big Five terminology, for instance, we could expect that people high on
extraversion fit well with aggressive and team-oriented cultures, that people high on
agreeableness match up better with a supportive organizational climate than one
focused on aggressiveness, and that people high on openness to experience fit better
in organizations that emphasize innovation rather than standardization.
3. Research on person-organization fit has also looked at whether peoples values match
the organizations culture.
a. This match predicts job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and low
turnover.
IV. International Values
A. Hofstedes Framework for Assessing Cultures
1. Five value dimensions of national culture:
a. Power distance: the degree to which people in a country accept that power in
institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
b. Individualism versus collectivism: individualism is the degree to which people
in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups;
collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in
groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.
c. Masculinity versus femininity: masculinity is the degree to which the culture
favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control, as
opposed to viewing men and women as equals.
d. Uncertainty avoidance: the degree to which people in a country prefer structured
over unstructured situations.
Page 165
e. Long-term versus short-term orientation: long-term orientations look to the

future and value thrift and persistence. In a short-term orientation, people value
the here and now; they accept change more readily and dont see commitments as
impediments to change.
2. Hofstedes research findings. (Exhibit 5-7)
a. Asian countries were more collectivistic than individualistic.
b. United States ranked highest on individualism.
c. German and Hong Kong rated high on masculinity.
d. Russia and The Netherlands were low on masculinity.
e. China and Hong Kong had a long-term orientation.
f. France and the United States had short-term orientation.
3. Hofstedes culture dimensions have been enormously influential on OB researchers
and managers, but his research has been criticized.
a. First, although the data have since been updated, the original work is more than
30 years old and was based on a single company (IBM).
b. Second, few researchers have read the details of Hofstedes methodology closely
and are therefore unaware of the many decisions and judgment calls he had to
make (for example, reducing the number of cultural values to just five).
c. Despite these concerns, Hofstede has been one of the most widely cited social
scientists ever, and his framework has left a lasting mark on OB.
4. Hofstedes recent research
a. Studies investigated the relationship of cultural values and a variety of
organizational criteria at both the individual and national level of analysis.
b. Overall, the five original culture dimensions were equally strong predictors of
relevant outcomes, meaning researchers and practicing managers need to think
about culture holistically and not just focus on one or two dimensions.
c. The researchers also found that individual scores were much better predictors of
most outcomes than assigning all people in a country the same cultural values.
d. In sum, this research suggests that Hofstedes value framework may be a valuable
way of thinking about differences among people, but we should be cautious about
assuming all people from a country have the same values.
B. The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures
1. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) began
updating Hofstedes research with data from 825 organizations and 62 countries.
2. Variables similar to Hofstedes.
3. Which framework is better?
a. We give more emphasis to Hofstedes dimensions here because they have stood
the test of time and the GLOBE study confirmed them.
b. Researchers continue to debate the differences between these frameworks, and
future studies may, in time, favor the more nuanced perspective of the GLOBE
study.
V. Summary and Implications For Managers
A. Personality matters to organizational behavior.
1. It does not explain all behavior, but it sets the stage.
Page 166
B. Emerging theory and research reveal how personality matters more in some situations
than others.
C. The Big Five has been a particularly important advancement, though the Dark Triad and
other traits matter as well.
1. Moreover, every trait has advantages and disadvantages for work behavior.
2. There is no perfect constellation of traits that is ideal in every situation.
D. Personality can help you understand why people (including yourself!) act, think, and feel
the way we do, and the astute manger can put that understanding to use by taking care to
place employees in situations that best fit their personality.
E. Why is it important to know an individuals values?
1. Values often underlie and explain attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions.
2. So knowledge of an individuals value system can provide insight into what makes
the person tick.
a. As a manager, you are more likely to appreciate, evaluate positively, and allocate
rewards to employees who fit in, and your employees are more likely to be
satisfied if they perceive they do fit in. Plan to objectively consider your
employees performance accordingly.
b. Consider screening job candidates for high conscientiousnessas well as the
other Big Five traitsdepending on the criteria your organization finds most
important. Other traits, such as core self-evaluation or narcissism, may be relevant
in certain situations.
c. You need to evaluate your employees jobs, their work groups, and your
organization to determine the optimal personality fit.
d. Take into account employees' situational factors when evaluating their observable
personality traits, and lower the situation strength, to better ascertain personality
characteristics.
e. Although the MBTI has been widely criticized, it may have a place in
organizations. You may consider the results helpful for training and development;
the results can also help employees better understand themselves, help team
members better understand each other, open up communication in work groups,
and possibly reduce conflicts.
Myth or Science?
We Can Accurately Judge Individuals Personalities a Few
Seconds After Meeting Them
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work; Describe how the situation
affects whether personality predicts behavior
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors that influence the formation of individual attitudes and values
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Page 167
Surprisingly, this statement appears to be true.

Research indicates that individuals can accurately appraise others personalities only a few
seconds after first meeting them. This zero acquaintance approach shows that regardless of the
way in which people first meet someone, whether in person or online, their first judgments about
the others personality have validity. In one study, for example, individuals were asked to
introduce themselves in, on average, 7.4 seconds. Observers ratings of those individuals
extraversion were significantly correlated with the individuals self-reported extraversion.
While some factors make these first impressions, or thin slices, more accurate, they have only
a modest effect. For example, some traits like extraversion are easier to perceive than others
upon initial acquaintance, but less obvious traits like self-esteem and emotional stability are also
often judged fairly accurately by others. Even being forced to make intuitive, quick judgments
rather than deliberate evaluations does not seem to undermine the accuracy of the appraisals.
The moderate accuracy of thin slices helps to explain the moderate validity of employment
interviews, which we discuss in Chapter 17. Specifically, research shows that interviewers make
up their minds about candidates within two minutes of first meeting them. While this is hardly an
ideal way to make important employment decisions, the research on personality also shows that
these judgments do have some level of validity.
Sources: S. Hirschmller, B. Egloff, S. Nestler, and D. Mitja, The Dual Lens Model: A Comprehensive Framework for Understanding Self
Other Agreement of Personality Judgments at Zero Acquaintance, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 104 (2013), pp. 335-353.
Class Exercise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Place the students in teams of five.

Ask students to have a two-minute conversation with each other.
Then, ask students to write down a description of each team member.
Next, ask students to record their own assessment of their personalities.
Ask students to compare their assessments of each other and the self-assessments.
Finally, ask students to present their results to the class and explain their experience with
the concept of zero-acquaintance.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
http://www.baclass.panam.edu/imob/SecondLife for more information.
Page 168
glOBalization!
Is the Personality Profile of an Entrepreneur the Same Across
the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany?
Learning Objectives: Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts behavior; Identify Hofstedes
five value dimensions of national culture
AACSB: Diverse and multicultural work environments, Reflective thinking
What is an entrepreneurial personality? Some recent research has provided some answers and
some interesting insights into how well this profile translates across regions and countries. The
personality profile of an entrepreneur is well represented in one study by a constellation of the Big
Five traits, with high scores on extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness, and low scores on
agreeableness and neuroticism.
Another recent study suggests there are more differences within than between countries on the
entrepreneurial personality. This study constructed a personality profile of the entrepreneurial
personality from the Big Five traits and then analyzed large samples of individuals from the
United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
In Germany, individuals in Berlin and Hamburg scored the highest on the entrepreneurial
personality profile. In the United Kingdom, East England and London scored highest. In the
United States, there were differences across both cities and states. Of the 15 largest U.S. cities,
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Seattle-Tacoma, and Atlanta scored highest on the entrepreneurial
personality profile. Among the states, Colorado, Utah, and the District of Columbia scored
highest.
Within each country, the study found that the entrepreneurial personality profile correlated with
the region or citys level of entrepreneurial activity, as measured by the percentage of the
population trying to start new businesses, the proportion of businesses less than 3.5 years old, and
the number of individuals who were self-employed.
These results suggest there is an entrepreneurial personality profile; it correlates with actual
entrepreneurial activity across countries; and within each country, regional and metropolitan
differences exist in both the personality profile and entrepreneurial activity.
Of course, one limitation of these results is that they consider only three Western locations. It
would be interesting to see whether the same pattern holds in other parts of the world.
Source: Based on M. Obschonka, E. Schmitt-Rodermund, R. K. Silbereisen, S. D. Gosling, and J. Potter, The Regional Distribution and
Correlates of an Entrepreneurship-Prone Personality Profile in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom: A Socio-ecological
Perspective, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2013), doi: 10.1037/a0032275.
Page 169
Class Exercise
1. Divide students into teams of three to five each.
2. Ask teams to brainstorm specific traits essential to being an entrepreneur and the job
tasks typically handled by entrepreneurs.
3. As a class, create one set of five traits and five tasks.
4. Next, using Hofstedes dimensions of national culture and GLOBEs cultural analyses,
ask students to consider how the profile of an entrepreneur might differ across countries.
Teaching Notes
An Ethical Choice
Do You Have a Cheating Personality?
Learning Objective: Compare generational differences in values
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
Stories of widespread cheating have been on the rise, leading many experts to conclude that the
incidence of cheating is increasing. Recently a major cheating scandal was uncovered at Harvard
University, where more than 125 students (roughly half of whom were eventually expelled) were
found to be involved in an organized cheating scheme. Harvard administrators took the scandal
seriouslymaybe too seriously. In 2013, the Boston Globe reported that administrators had
secretly downloaded university emails in an effort to get to the bottom of the scandal, including
the email accounts of 16 deans.
Like most complex behaviors, cheating in school, at work, and in life is a product of the person
and the situation. As for the person, research reveals that certain traits are related to the tendency
to cheat, including high levels of narcissism, low levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness,
and high levels of competitiveness. One study of business students found that narcissism was
especially likely to translate into cheating for the very religious.
As for the situation, experts find cheating increases when it is easier to cheat (such as on takehome exams), when there is greater pressure to cheat, and when clear standards are lacking or are
Page 170
not reinforced (such as when an organizations sexual harassment policy is not communicated to
employees). Surveys reveal, for example, that most employees have never read their
organizations policies on ethical conduct.
How can this research help inform you as a student and employee?
1. Recognize situations that are more likely to provoke pressures to cheat. Being explicit and
open with yourself about your response to these pressures should keep you from succumbing
to a moral blind spot, in which you engage in behavior without considering its ethical
undertones.
2. If you score high on certain traits that predispose you to cheat, this does not mean you are
destined to cheat. However, you should realize that you might be more susceptible and
therefore need to be especially wary about placing yourself in situations where there is
pressure or opportunity to cheat.
Sources: M. J. Cooper, and C. Pullig, Im Number One! Does Narcissism Impair Ethical Judgment Even for the Highly Religious? Journal of
Business Ethics 112 (2013), pp. 167-176; H. E. Hershfield, T. R. Cohen, and L. Thompson, Short Horizons and Tempting Situations: Lack of
Continuity to our Future Selves Leads to Unethical Decision Making and Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
117 (2012), pp. 298310; M. Carmichael, Secret E-mail Searches on Harvard Cheating Scandal Broader Than Initially Described, Boston
Globe (April 2, 2013), http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/04/02/secret-mail-searches-harvard-cheating-scandal-broader-than-initiallydescribed/Mgz0mc8hSk3IgWGjxLwsJP/story.html; P. E. Mudrack, J. M. Bloodgood, and W. H. Turnley, Some Ethical Implications of
Individual Competitiveness, Journal of Business Ethics 108 (2012), pp. 347-359; and R. Prez-Pea, Studies Find More Students Cheating,
with High Achievers No Exception, The New York Times (September 8, 2012), p. A13.
Class Exercise
1. Ask student to reflect on situations in which they were aware that cheating was taking
place.
2. Then, ask students what, if anything, they did about it. Students should consider why they
made the choices they did. Is not doing anything ethical? Is it more ethical to protect a
friend who is cheating?
Point/Counterpoint
Millennials Are More Narcissistic
Learning Objective: Compare generational differences in values
Point
Those in college today have many good qualities: they are more technologically savvy, more
socially tolerant, and more balanced in their work and family priorities than previous
Page 171
generations. Thus, those poised to enter the workforce today do so with some important virtues.
Humility, however, is not one of them.
Several large-scale, longitudinal studies found that those graduating from college today are more
likely than those from previous generations to have seemingly inflated views of themselves.
Compared to previous generations, more U.S. college students now rate themselves as above
average on attributes such as academic ability, leadership, public speaking ability, and writing
ability. College graduates today are more likely to agree they would be very good spouses (56
percent, compared to 37 percent among 1980 graduates), parents (54 percent, compared to 36
percent among 1980 graduates), and workers (65 percent, compared to 49 percent among 1980
graduates).
Studies measuring narcissism suggest that scores are rising, especially among younger
generations. For example, by presenting a choice between two statementsI try not to be a
show-off versus I will usually show off if I get the chancepsychologists have found that
narcissism has been growing since the early 1980s.
Another recent study found that, compared to Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, students
entering college today are more likely to emphasize extrinsic values (e.g., money, image, fame)
and less likely to value intrinsic ones (e.g., concern for others, charity, jobs that contribute to
society).
It doesnt paint a pretty picture, but data do not lie: the sooner we admit it, the sooner we can
begin to address the problem in families, in education, and at work.
Counterpoint
THE YOUTH OF TODAY ARE LOST! This argument is like a broken record that seems to
play over and over: every generation tends to think the new generation is without values, and the
new generation thinks the older one is hopelessly judgmental and out of touch. Didnt the
supposed Me generation occur a generation ago? Lets send the broken record to the recycling
bin and review the evidence.
Another study offered an interesting explanation for why people think Millennials are more
narcissistic. Specifically, young people in general are more self-focused, but as people age, they
become more other focused. So we think young people are different when in fact theyre just
the way older folks were when they were younger. As these authors conclude, Every generation
is Generation Me. Our level of narcissism appears to be one of the many things that changes as
we get older.
In fact, this raises an important point: values change over time as we age, but we should not
confuse that change with generational effects. One large-scale review of the literature revealed
that during college years, we place more weight on intrinsic values, and as we progress in our
careers and start families, extrinsic values increase in importance.
Page 172
Other research has found that people think the generations differ in their values much more than
they in fact do. One study found that of 15 work values, in every case, the perceived differences
between among Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials were greater than the actual
ones.
More broadly, narcissistic folks exist in every generation. We need to be careful when
generalizing about entire groups (whether one sex, one race, one culture, or one generation).
While generalizations have caused no small amount of trouble, we still like to simplify the
world, sometimes for good reason. In this case, however, the good reason isnt there, especially
considering the latest evidence.
Sources: J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and E. C. Freeman, Generational Differences in Young Adults Life Goals, Concern for Others, and
Civic Orientation, 19662009, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (2012), pp. 1045-1062; J. Jin and J. Rounds, Stability and
Change in Work Values: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies, Journal of Vocational Behavior 80 (2012), pp. 326-339; and S. W. Lester, R.
L. Standifer, N. J. Schultz, and J. M. Windsor, "Actual Versus Perceived Generational Differences at Work: An Empirical Examination,"
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 19 (2012), pp. 341-354.
Class Exercise
1. Divide the class into paired groups of three to four students each.
2. Assign half the paired groups to take the Point position and the other half to take the
Counterpoint position.
3. Call upon a pair to come to the front of the classroom.
4. Have the sides present their views of their perspective positions.
5. After each debate, ask the class to vote on the winning side.
Teaching Notes
Questions for Review

5-1.
What is personality? How do we typically measure it? What factors determine personality?
Answer: Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts
with others, the measurable traits a person exhibits. It is typically measured using selfreporting surveys. Observer-ratings surveys that provide an independent assessment of
personality are often better predictors. Personality seems to be the result of both
hereditary and environmental factors. Heredity refers to factors determined at conception:
physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and
reflexes, energy level, and bio-rhythms.
Page 173
Learning Objective: Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain the factors that
determine an individuals personality
5-2.
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and what does it measure?
Answer: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used instrument in
the world to determine personality attributes. Participants are classified on four axes to
determine one of 16 possible personality types. It measures extroverted/introverted;
sensing/intuitive; thinking/feeling; and judging/perceiving attributes.
Learning Objectives: Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain the factors that
determine an individuals personality; Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework
and assess its strengths and weaknesses
5-3.
What are the key traits in the Big Five personality model?
Answer: Extroversion sociable, gregarious, and assertive; Agreeableness goodnatured, cooperative and trusting; Conscientiousness responsible, dependable, and
organized; Emotional stability calm, self-confident versus negative, and
depressed; Openness to experience Curious, imaginative.
determine an individuals personality; Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model
5-4.
How do the Big Five traits predict behavior at work?

Answer: Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to higher job performance. For
example, highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge, exert greater effort,
and have better performance. Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction. Extroverts tend to be happier in their
jobs and have good social skills. Open people are more creative and can be good leaders.
Agreeable people are good in social settings.
determine an individuals personality; Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework
and assess its strengths and weaknesses
5-5.
How does the situation or environment affect the degree to which personality predicts behavior?
Answer: Increasingly, we are learning that the effect of particular traits on organizational
behavior depends on the situation. Two theoretical frameworks help explain how this
works. Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into
behavior depends on the strength of the situation. Trait Activation Theory (TAT) predicts
that some situations, events, or interventions activate a trait more than others.
Learning Objective: Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts behavior
Learning Outcomes: Describe the factors that influence the formation of individual attitudes and values

5-6.
Page 174
What is the difference between terminal and instrumental values?

Answer: Values are basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to live your life
that is personally or socially preferable How To live life properly. They are important
because they provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and behavior, they
influence our perception of the world around us, they represent interpretations of right
and wrong, and they imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over
others. The difference between terminal and instrumental values is as follows. Terminal
values are desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like to achieve
during his or her lifetime. Instrumental values are preferable modes of behavior or means
of achieving ones terminal values.
Learning Objective: Contrast terminal and instrumental values
5-7.
Do values differ across generations? How so?

Answer: There is very little rigorous research on generational values, so we have to rely
on an intuitive framework. These are imprecise categories. There is no law that someone
born in 1985 cant have values similar to those of someone born in 1955. Despite these
limitations, values do change over generations, and we can gain some useful insights
from analyzing values this way. Different generations hold different work values.
Boomers (Baby Boomers)entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid1980s. Xersentered the workforce beginning in the mid-1980s. The most recent
entrants to the workforce are the Millennials. Though it is fascinating to think about
generational values, remember these classifications lack solid research support.
Generational classifications may help us understand our own and other generations better,
but we must also appreciate their limits.
Learning Objectives: Define values, demonstrate the importance of values, and contrast terminal and
instrumental values; Compare generational differences in values
5-8.
What are Hofstedes five value dimensions of national culture?

Answer: Hofstedes framework for assessing culture includes five value
dimensions: Power Distance; Individualism vs. Collectivism; Masculinity vs.
Femininity; Uncertainty Avoidance; and Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation. When
these variables are measured, countries vary considerably, such as the U.S. ranking first
in individualism while Colombia ranks much lower.
Learning Objectives: Identify Hofstedes five value dimensions of national culture
Learning Outcome: Describe Hofstedes five value dimensions of national culture
AACSB: Diverse and multicultural work environment; Reflective thinking
Experiential Exercise
Page 175
What Organizational Culture Do You Prefer?

The Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) can help assess whether an individuals values match
an organizations. The OCP helps individuals sort their characteristics in terms of importance,
which indicates what a person values.
5-9.
Working on your own, complete the OCP found at http://www.jstor.org/stable/256404.

Your instructor may ask you the following questions individually or as a group of three or
four students (with a spokesperson appointed to speak to the class for each group).
5-10. What were your most preferred and least preferred values? Do you think your most
preferred and least preferred values are similar to those of other class or group members?
5-11. Do you think there are generational differences in the most preferred and least preferred
values?
5-12. Research has shown that individuals tend to be happier, and perform better, when their
OCP values match those of their employer. How important do you think a values match
is when youre deciding where you want to work?
Ethical Dilemma
Generational Values and Staying Put
Learning Objectives: Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it; Compare
generational differences in values
Those who have been in the workforce for many years often lament the job hopping that
occurs with those who are more recent entrants into the workforce. Younger individuals tend to
see such an attitude as old-fashioned, and may resent the implication that they have an ethical
obligation to remain with their employer for lifeor even a long time.
Lifelong commitment to one employer is a thing of the past. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports that today, only 28 percent of women and 30 percent of men remain with their employer
Page 176
for 10 or more years, compared to 50 percent for both genders in 1973. The compensation
research firm, PayScale, found that the average Millennial changes jobs every two 2 years.
While those of previous generations cite this as evidence of job hopping, some of this movement
is employer-driven. Lifetime job security is long gone for most positions. So are benefit
packages that keep employees secure, such as rock-solid pensions and perpetual health benefits.
But does a generational shift in values also explain the drop?
Some experts say yes. They argue that Millennials emphasize the present over the future and
place a great value on lifestyle. Similarly, some argue that, rather than career planning and
promises of long-term career prospects, Millennials need more feedback and reassurance. Neil
Howe, the individual credited with coining the term Millennial generation, says Millennials
expect the perfect employer who will be their ally and take care of them. For example, 1-800Flowers.com instituted a program that provides frequent performance feedback because a large
share of its workforce is from the Millennial generation.
According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Millennials say they want to switch careers some time
in their life, while 62 percent of Generation X members and 84 percent of Baby Boomers say
they would prefer to stay at their current job for the rest of their lives.
Andrew Leavitt, a 26-year-old who changed jobs a year after graduating college, said, I mean,
what kind of Millennial would work for the same company for their whole life?
These values dont sit well with some employers. We prefer long-tenured employees who have
stuck with us and been loyal, says Dave Foster, CEO of AvreaFoster, an advertising agency in
Dallas. It appears that a lot of Millennials dont think that one path is the answer. This is a
problem because the commitment isnt there.
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Tenure Summary (September 18, 2012), U. S. Department of Labor,
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm; T. Hsu, Millennials Change Jobs Every 2 Years on Average, Chicago Tribune (September 3,
2012), p. 2-1; L. Kwoh, Firms Bow to Generation Ys Demands, The Wall Street Journal (August 22, 2012), p. B6; E. Frauenheim, Deal or
Not Deal? Employee Value Proposition Evolves, Workforce Management (November 2012), pp. 16-17; T. S. Collins, Millennials Take on the
Workforce, SHIFT Magazine (May 3, 2011), downloaded April 29, 2013, from www.smudailymustang.com; and T. Henneman, Talkin About
Their Generations: The Workforce of the 50s and Today, Workforce Management (April 2012), pp. 24-25.
Questions
5-13. In your experience, do younger individuals differ from older individuals in terms of how
long they plan to remain with a given firm?
Answer: This answer will depend on students frames of reference and experience. Most
students with work experience will likely not have been in situations that motivate them
to long-term investment of career time and effort. As a result, they likely have a greater
commitment to their targeted career choices than they do to individual organizations.
And, more than likely, the students will suggest that this position on job commitment is
the result of economic realities today.
Page 177
5-14. Do you think you should feel free to job surfpurposely moving from job to job as
soon as the desire strikes? Do you think employers have a right to ask about job surfing
plans when they interview you?
Answer: Most students will likely be in favor of job surfing. Since they will have little
or no opportunity to develop organizational commitment to a single firm, they will see
taking such surfing as integral to increases in pay.
5-15. If you had an interview with Foster or someone with his views of Millennials, how might
you combat his preconceptions?
Answer: Since the student is unlikely to have a work record that supports the concept of
organizational commitment, the student might explain to Foster that the student
experiences to that point had not been with organizations that see commitment as an
important value. The students expectation is for a career with a company that values
longevity and contribution to organizational success. In other words, with a company that
sets the example of commitment to the employee will see a return of commitment for
organizational success.
Case Incident 1
On the Costs of Being Nice
Learning Objectives: Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it; Describe how the
situation affects whether personality predicts behavior
Agreeable people tend to be kinder and more accommodating in social situations, which you
might think could add to their success in life. However, one downside of agreeableness is
potentially lower earnings. Recent research has shown the answer to this and other puzzles; some
of them may surprise you.
First, and perhaps most obvious, agreeable individuals are less adept at a type of negotiation
called distributive bargaining. As we discuss in Chapter 14, distributive bargaining is less about
creating win-win solutions and more about claiming as large of a share of the pie as possible.
Because salary negotiations are generally distributive, agreeable individuals often negotiate
lower salaries for themselves than they might otherwise get. Perhaps because of this impaired
ability to negotiate distributively, agreeable individuals have lower credit scores.
Second, agreeable individuals may choose to work in industries or occupations that earn lower
salaries, such as the caring industries of education or healthcare. Agreeable individuals are also
attracted to jobs both in the public sector and in non-profit organizations.
Page 178
Third, the earnings of agreeable individuals also may be reduced by their lower drive to emerge
as leaders, and by their tendency to engage in lower degrees of proactive task behaviors, such as
coming up with ways to increase organizational effectiveness.
While being agreeable certainly doesnt appear to help ones pay, it does provide other benefits.
Agreeable individuals are better liked at work, are more likely to help others at work, and
generally are happier at work and in life.
Nice guysand galsmay finish last in terms of earnings, but wages themselves do not define a
happy life, and on that front, agreeable individuals have the advantage.
Sources: T. A. Judge, B. A. Livingston, and C. Hurst, Do Nice Guysand GalsReally Finish Last? The Joint Effects of Sex and
Agreeableness on Income, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (2012), pp. 390-407; J. B. Bernerth, S. G. Taylor, H. J. Walker,
and D. S. Whitman, An Empirical Investigation of Dispositional Antecedents and Performance-Related Outcomes of Credit Scores, Journal of
Applied Psychology 97 (2012), pp. 469-478; J. Carpenter, D. Doverspike, and R. F. Miguel, Public Service Motivation as a Predictor of
Attraction to the Public Sector, Journal of Vocational Behavior 80 (2012), pp. 509-523; and A. Neal, G. Yeo, A. Koy, and T. Xiao, Predicting
the Form and Direction of Work Role Performance from the Big 5 Model of Personality Traits, Journal of Organizational Behavior 33 (2012),
pp. 175-192.
Questions
5-16. Do you think employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers?
Why or why not?
Answer: Although a contradiction appears in these relationships, there may not be. In the
natural state, the agreeable employee may not be as productive as the disagreeable
employee, but with the appropriate training and leadership application, the agreeable
employee could be motivated to greater success.
5-17. Often, the effects of personality depend on the situation. Can you think of some job
situations in which agreeableness is an important virtue? And in which it is harmful?
Answer: Students are likely to have different views of this questions response. They
may see relationship positions such as sales or customer service as more appropriate to
agreeable people. Disagreeable people might be more appropriate to job needs seeking
isolation of the worker, such as assembly work or accounting.
5-18.
In some research weve conducted, weve found that the negative effects of
agreeableness on earnings are stronger for men than for women (that is, being agreeable
hurt mens earnings more than womens). Why do you think this might be the case?
Answer: This response might focus on the glass ceiling. Because there is a greater
difference between maximum and minimum salaries for men as opposed to women, there
may be less distance between the ends of the salary continuum. The result is that men can
lose more in starting salary negotiation than women.
Case Incident 2
Page 179
The Power of Quiet

Learning Objectives: Describe the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator personality framework and its strengths and
weaknesses; Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model
If someone labeled you an introvert, how would it make you feel?

Judging from research on social desirability, most of us would prefer to be labeled extroverts.
Normal distributions being what they are, however, half the world is more introverted than
average. Earlier in the chapter, we discussed the upside of introversion, but in many ways, its an
extroverts world. So says Susan Cain, in her bestselling book, Quiet.
In the book, Cain makes three arguments:
1. We see ourselves as extraverts. Introversion is generally seen as undesirable, partly because
extraverts like being in charge and are more apt to shape environments to fit their wishes.
Many of the most important institutions of contemporary life are designed for those who
enjoy group projects and high levels of stimulation.
2. Introversion is driven underground. Thanks to social norms and structures, introverts often
are forced to be closet introvertsacting according to an extraverted ideal, even if that is
not their personality at heart. Think about it. If someone comments, Youre awfully quiet,
they nearly always assume an underlying problem, as if not being quiet is the norm.
3. Extraversion is not all its cracked up to be. Because introversion is suppressed, we cause the
introverts of the world distress and fail to capitalize on the many virtues of introversion. We
may overlook the quiet, thoughtful introvert when choosing a leader, we may quell creativity
by doing most of our work in groups, and we may mistake appearance for reality. (Dont
mistake assertiveness or eloquence for good ideas, Cain writes.) Society may unwittingly
push people to take risks more than is warranted, to act before they think, and to focus on
short-term rewards above all else.
Cain is not anti-extravert. She simply thinks we should encourage people to be who they truly
are, and that means valuing extraversion and introversion. She concludes, The next time you
see a person with a composed face and soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be
solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat. She might, that is, be deploying the
powers of quiet.
Source: Based on S. Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (New York: Random House/Broadway Paperbacks,
2013).
Questions
Page 180
5-19. Would you classify yourself as introverted or extraverted? How would people who know you
describe you?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary by student.
5-20. Would you prefer to be more introverted, or more extraverted, than you are? Why?
5-21. Do you agree with Cains arguments? Why or why not?
Instructors Choice
Learning Objective: Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model
Begin by pointing out some behaviors that effective teams practice: establish a common mission,
assess strengths and weaknesses, develop individual goals, secure agreement on a way to achieve
goals, develop accountability for individual and group actions, build trust, maintain a mix of skills and
personalities, provide training, and create opportunities for successes. Ask students to review the Big
Five model before beginning the exercise. If you choose not to list the items presented by the teams on
the board, appoint a scribe.
Exploring OB Topics on the Web

Learn more about yourself! Go to http://www.41q.com/. There you will find a variety of
personality tests such as Are you a Type A? the Stress O Meter, and other IQ and personality
tests. Most are free and often fun to take. Take two or three of your choice. Print the results you
get on yourself and bring them to class, where we will discuss the validity of your findings.
How are personality tests and employment linked? Why would an employer or employee be
interested in the results of a personality test? Go to the following sites to learn more:
http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/interviewing/20010622-webb.html
http://www.hr-guide.com/data/G312.htm
Bring five new facts you learned from the website to class for a group discussion.
Page 181

Personality and Values: Earning Bjectives

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Оригинальное название

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Personality and Values: Earning Bjectives

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Chapter 5 Personality and Values