Chapter 3 SB: Individuals Differences & Emotions

Page 1: Individual Differences, Intelligence, and Personality Traits

Overview of Individual Differences and Intelligence

The term individual differences is used to collectively describe people's traits and behaviors that are influenced by genetics and environment.

Intelligence is defined as an individual's capacity for constructive thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. A person's intelligence is not static and can be increased. Research demonstrates that specific behaviors can improve intelligence, including:

  • Constructive thinking

  • Problem solving

  • Reasoning

Rather than viewing intelligence strictly as a single, fixed metric, intelligence is more practically thought of in terms of multiple intelligences. Both intelligence and mental abilities are directly related to performance.

Personality Evaluation, Liking, and Fit

Viewing personality in terms of liking and fit is not an effective perspective for management. Specific conclusions regarding liking and fit include:

  • They are not precise enough to have real value in management.

  • They are not particularly beneficial for managers.

  • Most people evaluate a person's personality by whether or not they like them.

In contrast, scientifically measured personality provides detailed insights: a person's scores on the Big Five personality traits reveal a personality as unique as that person's fingerprint.

Key Personality Traits and Undesirable Trait Triads

Among personality traits, conscientiousness has the strongest and most positive effect on performance.

Conversely, traits such as narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism are all considered undesirable in the workplace because they negatively affect outcomes.

Page 2: Dark Triad Profiles, Big Five Dimensions, and Core Self-Evaluations

Workplace Behavioral Profiles

Psychopathy

A person who has no close friends, lowers office morale through aggression and counterproductive work behaviors, and feels no remorse when his or her actions cause harm to others is likely a psychopath.

  • No close friends: Indicates difficulty forming genuine emotional bonds.

  • Aggression and counterproductive work behaviors: Represents common behavioral patterns associated with psychopathy.

  • No remorse for harming others: Serves as a core feature of psychopathy.

Machiavellianism

A person who is willing to manipulate others and use any method, even those that are unethical or unfair, to gain an advantage over others in the workplace is considered a Machiavellian.

  • Key traits: Manipulative behavior, willingness to use unethical or unfair methods, and a persistent focus on gaining advantages over others.

Personality Testing in Management

When utilizing personality tests within an organization, a crucial caution is to be sure to use properly trained employees to administer tests or analyze results.

The Big Five Personality Dimensions

  • Extroversion: Outgoing, talkative, social, and assertive. Extroversion has been found to predict job performance better than agreeableness.

  • Agreeableness: Trusting, good-natured, cooperative, and softhearted.

  • Conscientiousness: Dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented, and persistent.

  • Emotional Stability: Relaxed, secure, and unworried.

  • Openness: Intellectual, imaginative, curious, and broad-minded.

Core Self-Evaluations (CSE) and Self-Perception

Core self-evaluations (CSE) represent a broad personality trait composed of four narrow traits:

  1. Self-esteem

  2. Self-efficacy

  3. Emotional stability

  4. Locus of control

Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem

  • High levels of self-efficacy lead to success.

  • The most effective method for raising one's self-esteem is to think of desirable characteristics possessed.

Locus of Control

  • External Locus of Control: Possessed by those who believe their performance is a product of circumstances beyond their immediate control.

Page 3: Control Dynamics, Emotional Stability, and Emotional Intelligence

Locus of Control Dynamics

  • Internal Locus of Control: Possessed by people who believe they control the events and consequences that affect their lives.

  • External Locus of Control: Possessed by people who feel that their success is explained by environmental factors.

Emotional Stability and Performance Outcomes

Individuals with high levels of emotional stability tend to be relaxed, secure, unworried, and less likely to experience negative emotions under pressure.

Behavioral Outcomes and Dynamics

  • Individuals with high emotional stability carry out more organizational citizenship behaviors.

  • They do not routinely engage in counterproductive work behaviors (which are more common when people are anxious or emotionally volatile).

  • They do not struggle in high-pressure situations.

  • They do not look at the world through a negative lens (which is a characteristic of neuroticism, not stability).

Nonlinear Graph Relationship

The relationship between increasing emotional stability and outcomes is represented on a graph by an inverted-U shape. At a certain level, emotional stability becomes problematic.

Emotional Intelligence and Emotion Display Norms

Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor your own emotions and those of others, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide your thinking and actions.

  • The dimensions of emotional intelligence that form social competence are social awareness and relationship management.

Emotion display norms are rules that dictate which types of emotions are expected and appropriate at a given time.

Effective Responses to Negative Emotions

  • Angry: Get some distance from the situation to avoid losing control, consider the reason, and communicate with the person.

  • Frustrated: If results don't meet your expectations, reassess your plan and be patient.

  • Rejected: Evaluate the opinion and the person giving it and ask for clarification.

  • Stressed: Prioritize commitments.

Page 4: Emotion Management, Self-Assessment, and Stress Reduction

Understanding Emotions

Emotions are defined as complex, relatively brief responses aimed at a particular target such as a person, information, experience, event, or nonevent.

Graphical Representation of Emotional Stability

The shape on a graph that best represents the relationship between increasing emotional stability and outcomes is an inverted-U.

Building Emotional Intelligence

When attempting to build emotional intelligence, you should compare your self-assessment results to feedback from others on how they see you in terms of the same competencies.

Organizational Emotion Display Norms and Stress Management

Emotion Display Norms

In an organization, emotion display norms determine which emotions members should show in various situations.

Stress Management

The recommended way to deal with the stress of having too many commitments is to prioritize and focus on doing what is most important.