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Page 4: Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values

Conscientiousness

• Definition: Traits associated include industriousness, dutifulness, achievement, self-discipline, and purposefulness.

• Impact on Work Performance: Conscientious employees tend to:

  • Set higher personal goals.

  • Show persistence.

  • Engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors.

  • Exhibit less counterproductive work behavior.

• Performance Predictions: While conscientiousness is a predictor of proficient task performance, it weakly predicts adaptive (responding to change) and proactive (taking initiative) performance. Traits like orderliness and dependability can inhibit adaptivity.

Extraversion

• Overview: Second-best predictor of proficient task performance, but less influential than conscientiousness.

• Key Traits: Assertiveness and positive emotionality.

  • Effects:

    • Employees view situations as challenges, leading to a 'can-do' belief.

    • Predicts both adaptive and proactive performance due to comfort in engaging socially.

• Leadership & Sales: Higher levels of extraversion are often seen among effective leaders and salespeople.

Agreeableness

• Characteristics: Positively linked to organizational citizenship and negatively linked to counterproductive behaviors.

• Motivation: Such individuals tend to be cooperative, sensitive, flexible, and supportive.

• Performance Prediction: Does not closely predict proficient or proactive task performance but is significant in team settings and customer service roles.

Openness to Experience

• Overview: Weakly predicts proficient task performance but strongly predicts adaptive and proactive performance.

• Traits: Curiosity, imagination, and tolerance for change correlate with better performance in creative environments.

Emotional Stability (Low Neuroticism)

• Role in Performance: A strong predictor of adaptive performance as individuals with higher stability cope better with uncertainty.

• Behaviors: Those high in neuroticism tend to experience more stress in change situations.

• Impact: Associated with proficient task performance, organizational citizenship, and counterproductive behaviors, though its effect is not consistently strong.

Criticism of the Big Five Model

• Limitations: Lacks certain dimensions vital for understanding workplace behavior and relationships.

• Emerging Dimensions:

  • Honesty: Focuses on fairness and humility.

  • Interpersonal Characteristics: Reflects attitudes toward others, encompassing both supportive and retaliatory behaviors.

Page 6: Personality Assessment Methods

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• Development: Created based on Jung's personality model, assessing perceiving and judging attitudes.

• Types:

  • Perceiving Orientation: Open, curious, flexible.

  • Judging Types: Prefer order and structure.

• Popularity and Limitations:

  • Though widely used, particularly in career counselling, it is less effective in predicting job performance and is not recommended for hiring.

  • Popular for understanding preferences in teamwork but lacks clear predictive qualities for team development and leadership effectiveness.

The Dark Triad Personality Traits

• Traits Defined: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy collectively explain counterproductive workplace behavior.

• Narcissism: Characterized by self-aggrandizement, need for attention, and entitlement.

• Machiavellianism: Associated with deceit and manipulation for personal gain.

• Psychopathy: Defined by lack of empathy and disregard for rules, often leading to unethical behaviors.

• Influence on Work:

  • Willingness to use manipulation for personal gain.

  • Generally correlates with poorer job performance and increased counterproductive behaviors like bullying and theft.

Resilience in Employees

• Definition: Resilience is the ability to adapt positively post-adversity.

• Connection to Self-Efficacy:

  • High self-efficacy correlates with increased resilience and a strong belief in personal capability to handle tasks.

  • High self-efficacy buffers against adverse effects from negative events.

• Flexibility and Adaptability: Key for responding successfully to challenges and adapting behavior in response to changing circumstances.

• Long-term Growth: Resilient individuals learn from adverse experiences, promoting personal and professional growth.

• Sense Making: Critical in understanding and learning from challenges, helping individuals put experiences into perspective.