Organizational Behavior - Personality and Individual Differences

Person-Job Fit and Person-Organization Fit

  • Person-Job Fit Theory: Matching job requirements with personality characteristics.

    • Satisfaction and the tendency to leave a position depend on how well individuals match their personalities to a job.
    • Holland's six personality types:
      • Realistic: Prefers physical activities requiring skill, strength, and coordination.
        • Characteristics: Shy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming, practical.
        • Congruent Occupations: Mechanic, drill press operator, assembly-line worker, farmer.
      • Investigative: Prefers activities involving thinking, organizing, and understanding.
        • Characteristics: Analytical, original, curious, independent.
        • Congruent Occupations: Biologist, economist, mathematician, news reporter.
      • Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and unsystematic activities allowing creative expression.
        • Characteristics: Imaginative, disorderly, idealistic, emotional, impractical.
        • Congruent Occupations: Painter, musician, writer, interior decorator.
      • Social: Prefers activities involving helping and developing others.
        • Characteristics: Sociable, friendly, cooperative, understanding.
        • Congruent Occupations: Social worker, teacher, counselor, clinical psychologist.
      • Enterprising: Prefers verbal activities with opportunities to influence others and attain power.
        • Characteristics: Self-confident, ambitious, energetic, domineering.
        • Congruent Occupations: Lawyer, real estate agent, public relations specialist, small business manager.
      • Conventional: Prefers rule-regulated, orderly, and unambiguous activities.
        • Characteristics: Conforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative, inflexible.
        • Congruent Occupations: Accountant, corporate manager, bank teller, file clerk.

  • Personality-Organization Fit Theory: Individuals are attracted to, selected by, and stay in organizations whose values, culture, and norms are compatible with their personal characteristics and values.

    • Mismatch leads to dissatisfaction, disengagement, and turnover.
    • Core Assumptions:
      • Attraction: People seek work environments aligned with their personality and core values.
      • Selection: Organizations tend to hire individuals whose traits reflect their corporate culture.
      • Attrition: Misfit leads to voluntary or involuntary exit from the organization.
    • Job satisfaction, commitment, and performance improve when fit is high (Kristof, 1996).

Personality

  • Personality is the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with the world around them.
  • It is a dynamic concept, meaning it is always changing.
  • Describes the total of growth and development of a person’s whole psychological system.
  • Personality traits are enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior.
  • Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who is best for a job.

The Big Five Model

  • Conscientiousness: Measure of reliability.
    • High score: Responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent.
    • Low score: Easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
  • Emotional stability: Ability to withstand stress.
    • Positive score: Calm, self-confident, and secure.
    • Negative score: Nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
  • Extroversion: Comfort level with relationships.
    • Extroverts: Outgoing, assertive, and sociable.
    • Introverts: Reserved, timid, and quiet.
  • Openness to experience: Range of interests and fascination with novelty.
    • High score: Creative, curious, and artistically sensitive.
    • Low score: Conventional and find comfort in the familiar.
  • Agreeableness: Propensity to defer to others.
    • High score: Cooperative, warm, and trusting.
    • Low score: Cold, disagreeable, and aggressive.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

  • Most widely used personality framework.
  • Individuals are classified as:
    • Extroverted (E) or Introverted (I)
    • Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N)
    • Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
    • Perceiving (P) or Judging (J)
  • Examples:
    • INTJs are visionaries.
    • ESTJs are organizers.
    • ENTPs are conceptualizers.

The Dark Triad

  • Machiavellianism: Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
  • Narcissism: Tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.
  • Psychopathy: Tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when their actions cause harm.

Core Self-Evaluation, Self-Monitoring, and Proactive Personality

  • Core Self-Evaluation (CSE): Bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
  • Self-Monitoring: Measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.
  • Proactive Personality: People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

Values

  • Values: Basic convictions about what is right, good, or desirable.
  • Value system: Ranks values in terms of intensity.
  • Importance of Values:
    • Lay the foundation for understanding attitudes and motivation.
    • Influence attitudes and behaviors.
  • Terminal values: Desirable end-states of existence (the "what" we value).
    • Examples: Inner harmony, national security, social recognition, freedom, a prosperous life, equality, professional excellence.
  • Instrumental values: Preferred modes of behavior or means of achieving terminal values (the "how" we behave).
    • Examples: Honesty, discipline, courage, ambition, loyalty, competence, hard work.

Generational Work Values

  • Baby Boomers (1946–1964): Optimism, competition, hard work, teamwork, loyalty, duty.
  • Generation Xers (1965–1980): Flexibility, informality, skepticism, independence, diversity, work-life balance, self-enhancement.
  • Millennials (1981–2000): Competition, open-mindedness, achievement, responsibility, uniqueness, quality relationships.
  • Generation Zers (2001–2020): Multiculturalism, diversity, entrepreneurship, progressiveness, ambidexterity, personalization, individuality, creativity, and innovation.

VARK Learning Styles & Personality Types

  • Visual
    • Big Five Personality Traits: High in Openness (to visual patterns and ideas)
    • MBTI Alignment: INTJ, ISTP – Analytical, logical
  • Auditory
    • Big Five Personality Traits: High in Extraversion and Agreeableness
    • MBTI Alignment: ENFJ, ESFP – Expressive, empathetic
  • Read/Write
    • Big Five Personality Traits: High in Conscientiousness
    • MBTI Alignment: ISTJ, INTP – Methodical, organized
  • Kinesthetic
    • Big Five Personality Traits: High in Extraversion and Openness
    • MBTI Alignment: ESTP, ESFP – Energetic, adaptive