Personality in Organizational Settings and Disorders

Personality in Organizational Settings

Job Performance

• Personality Traits and Job Performance:

  • Extraversion (E) has a correlation of ρ = .14 with job performance.

  • Neuroticism (N) has a correlation of ρ = -.16 with job performance.

  • Agreeableness (A) has a correlation of ρ = .12 with job performance.

  • Openness (O) has a correlation of ρ = .12 with job performance.

  • Conscientiousness (C) has the highest correlation of ρ = .22 with job performance.

• Comparative Analysis with Academic Performance:

  • Conscientiousness (C), at ρ = .22, shows similar predictive validity for academic performance as intelligence, which is at ρ = .25.

  • Intelligence scores account for cognitive abilities, whereas the Five Factor Model (FFM) traits are seen to offer explanations for students' behavioral functioning and their motivation to perform academically.

  • Openness (O) has a correlation of ρ = .12, and agreeableness (A) has a correlation of ρ = .07 with academic performance.

  • Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N) show no correlation with academic performance.

  • Conscientiousness (C) is a stable predictor of academic performance from elementary school through college, whereas correlations with O, E, A, and N tend to decrease as students age.

• Employers and Job Performance:

  • Employers actively seek specific traits in potential hires.

  • Top-rated qualities include conscientiousness, integrity, trustworthiness, followed by general mental ability.

  • Predicting job performance using Conscientiousness (C) varies based on definition—employer satisfaction, absenteeism, and citizenship performance are common definitions used.

Economic Success

• Characteristics of Economic Success:

  • Individuals who achieve promotions or higher salaries often have a high drive for success.

  • Drive is associated with traits such as:

    • Industriousness

    • Impulse control

    • Orderliness (high C)

  • Grit is essentially synonymous with conscientiousness (high C), showcasing the idea of perseverance and resilience in achievement.

Financial Decision Making

• Conscientiousness and Financial Behavior:

  • Conscientiousness (C) is positively associated with behaviors such as:

    • Saving money

    • Being frugal

    • Keeping budgets

    • Exhibiting self-control

    • Risk aversion

  • Agreeableness (A) is associated with traits of generosity.

  • Openness (O) is linked to tendencies of spontaneous spending, often on adventures like vacations and entrepreneurship.

  • Neuroticism (N) is connected to feelings of nervousness and instability concerning financial decisions.

Leadership and Management

• Personality Traits of Effective Managers:

  • Traits of effective leaders typically include:

    • Low Neuroticism (N)

    • High Conscientiousness (C)

    • High Extraversion (E)

    • High Openness (O)

    • High Humility (H)

  • Common Misconceptions:

    • Charismatic, assertive, and even narcissistic individuals are often mistakenly regarded as good leaders; however, they can exhibit harmful leadership styles.

  • Dark Triad Traits:

    • Leadership styles characteristic of selfishness, impulsivity, exploitation, and toxicity are often linked with the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy).

    • Individuals with low Humility (H) often pursue power, status, materialism, and can display criminal tendencies.

Personality Traits vs Types

• Structure of Personality:

  • Personality is categorized into traits, which exist along continuous dimensions, as opposed to types, which are seen as discrete categories.

• Assumptions about Personality Types:

  • Most individuals lie at the extremes of certain characteristics.

  • Those with the same personality type exhibit significant similarities, while those with different types show notable differences.

• Types:

  • Type A vs Type B

    • Type A: Competitive, time urgent, aggressive.

    • Type B: Relaxed, less stressed, easygoing.

  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI):

    • Derived from Carl Jung’s theories articulated in the 1920s regarding personality attitudes.

  • Enneagram:

    • Has unclear origins, appealing for its categorization of personality.

    • Strengths of Personality Types:

      • Popular and marketable in organizational settings.

      • Provides language for personal and interpersonal understanding.

      • Engaging and accessible for many individuals.

    • Limitations of Personality Types:

      • Poor construct validity—lack of empirical support.

      • Traits are typically distributed normally, not in a bimodal fashion.

      • Low reliability, low predictive validity, and lack of comprehensiveness.

      • Heterogeneity exists within types, and notable overlap occurs between types.

      • Barnum effect and potential conflicts of interest in personality typing.

      • Issues with generalizability, seldom considered.

Personality Disorders

• Definition:

  • Personality disorders (PDs) are characterized by extreme and problematic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are stable over time.

  • Some disorders are more stable than others; e.g., Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) has high stability.

  • Stability may depend on twinning methods (clinical cutoff vs dimensional score).

  • Implications for interpersonal life: PDs typically lead to impaired social functioning and the potential to impact the relationships of others.

• Experience of Individuals with PDs:

  • Many individuals with a PD feel their behavior is normal (especially true in cases of NPD and ASPD).

  • These conditions can be ego-syntonic; Individuals may lack the desire to change, believing their distorted perceptions are justified.

Clusters of Personality Disorders

• Clusters Defined:

  • Cluster A: Odd and eccentric patterns of thinking (e.g., Schizotypal, Schizoid, Paranoid).

  • Cluster B: Impulsive and erratic behaviors (e.g., Histrionic, Narcissistic, Antisocial, Borderline).

  • Cluster C: Anxious and avoidant emotional patterns (e.g., Dependent, Avoidant, Obsessive-Compulsive).

Specific Personality Disorders and Their Criteria

• Schizotypal Personality Disorder:

  • Characterized by a pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by discomfort with close relationships and cognitive/perceptual distortions.

  • Diagnosis requires five or more of the following:

    • Ideas of reference (excluding delusions).

    • Odd beliefs or magical thinking inconsistent with norms.

    • Unusual perceptual experiences including bodily illusions.

    • Odd thinking or speech.

    • Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation.

    • Inappropriate or constricted affect.

    • Odd behavior or appearance.

    • Lack of friends outside close relatives.

    • Extreme social anxiety linked to paranoid fears.

• Schizoid Personality Disorder:

  • Involves pervasive distrust and suspiciousness, with four or more of the following criteria:

    • Unjustified suspicions of exploitation or deceit.

    • Doubts about loyalty or trustworthiness of friends.

    • Reluctance to confide.

    • Read into benign remarks as threatening.

    • Bear grudges.

    • Perceiving attacks on character that are invisible to others.

    • Recurrent suspicions regarding fidelity.

• Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD):

  • Characterized by grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, requiring five or more of the following:

    • Grandiose self-importance.

    • Preoccupation with fantasies of success.

    • Belief in uniqueness, requiring admiration only from those of high status.

    • Excessive admiration needed.

    • Sense of entitlement.

    • Interpersonally exploitative behavior.

    • Lacks empathy.

    • Often envious of others.

    • Exhibits arrogance.

  • Grandiosity includes an inflated self-perception and inflated self-esteem.

  • Individuals are often self-serving, considering their needs first, with varying levels of cognitive empathy.

Empathy in Personality Disorders

• Understanding Empathy:

  • Cognitive empathy refers to recognizing others' feelings and thoughts while affective empathy involves emotional responses to others' feelings.

  • Those with narcissistic traits may demonstrate cognitive empathy, yet typically lack affective empathy or genuine concern for others.

• Types of Narcissism:

  • Narcissism also categorized into grandiose vs. vulnerable types, but often seen as a false dichotomy.

• Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD):

  • Exhibits a pervasive disregard for others' rights characterized by three or more of the following:

    • Non-conformity to law over repeated criminal acts.

    • Deceitfulness, lying, or conning.

    • Impulsivity and failure to plan.

    • Aggressiveness leading to fights or assaults.

    • Recklessness regarding safety.

    • Irresponsibility in work or finances.

    • Lack of remorse for actions.

  • Criteria includes age of onset (15 years) and no antisocial behaviors linked to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

• Histrionic Personality Disorder:

  • Characterized by excessive emotionality and attention-seeking with five or more criteria, such as:

    • Discomfort when not the center of attention.

    • Inappropriate seductive behavior.

    • Rapidly shifting emotions.

    • Use of appearance to attract attention.

    • Speech lacking in detail.

    • Theatrical expressions.

    • Suggestibility and shallow relationships.

• Borderline Personality Disorder:

  • Defined by instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions with five or more signs such as:

    • Frantic avoidance of abandonment.

    • Intense relational instability.

    • Identity disturbance.

    • Impulsivity in self-damaging behaviors.

    • Recurrent suicidal behavior.

    • Mood reactivity leading to emotional instability.

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an effective treatment strategy designed for individuals with BPD, consisting of a year-long process including both individual and group therapy focusing on skills training in four areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD):

  • Characterized by a preoccupation with orderliness and perfectionism leading to rigidity, with four or more criteria:

    • Preoccupation with order to the detriment of the end goal.

    • Perfectionism affecting task completion.

    • Over-devotion to work excluding leisure.

    • Inflexibility about morality or values.

• Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD):

  • A pervasive pattern of social inhibition, inadequacy, and hypersensitivity reads to four or more signs, including:

    • Avoiding occupational activities due to criticisms.

    • Reluctance to engage if certainty of being liked isn't assured.

    • Constraint in relationships from fear of ridicule.

    • Often views oneself as socially inept.

• Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD):

  • Characterized by excessive need for care leading to submissiveness, needing five or more criteria:

    • Difficulty making decisions without support.

    • Urgency in seeking relationships for care, especially after loss.

    • Difficulty disagreeing for fear of rejected support.

    • Fears of being alone and unable to care for oneself.