Personality

1. What is personality?

Answer: The structures and tendencies inside a person that explain their characteristic patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Personality traits are:

  • Relatively stable

  • Enduring patterns

  • Influenced by both nature and nurture

  • Part of a person's social reputation

2. What are the Big Five personality traits?

Answer:

  1. Openness to Experience

  2. Conscientiousness

  3. Extraversion

  4. Agreeableness

  5. Neuroticism

Easy way to remember: OCEAN

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

3. What is Openness to Experience?

Answer: How open a person is to new ideas and experiences.

Someone high in openness tends to be:

  • Intellectually curious

  • Imaginative

  • Creative

  • Emotionally complex

  • Appreciative of aesthetics

  • Sophisticated

Think: Creative + curious

4. How is Openness related to job performance?

Answer:

  • Task Performance → Basically no relationship

  • OCB → Positive

  • CWB → Basically no relationship

Main thing to remember: Openness has its clearest positive relationship with OCB.

5. What is Conscientiousness?

Answer: How goal-directed, persistent, and organized a person is.

Someone high in conscientiousness tends to be:

  • Dependable

  • Organized

  • Dutiful

  • Achievement-striving

  • Self-disciplined

  • Cautious

Think: Hardworking + organized + disciplined

6. How is Conscientiousness related to job performance?

Answer:

  • Task Performance → Positive

  • OCB → Positive

  • CWB → Negative

Main thing to remember: Conscientious employees tend to perform better, do more OCB, and do less CWB.

7. What is Extraversion?

Answer: How much a person is energized by the outside world.

Someone high in extraversion tends to be:

  • Gregarious

  • Sociable

  • Excitement-seeking

  • Assertive

  • Positive

  • Energetic

Think: Outgoing + energetic

8. How is Extraversion related to job performance?

Answer:

It has relatively weak relationships with the general dimensions of job performance.

However, extraversion has a positive relationship with leader emergence.

Important: Leader emergence does NOT necessarily mean leader effectiveness.

So:

Extraverts are more likely to emerge as leaders ≠ they are necessarily better leaders.

9. What is Agreeableness?

Answer: How much a person considers other people's interests and needs when interacting with them.

Someone high in agreeableness tends to be:

  • Trusting

  • Cooperative

  • Empathetic

  • Considerate

  • Communion-striving

  • Modest

Think: Cooperative + caring

10. How is Agreeableness related to job performance?

Answer:

  • Task Performance → Small positive relationship

  • OCB → Positive

  • CWB → Negative, especially interpersonal CWB

Main thing to remember: Agreeable people tend to help others more and engage in less CWB.

11. What is Neuroticism?

Answer: How sensitive someone is to stress and negative emotional triggers.

Someone high in neuroticism tends to be:

  • Anxious

  • Irritable

  • Negative emotionally

  • Impulsive

  • Sensitive to social judgment

  • Vulnerable

Think: Stress-sensitive + emotionally unstable

12. How is Neuroticism related to job performance?

Answer:

  • Task Performance → Negative

  • OCB → Negative

  • CWB → Positive

So:

Higher Neuroticism → ↓ Task Performance, ↓ OCB, ↑ CWB

13. What are the Big Five in simple terms?

Answer:

Trait

Think...

Openness

Creative & curious

Conscientiousness

Organized & disciplined

Extraversion

Outgoing & energetic

Agreeableness

Cooperative & caring

Neuroticism

Anxious & stress-sensitive

Remember: OCEAN

Personality Expression

14. Do people always act consistently with their personality?

Answer: No.

The work environment can influence whether and how someone's personality is expressed.

15. What are the 2 main ways the work environment influences personality expression?

Answer:

  1. Constraints in a situation

  2. Job characteristics that activate a specific trait

These lead into two theories:

Situational Strength Theory → How much can personality influence behavior?

Trait Activation Theory → Which personality trait will be expressed?

Situational Strength Theory

16. What is Situational Strength Theory?

Answer: Explains how much personality can influence behavior depending on how much the situation constrains someone's behavior.

17. What happens in a strong situation?

Answer:

Strong situation → More constraints → Less freedom → Less personality expression

For example, a job with strict rules, scripts, and procedures gives employees less freedom to express their personalities.

18. What happens in a weak situation?

Answer:

Weak situation → Fewer constraints → More freedom → More personality expression

For example, a job with broad goals and no prescribed procedures allows employees to express their personalities more.

Memorize:

STRONG situation = personality matters LESS

WEAK situation = personality matters MORE

Trait Activation Theory

19. What is Trait Activation Theory?

Answer: Explains which personality trait is relevant in a particular situation and likely to be expressed.

Specific job cues activate relevant personality traits.

20. How does Trait Activation Theory work?

Answer:

Situation/job cue → Activates relevant trait → Trait gets expressed through behavior

Example from your slides:

A job requiring employees to respond sensitively to people's emotional challenges and support others activates high Agreeableness.

21. What is the difference between Situational Strength Theory and Trait Activation Theory?

Answer:

Situational Strength Theory:
→ HOW MUCH can personality be expressed?

Trait Activation Theory:
→ WHICH TRAIT will be expressed?

Easy way to remember:

Strength = HOW MUCH

Activation = WHICH ONE

Personality in Teams

22. How does Agreeableness affect team functioning?

Answer: Generally positive because it increases:

  • Cooperation

  • Trust

Possible downside: Too much agreeableness may discourage constructive disagreement.

23. How does Conscientiousness affect team functioning?

Answer: Generally positive, but team composition matters.

Having one low-conscientiousness member can hurt a team, especially when members are highly interdependent and rely heavily on one another.

24. How does Extraversion affect team functioning?

Answer:

Positive:

  • Brings positivity

  • Brings energy

Negative:

  • Can create power struggles when multiple extraverted people compete for influence.