Organizational Behavior 2024_5A1O03

Session 5. Personality

Dr. Lotta Harju

14/2/2024 [email protected]
Reminders: Edusign policy

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immediately after edusign
 1.-2. Decision making 6. Leadership

2. Group Theory Organizational 5. Personality

behavior • Personality tests
• Trait approach
• Ideographic approach

3. Motivation and well-being 4. Job design and job crafting

Primer: Get to know yourself
Assess the dark traits of your personality on the
following website

https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/SD3/

Ø just follow the instructions and respond as sincerely as possible –

the result will stay only with you
Personality tests
Types of tests
• Interviews
• Observation
• Objective tests
• Projective tests

Potential issues
• Deliberate deception
• Social desirability bias
• Diagnostic difficulties
• Inappropriate use

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN7Fmt1i5TI
 What is personality?
Trait Approach Idiographic Approach

Human personality can be Personality is unique to each

described by inherent character person that evolves over
traits individual life-course

Big-5 model of personality Social cognitive theory

Trait approaches on
personality
Personality traits
Relatively stable and
consistent personal
characteristics that describe
behavior, thoughts and
feelings in most situations
Big-5 traits of personality (OCEAN)

Opennes to experience: originality, versatility, curiosity,

interest

Consciousness: organization, dutifulness,

industriousness, persistence

Extraversion: sociability, social dominance, excitement-

seeking, positive affect

Agreeableness: trust, cooperation, sensitivity towards

others’ needs, altruism

Neuroticism (vs. emotional stability): anxiety, feeling of

insecurity, suspiciousness, negative affect

Digman, 1990; McCrae & Costa, 1987; Norman,1963

 Big-5 traits

▪ Are remarkably stable over time

Ø In general, decreases in extroversion and neuroticism as well as increases
in agreeableness and conscientiousness in early adulthood
Ø Job stress linked to decreases in extroversion, agreeableness and
conscientiousness

▪ Appear to have genetic determinants

▪ Can be used to assess personality in all cultures
▪ Predict well-being and clinical disorders

e.g., Anglim & Grant, 2016 ; Judge et al., 1999; Malouff et al., 2005; McCrae & Costa, 1996; Schmitt
et al., 2007; Wu, 2016
 Group activity: Personality profiling

Job as a manager @ Google (find the link at BS)

Discuss in groups (7 min):

1) Which Big – 5 personality traits would be favourable for this role?

2) Which ones would be the least favourable?
3) How would you test them?

Big – 5: opennes, conscienciousness, extraversion, agreeableness,

neuroticism

Opennes to Conscieousness Extroversion Agreeableness Neuroticism

experience
BREAK 10 min
Big-5 traits and performance

▪ Conscientiousness consistently related to job performance

across occupational groups and criteria

▪ The ability for other Big-5 traits to predict job performance is

contingent upon the type of job
▪ Extraversion and emotional stability for salespeople
▪ Agreeableness, emotional stability and openness for customer
service jobs
▪ Agreeableness for professionals
▪ Agreeableness and Emotional Stability for performance in teamwork

e.g., Barrick, Mount & Judge, 2001; Hurtz & Donovan, 2001
Big-5 and leadership

Only extraversion and openness were related to both

leadership emergence and effectiveness

Conscientiousness was positively related to leadership

emergence but less strongly to effectiveness

Agreeableness was not related to leadership emergence

but was positively related to effectiveness

Judge et al., 2002

Dark Triad of Personality

Machiavellianism
§ Tendency towards unprincipled, manipulative
and cynical behaviors and deceitfulness to get
to their desired ends

Narcissism
§ Involves an inflated sense of self and own
importance, craving for attention and
admiration and a belief of being more
deserving and better than others

Psychopathy
§ Low levels of empathy combined with high
levels of thrill-seeking and impulsivity.
Tendency towards deviant and disrespectful
behaviors.

e.g., Furnham et al., 2013; Paulhus & Williams, 2002

Dark Triad of Personality

e.g., Furnham et al., 2013; Paulhus & Williams, 2002

Dark side of bright traits 1/2

Highly conscientious individuals

tend to be cautious and less willing to innovate or take risks. They may be
threatened by turbulent circumstances and experience stress when unable to
follow strict and organized procedures.

Excessively extroverted
can behave in bold, aggressive, and grandiose ways that may not suit all
situations. They also like to be the center of attention and are prone to
over-estimating their own capabilities, potentially alienating organizational
members who prefer that attention and credit be shared.

Judge et al., 2009

Dark side of bright traits 2/2

Openness to experience
may be a hazard in hierarchical, conventional, or traditional work
settings. If a particular situation demands quick and decisive action,
people prone to abstract and critical thinking may be a liability.

Highly agreeable people

are likely to avoid interpersonal conflict and be overly sensitive to the
feelings and desires of others at work, leading them to avoid decisions that
put them at odds with peers.

Judge et al., 2009

Group activity: Sham-poodle
You work in a big consumer goods company and your team needs to
develop an innovative marketing campaign for a new dog shampoo ’sham-
poodle’. Your tasks include:

1) researching the product and the market, 2) developing the marketing

strategy and 3) pitching the product to the client. 4) You also need to
manage and coordinate your own work and 5) cooperate with the other
relevant departments in the company to align your work and cooperate with
them.

▪ Discuss and identify the personality profiles in your team (use Big-5 as
a guide)
▪ How would you allocate the tasks to leverage each other’s
characteristic strengths for the best outcome?
▪ Can you foresee any potential issues within the team based on
personality characteristics? How could these be overcome?

15 min
BREAK 5 min
 Trait Activation Theory

Person-situation interactions explain the effects of behaviour on work

performance

Individuals express their traits when presented with trait-relevant situational

cues that may stem from the organization, social activities, and/or a task

Tett & Guterman, 2000; Tett & Burnett, 2003

 Application of trait activation theory
• Contextual differences in how personal characteristics and
behaviors are valued
▪ Eg., Macchiavellianism may be more functional in collectivist
cultures, whereas narcissism is “brighter” in individualistic cultures
▪ Psychopathic traits may be an advantage for career success in
corporate environments
▪ Openness positively related to leadership in business but not in
govt/military sector. Conscientiousness, in turn, positively related
in govt/military but not in business.

• Behavior is not determined by personality

• Extroverts may seek contain their sociability in situations that require
concentration and listening. Inversely, introverts may act more
extroverted in situation where assertiveness and outward orientation
are appropriate.

Grijalva et al., 2015; Landay et al., 2019; 2021; Spencer & Byrne, 2016; Vergauve Zettler & Solga,
2013; Vergauwe et al., 2021; Judge et al., 2009; Ma et al., 2021
Ideographic approaches on
personality
Social Cognitive Theory
The role of social experience in the development of personality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqNaLerMNOE

▪ Observational learning = process of learning by watching the

behaviors of others (i.e., role modelling)

• Reciprocal determination = environment shapes human

behavior, which, in turn, shapes the environment
Ø People have agency and they are capable of shaping their own lives

Bandura, 1988; 1991

Observational learning – double edged sword

Employees model leaders‘ long work hours that may increase

workaholism and job strain

Afota et al. 2019; Afota et al 2021

Self-efficacy as a mechanism of reciprocal determinism

Self-efficacy = Individuals‘ belief in their capability to

meet the given situational demands

▪ Influences the choices people make, the goals

that they set, the effort they extend in their
endeavors, their persistence when facing difficulty
and the stress they experience in demanding
situations

Ø People with high self-efficacy beliefs are more likely

to perceive demands as challenges to be mastered,
perceive their capabilities to overcome them
positively, and recover from setbacks quickly

Bandura 1977; 1986; Gist & Mitchell, 1992; Wood & Bandura, 1989
Self-efficacy beliefs change over time

Thoughts and emotions Past experiences of mastery Modelling others

and accomplishment Verbal feedback

Bandura, 1982; Gist & Mitchell, 1992

Self-efficacy training: Case Karin the student

Karin wants to get into a highly selective program, but she has to take an
entrance exam of which the acceptance rate is less than 8%. She knows that
there are hundreds of other applicants, many of whom have applied before, and
she is anxious of the prospect of failure.

Preparation for the exam takes a lot of time and effort which she is reluctant to
dedicate in the event that it would not pay off. None of her family members or
her close social circle have ever gone to such a program, and they keep
saying how difficult it must be to pass the exam.

Karin has some other reasonably good options that are less interesting but
require less effort. She feels tempted to pursue them instead of taking a bigger
risk. Hence, she has been decreasing her efforts in preparation for the exam.

What factors are affecting Karin’s self-efficacy?

What (if anything) could be done to enhance it?
Take aways

▪ Personality test often miss their mark and performance

potential should not be drawn from their results
▪ Bright personality traits can have a dark side and vice
versa
▪ Self-efficacy is a dynamic concept that can be developed
 1.-2. Decision making 6. Leadership
Online
2nd groupwork and exam prep!

2. Group theory Organizational 5. Personality

behavior • Big-5
• Dark triad
• Trait activation theory
• Social cognitive theory
• Self-efficacy

3. Motivation 4. Stress and well-being

Readings
Afota, M. C., Ollier-Malaterre, A., & Vandenberghe, C. (2019). How supervisors set the tone for long hours: Vicarious learning, subordinates' self-
motives and the contagion of working hours. Human Resource Management Review, 29(4), 100673.
Afota, M. C., Robert, V., & Vandenberghe, C. (2021). The interactive effect of leader-member exchange and psychological climate for overwork on
subordinate workaholism and job strain. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(4), 495-509.
Bandura, A. (1986). The explanatory and predictive scope of self-efficacy theory. Journal of social and clinical psychology, 4(3), 359.
Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American psychologist, 44(9), 1175.
Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Judge, T. A. (2001). Personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where
do we go next?. International Journal of Selection and assessment, 9(1-2), 9-30.
Gist, M. E., & Mitchell, T. R. (1992). Self-efficacy: A theoretical analysis of its determinants and malleability. Academy of Management review, 17(2),
183-211.
Grijalva, E., Harms, P. D., Newman, D. A., Gaddis, B. H., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Narcissism and leadership: A meta-analytic review of linear and
nonlinear relationships. Personnel Psychology, 68(1), 1-47.
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: a qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of applied
psychology, 87(4), 765.
Judge, T. A., Piccolo, R. F., & Kosalka, T. (2009). The bright and dark sides of leader traits: A review and theoretical extension of the leader trait
paradigm. The leadership quarterly, 20(6), 855-875.
Landay, K., Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2019). Shall we serve the dark lords? A meta-analytic review of psychopathy and leadership. Journal of applied
psychology, 104(1), 183.
Ma, G. X., Born, M. P., Petrou, P., & Bakker, A. B. (2021). Bright sides of dark personality? A cross-cultural study on the dark triad and work
outcomes. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 29(3-4), 510-518.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of personality and
social psychology, 52(1), 81.
Landay, K., Harms, P. D., & Credé, M. (2019). Shall we serve the dark lords? A meta-analytic review of psychopathy and leadership. Journal of applied
psychology, 104(1), 183.
Grijalva, E., Harms, P. D., Newman, D. A., Gaddis, B. H., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Narcissism and leadership: A meta-analytic review of linear and
nonlinear relationships. Personnel Psychology, 68(1), 1-47.
Wu, C. H. (2016). Personality change via work: A job demand–control model of Big-five personality changes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 92, 157-
166.
Vergauwe, J., Hofmans, J., Wille, B., Decuyper, M., & De Fruyt, F. (2021). Psychopathy and leadership effectiveness: Conceptualizing and testing
three models of successful psychopathy. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(6), 101536.
Zettler, I., & Solga, M. (2013). Not enough of a ‘dark’trait? Linking Machiavellianism to job performance. European Journal of Personality, 27(6), 545-
554.