Organizational Behavior and

Leadership
Individual Differences at Work

Claudia Toma
[email protected]
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 Agenda for today
Personality
Big Five
Dark side of personality
Core self-evaluation

Skills
Values

Person-organization fit
Person-job fit
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General OB model
 Individual differences that matter at work
• Trait: a variety of individual attributes that
workers and leaders possess
1. Personality traits
2. Self- concept
3. Skills
4. Values

(Yukl, 2013)5-4
 1. Personality traits
• Personality is a dynamic concept describing the
growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system.
• A person’s internally based characteristics, way
of acting and thinking.
• It differentiates us from other people

Robbins and Judge (2015)

Bauer & Erdogan (2021)
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Factors that influence Personality

All factors interact to

influence how we evaluate,
interpret, organize and
apply information.

RECIPROCAL
DETERMINISM
(Bandura, 1971)

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 Personality Traits

• Attempt to learn what traits make up personality and

how they relate to actual behavior

• Personality tests – self-report measures

• Ideally should be combined with independent
assessments (e.g., behaviors, observer-ratings)

• Self-report are subject to impression management !

 Why using personality tests ?
• They are useful in hiring decisions and help managers
forecast who is best for a job.

• Personality traits predict organizational behavior

– r = .30 for job performance
– r = .47 for team-work
– r = .30 for citizenship behavior
– r = .40 for job satisfaction
– r = .50 for leadership behavior

(Ones et al., 2005)

 Big Five personality test
• Openness to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

• Link: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

(Goldberg, 1981;
Costa & McCrae, 1987-1992)
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 Big Five personality traits
Openness to Experience
(intellect, imagination, curiosity, creativity)

Conscientiousness
(order, duty, deliberation, self-discipline)

Extraversion
(sociability, assertiveness, activity, positive emotions)

Agreeableness
(trust, nurturance, kindness, cooperation)

Neuroticism
(anxiety, depression, moodiness, vulnerability to stress)
Personality and
leadership
• Leaders like being around
people and are able to
assert themselves
(extraverted)
• are disciplined and able to
keep commitments they
make (conscientious)
• are creative and flexible
(open)
• able to regulate emotions
(low neuroticism) 12-11
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 The impact of traits depend
on the context
• No single trait is right or wrong for being an
effective leader
• Behavior is determined by a complex
interaction between the characteristics of
employees and the organizational context in
which they are working

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 Dark side of personality

ed h &

n o o rs
re m
ab e o
te r l fi s

i l i ty r e
en se
lf-c d,

to m p a
se e sse

fe e th
l
bs
lf-o

y
se

desire to manipulate people and situations,

to maintain power.
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Narcissism and leadership

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Narcissism and leadership

Nevicka et al. (2011)

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Narcissism and leadership

Nevicka et al. (2018)

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 2. Self-concept (Core self-evaluation)
• Core self-evaluations refers to fundamental, global
evaluations that individuals make about their worth
as individuals (Judge et al., 2003)

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 Locus of control

Differences in the way people interpret events

External locus of control
The perception that chance or outside
forces beyond one’s personal control
determine one’s fate.
Internal locus of control
The perception that one’s personal
control determine one’s fate.

(Rotter, 1954)
 Self-esteem
Self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of
the self,
how we feel about it (Smith and Mackie, 2007).
 Self-Efficacy
How well one can execute courses of action
required to deal with prospective situations
(Bandura, 1982).

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Core self-evaluation impacts OB

Bono & Juge (2003)

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 3. Skills
• Skills refer to the ability to do something in an
effective maner (Yukl, 2013).
• Are jointly determined by heredity and
learning (Arvey, Zhang, Avolio, Krueger, 2007)

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 4. Values
• Values represent basic convictions in a person, a
specific mode of conduct or end-state of
existence (Schwartz, 1992).
• Personal vs. professional values
• Have both content and intensity.
• Are stable.

• Learned via socialization !

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Rokeach Value Model

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 Values at different levels
• Individual values
• Group values
– individual values get aggregated to some degree
– group defines values for itself
• Organization values
– also can aggregate from individuals
– significantly influenced by key leaders
– sometimes explicitly stated espoused values not
always consistent with values that are actively
applied
• Cultural values
 Leadership values

Essential in creating positive Relevant for ethical and moral

organizational culture leadership
 Interaction and Fit

• Behavior is determined by a complex

interaction between the characteristics of
employees and the organizational context in
which they are working

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 Interaction and Fit

Person-organization fit refers to the degree to

which a person’s values, personality, goals, and
other characteristics match those of the
organization.

Person-job fit is the degree to which a person’s

skill, knowledge, abilities, and other
characteristics match the job demands.
Bauer & Erdogan (2021)
Interaction and Fit

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Interaction and Fit

• Overqualification
is a situation in
which the
employee has
more skills,
education, and
experience than
the job requires
Impact of Overqualification

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 Summary and Implications
• Several individual attributes are essential at work
• Personality , Skills determined by multiple factors
• Personality is only one, among multiples factors,
influencing performance (10% explained by
conscientiousness)
• Dark side of personality (e.g., narcissism)
• Core self-evaluation is important and can change overtime
• Values are stable characteristics; relevant for ethical
leadership
• Importance of fit person – job / organization

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 Selecting a Cashier Using a Personality Test
Group Exercise
You have been tasked with designing a selection system to hire 30 cashiers for
a supermarket chain. The individual will be responsible for providing excellent
customer service by assisting them, answering questions, and resolving
complaints. The new hire will also be responsible for contributing to the
cleanliness and organization of the store and building displays of merchandise.

1. Identify the personality traits you think might be relevant to being

successful as a cashier.

2. Develop a personality test aimed at measuring these dimensions. Make

sure that each dimension you want to measure is captured by at least five
questions.

3. Do you think that prospective employees would fill out this questionnaire
honestly? If not, how would you ensure that the results you get would be
honest and truly reflect their personality?

4. How would you validate such a test? Describe the steps you would take.
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