CHAPTER 5:

PERSONALITY, LEARNING
AND VALUES

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CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
– Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain
the factors that determine an individual’s personality.
– Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality
framework and assess its strengths and weaknesses.
– Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
– Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work.
– Identify other personality traits relevant to OB.
– Define values, demonstrate their importance, and contrast
terminal and instrumental values.
– Compare generational differences in values, and identify the
dominant values in today’s workforce.
– Identify Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture.

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 We all
have STRENGTHS and weaknesses.
What's right for one person may not be right for another.
There are things that are important to me, that you don't
care about at all!

And sometimes your behavior doesn't make any sense to me.

But I want for us to understand each other, and communicate well,

because we live together in the same world.

I know I can't expect you to want the same things that I want.
We are not the same person, so we will not always see things the
same way.

I have my own Thoughts & my own Ideas,

that may or may not fit into your vision of who I should be.
By learning more about my own Personality, and about other
Personality Types,
I can come to a better understanding of my strengths and
weaknesses.
I can improve my interpersonal relationships, realign my
expectations towards others,
and gain a better self-knowledge that will help me define and
achieve goals.
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WHAT IS
PERSONALITY?
The dynamic organization within the individual
of those psychophysical systems that
determine his unique adjustments to his
environment. - Gordon Allport
– The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others, the measurable traits a
person exhibits

Measuring Personality
– Helpful in hiring decisions
– Most common method: self-reporting surveys
– Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality – often better predictors

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PERSONALITY
DETERMINANTS
• Heredity
– Factors determined at conception: physical
stature, facial attractiveness, gender,
temperament, muscle composition and
reflexes, energy level, and bio-rhythms
– This “Heredity Approach” argues that genes are
the source of personality
– Twin studies: raised apart but very similar
personalities
– Parents don’t add much to personality
development
– There is some personality change over long
time periods
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• Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s
behavior
– The more consistent the characteristic and the
more frequently it occurs in diverse situations,
the more important the trait.
• Two dominant frameworks used to describe
personality:
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
– Big Five Model

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THE MYERS-BRIGGS
TYPE INDICATOR
• Most widely-used instrument in the world.
• Participants are classified on four axes to determine one
of 16 possible personality types, such as ENTJ.
– Extroverted (E) vs. Introverted (I)
– Sensing (S) vs. Intuitive (N)
– Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
– Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

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THE TYPES AND THEIR
USES
• Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a
name, for instance:
– Visionaries (INTJ) – are original, stubborn and driven.
– Organizers (ESTJ) – realistic, logical, analytical and
businesslike.
– Conceptualizer (ENTP) – entrepreneurial, innovative,
individualistic and resourceful.

• Research results on validity mixed.

– MBTI® is a good tool for self-awareness and
counseling.
– Should not be used as a selection test for job
candidates.

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THE BIG FIVE MODEL
OF PERSONALITY
• Extroversion

DIMENSIONS
– Sociable, gregarious, and assertive
• Agreeableness
– Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
• Conscientiousness
– Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized
• Emotional Stability
– Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive),
versus nervous, depressed, and insecure under
stress (negative)
• Openness to Experience
– Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive

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QUOTATIONS….
AGREE OR DISAGREE
1. Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in
yourself, do not go out and look for a successful
personality and duplicate it.
2. It is better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved
for someone you are not.
3. If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me,
not what they think I am
4. Beauty attracts the eye but personality captures the
heart.
5. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to
test a man’s character, give him power.
6. It’d never too late for what you might have been.
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HOW DO THE BIG FIVE
TRAITS PREDICT
•BEHAVIOR?
Research has shown this to be a better framework.
•
Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate
to higher job performance:

– Highly conscientious people develop more job

knowledge, exert greater effort, and have better
performance.

– Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.

• Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.
• Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have
good social skills.
• Open people are more creative and can be good
leaders.
• Agreeable people are good in social settings.
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THE DARK TRIAD
Rigid and unhealthy way of thinking, functioning &
behaving
•Machiavellianism
– A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who
believes that ends justify the means
– High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and
persuade more than they are persuaded. Flourish when:
 Have direct interaction
 Work with minimal rules and regulations
 Emotions distract others
•Narcissism
– An arrogant, entitled, self-important person who needs
excessive admiration. Having inflated ego, self entitlement
– Less effective in their jobs
•Psychopathy
– The tendency for the lack of concern for others, lack of
guilt/remorse when actions cause harm

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• Antisocial
– An utter lack of empathy, disregard others’ rights and
feelings
• Borderline
– switch opinion, mood swings, see the world as black and
white
– engage in risky behavior, self harm
• Schizotypal
– Magical thinking, imaginative
– perceptual disorder, social detachment
• Obsessive-Compulsive
– Obsessed with order, control and doing this right
– Perfectionist, work with others
• Avoidant
– Sensitive to criticism, fear of rejection, no desire to make
friends
– Don’t take risks
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MORE RELEVANT
PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Self-Monitoring
– The ability to adjust behavior to meet external,
situational factors.
– High monitors conform more and are more likely to
become leaders.
• Core Self-Evaluation
– The degree to which people like or dislike themselves
– Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance

• Proactive Personality
– Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action,
and perseveres to completion
– Creates positive change in the environment

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EVEN MORE
RELEVANT
PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Type A Personality
– Aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to
achieve more in less time
• Impatient: always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
• Strive to think or do two or more things at once
• Cannot cope with leisure time
• Obsessed with achievement numbers
– Prized in North America, but quality of the work is low
– Type B people are the complete opposite
• Risk Taking
– The willingness to take chances.
– May be best to align propensities with job requirements.
– Risk takers make faster decisions with less information.

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PERSONALITY, JOB
SEARCH &
UNEMPLOYMENT
• Conscientiousness and Extraversion
• Self esteem and Self efficacy
• Approach orientation and Avoidance
orientation
• Personality can change after
unemployment

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PERSONALITY &
SITUATIONS
• Situation Strength Theory
A theory indicating that the way personality translates in to
behavior depends on the strength of the situation (norms,
cues, standards)
Four elements of situation strength are:
1.Clarity
2.Consistency
3.Constraints
4.Consequences

• Trait Activation Theory

Some situations, events or interventions “activate” a trait
more than others

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LEARNING
• Learning can be defined as “A relatively
permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of
experience
Components of Learning
 Involves change
 Is relatively permanent
 Is acquired through experience

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THEORIES OF
LEARNING
• Classical Conditioning
A type of conditioning in which an individual
responds to some stimulus that would not
ordinarily produce such a response.
Key Concepts
Unconditioned stimulus
Unconditioned response
Conditioned stimulus
Conditioned response

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CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING: KEY
CONCEPTS
Unconditioned stimulus

Unconditionally, naturally, and

automatically triggers a response.
For example, when you smell one of your
favorite foods, you may immediately feel
very hungry. In this example, the smell of
the food is the unconditioned stimulus.

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Unconditioned response

The unlearned response that occurs

naturally in response to the
unconditioned stimulus. For example, if
the smell of food is the unconditioned
stimulus, the feeling of hunger in
response to the smell of food is the
unconditioned response.

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Conditioned stimulus
Previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming
associated with the unconditioned stimulus,
eventually comes to trigger a conditioned
response.

Suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned

stimulus and a feeling of hunger is the
unconditioned response. Now, imagine that when
you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the
sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to
the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle
was paired multiple times with the smell, the sound
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would eventually trigger the conditioned response.
Conditioned response

The learned response to the previously neutral

stimulus. For example, let's suppose that the
smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a
feeling of hunger in response the smell is a
unconditioned response, and a the sound of a
whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The
conditioned response would be feeling hungry
when you heard the sound of the whistle.

2–23
OPERANT
CONDITIONING
• A method of learning that occurs through
rewards and punishments for behavior.
Through operant conditioning, an association
is made between a behavior and a
consequence for that behavior.
Key Concepts
• Reflexive (unlearned) behavior
• Conditioned (learned) behavior
• Reinforcement

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Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which
is why, you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian
Conditioning.

As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and

motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he
suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes
of human behavior.

Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that
operates upon the environment to generate consequences"
(1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire
the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day.

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 EXAMPLE
• We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all
around us. Consider the case of children completing
homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or
employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.
In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards
causes an increase in behavior,
• But operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a
behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use
of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable
behaviors. For example, a child may be told he will lose recess
privileges if he talk out of turn in class. This potential for
punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.
•

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BANDURA'S SOCIAL-
LEARNING THEORY
The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has
become perhaps the most influential theory of learning
and development.

While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional

learning theory, Bandura believed that direct
reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.

His theory added a social element, arguing that people

can learn new information & behaviors by watching
other people. Known as observational learning/modeling,
this type of learning can be used to explain a wide
variety of behaviors.
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ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL
LEARNING
1. Attention - In order to learn, you need to be paying
attention.
2. Retention - The ability to store information is an
important part of the learning process.
3. Motor Reproduction - Once you have paid attention
to the model and retained the information, it is
time to actually perform the behavior you observed.
4. Motivation -In order to have successful
observational learning, you have to be motivated to
imitate the behavior that has been modeled .

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SHAPING: A
MANAGERIAL TOOL
Shaping Behavior
Systematically reinforcing each successive step
that moves an individual closer to the desired
response.
Key Concepts
• Reinforcement is required to change behavior.
• Some rewards are more effective than others.
• The timing of reinforcement affects learning
speed and permanence.

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METHODS OF
SHAPING BEHAVIOR
• Positive reinforcement
– Providing a reward for a desired behavior.
• Negative reinforcement
– Removing an unpleasant consequence when the
desired behavior occurs.
• Punishment
– Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an
undesirable behavior.
• Extinction
– Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its
cessation.
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A reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the
behavior it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcement

•Positive reinforcement are favorable events or outcomes that are

presented after the behavior. In situations that reflect positive
reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by the
addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.

•Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unfavorable

events or outcomes after the display of a behavior. In these
situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something
considered unpleasant.

In both of these cases of reinforcement, the behavior increases.

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• Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an
adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the
behavior it follows. There are two kinds of punishment:

• Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as

punishment by application of an adverse stimulus,
involves the presentation of an unfavorable event or
outcome in order to weaken the response it follows.

• Negative punishment, also known as punishment by

removal of a pleasant stimulus, occurs when an favorable
event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs.

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EXAMPLE OF
EXTINCTION
If the smell of food (the unconditioned stimulus)
had been paired with the sound of a whistle (the
conditioned stimulus), it would eventually come
to evoke the conditioned response of hunger.
However, if the unconditioned stimulus (the smell
of food) were no longer paired with the
conditioned stimulus (the whistle), eventually the
conditioned response (hunger) would disappear.

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 SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT
• In real-world settings, behaviors are probably not going to be
reinforced each and every time they occur.
• For situations where you are purposely trying to train and
reinforce an action, such as in the classroom, in sports or in
animal training, you might opt to follow a specific
reinforcement schedule.
• In some cases, training might call for starting out with one
schedule and then switching to another once the desired
behavior has been taught.
• A schedule of reinforcement is basically a rule stating which
instances of a behavior will be reinforced.
• In some case, a behavior might be reinforced every time it
occurs.
• Sometimes, a behavior might not be reinforced at all.

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TWO TYPES OF
REINFORCEMENT
SCHEDULES
1. Continuous Reinforcement

2. Partial Reinforcement
 Fixed-ratio schedules
 Variable-ratio schedules
 Fixed-interval schedules
 Variable-interval schedules

2–35
SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT
Continuous
Reinforcement
A desired behavior is
reinforced each time it is
demonstrated.
Intermittent
Reinforcement
A desired behavior is
reinforced often enough to
make the behavior worth
repeating but not every time
it is demonstrated.
2–36
SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT
(CONT’D)
Fixed-Interval Schedule
Rewards are spaced at
uniform time intervals.

Variable-Interval
Schedule
Rewards are given at
variable time.

2–37
SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT
(CONT’D)

Fixed-ratio

2–38
INTERMITTENT
SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT

E X H I B I T 2–5
E X H I B I T 2–5

2–39
INTERMITTENT SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT (CONT’D)

E X H I B I T 2–5 (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 2–5 (cont’d)

2–40
BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION
OB Mod
The application of reinforcement concepts to individuals in work setting.

Five Step Problem-Solving Model

1.Identify critical behaviors
2.Develop baseline performance data
3.Identify behavioral contingencies or consequences of
performance
4.Develop & apply intervention strategy to strengthen
desirable performance behaviors and weaken undesirable
ones.
5.Evaluate performance improvement

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GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
Intellectual Ability
The capacity to do mental activities.
Biographical Characteristics
Personal characteristics—such as age,
gender, and marital status—that are
objective and easily obtained from
personnel records.

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VALUES
Basic convictions on how to conduct
yourself or how to live your life that is
personally or socially preferable – “How
to” live life properly.

•Attributes of Values:
– Content Attribute – that the mode of conduct
or end-state is important
– Intensity Attribute – just how important that
content is.

•Value System
– A person’s values rank-ordered by intensity
– Tends to be relatively constant and
consistent
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IMPORTANCE OF
VALUES
• Provide understanding of the attitudes,
motivation, and behaviors
• Influence our perception of the world around us
• Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong”
• Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are
preferred over others

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CLASSIFYING VALUES
– ROKEACH VALUE
SURVEY
• Terminal Values
– Desirable end-states of existence; the goals
that a person would like to achieve during his or
her lifetime

• Instrumental Values
– Preferable modes of behavior or means of
achieving one’s terminal values

• People in same occupations or categories

tend to hold similar values.
– But values vary between groups.
– Value differences make it difficult for groups to
negotiate and may create conflict.
See Exhibits 4-3 and 4-4
4-45
LINKING PERSONALITY
AND VALUES TO THE
WORKPLACE
Managers are less interested in
someone’s ability to do a specific job
than in that person’s flexibility.
•Person-Job Fit:
– John Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory
• Six personality types
• Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI)
– Key Points of the Model:
• There appear to be intrinsic differences in
personality between people.
• There are different types of jobs.
• People in jobs congruent with their personality
should be more satisfied and have lower
turnover.
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HOLLAND’S
PERSONALITY TYPES
• Six types:
– Realistic
– Investigative
– Artistic
– Social
– Enterprising
– Conventional
• Need to match personality type with occupation
See Exhibits 4-7 and 4-8

4-47
STILL LINKING
PERSONALITY TO THE
WORKPLACE
In addition to matching the individual’s
personality to the job, managers are also
concerned with:
•Person-Organization Fit:
– The employee’s personality must fit with the
organizational culture.
– People are attracted to organizations that
match their values.
– Those who match are most likely to be selected.
– Mismatches will result in turnover.
– Can use the Big Five personality types to match
to the organizational culture.
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 GLOBAL
IMPLICATIONS
• Personality
– Do frameworks like Big Five transfer across cultures?
• Yes, the but the frequency of type in the culture may
vary.
• Better in individualistic than collectivist cultures.
• Values
– Values differ across cultures.
– Hofstede’s Framework for assessing culture – five
value dimensions:
• Power distance
• Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation

4-49
HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK:
Power Distance
The extent to which a society accepts that power in
institutions and organizations is distributed
unequally.
• Low distance
• Relatively equal power between those with
status/wealth and those without status/wealth
• High distance
• Extremely unequal power distribution
between those with status/wealth and those
without status/wealth

See Exhibit 4-6

4-50
HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK:
Individualism
•Individualism
– The degree to which people prefer to act as
individuals rather than as members of
groups
•Collectivism
– A tight social framework in which people
expect others in groups of which they are a
part to look after them and protect them

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HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK:
Masculinity
•Masculinity
– The extent to which the society values work
roles of achievement, power, and control, and
where assertiveness and materialism are also
valued
•Femininity
– The extent to which there is little
differentiation between roles for men and
women

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HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by
uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid
them
– High Uncertainty Avoidance:
• Society does not like ambiguous situations and
tries to avoid them.
– Low Uncertainty Avoidance:
• Society does not mind ambiguous situations and
embraces them.

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HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK:
Time Orientation
•Long-term Orientation
–A national culture attribute that
emphasizes the future, thrift, and
persistence

•Short-term Orientation
–A national culture attribute that
emphasizes the present and the here-
and-now
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HOFSTEDE’S
FRAMEWORK: AN
ASSESSMENT
• There are regional differences within countries
• The original data is old and based on only one
company
• Hofstede had to make many judgment calls while
doing the research
• Some results don’t match what is believed to be
true about given countries
• Despite these problems it remains a very popular
framework

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GLOBE FRAMEWORK
FOR ASSESSING
CULTURES
• Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness
(GLOBE) research program.
– Nine dimensions of national culture

• Similar to Hofstede’s framework with these additional

dimensions:
– Humane Orientation: how much society rewards people
for being altruistic, generous, and kind.
– Performance Orientation: how much society encourages
and rewards performance improvement and excellence.

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SUMMARY AND
MANAGERIAL
IMPLICATIONS
• Personality
– Screen for the Big Five trait of
conscientiousness
– Take into account the situational factors as well
– MBTI® can help with training and development

• Values
– Often explain attitudes, behaviors and
perceptions
– Higher performance and satisfaction achieved
when the individual’s values match those of the
organization
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