1. Individual Differences
Personality and Abilities
Chapter 3

2. Learning Objectives
1. Define personality and describe its role in the study of
organizational behavior.
2. Identify the big five dimensions of personality and
describe what is meant by positive and negative
affectivity.
3. Describe the Type A and Type B behavior patterns and
describe the nature of Machiavellianism.
4. Define achievement motivation (or need for achievement)
and describe the difference between learning,
performance, and avoidance goal orientations.
5. Describe the differences between morning and evening
persons and the relevance of this individual difference to
on-the-job behavior.
6. Define cognitive intelligence, practical intelligence,
emotional intelligence, and successful intelligence.
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3. Personality Concepts
Personality: The unique and relatively
Personality
stable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and
emotions shown by individuals.
Interactionist Perspective: The view that
Perspective
behavior is a result of a complex interplay
between personality and situational
factors.
Person-Job Fit: The extent to which
Fit
individuals possess the traits and
competencies required to perform specific
jobs.
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4. The Interactionist Perspective
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5. Measuring Personality
 Objective Tests:
Tests Questionnaires and
inventories designed to measure
various aspects of personality.
 Reliability: The extent to which a
Reliability
test yields consistent scores on
various occasions.
 Validity: The extent to which a test
Validity
actually measures what it claims to
measure.
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6. The Big Five Dimensions of Personality
 Fivebasic dimensions of personality
that are assumed to underlie many
specific traits.
– Conscientiousness
– Extraversion-Introversion
– Agreeableness
– Emotional Stability
– Openness to Experience
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7. Conscientiousness
The extent to which
individuals are
hardworking,
organized, dependable,
and persevering (high
conscientiousness)
versus lazy,
disorganized, and
unreliable (low
conscientiousness).
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8. Extraversion-Introversion
The degree to
which individuals
are gregarious,
assertive, and
sociable
(extraverts) versus
being reserved,
timid, and quiet
(introverts).
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9. Agreeableness
The extent to which
individuals are
cooperative and
warm (highly
agreeable) versus
cold and
belligerent (highly
disagreeable).
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10. Emotional Stability
The degree to which
individuals are
insecure, anxious,
depressed, and
emotional
(emotionally
unstable) versus
calm, self-confident,
and secure
(emotionally stable).
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11. Openness to Experience
The extent to which
individuals are
creative, curious,
and cultured (open
to experience)
versus practical
and with narrow
interests (closed to
experience).
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12. Affectivity
 Positive Affectivity: The tendency to
Affectivity
experience positive moods and
feelings in a wide range of settings
and under many different conditions.
 Negative Affectivity: The tendency
Affectivity
to experience negative moods in a
wide range of settings and under
many different conditions.
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13. Self-Efficacy
 Individuals’beliefs concerning their ability
to perform specific tasks successfully.
 Judgments of self-efficacy consist of three
components:
Magnitude: The level at which an individual
Magnitude
believes she or he can perform.
Strength: The person’s confidence that she or
Strength
he can perform at that level.
Generality: The extent to which self-efficacy in
Generality
one situation or for one task extends to other
situations and other tasks.
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14. Self-Efficacy
General Self-efficacy: People’s
Self-efficacy
overall beliefs about their general
capacity to perform tasks
successfully.
Beliefs about self-efficacy develop
through:
Direct Experience: Feedback from
Experience
performing similar tasks in the past.
Vicarious Experience: Observations of
Experience
others’ performance on these tasks.
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15. Self-Monitoring
A personality trait involving the extent to which
individuals adapt their behavior to the demands
of specific situations so as to make good
impressions on others.
Consequences of self-monitoring:
 Work Performance: High self-monitors tend to do
Performance
better than low self-monitors in jobs requiring
boundary-spanning activities.
 Career Success: High self-monitors tend to obtain
Success
more promotions than low self-monitors.
 Interpersonal Relationships: High self-monitors
Relationships
tend to form less stable and shallower personal
relationships with others than low self-monitors.
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16. Self-Monitoring
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17. Machiavellianism
 A personality trait involving willingness to
manipulate others for one’s own purposes.
 Machiavellian tactics:
 Neglecting to share important information (e.g., claiming
to “forget” to tell you about key meetings and
assignments).
 Finding subtle ways of making you look bad to
management (e.g., damning you with faint praise).
 Failing to meet obligations (e.g., not holding up their
end on joint projects, thereby causing you to look bad).
 Spreading false rumors about you (e.g., making up
things about you that embarrass you in front of others).
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18. Type A vs. Type B
Type A Behavior Pattern: A pattern
Pattern
of behavior involving high levels of
competitiveness, time urgency, and
irritability.
Type B Behavior Pattern: A pattern
Pattern
of behavior characterized by a
casual, laid-back style; the opposite
of the Type A behavior pattern.
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19. Type A vs. Type B
Task Performance
 Type As tend to excel on tasks involving time
pressure or solitary work.
 Type Bs have the advantage when it comes to
tasks involving complex judgments and
accuracy as opposed to speed.
Interpersonal Relations
 Type As tend to annoy coworkers, are more
likely to lose their tempers and lash out at
others, are more likely to become involved in
conflict, and are more likely to engage in
aggressive and counterproductive behavior.
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20. Achievement Motivation
The strength of
an individual’s
desire to excel –
to succeed at
difficult tasks and
to do them better
than other
persons.
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21. High Need Achievers
Prefer moderately difficult tasks.
In terms of career success, tend to
be
• Promoted more rapidly.
• Less inclined to delegate.
• More interested in performance
feedback.
• More interested in merit-based pay than
seniority-based pay.
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22. Goal Orientations
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23. Morning vs. Evening Persons
 Morning Persons
Individuals who feel
most energetic and
alert early in the day.
 Evening Persons
Individuals who feel
most energetic and
alert late in the day.
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24. Abilities
Mental and physical capacities to perform
various tasks.
Cognitive Intelligence: The ability to
Intelligence
understand complex ideas, to adapt
effectively to the environment, to learn
from experience, to engage in various
forms of reasoning, and to overcome
obstacles by careful thought.
Practical Intelligence: Adeptness at
Intelligence
solving the practical problems of everyday
life.
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25. Tacit Knowledge
 Knowledge about how to get things done.
 Major characteristics:
– Tacit knowledge is action oriented; it involves
oriented
knowing how to do something as opposed to
knowing that something is the case.
– Tacit knowledge is practically useful; it allows
useful
individuals to achieve goals they personally
value.
– Tacit knowledge is acquired without direct
help from others.
others
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26. Emotional Intelligence
A cluster of skills relating to the emotional
side of life.
 Major components:
 The ability to recognize and regulate our own
emotions.
 The ability to recognize and influence others’
emotions.
 Self motivation.
 The ability to form effective long-term
relationships with others.
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27. Successful Intelligence
Intelligence that represents a good balance between
cognitive intelligence (IQ), practical intelligence, and
creative intelligence.
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28. Other Cognitive Abilities
 Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly recognize
Speed
similarities and differences in visual stimuli.
 Example: A designer recognizing irregular patterns in a
fabric.
 Number Aptitude: The ability to work with
Aptitude
numbers in a quick and accurate manner.
 Example: An accountant spotting an error in a financial
report.
 Spatial Visualization: The ability to imagine how
Visualization
various objects will look when rotated or moved in
space.
 Example: An architect planning a change in a building
design.
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29. Physical Abilities
 People’s capacities to engage in the
physical tasks required to perform a job.
 Common types:
– Strength: The capacity to exert physical force
Strength
against various objects.
– Flexibility: The capacity to move one’s body in
Flexibility
an agile manner.
– Stamina: The capacity to endure physical
Stamina
activity over prolonged periods.
– Speed: The ability to move quickly.
Speed
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