MEANING OF PERSONALITY
Personality means a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole physical system. According to Gordon Allport, personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Finally, personality can be defined as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. It is most often described in terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits.
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PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS
An early debate in personality research centered on whether an individual’s personality was the result of heredity or environment. Today, we recognize a third factor – the situation. Thus, an adult’s personality is now generally considered to be made up of both heredity and environmental factors moderated by situational conditions.
Heredity: Heredity refers to factors determined at conception. Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition, reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are characteristics generally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by who the parents are. Studies of young children lend strong support to the power of heredity. Evidence demonstrates that traits such as shyness, fear, and aggression can be traced to inherited genetic characteristics.
Environment: Environmental factors exert significant pressure on personality formation, including the culture in which one is raised, early conditioning, and the norms among family, friends, and social groups. These factors play a substantial role in shaping personality. For example, culture establishes norms, attitudes, and values passed from one generation to the next, creating consistencies over time.
Situation: The situation influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality. An individual’s personality, although generally stable and consistent, can change in different situations. The various demands of different situations call forth different aspects of personality. Thus, personality patterns should not be viewed in isolation.
THE BIG FIVE MODEL
The Big-Five model represents the five basic dimensions underlying all others and encompassing most significant variations in human personality:
Extroversion: Captures one’s comfort level with relationships. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable, while introverts are reserved, timid, and quiet.
Agreeableness: Refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm, and trusting, while those scoring low are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.
Conscientiousness: Measures reliability. Highly conscientious individuals are responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent, while low scorers are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
Emotional Stability: Taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. Emotionally stable people are calm, self-confident, and secure, while those with high negative scores are nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
Openness to Experience: Addresses one’s range of interest and fascination with novelty. Open individuals are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive, while conventional individuals find comfort in familiarity.
MAJOR PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB
Specific personality attributes have been found to be powerful predictors of behavior in organizations:
Locus of Control: Refers to an individual’s perception of control over their fate. Internals believe they control their destinies, while externals see their lives as controlled by external forces like luck or chance.
Machiavellianism: High Machiavellians are pragmatic, emotionally distant, and believe the ends justify the means. They thrive in situations with minimal rules and face-to-face interactions.
Self-Esteem: Refers to the degree to which individuals like or dislike themselves. High self-esteem is directly related to expectations for success and confidence in abilities.
Self-Monitoring: Indicates an individual’s ability to adjust behavior to external, situational factors. High self-monitors adapt well, showing behavioral flexibility, while low self-monitors display consistent behavior across situations.
Risk-Taking: Refers to differences in willingness to take chances. High risk-takers make rapid decisions with less information, while low risk-takers are more cautious.
Type A Personality: Characterized by competitiveness, impatience, and a constant struggle to achieve more in less time. Traits include rapid movement, multitasking, and obsession with numbers.
Proactive Personality: Proactives identify opportunities, show initiative, and persist until meaningful change occurs. They are often seen as leaders and change agents within organizations.
MEANING OF EMOTIONS
Emotions are reactions to an object, not traits. They are objective-specific and closely intertwined with affect and moods. Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something and can transform into moods when the contextual object is lost. For example, becoming angry at a colleague criticizes your work demonstrates an emotion directed at a specific object.
FELT VS. DISPLAYED EMOTIONS
Felt Emotions: An individual’s actual emotions.
Displayed Emotions: Organizationally required emotions considered appropriate in a given job. These are learned behaviors often masking true feelings, particularly in customer-facing roles where emotional labor is high.
EMOTION DIMENSIONS
Variety: Emotions include anger, happiness, fear, envy, and more. Positive emotions express favorable evaluations, while negative emotions express unfavorable evaluations.
Intensity: People respond differently to identical stimuli, influenced by personality or job requirements. For instance, intense happiness may manifest as ecstasy, while intense sadness as deep depression.
Frequency and Distribution: High-frequency or long-duration emotional labor demands more exertion from employees. Success in meeting emotional demands depends on intensity, frequency, and duration of effort required.
