Module 3 #Personality and attitude

Organizational Behavior

Module 3: Personality and attitude

Vinay Kumar, Ph.D

Vidisha Garg, MBA

ICBM-SBE, 2014

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 2

Mystery box


INPUTS

OUTCOMES

MYSTERY

BOX

Nature / Nurture

Inheritance / Environment

Attitudes

What is your personality?

INPUTS

OUTCOMES

Nature / Nurture

Inheritance / Environment

Attitudes

Personality

• Why do?

– Possibility 1: Different people react similarly in some situations.

– Possibility 2: Similar people react differently in some situations.

• Widely referred definition (Gordon Allport, 1937)

– “The dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical

systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”

• Three identifiers of personality from the definition:

– Human being and his mind as one responsive system

– Presence of a broader environment or a social context

– Individual as an active participant of the social context

– Additional condition (enduring characteristic):

• Consistent demonstration of uniqueness across a range of contexts


Personality theories

Biological theories • Behavior is traced to the joint effects of

inherited capacities and past experience

Psychoanalytic theories


Learning theories

Humanistic theories

• Behavior is determined by individual’s

past experiences which then color

perceptions of current events

• Behavior emanates from past learning,

current perceptions, and higher level

thinking processes (such as expectations)

• Behavior can be understood only in

terms of perceptions of self and others

leading towards personal fulfillment

• Gordon Allport

• Raymond Cattell

• Sigmund Freud

• Alfred Adler

• Carl Jung

• John Dallard

• Albert Bandura

• B F Skinner

• Carl Rogers

• Abraham Maslow

Measuring personality

• Two popular bases for measurement:

– Big Five Theory

• Openness (Curious vs. Cautious)

• Conscientiousness (Organized vs. Careless)

• Extraversion (Outgoing vs. Reserved)

• Agreeableness (Compassionate vs. Analytical)

• Neuroticism (Nervous vs. Confident)

– Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)

• Sensing (S) vs. Intuitive (N)

• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)


• Other traits of interest to OB

Professionals

• Self-evaluation

• Machiavellianism

• Narcissism

• Self-monitoring

• Risk taking

• Proactive tendency

• Other-orientation


Source: http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4738568/MyersBriggsTypes.png

http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4738568/MyersBriggsTypes.png



What shapes personality

• Key questions: • What is your view on past/present/future?

• Do I care to know about ‘how I know things’

• What/who controls your decision-making?

• How do you choose between (equal) alternatives?


Attitudes


Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

This link is debatable!

If behavior shapes attitude, it is because of cognitive dissonance

“a situation where original evaluation becomes ineffective”

Mapping attitudes to cultures


Cognitive Evaluations

Affects/ Feelings

Behaviors

Assumptions

Espoused Values

Artifacts / Behaviors

Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical Validation of Affect, Behavior, and Cognition as Distinct Components of Attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1191-1205.

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychological Association.

What should I get? What am I getting?

What should we give? What are we giving? DIFFERENCES

More on this in Unit 5

Job satisfaction Perceived support

Commitment Engagement

Bases of individual behavior


Cognitive Evaluations

Affects/ Feelings

Behaviors

Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical Validation of Affect, Behavior, and Cognition as Distinct Components of Attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1191-1205.

Perception &

Decision-making

Emotions / Moods

Values / Cultures

Perceptions

• Process by which individuals

organize and interpret their

sensory impressions in order

to give meaning to their

environment.

– Be aware: What we

perceive can be

substantially different

from objective reality!



Judgment errors

• Fundamental attribution error

– Example 1: If someone else is successful, it is because they had support.

– Example 2: He lost because he did not work hard enough.

• Self-serving bias

– Example 1: I won because of my effort.

– Example 2: I lost because I did not have support.

• Key questions:

– Where do you locate the locus of control?

– What do you believe determines success?


Common causes of judgment errors

• Selective perception

– Choosing to work with information first-accessed rather than actively

seeking more information useful to understand the situation

• Example: What comes first to your mind about yourself/your friend?

• Halo effect

– Estimating several characteristics of an individual based on evidence

obtained for just one characteristic

• Example: The guy in the suit is a business-man! (Or was he a waiter?)

• Contrast effects

– Evaluating individuals in comparison with others/other things

• Example: Your performance is bad, on an average.

• Stereotyping

– Preconceived notion of how a segment of individuals are likely to be

• Example: He speaks good English. He must have studied in a good school.


Decision-making

• Reaction to a problem

• Requires access to, interpretation and evaluation of information

– Rational model (pursuit of optimal solutions)

– Bounded rationality (pursuit of satisfactory alternatives)

– Intuitive methods (pursuit of feel good alternatives)

• Common errors in decision-making

– Overconfidence

– Fixation (anchoring bias)

– Selective search for information (confirmation bias)

– Availability bias (information available reveals truth)

– Escalation of commitment (staying with decisions even after knowing it is wrong)

– Randomness error (tendency to overestimate our capacity to predict future)

– Risk aversion (not being aware of probabilities)

– Hindsight bias (tendency to believe false notions after a desired outcome)


Affects



Moods



Moods over time and days



Emotions

• Range of emotions

– Enthusiasm

– Fear

– Frustration

– Disappointment

– Joy

– Love

– Embarrassment

– Pride

– Hope

– Happiness

– Wonder

– Jealousy


• Emotions are easily experienced but their

exhibition is not so easy

• Try expressing love only using facial

expression!

• Often, emotions have a powerful, and in some

cases long standing, influence on our behavior

• Using someone’s expressions as the only basis for

gauging their emotions could be highly unreliable

How are you feeling today?

Values of individuals

• Widely referred definition (Rokeach, 1973)

– “Basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially

preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence”

– Example: Notions on what is appropriate and what is not

• Three identifiers of values:

– Recognizing the problem, alternative solutions, and possible outcomes

– Preferring one alternative over the other because one outcome is better than the other

• Better is not limited in its economic sense

• Rather in case of individuals and behavioral decisions, ‘better’ indicates moral judgments

– At least one explanation (rationale) to how chosen alternative is better

• An order-of-priority among alternate courses of action indicates a value-system

– The expectation is that the rationale for such ordering remains relatively stable over time


Typology of values

• Based on individual’s identity

– Generational values

• Choices attributable to age group

• Example: Boomers valued loyalty; Gen Y values their aspirations

– Role-based values

• Choices attributable to job role

• Example: Scientists value autonomy; Unions value equality

– Any other sectarian values

• Example: Religious values


Typology of values

• Based on fundamental choices

– Terminal values

• Defining a desirable end-state (how an outcome is ought to be)

• Example: Freedom vs. Economic success vs. Social recognition

– Instrumental values

• Defining how to act on achieving a desired end-state (what is the best

route to achieving desired outcomes)

• Example: Self-reliance vs. Kindness vs. Discipline


Why values need attention



Opposite, but not necessarily good/bad


Assessing person-organization fit

• Good match leads to

– Job satisfaction

– Higher commitment

– Lower turnover


• Which of these values do you prefer

most? And does the organization

you want to join communicate

anything about these values?

• Flexibility

• Predictability

• High pay

• Job security

• Achievement oriented

• Tolerant for failure

• Confronting conflicts

• Highly organized

• Mostly informal

Read more @ http://www.jstor.org/stable/256404

http://www.jstor.org/stable/256404

National values

• Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture

– Power distance: Degree to which people accept that power is distributed unequally

– Individualism vs. Collectivism: Preference to work in teams

– Masculinity vs. Feminity: Preference for masculine desires such as achievement

– Uncertainty avoidance: Preference for structure

– Long term vs. Short term orientation: Preference for speed and kind of change

• Note: This dimension was recently divided into two parts—pragmatism and indulgence

– Pragmatism: Obligated connections with the past

– Indulgence: Capacity to control desires for a future state

• Visit: http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html


http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html



How would you feel in China or US?


Source: http://geert-hofstede.com/india.html as on 16 July 2014

http://geert-hofstede.com/india.html



Exercise

• Recall an experience when someone was rude to you, and

reflect why you may have felt it rude.

• Recall an experience when someone was nice to you, and

reflect why you may have felt it nice.

– Describe in as much detail as possible

– Use appropriate words

– Stay out of the experience and write like an observer


For discussion

• Is being nice, costly/hurtful?

• Should you give space for religious expressions?

• Current generations are better than the previous ones, and the future generations will

be better than current ones. It is called the Flynn effect. How should it be managed?

• Is organization obligated to satisfy employees?

• Certain jobs force people to regulate their emotional expressions. They are often

subject of emotional labor. Is it ethical to regulate someone’s emotional expression?

• Should you change or should you change someone else? How would you know?

• How do be rid of biases in decision-making?


End of module 3.

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Module 3 #Personality and attitude

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