Part Two

The Individual

FOUNDATIONS
OF INDIVIDUAL
BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER
Biographical
Ability
Personality
Learning

OUTLINE
Characteristics

After studying this chapter, you should be able to

o Define the key biographical characteristics

f)

Identify two types of ability

Explain the factors that determine an individual's personality

a Describe the impact of job typology

on the personality - job

performance relationship

1:1 Summarize

how learning theories provide insights into

changing behavior

Distinguish between the four schedules of reinforcement

fl Clarify the

role of punishment in learning

friends and colleagues describe the personality

of Chrysler Corporation's president, Robert A. Lutz, they use
terms such as flamboyant, assertive, and daring. 1 Lutz provides an excellent illustration of how an individual's personality shapes his or her behavior.
Robert Lutz was born in Zurich in 1932. He moved to
New York City as a child, when his father, a banker,
was transferred. He became a U.S. citizen at age 11.
Because he moved around so much, he didn't finish
high school until he was 22. But he wasn't letting
grass grow under his feet. During his teenage years
he learned to speak French, German, and Italian, as
well as English.
Fascinated from an early age with motorcycles,
cars, and planes-anything,
in fact, that went fasthe joined the Marine Corps with the intention of becoming a fighter pilot. He flew jets for five years, then
flew with the U.S. Marine Corps reserves while pursuing his higher education. By age 30, he had a BS and
an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1963, Lutz went to work for General Motors as
a product planner. In his eight years with GM, he
eventually moved up to become head of sales and
marketing for GM's Opel unit in Germany. Then he
spent three years in Munich as BMW's executive vice president of sales and marketing. From there, he went to Ford's
European operations, where he quickly moved up the ranks
to eventually head up Ford of Europe. At the age of 50, he
returned to the United States as executive vice president of
Ford's international operations. In 1986, at the age of 54, he
was picked by Chrysler to become its President and Chief
Operating Officer.
Lutz personifies Chrysler's image as Detroit's most aggressive auto maker. His flamboyant and strong personality
probably cost him the chairmanship because of clashes with
his previous boss. But his blunt opinions and bold approach
to management make him a standout, and he is widely given
credit for Chrysler's current success. He revamped Chrysler's
engineering ranks into flexible, cross-functional teams and
championed daring styling to match the sporty performance
of models such as the Dodge Intrepid sedan and Ram

pickup. His success in reorganizing the

company's product development groups allows the company to develop cars faster
and cheaper than its competition and has
unleashed staffers' creativity, leading to
better-looking, better-performing vehicles.
Neither age nor responsibilities have
lessened Lutz's love for speed. In addition

to owning a fleet of fast cars and motorcycles, he pilots his own helicopter and jet
aircraft. His latest toy is a Czech-made
L-39C Albatros jet fighter. On weekends,
he and his wife can be found streaking
across the Michigan sky at nearly 600
miles per hour. +

obert Lutz's assertiveness and risk-seeking personality characteristics

were in place long before he joined Chrysler Corp. But they play an important role in shaping his actions. Of course, Robert Lutz isn't unique.
All our behavior is somewhat shaped by our personalities and experiences. In
this chapter, we will look at four individual-level variables-biographical
characteristics, ability, personality, and learning-and
consider their effect on
employee performance and satisfaction.

Biographical Characteristics

biographical characteristics
Personal characteristics - such as age,
gender, and marital status -that are
obiective and easily obtained from
personnel records.

As discussed in the previous chapter, this text is essentially concerned with

finding and analyzing the variables that have an impact on employee productivity, absence, turnover, and satisfaction. The list of those variables-as
shown in Exhibit 1-8 on page 28-is long and contains some complicated
concepts. Many of the concepts-motivation,
say, or power and politics or organizational culture-are hard to assess. It might be valuable, then, to begin
by looking at factors that are easily definable and readily available; data that
can be obtained, for the most part, simply from information available in an
employee's personnel file. What factors would these be? Obvious characteristics would be an employee's age, gender, marital status, and length of service
with an organization. Fortunately, there is a sizable amount of research that
has specifically analyzed many of these biographical characteristics.

Age
The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issue of
increasing importance during the next decade. Why? There are at least three
reasons. First, there is a widespread belief that job performance declines with
increasing age. Regardless of whether it's true or not, a lot of people believe it
and act on it. Second is the reality that the workforce is aging. For instance,
workers 55 and older are the fastest-growing sector of the labor force; between
1990 and 2005, their ranks are expected to jump 43.7 percent.f The third reason is recent U.S. legislation that, for all intents and purposes, outlaws mandatory retirement. Most U.S. workers today no longer have to retire at the age
of 70.
What is the perception of older workers? Evidence indicates that employers hold mixed feelings." They see a number of positive qualities that
older workers bring to their jobs: specifically, experience, judgment, a strong
work ethic, and commitment to quality. But older workers are also perceived
as lacking flexibility and as being resistant to new technology. And in a time
when organizations strongly seek individuals who are adaptable and open to
change, the negatives associated with age clearly hinder the initial hiring of

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

McDonald's views older workers

as willing to take on new
responsibilities, patient, disciplined,
and good role models for younger
employees. Through its McMasters
- program, it recruits, trains, and
develops people over 55. Studies
indicate that, in general, older
workers are more stable and
(contrary to popular belief) no less
productive than their younger coworkers.

older workers and increase the likelihood that they will be let go during
downsizing. Now let's take a look at the evidence. What effect does age actually have on turnover, absenteeism, productivity, and satisfaction?
The older you get, the less likely you are to quit your job. That conclusion is based on studies of the age-turnover relationship." Of course, it should
not be too surprising. As workers get older, they have fewer alternative job opportunities. In addition, older workers are less likely to resign than are
younger workers because their long tenure tends to provide them with higher
wage rates, longer paid vacations, and more-attractive pension benefits.
It's tempting to assume that age is also inversely related to absenteeism.
After all, if older workers are less likely to quit, won't they also demonstrate
higher stability by coming to work more regularly? Not necessarily! Most studies do show an inverse relationship, but close examination finds that the ageabsence relationship is partially a function of whether the absence is avoidable or unavoldable.> In general, older employees have lower rates of
avoidable absence than do younger employees. However, they have higher
rates of unavoidable absence, probably due to the poorer health associated
with aging and the longer recovery period that older workers need when injured.
How does age affect productivity? There is a widespread belief that
productivity declines with age. It is often assumed that an individual's
skills-particularly
speed, agility, strength, and coordination-decay
over
time and that prolonged job boredom and lack of intellectual stimulation all
contribute to reduced productivity. The evidence, however, contradicts that
belief and those assumptions. For instance, during a three-year period, a large
hardware chain staffed one of its stores solely with employees over SO and
compared its results with those of five stores with younger employees. The
store staffed by the over-SO employees was significantly more productive
(measured in terms of sales generated against labor costs) than two of the
other stores and held its own with the other three." One comprehensive review of the research found that age and job performance were unrelated.'
Moreover, that finding seems to be true for almost all types of jobs, professional and nonprofessional. The natural conclusion is that the demands of

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

43

44

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN D IV IDUA L

most jobs, even those with heavy manual labor requirements, are not extreme
enough for any declines in physical skills due to age to have an impact on
productivity; or, if there is some decay due to age, it is offset by gains due to
experience.
Our final concern is the relationship between age and job satisfaction.
On this issue, the evidence is mixed. Most studies indicate a positive association between age and satisfaction, at least up to age 60.8 Other studies, however, have found a V-shaped relationship." Several explanations could clear up
these results, the most plausible being that these studies are intermixing professional and nonprofessional employees. When the two types are separated,
satisfaction tends to continually increase among professionals as they age,
whereas it falls among nonprofessionals during middle age and then rises
again in the later years.

Gender
Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and unsupported opinions
than whether women perform as well on jobs as men do. In
this section, we review the research on that issue.
The evidence suggests that the best place to begin is with
There are few, if any,
the recognition that there are few, if any, important differences
important differences
between men and women that will affect their job performance.
There are, for instance, no consistent male-female differences
between men and women
in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive,
that will affect their job
motivation, sociability, or learning ability.?? Psychological studperformance.
ies have found that women are more willing to conform to authority and that men are more aggressive and more likely than
women to have expectations of success, but those differences are minor.
Given the significant changes that have taken place in the last 25 years in
terms of increasing female participation rates in the workforce and rethinking
what constitutes male and female roles, you should operate on the assumption that there is no significant difference in job productivity between men
and women. Similarly, there is no evidence indicating that an employee's gender affects job satisfaction."! .
One issue that does seem to differ between genders, especially where the
employee has preschool children, is preference for work schedules.F Working
mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules, and
telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities.
But what about absence and turnover rates? Are women less stable employees than men? First, on the question of turnover, the evidence is mixed."
Some studies have found that women have higher turnover rates; others have
found no difference. There doesn't appear to be enough information from
which to draw meaningful conclusions. The research on absence, however, is
a different story. The evidence consistently indicates that women have higher
rates of absenteeism than men do.!" The most logical explanation for this
finding is that the research was conducted in North America, and North
American culture has historically placed home and family responsibilities on
the woman. When a child is ill or someone needs to stay home to wait for the
plumber, it has been the woman who has traditionally taken time off from
work. However, this research is undoubtedly time-bound. IS The historical role
of the woman in caring for children and as secondary breadwinner has defi-

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

nitely changed since the 1970s, and a large proportion of men nowadays are
as interested in day care and the problems associated with child care in general as are women.
Marital Status
There are not enough studies to draw any conclusions about the effect of marital status on productivity. But research consistently indicates that married
employees have fewer absences, undergo less turnover, and are more satisfied
with their jobs than are their unmarried coworkers. 16
Marriage imposes increased responsibilities that may make a steady job
more valuable and important. But the question of causation is not clear. It
may very well be that conscientious and satisfied employees are more likely to
be married. Another offshoot of this issue is that research has not pursued
other statuses besides single or married. Does being divorced or widowed have
an impact on an employee's performance and satisfaction? What about couples who live together without being married? These are questions in need of
investigation.
Tenure
The last biographical characteristic we'll look at is tenure. With the exception
of the issue of male-female differences, probably no issue is more subject to
misconceptions and speculations than the impact of seniority on job performance.
Extensive reviews of the seniority-productivity
relationship have been
conducted." If we define seniority as time on a particular job, we can say that
the most recent evidence demonstrates a positive relationship between seniority and job productivity. So tenure, expressed as work experience, appears to
be a good predictor of employee productivity.
The research relating tenure to absence is quite straightforward. Studies
consistently demonstrate seniority to be negatively related to absenteeism. IS
In fact, in terms of both frequency of absence and total days lost at work,
tenure is the single most important explanatory variable."
Tenure is also a potent variable in explaining turnover. "Tenure has consistently been found to be negatively related to turnover and has been suggested as one of the single best predictors of turnover.v'" Moreover, consistent
with research that suggests that past behavior is the best predictor of future
behavior." evidence indicates that tenure on an employee's previous job is a
powerful predictor of that employee's future turnover.F
The evidence indicates that tenure and satisfaction are positively
related.P In fact, when age and tenure are treated separately, tenure appears to
be a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than is chronological age.

Ability
Contrary to what we were taught in grade school, we weren't
all created equal. Most of us are to the left of the median on
some normally distributed ability curve. Regardless of how motivated you are, it is unlikely that you can act as well as Meryl
Streep, run as fast as Michael Johnson, write horror stories as

Contrary to what we were

taught in grade school, we
weren't all created equal.

45

46

PAR T

TWO

THE

ability
Anindividual's
capacity
to performthe
varioustasksina job.

IN DIV IDUA l

well as Stephen King, or sing as well as Whitney Houston. Of course, just because we aren't all equal in abilities does not imply that some individuals are
inherently inferior to others. What we are acknowledging is that everyone has
strengths and weaknesses in terms of ability that make him or her relatively
superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities.F" From
management's standpoint, the issue is not whether people differ in terms of
their abilities. They do! The issue is knowing how people differ in abilities and
using that knowledge to increase the likelihood that an employee will perform
his or her job well.
What does ability mean? As we will use the term, ability refers to an individual's capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. It is a current assessment of what one can do. An individual's overall abilities are essentially made
up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical abilities.

Intellectual Abilities
intellectual ability
Thatrequiredtodomentalactivities.

Intellectual abilities are those needed to perform mental activities. Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, for example, are designed to ascertain one's general
intellectual abilities. So, too, are popular college admission tests such as the
SAT and ACT and graduate admission tests in business (GMAT), law (LSAT),
and medicine (MCAT). The seven most frequently cited dimensions making
up intellectual abilities are number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and
memory.P Exhibit 2-1 describes those dimensions.

Job Example
Accountant: Computing the
sales tax on a set of items

Number aptitude

Ability to do speedy and

accurate arithmetic

Verbal

Ability to understand what

Plant manager: Following

comprehension

is read or heard and the

relationship of words to
each other

corporate policies

Perceptual speed

Ability to identify visual

similarities and differences
quickly and accurately

Fire investigator: Identifying

clues to support a charge of
arson

Inductive reasoning

Ability to identify a logical

sequence in a problem and
then solve the problem

Market researcher: Forecasting

demand for a product in the
next time period

Deductive reasoning

Ability to use logic and

assess the implicotions
of an argument

Supervisor: Choosing between

two different suggestions offered
by employees

Spatial visualization

Ability to imagine how

an object would look if its

Interior decorator: Redecorating

an office

position in space were

changed
Memory

Ability to retain and recall

past experiences

Salesperson: Remembering
the names of customers

CHAPTER 2. FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

Netscape
Back
Go to:

Forward

Home

Reload

Images

:I
Open

Find

Print

Stop

I httpllwww.prenhall.com/phbusiness

08 in the News
The Bell Curve Evidence
was
t undoubtedly the
most controversial social science book published during the first half of
the 1990s. The Bell Curve (The
Free Press, 1994) by Richard
Herrnstein and Charles Murray presents evidence that
IQ, not education or opportunity, is the key factor determining where a person ends
up on the American social
scale. What stirred up most
reviewers, scientists, politicians, and journalists was the
authors' claim that economic
inequalities between racial
groups are related to differences in average IQ levels between races. But we are interested only in that segment of
their work that is related to
the issue of IQ and job performance.
Herrnstein and Murray began by making six statements
that they categorized as "beyond significant technical
dispute": (1) There is such a
thing as a general factor of
cognitive ability on which
human beings differ; (2) all
standardized tests of acade-

mic aptitude or achievement

measure this general factor to
some degree, but IQ tests expressly designed for that purpose measure it most accurately; (3) IQ scores closely
match whatever it is that
people mean when they use
the word intelligent or smart
in ordinary language; (4) IQ
scores are stable, although
not perfectly so, over much
of a person's life; (5) properly
administered IQ tests are not
demonstrably biased against
social, economic, ethnic, or
racial groups; and (6) a substantial portion of cognitive
ability (no less than 40 percent and no more than 80
percent) is inherited through
genes. Using these six points
as a foundation, the authors
then argued forcefully that
IQ is a powerful predictor of
job performance. Or to use
their terms, A smarter employee is, on average, a more
proficient employee."
According to Herrnstein
and Murray, all jobs require
cognitive ability. This fact is
relatively self-evident in proII

fessional occupations such as

accounting or engineering.
But it's also true for semiskilled blue-collar jobs and
holds, although weakly, even
among people in unskilled
manual jobs. For instance,
they point out that there are
better and worse busboys in
restaurants. The really good
ones use intelligence to solve
job-related problems and to
come up with solutions. But
as jobs become more complex, IQ becomes more important in determining performance. This advantage
holds over time. "The cost of
hiring less intelligent workers
may last as long as they stay
on the job."
The views expressed by
Herrnstein and Murray, by
the way, aren't radical. At the
peak of the controversy surrounding the publication of
The Bell Curve, 52 of the most
respected experts in intelligence research reaffirmed
Herrnstein and Murray's conclusions in a Wall StreetJournal editorial (December 13,
1994, p. A18).

Take It to the Net

We invite you to visit the Robbins page on the Prentice Hall Web site at:

http://www.prenhall.com/robbinsorgbeh
for this chapter's World Wide Web exercise.

47

48

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

Jobs differ in the demands they place on incumbents to use their intellectual abilities. Generally speaking, the more information-processing demands that exist in a job, the more general intelligence and verbal abilities
will be necessary to perform the job successfully." Of course, a high IQ is not
a prerequisite for all jobs. In fact, for many jobs-in which employee behavior is highly routine and there are little or no opportunities to exercise discretion-a high IQ may be unrelated to performance. On the other hand, a careful review of the evidence demonstrates that tests that assess verbal,
numerical, spatial, and perceptual abilities are valid predictors of job proficiency at all levels of jobs." Therefore, tests that measure specific dimensions
of intelligence have been found to be strong predictors of future job performance.
The major dilemma faced by employers who use mental ability tests for
selection, promotion, training, and similar personnel decisions is that they
may have a negative impact on racial and ethnic groups." The evidence indicates that some minority groups score, on the average, as much as one standard deviation lower than whites on verbal, numerical, and spatial ability
tests.

Physical Abilities
physical ability
That required to do tasks demanding
stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar
characteristics.

To the same degree that intellectual abilities playa larger role in complex jobs
with demanding information-processing requirements, specific physical
abilities gain importance for successfully doing less-skilled and more-standardized jobs. For example, jobs in which success demands stamina, manual
dexterity, leg strength, or similar talents require management to identify an
employee's physical capabilities.
Research on the requirements needed in hundreds of jobs has identified
nine basic abilities involved in the performance of physical tasks.i" These are
described in Exhibit 2-2. Individuals differ in the extent to which they have
each of these abilities. Not surprisingly, there is also little relationship between
them: A high score on one is no assurance of a high score on others. High employee performance is likely to be achieved when management has ascertained the extent to which a job requires each of the nine abilities and then
ensures that employees in that job have those abilities.

The Ability-JOb Fit

Our concern is with explaining and predicting the behavior of people at work.
In this section, we have demonstrated that jobs make differing demands on
people and that people differ in the abilities they possess. Employee performance, therefore, is enhanced when there is a high ability-job fit.
The specific intellectual or physical abilities required for adequate job
performance depend on the ability requirements of the job. So,
for example, airline pilots need strong spatial-visualization abilities; beach lifeguards need both strong spatial-visualization
Employee performance is
abilities and body coordination; senior executives need verbal
abilities; high-rise construction workers need balance; and jourenhanced when there is a
nalists with weak reasoning abilities would likely have diffihigh ability-job fit.
culty meeting minimum job-performance standards. Directing

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously

over time
2. Trunk strength

Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk

(particularly abdominal) muscles

3. Static strength

Ability to exert force against .external objects

4.

Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a

series of explosive acts

Explosive strength

Flexibility Factors
5.

Extent flexibility

6.

Dynamic flexibility

Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as

possible
Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements

Other Factors
7.

Body coordination

Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different

parts of the body

8. Balance

Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off

9.

Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged

effort over time

balance
Stamina

Source: Reprinted with permission

ment, Alexandria, VA.

of HRMagazine

published

by the Society for Human Resource Manage-

attention at only the employee's abilities or only the ability requirements of

the job ignores the fact that employee performance depends on the interaction of the two.
What predictions can we make when the fit is poor? As alluded to previously, if employees lack the required abilities, they are likely to fail. If you are
hired as a word processor and you cannot meet the job's basic keyboard typing requirements, your performance is going to be poor irrespective of your
positive attitude or your high level of motivation. When the ability-job fit is
out of sync because the employee has abilities that far exceed the requirements of the job, our predictions would be very different. Job performance is
likely to be adequate, but there will be organizational inefficiencies and possible declines in employee satisfaction. Given that pay tends to reflect the highest skill level that employees possess, if an employee's abilities far exceed
those necessary to do the job, management will be paying more than it needs
to. Abilities significantly above those required can also reduce the employee's
job satisfaction when the employee's desire to use his or her abilities is particularly strong and is frustrated by the limitations of the job.

Personality
Why are some people quiet and passive, while others are loud and aggressive?
Are certain personality types better adapted for certain job types? What do we
know from theories of personality that can help us explain and predict the

BEHAVIOR.

49

50

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

Body coordination, balance, stamina,

and strength and flexibility factors
are physical abilities required for jab
performance at Black Diamond
Equipment in Salt lake City. The
rock-climbing equipment company
ensures a high ability-job fit by
hiring customers - sports
enthusiasts who use its products and
have a passion for climbing.

behavior of people like Robert Lutz at Chrysler, whom we described at the

opening of this chapter? In this section, we will attempt to answer such questions.

What Is Personality?

personality
The sum total of ways in which on
individual reacts and interacts with
others.

When we talk of personality, we don't mean that a person has charm, a positive attitude toward life, a smiling face, or is a finalist for "Happiest and
Friendliest" in this year's Miss America contest. When psychologists talk of
personality, they mean a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person's whole psychological system. Rather than looking at parts
of the person, personality looks at some aggregate whole that is greater than
the sum of the parts.
The most frequently used definition of personality was produced by Gordon Allport more than sixty years ago. He said personality is "the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his envtronment.r '? For our purposes, you
should think of personality 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.

Personality Determinants
An early argument in personality research was whether an individual's personality was the result of heredity or of environment. Was the personality predetermined at birth, or was it the result of the individual's interaction with his
or her environment? Clearly, there is no simple black-and-white answer. Personality appears to be a result of both influences. In addition, today we recog-

CHAPTER 2'

FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

From Concepts to SI<ills

Self-Awareness: Do You Know Yourself?

famous cartoonist
once attended a
cocktail party with
some friends. Someone asked
him to draw a caricature of
everyone present, which he
proceeded to do with a few
skilled strokes of his pencil.
When the sketches were
passed around for the guests
to identify, everyone recognized the other persons, but
hardly anyone recognized
the caricature of himself."
Many of us are like the
people at that cocktail party.
We really don't know our-

selves. But you can expand

your self-awareness. And
when you do, you will better
understand your personal
strengths and weaknesses
and how you are perceived
by others. You will also gain
insights into why others respond to you as they do.
A major component in
gaining self-understanding is
finding out how you rate on
key personality characteristics. Later in our discussion
of personality, we will review
six major personality attributes: locus of control, Machi-

avellianism, self-esteem, selfmonitoring, risk taking, and

the Type A personality. Included with the review will
be a series of self-awareness
questionnaires that have
been designed to measure
these personality characteristics. Individually, the questionnaires will give you insights into how you rate on
each attribute. In aggregate,
they will help you to better
understand who you are.

nize a third factor-the

situation. Thus, an adult's personality is now generally considered to be made up of both hereditary and environmental factors,
moderated by situational conditions.
HEREDITY
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle
composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by who your parents were: that is, by their biological, physiological,
and inherent psychological makeup. The heredity approach argues that the
ultimate explanation of an individual's personality is the molecular structure
of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
Three different streams of research lend some credibility to the argument
that heredity plays an important part in determining an individual's personality. The first looks at the genetic underpinnings of human behavior and temperament among young children. The second addresses the study of twins
who were separated at birth. The third examines the consistency in job satisfaction over time and across situations.
Recent studies of young children lend strong support to the power of
heredity.V Evidence demonstrates that traits such as shyness, fear, and distress
are most likely caused by inherited genetic characteristics. This finding suggests that some personality traits may be built into the same genetic code that
affects factors such as height and hair color.

51

52

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN D IV ID UA L

Researchers have studied more than 100 sets of identical twins who were
separated at birth and raised separately.P If heredity played little or no part in
determining personality, you would expect to find few similarities between
the separated twins. But the researchers found a lot in common. For almost
every behavioral trait, a significant part of the variation between the twins
turned out to be associated with genetic factors. For instance, one set of twins
who had been separated for 39 years and raised 45 miles apart were found to
drive the same model and color car, chain-smoked the same brand of cigarette, owned dogs with the same name, and regularly vacationed within three
blocks of each other in a beach community 1,500 miles away. Researchers
have found that genetics accounts for about fifty percent of the personality
differences and more than 30 percent of the variation in occupational and
leisure interests.
Further support for the importance of heredity can be found in studies
of individual job satisfaction. Research has uncovered an interesting phenomenon: Individual job satisfaction is remarkably stable over time. Even when
employers or occupations change, job satisfaction remains relatively stable
during one's lifetime." This result is consistent with what you would expect if
satisfaction is determined by something inherent in the person rather than by
external environmental factors.
If personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they
would be fixed at birth and no amount of experience could alter them. If
you were relaxed and easygoing as a child, for example, that would be the result of your genes, and it would not be possible for you to change those characteristics. But personality characteristics are not completely dictated by
heredity.
ENVIRONMENT
Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality
formation are the culture in which we are raised, our early conditioning, the
norms among our family, friends, and social groups, and other influences that
we experience. The environment we are exposed to plays a substantial role in
shaping our personalities.
For example, culture establishes the norms, attitudes, and values that are
passed along from one generation to the next and create consistencies over
time. An ideology that is intensely fostered in one culture may have only
moderate influence in another. For instance, North Americans have had the
themes of industriousness,
success, competition, independence,
and the
Protestant work ethic constantly instilled in them through books, the school
system, family, and friends. North Americans, as a result, tend to be ambitious
and aggressive relative to individuals raised in cultures that have emphasized
getting along with others, cooperation, and the priority of family over work
and career.
Careful consideration of the arguments favoring either heredity or environment as the primary determinant of personality forces the conclusion that
both are important. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an individual's full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the
demands and requirements of the environment.

SITUATION

and environment

A third factor, the situation, influences the effects of heredity

on personality. An individual's personality, although gener-

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.

53

The cultural environment in which

people are raised plays a major role
in shaping personality. In India,
children learn from an early age the
values of hard work, frugality, and
family closeness. This photo of the
Harilela family illustrates the
importance that Indians place on
close family ties. Six Harilela
brothers own real estate and hotels
throughout Asia. Not only do the
brothers work together, but their six
families and that of a married sister
also live together in a Hong Kong
mansion.

ally stable and consistent, does change in different situations. The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one's personality. We should not, therefore, look at personality patterns in isolation."
It seems only logical to suppose that situations will influence an individual's personality, but a neat classification scheme that would tell us the impact
of various types of situations has so far eluded us. Apparently we are not yet
close to developing a system for clarifying situations so that they might be
systematically studied.":" However, we do know that certain situations are
more relevant than others in influencing personality.
What is of interest taxonomically is that situations seem to differ substantially in the constraints they impose on behavior. Some situations-e.g.,
church, an employment interview-constrain
many behaviors; other situations-e.g., a picnic in a public park-constrain relatively few."
Furthermore, although certain generalizations can be made about personality, there are significant individual differences. As we shall see, the study
of individual differences has come to receive greater emphasis in personality
research, which originally sought out more general, universal patterns.
II

Personality

Traits

The early work in the structure of personality revolved around attempts to

identify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior. Popular characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid. Those characteristics, when they are exhibited in a large
number of situations, are called personality rratts." The more consistent
the characteristic and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the
more important that trait is in describing the individual.

personality traits
Enduring characteristics that describe on
individual's behavior.

54

PAR

TWO

Exhibit

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

2-3

Source: PEANUTS reprinted

by permission

of United Features Syndicate,

Inc.

EARLY SEARCH FOR PRIMARY TRAITS

Efforts to isolate traits have been
hindered because there are so many of them. In one study, 17,953 individual
traits were Identified." It is virtually impossible to predict behavior when such
a large number of traits must be taken into account. As a result, attention
has been directed toward reducing these thousands to a more manageable
number.
One researcher isolated 171 traits but concluded that they were superficial and lacking in descriptive power,"? What he sought was a reduced set of
traits that would identify underlying patterns. The result was the identification of sixteen personality factors, which he called the source, or primary, traits.
They are shown in Exhibit 2-4. These sixteen traits have been found to be generally steady and constant sources of behavior, allowing prediction of an individual's behavior in specific situations by weighing the characteristics for their
situational relevance.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

(MBTI)
A personality test that taps four
characteristics and classifies people into
one of 16 personality types.

THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR One of the most widely used personality frameworks is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).41 It is
essentially a IOO-question personality test that asks people how they usually
feel or act in particular situations.
On the basis of the answers individuals give to the test, they are classified as extroverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F), and perceiving or judging (P or J). These classifications
are then combined into sixteen personality types. (These types are different
from the sixteen primary traits in Exhibit 2-4.) To illustrate, let's take several
examples. INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great
drive for their own ideas and purposes. They are characterized as skeptical,
critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn. ESTJsare organizers.
They are realistic, logical, analytical, decisive and have a natural head for business or mechanics. They like to organize and run activities. The ENTPtype is a
conceptualizer. He or she is innovative, individualistic, versatile, and attracted
to entrepreneurial ideas. This person tends to be resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments. A recent book that
profiled thirteen contemporary businesspeople who created supersuccessful
firms including Apple Computer, Federal Express, Honda Motors, Microsoft,
Price Club, and Sony found that all thirteen are intuitive thinkers (NTs).42This
result is particularly interesting because intuitive thinkers represent only
about five percent of the population.
More than 2 million people a year take the MBTI in the United States
alone. Organizations using the MBTI include Apple Computer, AT&T,Citi-

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
1l.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

Reserved
Less intelligent
Affected by feelings
Submissive
Serious
Expedient
Timid
Toug h-m inded
Trusting
Practical
Forthright
Self-assured
Conservative
Group-dependent
Uncontrolled
Relaxed

vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

55

Outgoing
More intelligent
Emotionally
stable
Dominant
Happy-go-lucky
Conscientious
Venturesome
Sensitive
Suspicious
Imaginative
Shrewd
Apprehensive
Experi menti ng
Self-sufficient
Controlled
Tense

corp, Exxon, GE, 3M Co., plus many hospitals, educational institutions, and
even the U.S. Armed Forces.
Ironically, there is no hard evidence that the MBTI is a valid measure of
personality. But lack of evidence doesn't seem to deter its use in a wide range
of organizations.
THE BIG FIVE MODEL
The MBTI may lack for valid supporting evidence,
but that can't be said for the five-factor model of personality-more
typically
called the "Big Five."43 In recent years, an impressive body of research supports the notion that five basic personality dimensions -underlie all others. The
BigFive factors are:

Extraversion. This dimension captures one's comfort level with relationships. Extraverts (high in extraversion) tend to be friendly and
outgoing and to spend much of their time maintaining and enjoying
a large number of relationships. Introverts tend to be reserved and to
have fewer relationships, and they are more comfortable with solitude
than most people are.
Agreeableness. This dimension refers to an individual's propensity
to defer to others. High agreeable people value harmony more than
they value having their say or their way. They are cooperative and
trusting of others. People who score low on agreeableness focus more
on their own needs than on the needs of others.
Conscientiousness. This dimension refers to the number of goals on
which a person focuses. A high conscientious person pursues fewer
goals, in a purposeful way, and tends to be responsible, persistent, dependable, and achievement-oriented. Those who score low on this dimension tend to be more easily distracted, pursuing many goals, and
more hedonistic.
Emotional stability. This dimension taps a person's ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be characterized as calm, enthusiastic, and secure. Those with high negative
scores tend to be nervous, depressed, and insecure.

extraversion
A personality dimension describing
someone who is sociable, talkative, and
assertive.

agreeableness
A personality dimension that describes
someone who is good-notured,
cooperative, and trusting.
conscientiousness
A personality dimension that describes
someone who is responsible, dependable,
persistent, and achievement oriented.
emotional stability
A personality dimension that
characterizes someone as calm,
enthusiastic, secure (positive) versus
tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure
(negative).

56

PAR

TWO

THE

openness to experience
A personality dimension that
characterizes someone in terms of
imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and
intellectualism.

IN D IV ID U A L

Openness to experience. The final dimension addresses one's range

of interests. Extremely open people are fascinated by novelty and innovation. They tend to be imaginative, artistically sensitive, and intellectual. Those at the other end of the openness category appear more
conventional and find comfort in the familiar.
In addition to providing a unifying personality framework, research on
the Big Five also has found important relationships between these personality
dimensions and job performance." A broad spectrum of occupations were
looked at: professionals (including engineers, architects, accountants, attorneys), police, managers, salespeople, and semiskilled and skilled employees.
Job performance was defined in terms of performance ratings, training proficiency (performance during training programs), and personnel data such as
salary level. The results showed that conscientiousness predicted job performance for all occupational groups. "The preponderance of evidence shows
that individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful, thorough, able to plan,
organized, hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have
higher job performance in most if not all occupations.v" For the other personality dimensions, predictability depended upon both the performance criterion and the occupational group. For instance, extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions. This finding makes sense since
those occupations involve high social interaction. Similarly, openness to experience was found to be important in predicting training proficiency, which,
too, seems logical. What wasn't so clear was why positive emotional stability
wasn't related to job performance. Intuitively, it would seem that people who
are calm and secure would do better on almost all jobs than people who are
anxious and insecure. The researchers suggested that the answer might be that
only people who score fairly high on emotional stability retain their jobs. So
the range among those people studied, all of whom were employed, would
tend to be quite small.

Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

In this section, we want to more carefully evaluate specific personality attributes that have been found to be powerful predictors of behavior in organizations. The first is related to where one perceives the locus of control in one's
life. The others are Machiavellianism, self-esteem, self-monitoring, propensity
for risk taking, and Type A personality. In this section, we shall briefly introduce these attributes and summarize what we know about their ability to explain and predict employee behavior.

internals
Individuals who believe that they control
what happens to them.
externals
Individuals who believe that what
happens to them is controlled by outside
forces such as luck or chance.
locus of control
The degree to which people believe they
are masters of their own fate.

LOCUS OF CONTROL
Some people believe that they are masters of their
own fate. Other people see themselves as pawns of fate, believing that what
happens to them in their lives is due to luck or chance. The first type, those
who believe that they control their destinies, have been labeled internals,
whereas the latter, who see their lives as being controlled by outside forces,
have been called externals." A person's perception of the source of his or
her fate is termed locus of control.
A large amount of research comparing internals with externals has consistently shown that individuals who rate high in externality are less satisfied
with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from the
work setting, and are less involved on their jobs than are internals."

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

INCREASE YOUR

Instructions: Read the following

SELF-AWARENESS:

ASSESS YOUR

Locus

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

OF CONTROL

statements and indicate whether you agree more with choice A or

choice B.

1. Making a lot of money is largely a matter of

getting the right breaks.

1. Promotions are earned through hard

work and persistence.

2. I have noticed that there is a direct connection

2. Many times, the reactions of teachers

between how hard I study and the grades I get.

seem haphazard

to me.

3. The number of divorces indicates that more and

more people are not trying to make their
marriages work.

3. Marriage

4. It is silly to think that one can really change another person's basic attitudes.

4. When I am right I can convince others.

5. Getting promoted is really a matter of being a

little luckier than the next person.

5. In our society, a person's future earning

6. If one knows how to deal with people, they are

really quite easily led.

6. I have little influence over the way other

people behave.

7. The grades I make are the result of my own efforts; luck has little or nothing to do with it.

7. Sometimes I feel that I have little to do

with the grades I get.

8. People like me can change the course of world

affairs if we make ourselves heard.

8. It is only wishful thinking to believe that

one can readily influence what
happens in our society.

9. A great deal that happens to me is probably

matter of chance.

9. I am the master of my fate.

power is dependent upon his or her

ability.

10. Getting along with people is a skill that must be

practiced.

10. It is almost impossible to figure out how

Source: Adapted from J.B. Rotter, "External Control and Internal Control,"
by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
Scoring Key: Give yourself 1 point for each of the following
can be interpreted as follows:
8- 10 = High internal locus of control
6-7 = Moderate internal locus of control
5 = Mixed
3 -4 = Moderate exterpal locus of control
1-2 = High external locus of control

is largely a gamble.

to please some people.

Psychology

Today, June 1971, p. 42. Copyright

1971

selections: 1B, 2A, 3A, 4B, 5B, 6A, 7 A, 8A, 9B, and lOA. Scores

Why are externals more dissatisfied? The answer is probably because

they perceive themselves as having little control over those organizational
outcomes that are important to them. Internals, facing the same situation, attribute organizational outcomes to their own actions. If the situation is unattractive, they believe that they have no one else to blame but themselves.
Also,the dissatisfied internal is more likely to quit a dissatisfying job.
The impact of locus of control on absence is an interesting one. Internals
believe that health is substantially under their own control through proper

57

58

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN D IV I DUA L

habits, so they take more responsibility for their health and have better health
habits. Consequently, their incidences of sickness and, hence, of absenteeism,
are lower."
We shouldn't expect any clear relationship between locus of control and
turnover, because there are opposing forces at work. "On the one hand, internals tend to take action and thus might be expected to quit jobs more readily.
On the other hand, they tend to be more successful on the job and more satisfied, factors associated with less individual turnover,":"
The overall evidence indicates that internals generally perform better on
their jobs, but that conclusion should be moderated to reflect differences in
jobs. Internals search more actively for information before making a decision,
are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their
environment. Externals, however, are more compliant and willing to follow
directions. Therefore, internals do well on sophisticated tasks-which
include
most managerial and professional jobs-that
require complex information
processing and learning. In addition, internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of action. In contrast, externals should do
well on jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends heavily on complying with the direction of others.
Machiavellianism
Degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance,
and believes that ends can justify means.

MACHIAVELLIANISM
The personality characteristic of Machiavellianism (Mach) is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth
century on how to gain and use power. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can
justify means. "If it works, use it" is consistent with a high-Mach perspective.
A considerable amount of research has been directed toward relating
high- and low-Mach personalities to certain behavioral outcomes. so High
Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others
more than do low Machs." Yet these high Mach outcomes are moderated by
situational factors. It has been found that high Machs flourish (1) when they
interact face to face with others rather than indirectly; (2) when the situation
has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing latitude for
improvisation; and (3) when emotional involvement with details irrelevant to
winning distracts low Machs.V
Should we conclude that high Machs make good employees? That answer depends on the type of job and whether you consider ethical implications in evaluating performance. In jobs that require bargaining skills (such as
labor negotiation) or that offer substantial rewards for winning (as in commissioned sales), high Machs will be productive. But if ends can't justify the
means, if there are absolute standards of behavior, or if the three situational
factors noted in the preceding paragraph are not in evidence, our ability to
predict a high Mach's performance will be severely curtailed.

self-esteem
Individuals' degree of liking or disliking
of themselves.

SELF-ESTEEM
People differ in the degree to which they like or dislike
themselves. This trait is called self-esteem. 53 The research on self-esteem (SE)
offers some interesting insights into organizational behavior. For example,
self-esteem is directly related to expectations for success. High SEs believe that
they possess the ability they need in order to succeed at work.
Individuals with high self-esteem will take more risks in job selection
and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs than people with low selfesteem.

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

INCREASE YOUR SELF-AwARENESS: How

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

59

MACHIAVELLIAN ARE YOU?

Instructions: For each statement, circle the number that most closely resembles your attitude.

Disagree
Statement

1.

Agree

A Little

Neutral

A Little

A Lot

\2

(i

it is best to give the real reason for wanting it rather

than giving reasons that might carry more weight.

Anyone who completely

for trouble.

<)

10

3
3

(J)

A Lot

The best way to handle people is to tell them what

they want to hear.

2. When you ask someone to do something for you,

3.

trusts anyone else is asking

4. It is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here

and there.

5.

It is safest to assume that all people have a vicious

streak, and it will come out when they are given
a chance.

6. One should take action only when it is morally right.

7. Most people are basically

good and kind.

8. There is no excuse for lying to someone else.

9.

Most people more easily forget the death of their

father than the loss of their property.

10. Generally

speaking, people won't work hard unless

they're forced to do so.

5
5
5
5

V
3

(I)

Source: R. Christie and F.L. Geis, Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press 1970. Reprinted by permission.
Scoring Key: To obtain your Mach score, add the number you have checked on questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10. For the other
four questions, reverse the numbers you have checked: 5 becomes 1, 4 is 2, 2 is 4, and 1 is 5. Total your ten numbers to find
your score. The higher your score, the more Machiavellian you are. Among a random sample of American adults, the national
average was 25.

The most generalizable finding on self-esteem is that low SEs are more
susceptible to external influence than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on
the receipt of positive evaluations from others. As a result, they are more
likely to seek approval from others and more prone to conform to the beliefs
and behaviors of those they respect than are high SEs. In managerial positions, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing others and, therefore,
are less likely to take unpopular stands than are high SEs.
Not surprisingly, self-esteem has also been found to be related to job satisfaction. A number of studies confirm that high SEs are more satisfied with
their jobs than are low SEs.
A personality trait that has recently received increased
attention is called self-monitoring. 54 It refers to an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.
SELF-MONITORING

self-monitoring
A personality
traitthatmeasures
an
individual's
abilitytoadjusthisorher
behavior
toexternal,
situational
factors.

60

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

INCREASE YOUR SELF-AwARENESS: How's

YOUR SELF-EsTEEM?

Instructions: Answer each of the following questions honestly. Next to each question write a 1, 2, 3, 4, or
5 depending

on which answer best describes you.

1 = Very often
2 = Fairly often
3 = Sometimes
4 = Once in a great while
5 = Practically never
1. How often do you have the feeling that there is nothing that you can do well?
2. When you talk in front of a class or group of people your own age, how often do you feel
worried or afraid?
3. How often do you feel that you have handled yourself well at a social gathering?
4. How often do you have the feeling that you can do everything well?
5. How often are you comfortable

when starting a conversation with people you don't know?

6. How often do you feel self-conscious?

7. How often do you feel that you are a successful person?
8. How often are you troubled with shyness?
9. How often do you feel inferior to most people you know?
___

10. How often do you feel that you are a worthless individual?

___

11. How often do you feel confident that your success in your future job or career is assured?

___

12. How often do you feel sure of yourself when among strangers?

___

13. How often do you feel confident that some day people will look up to you and respect you?

___

14. In general, how often do you feel confident about your abilities?

___

15. How often do you worry about how well you get along with other people?

___

16. How often do you feel that you dislike yourself?

___

17. How often do you feel so discouraged

is worthwhile?

___

18. How often do you worry about whether other people like to be with you?

___

19. When you talk in front of a class or a group of people of your own age, how often are you
pleased with your performance?

___

20. How often do you feel sure of yourself when you speak in a class discussion?

with yourself that you wonder whether anything

Source: Developed by A.H. Eagly and adapted from J.R. Robinson and P.R. Shaver, Measures of Social Psychological Attitudes
(Ann Arbor, MI: Institute of Social Research, 1973), pp. 79-80. With permission.
Scoring Key: Add up your score from the left column for the following ten items: 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18. For
the other ten items, reverse your scoring (i.e., a 5 becomes a 1; a 4 becomes a 2). The higher your score, the higher your
self-esteem.

Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability in

adjusting their behavior to external situational factors. They are highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in different situations. High
self-monitors are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their
public persona and their private self. Low self-monitors can't disguise them-

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

INCREASE YOUR SELF-AwARENESS: ARE You

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

A HIGH SELF-MoNITOR?

Instructions: Indicate the degree to which you think the following

the appropriate
5
4
3
2
1

=
=
=
=
=
=

number. For example,

Certainly,

statements are true or false by circling

if a statement is always true, circle the 5 next to that statement.

always true

Generally true
Somewhat true, but with exceptions
Somewhat false, but with exceptions
Generally false
Certainly,

always false

1. In social situations, I have the ability

something else is called for.
2. I am often able to read people's

to alter my behavior

true emotions correctly

if I feel that
through their eyes.

3. I have the ability to control the way I come across to people,

on the impression I wish to give them.
4. In conversations, I am sensitive to even the slightest change
expression of the person I'm conversing with.

depending
in the facial

5. My powers of intuition are quite good when it comes to understanding

others' emotions and motives.

6. I can usually tell when others consider a joke in bad taste, even though
they may laugh convincingly.

7. When I feel that the image I am portraying

change

it to something

isn't working,

I can readily

that does.

8. I can usually tell when I've said something inappropriate

by reading

the

listener's eyes.

9. I have trouble changing

my behavior

to suit different

people and different

situations.
10. I have found that I can adjust my behavior to meet the requirements of any
situation I find myself in.
11. If someone is lying to me, I usually know it at once from that person's
manner of expression.
12. Even when it might be to my advantage,
good front.

I have difficulty

putting up a

13. Once I know what the situation calls for, it's easy for me to regulate my
actions accordingly.
Source: R.D. Lennox and R.N. Wolfe, "Revision of the Self-Monitoring
1984, p. 1361. Copyright

1984 by the American

Psychological

Scale," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June

Association. Reprinted by permission.

Scoring Key: To obtain your score, add up the numbers circled, except reverse scores for questions 9 and 12. On those, a circled 5 becomes a 0, 4 becomes 1, and so forth. High self-monitors are defined as those with scores of 53 or higher.

selves in that way. They tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in
every situation; hence, there is high behavioral consistency between who they
are and what they do.
The research on self-monitoring is in its infancy, so predictions must be
guarded. However, preliminary evidence suggests that high self-monitors tend

61

62

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN D IV ID UA L

to pay closer attention to the behavior of others and are more capable of conforming than are low self-monttors.P In addition, high self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers and receive more promotions
(both internal and cross-organizationalj.s" We might also hypothesize that
high self-monitors will be more successful in managerial positions in which
individuals are required to play multiple, and even contradicting, roles. The
high self-monitor is capable of putting on different "faces" for different audiences.
RISK TAKING
People differ in their willingness to take chances. This
propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how
long it takes managers to make a decision and how much information they require before making their choice. For instance, seventy-nine managers worked
on simulated personnel exercises that required them to make hiring
decisionsY High risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used
less information in making their choices than, did the low risk-taking managers. Interestingly, the decision accuracy was the same for both groups.
While it is generally correct to conclude that managers in organizations
are risk-aversive." there are still individual differences on this dtrnension.>? As

INCREASE YOUR SELF-AwARENESS: ARE You

A RISK TAKER?

Instructions: For each of the following situations, you will be asked to indicate the minimum odds of success you would demand before recommending that one alternative be chosen over another. Try to place
yourself in the position of the adviser to the central person in each of the situations.
1. Mr. B, a 45-year-old accountant, has recently been informed by his physician that he has developed a severe heart ailment. The disease would be sufficiently serious to force Mr. B to change many of his strongest
life habits-reducing
his work load, drastically changing his diet, giving up favorite leisure-time pursuits. The
physician suggests that a delicate medical operation could be attempted that, if successful, would completely
relieve the heart condition. But its successcould not be assured, and, in fact, the operation might prove fatal.
Imagine that you are advising Mr. B. Listed below are several probabilities or odds that the operation will
prove successful. Check the lowest probability that you would consider acceptable for the operation to be
performed.
___

Place a check here if you think that Mr. B should not have the operation no matter what the
probabilities.

___

The chances are 9 in 10 that the operation will be a success.

___

The chances are 7 in 10 that the operation will be a success.

___

The chances are 5 in 10 that the operation will be a success.

___

The chances are 3 in 10 that the operation will be a success.

___

The chances are 1 in 10 that the operation will be a success.

2. Mr. D is the captain of College X's football team. College X is playing its traditional rival, College Y, in
the final game of the season. The game is in its final seconds, and Mr. D's team, College X, is behind in the
score. College X has time to run one more play. Mr. D, the captain, must decide whether it would be best to
settle for a tie score with a play that would be almost certain to work or, on the other hand, should he try a
more complicated and risky play that would bring victory if it succeeded but defeat if it failed.
Imagine that you are advising Mr. D. Listed below are several probabilities or odds that the risky play will
work. Check the lowest probability that you would consider acceptable for the risky play to be attempted.
(continued)

CHAPTER 2'

___

FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.

Place a check here if you think that Mr. D should not attempt the risky play no matter what the
probabilities.

___

The chances are 9 in 10 that the risky play will work.

___

The chances are 7 in 10 that the risky play will work.

___

The chances are 5 in 10 that the risky play will work.

___

The chances are 3 in 10 that the risky play will work.

___

The chances are 1 in 10 that the risky play will work.

3. Ms. K is a successful businesswoman who has participated

in a number of civic activities of considerable

value to the community. Ms. K has been approached by the leaders of her political party as a possible congressional candidate in the next election. Ms. K's party is a minority party in the district, though the party
has won occasional elections in the past. Ms. K would like to hold political office, but to do so would involve
a serious financial sacrifice, since the party has insufficient campaign funds. She would also have to endure
the attacks of her political opponents in a hot campaign.
Imagine that you are advising Ms. K. Listed below are several probabilities or odds of Ms. K's winning
the election in her district. Check the lowest probability that you would consider acceptable to make it worthwhile for Ms. K to run for political office.
___

Place a check here if you think that Ms. K should not run for political office no matter what the probabilities.

---

The chances are 9 in 10 that Ms. K will win the election.

___

The chances are 7 in 10 that Ms. K will win the election.

---

The chances are 5 in 10 that Ms. K will win the election.

___

The chances are 3 in 10 that Ms. K will win the election.

___

The chances are 1 in 10 that Ms. K will win the election.

4. Ms. L, a 30-year-old research physicist, has been given a five-year appointment by a major university
laboratory. As she contemplates the next five years, she realizes that she might work on a difficult, long-term
problem that, if a solution could be found, would resolve basic scientific issues in the field and bring high
scientific honors. If no solution were found, however, Ms. L would have little to show for her five years in the
laboratory and it would be hard for her to get a good job afterward. On the other hand, she could, as most
of her professional associates are doing, work on a series of short-term problems for which solutions would
be easier to find but that are of lesser scientific importance.
Imagine that you are advising Ms. L. Listed below are several probabilities or odds that a solution will be
found to the difficult, long-term problem that Ms. L has in mind. Check the lowest probability that you would
consider acceptable to make it worthwhile for Ms. L to work on the more difficult long-term problem.
___

The chances are 1 in 10 that Ms. L will solve the long-term problem.

___

The chances are 3 in 10 that Ms. L will solve the long-term problem.

___

The chances are 5 in 10 that Ms. L will solve the long-term problem.

___

The chances are 7 in 10 that Ms. L will solve the long-term problem.

___

The chances are 9 in 10 that Ms. L will solve the long-term problem.

___

Place a check here if you think Ms. L should

not

choose the long-term, difficult problem, no matter

what the probabilities.

Source: Adapted fram N. Kogan and M.A. Wallach, 'Risk Taking: A Study in Cognition and Personality (New York: Holt, Rinehart
& Winston, 1964), pp. 256-61.
Scoring Key: These situations were based on a longer questionnaire. Your results are an indication of your general orientation toward risk rather than a precise measure. To calculate your risk-taking score, add up the chances you were willing to take and divide by four. For any of the situations in which you would not take the risk regardless of the probabilities, give yourself a 10. The
lower your number, the more risk-taking you are.

63

64

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

a result, it makes sense to recognize these differences and even to consider

aligning risk-taking propensity with specific job demands. For instance, a high
risk-taking propensity may lead to more effective performance for a stock
trader in a brokerage firm because that type of job demands rapid decision
making. On the other hand, a willingness to take risks might prove a major
obstacle to an accountant who performs auditing activities. The latter job
might be better filled by someone with a low risk-taking propensity.
TYPE A PERSONALITY
Do you know any people who are excessively competitive and always seem to be experiencing a chronic sense of time urgency?
If you do, it's a good bet that those people have a Type A personality. A person
with a Type A personality is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant
struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and, if required to do
so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.r"? In the
North American culture, such characteristics tend to be highly prized and positively associated with ambition and the successful acquisition of material
goods.

Type A personolity
Aggressive involvement in a chronic,
incessant struggle to achieve more and
more in less and less time and, if
necessary, against the opposing efforts
of other things or other people.

I(

TYPE

A's

1. are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;

2. feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;
3. strive to think or do two or more things at once;
4. cannot cope with leisure time;
5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how

many or how much of everything they acquire.

INCREASE YOUR SELF-AwARENESS: ARE You

A TYPE A?

Instructions: Circle the number on the scale below that best characterizes your behavior for each trait.
1. Casual about appointments

2. Not competitive

3. Never feel rushed

4. Take things one at a time

5. Slow doing things

6. Express feelings

7. Many interests

8
8
8
8
8
8
8

Never late
Very competitive
Always feel rushed
Try to do many things at once
Fast (eating, walking, etc.)
"Sit on" feelings
Few interests outside work

Source: Adopted From R.W. Bortner, "Short Rating Scale as a Potential Measure of Pattern A Behavior," Journal of Chronic Diseases, June 1969, pp. 87-91. With permission.

Scoring Key: Total your score on the seven questions. Now multiple the total by 3. A total of 120 or more indicates that you are
a hard-core Type A. Scores below 90 indicate that you are a hard-core Type B. The Following gives you more specifics:

Points
120 or more
106-119
100-105
90-99
Lessthan 90

Personality Type

A+
A

A-

B+
B

CHAPTER 2

FOUNDATIONS

In contrast to the Type A personality is the Type B, who is exactly opposite. Type B's are "rarely harried by the desire to obtain a wildly increasing
number of things or participate in an endless growing series of events in an
ever-decreasing amount of time."?'
TYPE

8's

1. never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience;
2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation;
3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at
any cost;
4. can relax without guilt.
Type A's operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They subject
themselves to more or less continuous time pressure, creating for themselves' a
life of deadlines. These characteristics result in some rather specific behavioral
outcomes. For example, Type A's are fast workers, because they emphasize
quantity over quality. In managerial positions, Type A's demonstrate their
competitiveness by working long hours and, not infrequently, making poor
decisions because they make them too fast. Type A's are also rarely creative.
Because of their concern with quantity and speed, they rely on past experiences when faced with problems. They will not allocate the time that is necessary to develop unique solutions to new problems. They rarely vary in their
responses to specific challenges in their milieu; hence, their behavior is easier
to predict than that of Type B's.
Are Type A's or Type B's more successful in organizations? Despite the
TypeA's hard work, the Type B's are the ones who appear to make it to the top.
Great salespersons are usuallyType A's; senior executives are usually' Type B's.
Why? The answer lies in the tendency of Type A's to trade off quality of effort
for quantity. Promotions in corporate and professional organizations "usually
go to those who are wise rather than to those who are merely hasty, to those
who are tactful rather than to those who are hostile, and to those who are creative rather than to those who are merely agile in competitive strife."62

Personality and National Culture

There are certainly no common personality types for a given country. You can,
for instance, find high and low risk-takers in almost any culture. Yet a country's culture should influence the dominant personality characteristics of its
population. Let's build this case by looking at two personality attributes-locus of control and the Type A personality.
There is evidence that cultures differ in terms of people's relationship to
their envtronment.P In some cultures, such as those in North America, people
believe that they can dominate their environment. People in other societies,
such as Middle Eastern countries, believe that life is essentially preordained.
Notice the close parallel to internal and external locus of control. We should
expect a larger proportion of internals in the American and Canadian workforce than in the Saudi Arabian or Iranian workforce.
The prevalence of Type A personalities will be somewhat influenced by
the culture in which a person grows up. There are Type A's in every country,
but there will be more in capitalistic countries, where achievement and

OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.

65

66

PAR

TWO

THE

IN D IV ID U A L

material success are highly valued. For instance, it is estimated that about 50
percent of the North American population is Type A.64 This percentage
shouldn't be too surprising. The United States and Canada both have a high
emphasis on time management and efficiency. Both have cultures that stress
accomplishments and acquisition of money and material goods. In cultures
such as Sweden arid France, where materialism is less revered, we would predict a smaller proportion of Type A personalities.

Matching Personalities and Jobs

personality - job fit theory

Identifies six personality types and
proposes that the fit between personality
type and occupational environment
determines satisfaction and turnover.

In the discussion of personality attributes, our conclusions were often qualified to recognize that the requirements of the job moderated the relationship
between possession of the personality characteristic and job performance. This
concern with matching the job requirements with personality characteristics
is best articulated in John Holland's personality-job fit theory.6S The theory is based on the notion of fit between an individual's personality characteristics and his or her occupational environment. Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a job
depend on the degree to which individuals successfully match their personalities to an occupational environment.

Realistic: Prefers physical

activities that require
skill, strength, and
coordination

Investigative: Prefers
activities that involve

Personality Characteristics

Congruent Occupations

Shy, genuine, persistent,

stable, conforming,
practical

Mechanic, drill press

operator, assembly line
worker, farmer

Analytical, original, curious,

independent

Biologist, economist,
mathematician, news
reporter

thinking, organizing,
and understanding

Social: Prefers activities

that involve helping
and developing others

Sociable, friendly,
cooperative, understanding

Conventional: Prefers
rule-regulated, orderly,

Conforming,

and unambiguous
activities

Enterprising: Prefers
verbal activities where

Social worker, teacher,

counselor, clinical
psychologist

efficient,

practical, unimaginative,
inflexible
Self-confident, ambitious,
energetic, domineering

there are opportunities

to influence others and

Accountant, corporate
manager, bank teller,
file clerk
Lawyer, real estate
agent, public relations
specialist, small business
manager

attain power

Artistic: Prefers

Imaginative, disorderly,

ambiguous and
unsystematic activities
that allow creative

idealistic, emotional,
impractical

expression

Painter, musician, writer,

interior decorator

CHAPTER

Exhibit 2-6
Relationships among
Personality Types

Occupational

2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

67

Source: Reprinted by special

permission of the publisher,
Psychological Assessment Resources,
Inc., from Making Vocational
Choices, Copyright 1973, 1985,
1992 by Psychological Assessment
Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.

oc
.Q

~-

CU
c

Each one of the six personality types has a congruent occupational environment. Exhibit 2-5 describes the six types and their personality characteristics and gives examples of congruent occupations.
Holland has developed a Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire
that contains 160 occupational titles. Respondents indicate which of these occupations they like or dislike, and their answers are used to form personality
profiles. Using this procedure, research strongly supports the hexagonal diagram in Exhibit 2_6.66 This figure shows that the closer two fields or orientations are in the hexagon, the more compatible they are. Adjacent categories
are quite similar, whereas those diagonally opposite are highly dissimilar.
What does all this mean? The theory argues that satisfaction is highest
and turnover lowest when personality and occupation are in agreement. Social individuals should be in social jobs, conventional people in conventional

Southwest Airlines uses the

personality-job fit theory in hiring
employees. It hires social personality
types- fun-loving, friendly people
who enjoy helping and entertaining
customers - as flight aHendants.
Antics like a flight aHendant popping
out of a luggage bin delight
customers and increase employee
job satisfaction, which helps make
Southwest the most consistently
profitable U.S. airline.

68

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

jobs, and so forth. A realistic person in a realistic job is in a more congruent

situation than is a realistic person in an investigative job. A realistic person in
a social job is in the most incongruent situation possible. The key points of
this model are that (1) there do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals, (2) there are different types of jobs, and (3) people in
job environments congruent with their personality types should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than should people in incongruent
jobs.

LEARNING
The last topic we will introduce in this chapter is learning. It is included for
the obvious reason that almost all complex behavior is learned. If we want to
explain and predict behavior, we need to understand how people learn.

A Definition of Learning
learning
Any relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of
experience.

What is learning?
A psychologist's definition is considerably broader than
the layperson's view that "it's what we did when we went to school." In actuality, each of us is continuously going "to school." Learning occurs all of the
time. A generally accepted definition of learning is, therefore, any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Ironically, we can
say that changes in behavior indicate that learning has taken place and that
learning is a change in behavior.
Obviously, the foregoing definition suggests that we shall never see
someone "learning." We can see changes taking place but not the learning itself. The concept is theoretical and, hence, not directly observable:
You have seen people in the process of learning, you have seen people
who behave in a particular way as a result of learning and some of you
(in fact, I guess the majority of you) have "learned" at some time in your
life. In other words, we infer that learning has taken place if an individual behaves, reacts, responds as a result of experience in a manner different from the way he formerly behaved.V

Learning
involves change.

Our definition has several components that deserve clarification. First,

learning involves change. Change may be good or bad from an organizational
point of view. People can learn unfavorable behaviors-to
hold prejudices or
to restrict their output, for example-as
well as favorable behaviors. Second,
the change must be relatively permanent. Temporary changes
may be only reflexive and fail to represent any learning. Therefore, the requirement that learning must be relatively permanent rules out behavioral changes caused by fatigue or temporary adaptations. Third, our definition is concerned with
behavior. Learning takes place when there is a change in actions. A change in an individual's thought processes or attitudes, if accompanied by no change in behavior, would not be learning. Finally, some form of experience is necessary for learning. Experience may be
acquired directly through observation or practice, or it may be acquired indirectly, as through reading. The crucial test still remains: Does this experience
result in a relatively permanent change in behavior? If the answer is Yes, we
can say that learning has taken place.

CHAPTER

FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

69

Theories of learning
How do we learn? Three theories have been offered to explain the process by
which we acquire patterns of behavior. These are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning grew out of experiments to teach dogs to salivate in response to the ringing of a bell, conducted
at the turn of the century by a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov.s" A simple
surgicalprocedure allowed Pavlov to measure accurately the amount of saliva
secreted by a dog. When Pavlov presented the dog with a piece of meat, the
dog exhibited a noticeable increase in salivation. When Pavlov withheld the
presentation of meat and merely rang a bell, the dog did not salivate. Then
Pavlovproceeded to link the meat and the ringing of the bell. After repeatedly
hearing the bell before getting the food, the dog began to salivate as soon as
the bell rang. After a while, the dog would salivate merely at the sound of the
bell, even if no food was offered. In effect, the dog had learned to respondthat is, to salivate-to the bell. Let's review this experiment to introduce the
keyconcepts in classical conditioning.
The meat was an unconditioned stimulus; it invariably caused the dog to
react in a specific way. The reaction that took place whenever the unconditioned stimulus occurred was called the unconditioned response (or the noticeable increase in salivation, in this case). The bell was an artificial stimulus, or
what we call the conditioned stimulus. Although it was originally neutral, after
the bell was paired with the meat (an uncondition~d stimulus), it eventually

THE FAR SIDE

1

classical conditioning
A type of conditioning in which on
individual responds to some stimulus that
would not ordinarily produce such a
response.

Exhibit
By GARY LARSON

;,arWcms, IfIC IDrstfOlwted by UniYtrsal Press SyndICate

..

Ift

~.................

Unbeknownst to most students of psychology,

Pavlov's first experiment was to ring a bell and
cause his dog to attack Freud's cat.

2-7

Source: THE FAR SIDE copyright

1990
& 1991 FARWORKS, INC./Dist. by
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE.
Reprinted with permission. All rights
reserved.

70. PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

produced a response when presented alone. The last key concept is the conditioned response. This describes the behavior of the dog; it salivated in reaction
to the bell alone.
Using these concepts, we can summarize classical conditioning. Essentially, learning a conditioned response involves building up an association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. When the
stimuli, one compelling and the other one neutral, are paired, the neutral one
becomes a conditioned stimulus and, hence, takes on the properties of the unconditioned stimulus.
Classical conditioning can be used to explain why Christmas carols often
bring back pleasant memories of childhood; the songs are associated with the
festive Christmas spirit and evoke fond memories and feelings of euphoria. In
an organizational setting, we can also see classical conditioning operating. For
example, at one manufacturing plant, every time the top executives from the
head office were scheduled to make a visit, the plant management would
clean up the administrative offices and wash the windows. This went on for
years. Eventually, employees would turn on their best behavior and look prim
and proper whenever the windows were cleaned-even
in those occasional
instances when the cleaning was not paired with the visit from the top brass.
People had learned to associate the cleaning of the windows with a visit from
the head office.
Classical conditioning is passive. Something happens and we react in a
specific way. It is elicited in response to a specific, identifiable event. As such,
it can explain simple reflexive behaviors. But most behavior-particularly
the
complex behavior of individuals in organizations-is
emitted rather than
elicited. It is voluntary rather than reflexive. For example, employees choose
to arrive at work on time, ask their boss for help with problems, or "goof off"
when no one is watching. The learning of those behaviors is better understood by looking at operant conditioning.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant conditioning argues that behavior
is a function of its consequences. People learn to behave to get something
they want or to avoid something they don't want. Operant behavior means
voluntary or learned behavior in contrast to reflexive or unlearned behavior.
The tendency to repeat such behavior is influenced by the reinforcement or
lack of reinforcement brought about by the consequences of the behavior. Reinforcement, therefore, strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood
that it will be repeated.
What Pavlov 'did for classical conditioning, the Harvard psychologist
B.P. Skinner did for operant conditioning.v? Building on earlier work in the
field, Skinner's research extensively expanded our knowledge of operant conditioning. Even his staunchest critics, who represent a sizable
group, admit that his operant concepts work.
Behavior is assumed to be determined from without
Reinforcement
that is, learned-rather
than from within-reflexive
or unlearned. Skinner argued that creating pleasing consequences to
strengthens a behavior and
follow specific forms of behavior would increase the frequency
increases the likelihood that it
of that behavior. People will most likely engage in desired bewill be repeated.
haviors if they are positively reinforced for doing so. Rewards
are most effective if they immediately follow the desired response. In addition, behavior that is not rewarded, or is punished, is less likely
to be repeated.

operant conditioning
A type of conditioning in which desired
voluntory behovior leods to 0 reword or
prevents 0 punishment.

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.

You see illustrations of operant conditioning everywhere. For example,

any situation in which it is either explicitly stated or implicitly suggested that
reinforcements are contingent on some action on your part involves the use
of operant learning. Your instructor says that if you want a high grade in the
courseyou must supply correct answers on the test. A commissioned salesperson wanting to earn a sizable income finds that doing so is contingent on generating high sales in her territory. Of course, the linkage can also work to
teach the individual to engage in behaviors that work against the best interests of the organization. Assume that your boss tells you that if you will work
overtime during the next three-week busy season, you will be compensated
for it at the next performance appraisal. However, when performance appraisal time comes, you find that you are given no positive reinforcement for
your overtime work. The next time your boss asks you to work overtime, what
will you do? You'll probably decline! Your behavior can be explained by operant conditioning: If a behavior fails to be positively reinforced, the probability
that the behavior will be repeated declines.
SOCIAL LEARNING
Individuals can also learn by observing what happens
to other people and just by being told about something, as well as by direct
experiences. So, for example, much of what we have learned comes from
watching models-parents,
teachers, peers, motion picture and television performers, bosses, and so forth. This view that we can learn through both observation and direct experience has been called social-learning tbeory.??
Although social-learning theory is an extension of operant conditioning-that is, it assumes that behavior is a function of consequences-it
also
acknowledges the existence of observational learning and the importance of
perception in learning. People respond to how they perceive and define consequences not to the objective consequences themselves.
The influence of models is central to the social-learning viewpoint. Four
processes have been found to determine the influence that a model will have
on an individual. As we will show later in this chapter, the inclusion of the
following processes when management sets up employee training programs
will significantly improve the likelihood that the programs will be successful:

1.

Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they rec-

ognize and pay attention to its critical features. We tend to be most

influenced by models that are attractive, repeatedly available, important to us, or similar to us in our estimation.
2. Retention processes. A model's influence will depend on how well the
individual remembers the model's action after the model is no longer
readily available.
3. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by
observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing. This
process then demonstrates that the individual can perform the modeled activities.
4. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the
modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Behaviors that are positively reinforced will be given more attention,
learned better, and performed more often.

Shaping: A Managerial

Tool

Because learning takes place on the job as well as prior to it, managers will be
concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that most

social learning theory

People can learn through observation
and direct experience.

71

72.PART

TWO

THE

shaping behavior
Systematically reinforcing each
successive step that moves on individual
closer to the desired response.

INDIVIDUAL

benefit the organization. When we attempt to mold individuals by guiding

their learning in graduated steps, we are shaping behavior.
Consider the situation in which an employee's behavior is significantly
different from that sought by management. If management rewarded the individual only when he or she showed desirable responses, there might be very
little reinforcement taking place. In such a case, shaping offers a logical approach toward achieving the desired behavior.
We shape behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive step that
moves the individual closer to the desired response. If an employee who has
chronically been a half-hour late for work comes in only twenty minutes late,
we can reinforce that improvement. Reinforcement would increase as responses more closely approximated the desired behavior.
METHODS OF SHAPING BEHAVIOR
There are four ways in which to shape
behavior: through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.
Following a response with something pleasant is called positive reinforcement. This would describe, for instance, the boss who praises an employee for
a job well done. Following a response by the termination or withdrawal of
something unpleasant is called negative reinforcement. If your college instructor
asks a question and you don't know the answer, looking through your lecture
notes is likely to preclude your being called on. This is a negative reinforcement because you have learned that looking busily through your notes prevents the instructor from calling on you. Punishment is causing an unpleasant
condition in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable behavior. Giving an employee a two-day suspension from work without pay for showing up drunk is
an example of punishment. Eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior is called extinction. When the behavior is not reinforced, it
tends to gradually be extinguished. College instructors who wish to discourage students from asking questions in class can eliminate this behavior in
their students by ignoring those who raise their hands to ask questions. Handraising will become extinct when it is invariably met with an absence of
reinforcemen t.
Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They
strengthen a response and increase the probability of repetition. In the preceding illustrations, praise strengthens and increases the behavior of doing a
good job because praise is desired. The behavior of "looking busy" is similarly
strengthened and increased by its terminating the undesirable consequence of
being called on by the teacher. Both punishment and extinction, however,
weaken behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency.
Reinforcement, whether it is positive or negative, has an impressive
record as a shaping tool. Our interest, therefore, is in reinforcement rather
than in punishment or extinction. A review of research findings on the impact of reinforcement upon behavior in organizations concluded that
I

1. Some type of reinforcement is necessary to produce a change in behavior.

2. Some types of rewards are more effective for use in organizations
than others.
3. The speed with which learning takes place and the permanence of its
effects will be determined by the timing of reinforcement. 71
Point 3 is extremely important and deserves considerable elaboration.

CHAPTER 2

FOUNDATIONS

SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
The two major types of reinforcement
schedules are continuous and intermittent. A continuous reinforcement
schedule reinforces the desired behavior each and every time it is demonstrated. Take, for example, the case of someone who has historically had trouble arriving at work on time. Every time he is not tardy his manager might
compliment him on his desirable behavior. In an intermittent schedule, on
the other hand, not every instance of the desirable behavior is reinforced, but
reinforcement is given often enough to make the behavior worth repeating.
This latter schedule can be compared to the workings of a slot machine,
which people will continue to play even when they know that it is adjusted to
give a considerable return to the gambling house. The intermittent payoffs occur just often enough to reinforce the behavior of slipping in coins and
pulling the handle. Evidence indicates that the intermittent, or varied, form
of reinforcement tends to promote more resistance to extinction than does
the continuous form. 72
An intermittent reinforcement can be of a ratio or interval type. Ratio scheduLes depend upon how many responses the subject makes. The individual is reinforced after giving a certain number of specific types of behavior.
IntervaL scheduLes depend upon how much time has passed since the last
reinforcement. With interval schedules, the individual is reinforced on the
first appropriate behavior after a particular time has elapsed. A reinforcement
can also be classified as fixed or variable. Intermittent techniques for administering rewards can, therefore, be placed into four categories, as shown in
Exhibit 2-8.
When rewards are spaced at uniform time intervals, the reinforcement
schedule is of the fixed-interval type. The critical variable is time, and it is
held constant. This is the predominant schedule for almost all salaried workers in North America. When you get your paycheck on a weekly, semimonthly, monthly, or other predetermined time basis, you are rewarded on a
fixed-interval reinforcement schedule.
If rewards are distributed in time so that reinforcements are unpredictable, the schedule is of the variable-interval type. When an instructor
advises her class that pop quizzes will be given during the term (the exact
number of which is unknown to the students) and the quizzes will account for
twenty percent of the term grade, she is using a variable-interval schedule. Similarly, a series of randomly timed unannounced visits to a company office by
the corporate audit staff is an example of a variable-interval schedule.
In a fixed-ratio schedule, after a fixed or constant number of responses
are given, a reward is initiated. For example, a piece-rate incentive plan is a
fixed-ratio schedule; the employee receives a reward based on the number of
work pieces generated. If the piece rate for a zipper installer in a dressmaking
factory is $5.00 a dozen, the reinforcement (money in this case) is fixed to the

Exhibit 2-8
Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed

Variable

Interval

Ratio

Fixed-interval

Fixed-ratio

Variable-interval

Variable-ratio

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

73

continuous reinforcement
A desired behavior is reinforced each and
every 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.

fixed-interval schedule
Rewords are spaced at uniform time
intervals.

variable-interval schedule
Rewords are distributed in time so that
reinforcements are unpredictable.

fixed-ratio schedule
Rewords are initiated after a fixed or
constant number of responses.

74+PART

TWO

variable-ratia schedule

The reword varies relative to the

behavior of the individual.

THE

INDIVIDUAL

number of zippers sewn into garments. After every dozen is sewn in, the in
staller has earned another $5.00.
When the reward varies relative to the behavior of the individual, he 0:
she is said to be reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule. Salespeople or
commission are examples of individuals on such a reinforcement schedule
On some occasions, they may make a sale after only two calls on a potentia
customer. On other occasions, they might need to make twenty or more call:
to secure a sale. The reward, then, is variable in relation to the number of sue
cessful calls the salesperson makes. Exhibit 2-9 depicts the four categories 0
intermittent schedules.

Exhibit 2-9
Intermittent Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed-interval schedule: Employees' receipt of a weekly paycheck

. ondeo..,x...,. .

Jan. 16 1997

1123 Mok'l Sh.t

","""',NY11,..

:~~oV'

Jill Smith
Five hundred and fo

---. NY11

Week

_MEHD

01: ~765:986S432::

Variable-interval

Reinforcer (

2.435769: 56

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

I is the

rec~r~

schedule: Pop quizzes in a classroom

QUIZ

I
Class
Reinforcer (

12 13 14 15
is the added points received for being in class on a quiz day

Fixed-ratio schedule: Piece-rate plan for zipper installers

Zippers
installed

Variable-ratio

24

36
Reinforcer

48

60

72

) is the earning of $5.00

schedule: Commissioned salespeople

7
10 11 12 13 14 15
s the making of a sale

CHAPTER

2. FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

75

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES AND BEHAVIOR

Continuous reinforcement
schedules can lead to early satiation, and under this schedule behavior tends
to weaken rapidly when reinforcers are withheld. However, continuous reinforcers are appropriate for newly emitted, unstable, or low-frequency responses. In contrast, intermittent reinforcers preclude early satiation because
they don't follow every response. They are appropriate for stable or highfrequency responses.
In general, variable schedules tend to lead to higher performance than
fixed schedules. For example, as noted previously, most employees in organizations are paid on fixed-interval schedules. But such a schedule does not
clearly link performance and rewards. The reward is given for time spent on
the job rather than for a specific response (performance). In contrast, variableinterval schedules generate high rates of response and more stable and consistent behavior because of a high correlation between performance and reward
and because of the uncertainty involved-the
employee tends to be m<?re
alert since there is a surprise factor.

Some Specific Organizational

Applications

We have alluded to a number of situations in which learning theory could be

helpful to managers. In this section, we will briefly look at six specific applications: using lotteries to reduce absenteeism, substituting well pay for sick pay,
disciplining problem employees, developing effective employee training programs, creating mentoring programs for new employees, and applying learning theory to self-management.
USING LOTTERIES TO REDUCE ABSENTEEISM
Management can use learning
theory to design programs to reduce absenteeism. For example, New York Life
Insurance Co. created a lottery that rewarded employees for attendance. "
Each quarter, the names of all the headquarters employees who had no
absences are placed in a drum. In a typical quarter, about 4,000 of the company's 7,500 employees have their names placed in the drum. The first ten
names pulled earn a $200 bond, the next twenty earn a $100 bond, and seventy more receive a paid day off. At the end of the year, another lottery is held
for those with twelve months of perfect attendance. Twelve prizes are
awarded; two employees receive $1,000 bonds, and ten more earn five days off
with pay.
This lottery follows a variable-ratio schedule. A good attendance record
increases an employee's probability of winning, yet having perfect attendance
is no assurance that an employee will be rewarded by winning one of the
prizes. Consistent with the research on reinforcement schedules, this lottery
resulted in lower absence rates. In its first ten months of operation, for instance, absenteeism was twenty-one percent lower than for the comparable
period in the preceding year.
WELL PAY vs. SICK PAY Most organizations provide their
salaried employees with paid sick leave as part of the employee's fringe benefit program. But, ironically, organizations
with paid sick leave programs experience almost twice the absenteeism of organizations without such programs.?" The reality is that sick leave programs reinforce the wrong behavior-

Sick leave programs

reinforce the wrong behavior.

76+PART

TWO

THE

INDIVIDUAL

absence from work. When employees receive ten paid sick days a year, it is the
unusual employee who isn't sure to use them all up, regardless of whether he
or she is sick. Organizations should reward attendance not absence.
As a case in point, one Midwest organization implemented a well-pay
program that paid a bonus to employees who had no absence for any given
four-week periodand then paid for sick leave only after the first eight hours of
absence." Evaluation of the well-pay program found that it produced increased savings to the organization, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and improved employee satisfaction.
Forbes magazine used the same approach to cut its health care costs." It
rewarded employees who stayed healthy and didn't file medical claims by
paying them the difference between $500 and their medical claims, then doubling the amount. So if someone submitted no claims in a given year, he or
she would receive $1,000 ($500 x 2). By rewarding employees for good
health, Forbes cut its major medical and dental claims by over thirty percent.
EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE
Every manager will, at some time, have to deal
with an employee who drinks on the job, is insubordinate, steals company
property, arrives consistently late for work, or engages in similar problem behaviors. Managers will respond with disciplinary actions such as oral reprimands, written warnings, and temporary suspensions. But our knowledge
about punishment's effect on behavior indicates that the use of discipline carries costs. It may provide only a short-term solution and result in serious side
effects.
Disciplining employees for undesirable behaviors only tells them what
not to do. It doesn't tell them what alternative behaviors are preferred. The result is that this form of punishment frequently leads to only short-term suppression of the undesirable behavior rather than its elimination. Continued
use of punishment, rather than positive reinforcement, also tends to produce
a fear of the manager. As the punishing agent, the manager becomes associated in the employee's mind with adverse consequences. Employees respond
by "hiding" from their boss. Hence, the use of punishment can undermine
manager-employee relations.
Discipline does have a place in organizations. In practice, it tends to be
popular because of its ability to produce fast results in the short run. Moreover, managers are reinforced for using discipline because it produces an immediate change in the employee's behavior. The suggestions offered in the
"From Concepts to Skills" box can help you to more effectively implement
disciplinary action.
DEVELOPING TRAINING PROGRAMS
Most organizations have some type of
systematic training program. More specifically, U.S. corporations with 100 or
more employees spent $52.2 billion in one recent year on formal training for
47.3 million workers." Can these organizations draw from our discussion of
learning in order to improve the effectiveness of their training programs? Certainly.
Social-learning theory offers such a guide. It tells us that training should
offer a model to grab the trainee's attention; provide motivational properties;
help the trainee to file away what he or she has learned for later use; provide
opportunities to practice new behaviors; offer positive rewards for accomplishments; and, if the training has taken place off the job, allow the trainee some
opportunity to transfer what he or she has learned to the job.

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.

From Concepts to SI(iIIS

Effective Discipline Skills

he essence of effective disciplining can

be summarized by the
following eight behaviors."
1. Respond immediately. The
more quickly a disciplinary
action follows an offense, the
more likely it is that the employee will associate the discipline with the offense
rather than with you as the
dispenser of the discipline.
It's best to begin the disciplinary process as soon as possible after you notice a violation.
2. Provide a warning. You
have an obligation to give
warning before initiating disciplinary action. This means
that the employee must be
aware of the organization's
rules and accept its standards
of behavior. Disciplinary action is more likely to be interpreted by employees as fair
when they have received
clear warning that a given violation will lead to discipline
and when they know what
that discipline will be.
3. State the problem specifically. Give the date, time,
place, individuals involved,
and any mitigating circumstances surrounding the violation. Be sure to define the
violation in exact terms in-

stead of just reciting company regulations or terms

from a union contract. It's
not the violation of the rules
per se that you want to convey concern about. It's the effect that the rule violation
has on the work unit's performance. Explain why the behavior can't be continued by
showing how it specifically
affects the employee's job
performance, the unit's effectiveness, and the employee's
colleagues.
4. Allow the employee to explain his or her position. Regardless of what facts you
have uncovered, due process
demands that you give the
employee the opportunity to
explain his or her position.
From the employee's perspective, what happened? Why
did it happen? What was his
or her perception of the rules,
regulations, and circumstances?
5. Keep discussion impersonal. Penalties should be
connected with a given violation, not with the personality
of the individual violator.
That is, discipline should be
directed at what the employee has done not at the
employee.
6. Be consistent. Fair treat-

ment of employees demands

that disciplinary action be
consistent. If you enforce rule
violations in an inconsistent
manner, the rules will lose
their impact, morale will decline, and employees will
likely question your competence. Consistency, however,
need not result in treating
everyone exactly alike; doing,
that would ignore mitigating
circumstances. But the responsibility is yours to clearly
justify disciplinary actions
that might appear inconsistent to employees.
7. Take progressive action.
Choose a punishment that's
appropriate to the crime.
Penalties should get progressively stronger if, or when, an
offense is repeated. Typically,
progressive disciplinary action begins with a verbal
warning and then proceeds
through a written reprimand,
suspension, a demotion or
pay cut, and finally, in the
most serious cases, dismissal.
8. Obtain agreement on
change. Disciplining should
include guidance and direction for correcting the problem. Let the employee state
what he or she plans to do in
the future to ensure that the
violation won't be repeated.

CREATING MENTORING PROGRAMS

It's the unusual senior manager who,
early in his or her career, didn't have an older, more experienced mentor
higher up in the organization. This mentor took the protege under his or her
wing and provided advice and guidance on how to survive and get ahead in
the organization. Mentoring, of course, is not limited to the managerial ranks.
Union apprenticeship programs, for example, do the same thing by preparing

77

78

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN DIV IDUA l

3M uses learning theory in designing

off-the-jab training programs.
Employees at 3M's medical and
surgical products plant visit the
operating rooms of local hospitals to
watch haw dactors and nurses use
the surgical tapes, prep solutions,
and other products the employees
make. From this interaction with
customers, employees learn how
imporlanttheir jobs are in delivering
high-quality products that campletely
satisfy customers.

individuals to move from unskilled apprentice status to that of skilled journeyman. A young electrician apprentice typically works under an experienced
electrician for several years to develop the full range of skills necessary to effectively execute his or her job.
A successful mentoring program will be built on modeling concepts from
social-learning theory. That is, a mentor's impact comes from more than
merely what he or she explicitly tells a protege. Mentors are role models. Proteges learn to convey the attitudes and behaviors that the organization wants
by emulating the traits and actions of their mentors. They observe and then
imitate. Top managers who are concerned with developing employees who
will fit into the organization and with preparing young managerial talent for
greater responsibilities should give careful attention to who takes on mentoring roles. The creating of formal mentoring programs-in
which young individuals are officially assigned a mentor-allows
senior executives to manage
the process and increases the likelihood that proteges will be molded the way
top management desires.

self-management
Learning techniques that allow
individuals to manage their own
behavior so that less external
management control is necessary.

SELF-MANAGEMENT
Organizational applications of learning concepts are
not restricted to managing the behavior of others. These concepts can also be
used to allow individuals to manage their own behavior and, in so doing, reduce the need for managerial control. This is called self-management."?
Self-management requires an individual to deliberately manipulate stimuli, internal processes, and responses to achieve personal behavioral outcomes. The basic processes involve observing one's own behavior, comparing
the behavior with a standard, and rewarding oneself if the behavior meets the
standard.
So how might self-management be applied? Here's an illustration. A
group of state government blue-collar employees received eight hours of training in which they were taught self-management skills.sOThey were then

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

shown how the skills could be used for improving job attendance. They were
instructed on how to set specific goals for job attendance, both short-term and
intermediate-term. They learned how to write a behavioral contract with
themselves and identify self-chosen reinforcers. Finally, they learned the importance of self-monitoring their attendance behavior and administering incentives when they achieved their goals. The net result for these participants
wasa significant improvement in job attendance.

Summary and Implications for Managers

This chapter looked at four individual variables-biographical
characteristics,
ability, personality, and learning. Let's now try to summarize what we found
and consider their importance for the manager who is trying to understand
organizational behavior.
BIOGRAPHICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
Biographical characteristics are readily
available to managers. For the most part, they include data that are contained
in almost every employee's personnel file. The most important conclusions we
can draw after our review of the evidence are that age seems to have no relationship to productivity; older workers and those with longer tenure are less
likely to resign; and married employees have fewer absences, less turnover,
and report higher job satisfaction than do unmarried employees. But what
value can this information have for managers? The obvious answer is that it
can help in making choices among job applicants.
ABILITY
Ability directly influences an employee's level of performance
and satisfaction through the ability-job fit. Given management's desire to get
a compatible fit, what can be done?
First, an effective selection process will improve the fit. A job analysis
will provide information about jobs currently being done and the abilities
that individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. Applicants can then be
tested, interviewed, and evaluated on the degree to which they possess the
necessary abilities.
Second, promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already
in the organization's employ should reflect the abilities of candidates. As with
new employees, care should be taken to assess critical abilities that incumbents will need in the job and to match those requirements with the organization's human resources.
Third, the fit can be improved by fine-tuning the job to better match an
incumbent's abilities. Often modifications can be made in the job that, while
not having a significant impact on the job's basic activities, better adapts it to
the specific talents of a given employee. Examples would be to change some
of the equipment used or to reorganize tasks within a group of employees.
A final alternative is to provide training for employees. This is applicable
to both new workers and present job incumbents. Training can keep the abilities of incumbents current or provide new skills as times and conditions
change.
PERSONALITY
A review of the personality literature offers general guidelines that can lead to effective job performance. As such, it can improve hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions. Because personality characteristics create the parameters for people's behavior, they give us a framework for

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

79

80

PAR T

TWO

THE

IN D IV IDUA L

predicting behavior. For example, individuals who are shy, introverted, and
uncomfortable in social situations would probably be ill-suited as salespeople.
Individuals who are submissive and conforming might not be effective as advertising "idea" people.
Can we predict which people will be high performers in sales, research,
or assembly-line work on the basis of their personality characteristics alone?
The answer is No. But a knowledge of an individual's personality can aid in reducing mismatches, which, in turn, can lead to reduced turnover and higher
job satisfaction.
We can look at certain personality characteristics that tend to be related
to job success, test for those traits, and use the data to make selection more effective. A person who accepts rules, conformity, and dependence and rates
high on authoritarianism is likely to feel more comfortable in, say, a structured assembly-line job, as an admittance clerk in a hospital, or as an administrator in a large public agency than as a researcher or an employee whose job
requires a high degree of creativity.
LEARNING
Any observable change in behavior is prima facie evidence
that learning has taken place. What we want to do, of course, is to ascertain if
learning concepts provide us with any insights that would allow us to explain
and predict behavior.
Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool for modifying behavior. By
identifying and rewarding performance-enhancing behaviors, management
increases the likelihood that they will be repeated.
Our knowledge about learning further suggests that reinforcement is a
more effective tool than punishment. Although punishment eliminates undesired behavior more quickly than negative reinforcement does, punished behavior tends to be only temporarily suppressed rather than permanently
changed. And punishment may produce unpleasant side effects such as lower
morale and higher absenteeism or turnover. In addition, the recipients of punishment tend to become resentful of the punisher. Managers, therefore, are
advised to use reinforcement rather than punishment.
Finally, managers should expect that employees will look to them as
models. Managers who are constantly late to work, or take two hours for
lunch, or help themselves to company office supplies for personal use should
expect employees to read the message they are sending and model their behavior accordingly.

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

For Review
1. Which biographical characteristics best predict productivity? Absenteeism? Turnover? Satisfaction?
2. Describe the specific steps you would take to ensure that an individual has the appropriate abilities to satisfactorily do a given job.
3. What constrains the power of personality traits to precisely predict
behavior?
4. What behavioral predictions might you make if you knew that an
employee had (a) an external locus of control? (b) a low Mach score?
(c) low self-esteem? (d) a Type A personality?
5. What is the Myers-BriggsType Indicator?
6. What were the six personality types identified by Holland?
7. How might employees actually learn unethical behavior on their
jobs?
8. Contrast classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social
learning.
9. Describe the four types of intermittent reinforcers.
10. If you had to take disciplinary action against an employee, how,
specifically, would you do it?

For Discussion
1. "Heredity determines personality." (a) Build an argument to support
this statement. (b) Build an argument against this statement.
2. "The type of job an employee does moderates the relationship between personality and job productivity." Do you agree or disagree
with this statement? Discuss.
3. One day your boss comes in and he's nervous, edgy, and argumentative. The next day he is calm and relaxed. Does this behavior suggest
that personality traits aren't consistent from day to day?
4. Learning theory can be used to explain behavior and to control
behavior. Can you distinguish between the two objectives? Can you
give any ethical or moral arguments why managers should not seek
control over others' behavior? How valid do you think these arguments are?
5. What have you learned about "learning" that could help you to explain the behavior of students in a classroom if: (a) The instructor
gives only one test-a final examination at the end of the course? (b)
The instructor gives four exams during the term, all of which are announced on the first day of class? (c) The student's grade is based on
the results of numerous exams, none of which are announced by the
instructor ahead of time?

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

81

~__

IP__o_in_t_I=_

The Value of Traits

in Explaining Attitudes
and Behavior
he essence of trait approaches in OB is that
employees possess stable personali~ characteristics-such
as dependency, anxiety, and
sociability-that
significantly influence their attitudes toward, and behavioral reactions to, organizational settings. People with particular traits tend
to be relatively consistent in their attitudes and behavior over time and across situations.
Of course, trait theorists recognize that all traits
are not equally powerful. Cardinal traits are defined
as being so strong and generalized that they influence every act a person performs. For instance, a
person who possesses dominance as a cardinal trait
is domineering in virtually all of his or her actions.
Evidence indicates that cardinal traits are relatively
rare. More typical are primary traits. These are generally consistent influences on behavior, but they
may not show up in all situations. So a person may
be generally sociable but not display that primary
trait in, say, large meetings. Finally, secondary traits
are attributes that do not form a vital part of the
personality but come into play only in particular
situations. An otherwise assertive person may be
submissive, for example, when confronted by his
or her boss. For the most part, trait theories have
focused on the power of primary traits to predict
employee attitudes and behavior.
Trait theories do a fairly good job of meeting the
average person's face-validity test. That is, they appear to be a reasonably accurate way to describe
people. Think of friends, relatives, and acquaintances you have known for a number of years. Do
they have traits that have remained essentially sta-

ble over time? Most of us would answer that ques

tion in the affirmative. If Cousin Anne was shy an:
nervous when we last saw her ten years ago, WI
would be surprised to find her outgoing and re
laxed now.
In an organizational context, researchers havi
found that a person's job satisfaction in one giver
year was a significant predictor of his or her jot
satisfaction five years later, even when changes ir
occupational status, pay, occupation, and employe]
were controlled for. * This finding led the re
searchers to conclude that individuals possess ,
predisposition toward happiness, which signifi
cantly affects their job satisfaction in all types 01
jobs and organizations.
Here's a final point regarding the function 01
traits in organizations: Managers must have a
strong belief in the power of traits to predict behavior. Otherwise, they would not bother testing
and interviewing prospective employees. If managers believed that situations determined behavior,
they would hire people almost at random and
structure the situation properly. But the employee
selection process in many organizations throughout the industrialized world places a great deal of
emphasis on how applicants perform in interviews
and on tests. Assume you are an interviewer and
ask yourself: What am I looking for in job candidates? If you answered with terms such as conscientious, hardworking,

ambitious,

confident, independent,

and dependable, you're a trait theorist!

Some of the points in this argument are from R.j. House, S.A. Shane,
and D.M. Herold, "Rumors of the Death of Dispositional Research Are
Vastly Exaggerated," Academy of Management Review, january 1996,
pp.203-24.
'B.M. Staw and j. Ross, "Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional Approach to job Attitudes," Journal of Applied Psychology, August 1985, pp. 469-80 .

l....--_-=_I

,,_o_u_n_,e_r_P_o_i"_t_I::]__

The Limited Power

of Traits
in Organizations
ew people would dispute the point that there
are some stable individual attributes that affect experience in and reactions to the workplace. But trait theorists go beyond that generality
and argue that individual behavior consistencies
are widespread and account for much of the differences in behavior among people.
There are two important problems with using
traits to explain a large proportion of behavior in
organizations. First, a substantial amount of evidence shows that organizational settings are strong
situations that have a large impact on employee attitudes and behavior. Second, a growing body of research indicates that individuals are highly adaptive and that personality traits change in response
to organizational situations. Let's elaborate on each
of those problems.
It has been well known for some time that the
effects of traits are likely to be strongest in relatively weak situations and weakest in relatively
strong situations. Organizational settings tend to
be strong situations. Why? First, they have formal
structures with rules, regulations, policies, and reward systems that define acceptable behavior and
punish deviant behaviors. Second, they have informal norms that dictate appropriate behaviors.
These formal and informal constraints lead employees to adopt attitudes and behaviors that are

consistent with their organizational roles, thus

minimizing the effects of personality traits.
By arguing that employees possess stable traits
that lead to cross-situational consistency in their
attitudes and behaviors, trait theorists are implying
that individuals do not really adapt to different situations. But there is a growing body of evidence
that an individual's traits are changed by the organizations that individual participates in. Thus, instead of remaining stable over time, an individual's
personality is changed by all the organizations in
which he or she has taken part. If the individual's
personality changes as a result of exposure to organizational settings, in what sense can that individual be said to have traits that persistently and consistently affect his or her reactions to those very
settings? Moreover, people demonstrate their situational flexibility when they change roles as they
participate in different organizations. Employees
often belong to many organizations. Bob is a corporate accountant during the day, presides over
church meetings two nights a week, and coaches
his daughter's soccer team on weekends. Most of us
are like Bob; we belong to multiple organizations
that often include very different kinds of members.
We adapt to those different situations. Instead of
being the prisoners of a rigid and stable personality
framework as trait theorists propose, we regularly
adjust our behavior and attitudes to reflect the requirements of various situations.
Based on A. Davis-Blake and J. Pfeffer, "Just a Mirage: The Search for
Dispositional Effects in Organizational Research," Academy of Management Review, July 1989, pp. 385-400.

84

PAR

TWO

THE

IN D IV ID U A L

Learning about Yourself Exercise

Whats Your Learning Style?
For each of the following, circle the number that is most true for you.
1. When I learn a subject, I like to learn the theory first and then work on

concrete applications; or do you prefer to work on concrete applications

first and then learn the theory behind what you have done?
1

Theory First

Applications First

2. When I learn a subject, I like to get the "big picture" first and then learn
specific details; I like to see how what I am learning relates to what I have
already learned; or do you prefer to learn the details first and then see
how they are related to material you already know or have learned?
1
2
3
4
S
\

Big Picture First

Details First

3. I expect study group members to use group time to: (1) teach each other
the "nitty-gritty" details and review problems; (2) ask each other questions to prepare for an exam; or (3) do everything that is necessary.
1

4. In drawing conclusions about a problem or case, I first seek facts and hard

data before reaching a conclusion; or do you reach a conclusion and then

seek facts that support your idea?
1

Conclusions Then Data

Data Then Conclusions

5. In drawing conclusions about a problem or case, I prefer to seek addi-

tional options and to postpone decision making as long as possible; or do

you prefer to seek closure early and make a decision?
1

Seek Additional Options

Seek Early Closure

6. When I learn a subject I am satisfied to know the what of the subject; or

do you also want to know the why of things?

1

What Only

What and Why

7. When confronted with a difficult task, I am willing to spend whatever

time it takes to comprehend it; or do you set time limits, and if you
haven't mastered the material you go on to another subject?
1

Whatever Time It Takes

Set Time Limits

8. In order for me to know a subject I must have "hands-on" experience.

1
2
3
4
S

Must Have Hands On

Hands On Unnecessary
9. When I learn a subject, I prefer that the instructor lays out material in a
logical fashion; or do you prefer not to be told everything so that you
have the opportunity to discover the ideas for yourself?

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

Want It All Laid Out

Want Opportunity for Discovery

10. When I work in a team, how important is group harmony to me? It is: (1)
somewhat important; (2) important; or (3) very important.
1

11. How true of you is the following quotation: "I hear and I forget; I see and
I remember; I do and then I learn"?
1

345

Very Accurate
Not Accurate At All
12. Who, or what, is your most important learning resource?
(1) The instructor (2) The book (3) Fellow students
13. Is learning primarily an intellectual or a social activity?
1

Intellectual

Social

Turn to page A-25 for scoring directions and key.

Source: This exercise is adapted from W.A. Kahn, "An Exercise of Authority,"
ing Review, vol. XIV, no. 2, 1989-90, pp. 28-42. Reprinted with permission.

Organizational

Behavior Teach-

Working with Others Exercise

.\

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

This ten-step exercise takes approximately 20 minutes.
EXERCISE OVERVIEW

(STEPS

1-4)

1. Two volunteers are selected to receive reinforcement from the class

while performing a particular task. The volunteers leave the room.
2. The instructor identifies an object for the student volunteers to locate when they return to the room. (The object should be unobstructive but clearly visible to the class. Examples that have worked
well include a small triangular piece of paper that was left behind
when a notice was tom off a classroom bulletin board, a smudge on
the chalkboard, and a chip in the plaster of a classroom wall.)
3. The instructor specifies the reinforcement contingencies that will be
in effect when the volunteers return to the room. For negative reinforcement, students should hiss and boo when the first volunteer is
moving away from the object. For positive reinforcement, they
should cheer and applaud when the second volunteer is getting
closer to the object.
4. The instructor should assign a student to keep a record of the time it
takes each of the volunteers to locate the object.
1 (STEPS 5 AND 6)
5. Volunteer 1 is brought back into the room and is told, "Your task is
to locate and touch a particular object in the room and the class has
agreed to help you. You can't use words or ask questions. Begin."
6. Volunteer 1 continues to look for the object until it is found, while
the class assists by giving negative reinforcement.
VOLUNTEER 2 (STEPS 7 AND 8)
7. Volunteer 2 is brought back into the room and is told, "Your
task is to locate and touch a particular object in the room and the

VOLUNTEER

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

85

86

PAR

TWO

THE

I N D I V I D U A L

class has agreed to help you. You can't use words or ask questions.
Begin."
8. Volunteer 2 continues to look for the object until it is found, while
the class assists by giving positive reinforcement.
9 AND 10)
9. The timekeeper will present the results on how long it took each

CLASS REVIEW (STEPS

volunteer to find the object.

10. The class will discuss:
a. What was the difference in behavior of the two volunteers?
b. What are the implications of this exercise to reinforcement schedules in organizations?
Source: Based on an exercise developed by Larry Michaelson of the University of Oklahoma. With permission.

CAS

-------

INCIDENT

Predicting Performance
Alix Maher is the new admissions director at a small, highly selective New
England college. She has a bachelor's degree in education and a recent master's degree in educational administration. But she has no prior experience in
college admissions.
Alix's predecessor, in conjunction with the college's admissions committee (made up of 5 faculty members), had given the following weights to student selection criteria: high school grades (40 percent); Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT)scores (40 percent); extracurricular activities and achievements (10
percent); and the quality and creativity of a written theme submitted with the
application (10 percent).
Alix has serious reservations about using SATscores. In their defense, she
recognizes that the quality of high schools varies greatly, so that the level of
student performance that receives an A in American history at one school
might earn only a C at a far more demanding school. Alix is also aware that
the people who design the SATs,the Educational Testing Service, argue forcefully that these test scores are valid predictors of how well a person will do in
college. Yet Alix has several concerns:
1. The pressure of the SATexam is very great, and many students suffer

from test anxiety. The results, therefore, may not be truly reflective of
what a student knows.
2. There is evidence that coaching improves scores by between 40 and
150 points. Test scores, therefore, may adversely affect the chances of
acceptance for students who cannot afford the $500 or $600 to take
test-coaching courses.
3. Are SATsvalid, or do they discriminate against minorities, the poor,
and those who have had limited access to cultural growth experiences?
As Alix ponders whether she wants to recommend changing the college's
selection criteria and weights, she is reminded of a recent conversation she
had with a friend who is an industrial psychologist with a Fortune 100 company. He told her that his company regularly uses intelligence tests to help select from among job applicants. For instance, after the company's recruiters
interview graduating seniors on college campuses and identify possible hirees,
they give the applicants a standardized intelligence test. Those who fail to
score at least in the 80th percentile are eliminated from the applicant pool.
Alix thinks that if intelligence tests are used by billion dollar corporations to screen job applicants, why shouldn't colleges use them? Moreover,

CHAPTER 2 FOUNDATIONS

OF INDIVIDUAL

BEHAVIOR.

sinceone of the objectives of a college should be to get its graduates placed in

good jobs, maybe SATscores should be given even higher weight than 40 percent in the selection decision. After all, if SATstap intelligence and employers
want intelligent job applicants, why not make college selection decisions predominantly on the basis of SATscores? Or should her college replace the SAT
with a pure intelligence test like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale?

Questions
1. What do you think SATsmeasure: aptitude, innate ability, achieve-

ment potential, intelligence, ability to take tests, or something else?

2. If the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, what should
admissions directors use to identify the best-qualified applicants?
3. If you were Alix, what would you do? Why?

Emotional

Intelligence

We've known for some time the value of academic intelligence to success in
life.Yetit is not a perfect predictor. A lot of straight-A students and class valedictorians never live up to their potential. Daniel Goleman, a psychologist,
believesthat the missing element in the explanation is something called emotional intelligence.

"An IQ test is really a single measure of how verbally fluent you are,"
says Goleman. "It's how well you do math and logical reasoning. But a more
powerful predictor of how well people will do in life is a measure of their emotionall.Q., which taps their emotional and social skills.
According to Goleman, there are four basic people skills everyone needs
to master. First is the ability to handle anger. When you feel anger, do you
know what to do with it? Second, can you soothe yourself when you're anxious? People with high emotionall.Q.s can control their emotions. Third, people need to be able to read other's feelings from nonverbal cues. It's valuable
to be able to read the feelings of others so you can get along better with them.
Finally, it's important to be able to delay gratification. "If you can't delay gratification," Goleman claims, "you are the kind of person who won't be able to
pursue goals, who won't persist when things get tough, who won't be able to
study and learn as well."
Researchers tested children on their ability to control their impulsiveness
and then followed their progress over a 2S year period. The researchers found
that on average those who wait do better in life. Says Goleman, "We followed
kids who are impulsive through life and we see that they are the kids who are
more likely to be in jail; they are the kids, if they are girls, who are more likely
to get pregnant.
Goleman describes the characteristics possessed by engineers at Bell Labs
who were rated as stars by their peers. The scientists considered stars to be better at relating to others. The difference depended on their emotionall.Q., not
their academic I.Q.
II

II

Questions
1. Do you think there is anything an organization could do to improve

an employee's emotionall.Q., once he or she is hired?

2. How could a knowledge of emotionall.Q. help managers to be more
effective?
Source: Based on "EmotionaII.Q.,"

20/20, ABC News; aired October

20, 1995.

V IDE

CAS

-------

ABC NEWS

87