Understanding People at knowledge, abilities, and

Work: Individual Differences other characteristics

match the job demands.
- Individual differences
matter in the workplace. Someone who is proactive and
Human beings bring in creative may be a great fit for a
their personality, company in the high-tech sector
physical, and mental that would benefit from risk-
abilities, and other stable taking individuals, but maybe a
traits to work. poor fit for a company that
- If you are interviewing an rewards routine and predictable
employee who is behavior such as accountants.
proactive, creative, and Similarly, this person may be a
willing to take risks, great fit for a job such as a
would this person be a scientist, but a poor fit for a
good job candidate? routine office job.
What behaviors would
be expected from this While personality traits and
person to demonstrate? other individual differences are
important, we need to keep in
INTERACTIONIST mind that behavior is jointly
PERSPECTIVE: The role of fit determined by the person and
the situation. Certain situations
When hiring employees, bring out the best in people, and
companies are interested in someone who is poor performer
assessing at least two types of in one job may turn into a star
fit: employee in a different job.

1. Person-Organization Values and personality

Fit – refers to the degree
to which a person’s Values refer to stable life goals
values personality, that people have, reflecting what
goals, and other is most important to them.
characteristics match Values are established
those of the throughout one’s life as a result
organization. of the accumulating life
2. Person-Job Fit – is the experiences and tend to be
degree to which a relatively stable (Lusk and
person’s skills, Oliver, 1974; Rokeach, 1973).
The values that are important to IV: broadminded; clean;
people tend to affect the types forgiving; imaginative; obedient
of decisions they make, how
they perceive their environment, Research indicates that values
and their actual behaviors. are shaped early in life and
show stability over the course of
Moreover, people are more a lifetime.
likely to accept job offers when
the company possesses the Early family experiences are
values people care about. important influences over the
Value attainment is one reason dominant values. People who
why people stay in a company, were raised in families with low
and when an organization does socioeconomic status and those
not help them attain their values who experienced restrictive
they are more likely to decide to parenting often display
leave if they are dissatisfied with conformity values when they are
the job itself. adults, while those who were
raised by parents who were cold
Typologies of values toward their children would likely
value and desire security.
Terminal values (TV) refer to (Kasser, Koestner, and Lekes,
end states people desire in life 2002).
such as leading a prosperous
life and a world at peace Values of a generation also
change and evolve in response
Instrumental values (IV) deal to the historical context that the
with views on acceptable modes generation grows up in.
of conduct, such as being Research comparing the values
honest and ethical, and being of different generations results
ambitious. in interesting findings. For
example:
Rokeach’s hierarchy of
values: Generation Xers (those born
between the mid-1960s and
TV: a world of beauty; an 1980s) are more individualistic
exciting life; family security; and are interested in working
inner harmony; self-respect toward organizational goals so
long as they coincide with their
personal goals.
 goals and deadlines;
Baby boomers (born between want leaders who are
the 1940s and 1960s), are also demonstrably invested in
less likely to see work as central their success
to their life and more likely to 4. A flexible work schedule and
desire quick promotions (Smola remote work opportunities
and Sutton, 2002). 5. Healthy Work-Life
integration
What do millennials want from
an employer? The values a person holds will
affect his or her employment.
1. A Company with a clear For example, someone who has
mission - For example, an orientation toward strong
Google isn’t just a stimulation may pursue extreme
search engine. It’s a sports and select an occupation
company that wants to that involves fast action and
“organize the world’s high risk such as fire fighter,
information and make it police officer, or emergency
universally accessible medical doctor. Someone who
and useful.” has a drive for achievements
2. A company that values may more readily act as an
collaboration, innovation, entrepreneur.
and an investment in
professional Therefore, understanding
development and the employees at work requires
employee experience. understanding the value
3. A management team orientations of employees.
that is committed to
employee success - Personality encompasses the
According to one relatively stable feelings,
survey, employees thoughts, and behavioral
expect employers to patterns a person has.
offer the following: Our personality differentiates us
sufficient training; goals from other people, and
and expectations to be understanding someone’s
clearly established; be personality gives us clues about
given all the information how that person is likely to act
they need to get the job and feel in a variety of
done; expect reasonable situations.
In order to effectively manage
organizational behavior, an Myers-briggs type indicator
understanding of different
employees’ personalities is Unlike the Big Five which
helpful. assesses traits, MBTI
measures types
Having this knowledge is also
useful for placing people in jobs
and organizations. SUMMARY OF MBTI TEST

If personality is stable, does this

mean that it does not change?

Is our behavior in organizations

dependent on our personality?

TRAIT DESCRIPTION

Openness Being curious,

original,
intellectual,
creative, and open
to new ideas

Conscientiousness Being organized,

systematic,
punctual,
achievement
oriented and
dependable

Extraversion Being outgoing,

talkative, sociable,
Big five personality traits
and enjoying
social situations

Agreeableness Being affable,

tolerant, sensitive,
trusting, kind, and
warm

Neuroticism Being anxious,

irritable,
temperamental,
and moody
Dimension Explanation

EI Extraversion: Those who Introversion: those who derive

derive energy from other their energy from inside
people and objects
SN Sensing: Those who rely Intuition: those who rely on
on their give senses to their intuitions and hunches to
perceive the external perceive the external
environment environment
TF Thinking: those who use Feelings: those who use their
their logic to arrive at values and ideas about what is
conclusions right and wrong to arrive at
solutions
JP Judgment: those who are Perception: those who are
organized, systematic, curious, open minded and
and would like to have prefer to have some ambiguity
clarity and closure

Positive and negative

affectivity

Behavior is also a function of

moods.
Positive affective people
experience positive moods more
frequently, whereas negative
affective people experience
negative moods with greater
frequency.

Negative people focus on the

“glass half empty” and
experience more anxiety and
nervousness while positive meaningful change and
affective people tend to be remove the obstacles
happier at work and their they face along the way.
happiness spreads to the rest of
the work environment. Self-esteem
- is the degree to which a
Tips on how to work with person has overall
people with negative positive feelings about
affectivity his or herself. High self-
esteem view themselves
1. Understand that you are in a positive light, are
unlikely to change confident, and respect
someone else’s themselves.
personality.
Self-efficacy
2. Keep an open mind. - is a belief that one can
3. Set a time limit. perform a specific task
4. You may empower them successfully.
to act on the negatives - Research shows that the
they mention. belief that we can do
5. Ask for specifics. something is a good
predictor of whether we
(Adapted from Ferguson, 2006) can actually do it.
Self-monitoring
- Refers to the extent to Locus of control
which a person is - deals with the degree to
capable of monitoring his which people feel
or her actions and accountable for own
appearance in social behaviors.
situations - People with internal
locus of control believe
Proactive personality that they can control
- Refers to a person’s their own destiny and
inclination to fix what is what happens to them is
perceived as wrong, their own doing while
change the status quo, those with external locus
and use initiative to solve of control feel that things
problems. They take happen to them because
actions to initiate
of other people, luck, or
a powerful being.