Personality and Emotions er bee sales went from $200 million, when she took over in 1983, to $1.9 Goad thrived in Mattel’s competitive culture. Unaffaid to speak her she forcefully pushed for greater responsibilities and promotions. “! t for my point of view.” And she never camouflaged her ambi- ays wanted the next job,” she says. “She was never afraid to 4 ask for a raise." adds a former colleague. {the few women heading up a major American company, jill sill “dressing up and putting on shows.” Glamorous and radiant, s more Hollywood than corporate. Barad's personality has cer- AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, ‘YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO 1. Boplain the factors that determine an individva’s personality 2. Describe the MBTI personality framework | 3. Idemity the key traits in the ig Five personality model 4, Explain the impact of job typology an the personality job performance relationship (Oe ea ill Barad isn’t unique. All our behavior is somewhat shaped by our personalities. In the first half of this chap- ter, we review the research on personality and its rela~ Uonship to behavior. In the latter half, we look at how emotions shape many of our work-related behaviors. 5. Differentiate emotions from moods | 6. Contrast felt versus diplayed emotions 7. Read emotions ! | LEARNING PE in . RSONALITY 8, Explain any gender differences in ; a ate some people quiet and passive, while others are loud emotions erg: BSE? Ate certain personality types better adapted to 4. Describe external constraints on He 4 Job types? Before we cars answer these questions, we need emotions 3s a more : c n i jore basic one; What Js personality’ 1. Apply concepts on emaxion OB isues pepersonality The sum torl of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others WHAT IS PERSONALITY? When we talk of personality, we don’t mean that a person has charm, a positiv attitude toward life, a smiling face, or is a finalist for “Happiest and Frieedlies 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 whole psychological system. Rather than looking at parts of the person, personal, ity 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 60 years ago. He said personality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.” For our purposes, you should think of person- ality 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 personal- ity was the result of heredity or of environment. Was the personality predeter. mined at birth, or was it the result of the individual's interaction with his or her environment? Clearly, there is no simple answer. Personality appears to be a re- sult of both influences, In addition, today we recognize a third factor—the situa- tion. 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 gen- erally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by who your parents were, that is, by their biological, physiological, and inherent psycholog- ical 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 tempers ment 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 hered- ity.’ 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. Researchers have studied more than 100 sets of identical twins who were sep arated at birth and raised separately.’ If heredity played little or no part in deter- mining personality, you would expect to find few similarities between the sepa- rated 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 ac- MEIN acto The Indiviguat Disscounts for about 0 percent of the rut $0 p Personality differe cent ofthe variation in occupational and este intrest Further support for the importanc nt Importance of heredity can be found in of dividual job satisfaction, which we discussed in the previows ‘capt, Individual ‘nces and more than 30 per- job satisfaction is found to be remarkably stable over time. ‘Th : able over time, ‘This result is consis- tent with what you would expect if satisfaction Is determined by something. in- herent in the person rather than by external environmental factors i personally characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would | be fixed at birth and no amount of experience could alter them. If you were re- axed 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 for- mation are the culture in which we are raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends, and social groups, and other influences that wwe experience. The environment to which we are exposed 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 mod- erate 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, fam- ily, and friends. North Americans, as a result, tend to be ambitious and aggres- sive 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 envi- ronment as the primary determinant of personality forces the conclusion that both are important. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but an indi vidual’s full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment. Situation A third factor, the situation, influences the effects of heredity and en- vironment on personality. An individual's personality, although generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations. The varying demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one's personality. We should not, therefore, look at personality patterns in isolation.* i one it seems only logial to suppose that situations will influence an ind | jen saping the prorat of vidua’s personality, but a neat classification scheme that would tell us the | ick Balluzo, CEO of Steen impact of various types of situations has so far eluded us. “Apparently we | Graphs. He pus in 7-heur wor ate not yet close to developing a system for clarifying situations so that | days and has few pastimes gir they might be systematically studied.”* However, we do know that certain | than running and working ov. Be situations are more relevant than others in influencing personality. luzzo credits his hard rel oi What is of interest taxonomically is that situations seem to differ | hs blue Se adie Substantially in the constraints they Impose on behavior. Some sitwa- | errr er bruh up tions (eg, church, an employment interview) constrain many behaviors; | 0 49 carry your weight” Te other situations (eg., a picnic in a public park) constrain relatively few. Te appre nis fy, Belz Furthermore, although certain generalizations can be made about pet | seyreed working a ag 1! doing jobs differences. As we shall see, the | je picking prunes a orchards and Sonality, there are significant individual " study of individual differences has come to receive greater emphasis in pet- | sweeping floors a doctors’ offices. Sonality esearch, which originally sought out more general, universal patterns. Chapter 4 Personality and Emocee | THIS 15 A LIST 1 MADE UP 2 ‘ALT ee a oe Te ate CO rmaits! he aoa PEANUTS repented by permis of Unted Features Seat PERSONALITY TRAITS The early work in the structure of personality revolved around attempts to iden- tify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individuals behavior. Popular characteristics include shyness, aggressiveness, submissiveness, laziness, ambition, loyalty, and timidity. These characteristics, when they are exhibited in personality traits a large number Of situations, are called personality traits.* The more consis- rearing characteristics that tent the characteristic and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the describe an individual's ‘more important that trait is in describing the individual. behavior Early Search for Primary Traits Efforts to isolate traits have been hindered beeavse 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 num- ber 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 16 personality factors, which he called the source, ot primary, traits. They are shown in Exhibit 4-2. These 16 traits have been found to be generally steady and con- stant sources of behavior, allowing prediction of an individual's behavior in spe- ific situations by weighing the characteristics for their situational relevance. |, Reserved ws Outgoing Less inteligent ws More intelligent Affected by feelings ws Emotionally stable Submissive “ Dominant Serious ws Happy-go-lucky 5. Expedient ws Conscientious 7 Timid Venturesome Tough-minded Ws. Sensitive , Trusting vs Suspicious Practical “s Irmaginative Forthright ¥s Shrewd Seltassured “s ‘Apprehensive Conservative “s Experimenting Group dependent ‘s Selesuficient Uncontrolled Coneroled . Relaxed ‘ a Tense Te Two The Individualee ‘The Myers-Briggs Type Indicat aa ee ee sameemer One ofthe mon! widely wed personaly tally a 100-question personality test tat ete peer ee ss ee Mae OT in particular situations. People how they usually feel or act Indicator (MBTI) ‘On the basis of the answers indivi wers Individuals give to Aapertonai est that PF wr ocame sF he nawes ndedss ete et they ae cid afar See ee peer Wiel CT es ae people inco one of Cree ree ee ee ea V6 personaly ype: sn it 4-2) To illustrat, let's take several examples INTs are wsiomnles. They ed al examples, INTJs are visionacles, They usually rf ds and great drive for thelr own td unl Maparacterized as skeptical erlleal, independent determined, and often " al, , determined, Uibbor. ESTs are organizers. They are realistic, logical, ‘analytical, deasve, and five a natural head for business or mechanics. They like to organize and run ac- tuities, The ENTP type is a conceptualizer. He ot she is innovative, individualistic, teratile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas, This person tend to be resource: ful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments. A re- Cent book that profiled 13 contemporary businesspeople who created supersuc- Sesful firms including Apple Computer, Federal Express, Honda Motors, Mieosoft, Price Club, and Sony found that all 13 are intultve thinkers (T° | wie result is particularly interesting because intuitive thinkers represent only ahout 5 percent of the population. More than 2 million people a year take the MBTT in the United States alone. organizations using the MBTI include Apple Computer, ATE, Citicorp, Exxon, CE INT Co. plus many hospitals, educational institutions, and even the U.S. extraversion Armed Forces. A personality dimension Me orci, there is no hard evidence that the MBTI sa valld measure of per-_desering someone wh ly pei sonality. But Lack of evidence doesn’t seem to dete its use in a wide range of OF fovable,greprious. and ganizations. assertive agreeableness The Big Five Model MBTI may lack valid supporting evidence, but that can’t, personality dimension hat seesidfor the five-factor model of personality—more typically called the Big gecerbes someone who i Five.” In recent years, an impressive body of research supports that five basic di- Vratured) years, Pr ports mensions underlie all others and encompass most of the significant variation in and trusting. ad human personality. The Big Five factors are: , ee © Extraversion. This dimension captures ‘one’s comfort level with relation- ae eee eee Ee ships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend eae : pee oe served, timid, and Quich 4 an individual's propensity to defer persistent and nA bleness. This dimension refers to it : to others. Highly agreeable people are ‘cooperative, warm, and trusting. People ‘emotional stability who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. A personality dimension naa © Conscientiousness. This dimension is a meast of reliability. A highly consct- characera eee entious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who oo nen or score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unten en cee * Emotional stability. This dimension taps a person's ability to i : tress. Pe tability tend to be calm, self-confident, stuess, People with postive emotional sa 9 be nervous, ansious, openness experience and secure. Those with highly negative scores cree oe lepres : cn topes is cocede 1 dimension addresses an individual's A Pereerites someone Opennes: , The fina ree arett tion with novelty. Extremely ope people are cerms of imag itive, Those at the other end of the open= ‘and comfort in the familia Chapter 4 Personatity and Em Tange of interests and fascinal Creative, curious, and artistically se Tess category are conventional andra an cation 7 Providing a unifying personaltty framework, research on also has found important relationships between these personality dimensions and job performance," A broad spectrum of occupatlons was ex. amined: professionals (Including engineers, architeets, accountants, attorneys), police, managers, salespeople, and. semiskilled and skilled employees, Job per: formance was defined in terms of performance ratings, training proficlency (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 individu: als who are dependable, rellable, careful, thorough, able to plan, organized, harchorking, persistent, and achievement-orlented tend to have higher job performance in most if not all occupations.”"* In addition, employees who score more highly in conscientiousness develop higher levels of Job knowl. edge, probably because highly consclentious people exert greater levels of ef. fort on their job. The higher levels of job knowledge then contribute to higher levels of job performance. Consistent with these findings, evidence also finds a relatively strong and consistent relationship between consclentlousness and organizational citizenship behavior."® This, however, seems to be the only per- sonality dimension that predicts OCB. For the other personality dimensions, predictability depended upon founder and chairman rosott, would score high on eiousness cimension of rodal. His success ‘stems from his personality—an ine | sense drive t0 succeed, persistence, sons intensity, briliane intellect compettiveness, Gater's per- | fy as influenced the cul «| and success—of Microsoft. | de him the most famous | both the perforthance criterion and the occupational group. For in- stance, extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales posl- tions. This finding makes sense since these occupations involve high so- cial 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 anx- ious and insecure. The researchers suggested that the answer might be that only people who have fairly high scores on emotional stability re- s celebrity inthe world. 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. Part Two T tain 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 evaluate more carefully specific personality attributes that have been found to be powerful predictors of behavior in organizations. The first is related to where a person perceives the locus of control to be in his or het 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. Locus of Control Some people believe that they are mastery 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, whe see their lives as being controlled by outside forces, have been called externas. 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 consis: tently shown that individuals who have high scores in externality are less satis fied with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from the work setting, and are less involved on their jobs than are internals." 1 Individ)Why are externals more dissatisfie perceive themselves as having litt seh ee he answer is probably because they that ate important to them. Internals, facing the sone ee atonal outcomes zational outcomes to their own actions, if the Pte ean seve that they have no one else to blame but themeetwes Ve a ey De teanal is more likely to quit a dssatisiying jobs nn Ar the ssaisied in- The impact of locus of control on absence isan inte jiove that health is substantially under thei own c Erna ae ne fo they take more responsibility for their health cue mlb heli ole Consequently, their incidences of sickness and, henci raccecdan aches machouldn't expect any clear relationship beeen lee of cent’ aed lear relationship between locus of control and tumover because there are opposing forces at work. “On the one hand, internal tend to take action and thus might be expected to quit jobs more readil "On the ener hand, they tend to be more successful on the job and more satisfied, factors ersociated with less individual turnover. neon The overall evidence indicates that intemals 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 fol- Jow directions. Therefore, internals do well on sophisti- r fated tasks—which include most managerial and Doe, ol suscessilsoleeposble sional jobs—that require complex information processing internals. I's pretty difficult co succeed and learning. In addition, internals are more sulted to jobs. |” sales if you don’t believe you can |. effectively influence outcomes. that require initiative and independence of action. Almost all successful salespeople, for instance, are internals. Why? Because it’s pretty difficult to succeed in sales if you don't believe you can effec: tively influence outcomes. In contrast, extemals should do well on jobs that are ‘well structured and routine and in which success depends heavily on complying with the direction of others. acteristic of Machiavellianism (Mach) Machiavellianism rote in the sixteenth century on how to Degree to which an pragmatic, main- individual is pragmatic. maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means. Machiavellianism The personality cha is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who w1 fain and use power. An individual high in Machiavellaniom is gan and use Doviistance, 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.” High Machs manip- ulate more, wit; more, are persuaded less, and persuade others mor 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 4 minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing latitude for improvisation; and (3) when emo- tional involvements with details irrelevant to winning distract low Machs.* Should we conslude that high Machs make good employees? Tat answer de Pends on the type of job and whether you consider ethical implications in evaluat- ing Performance. In jobs that require bargaining skills (such as labor negotiation) oF that offer substantial rewards for winning (as in ‘commissioned sales), high Machs will be productive. But if ends can't justify the meat if there are absolute Standands of betictoe ay if the three situational factors noted in the preceding Paragraph are not in evidence, our ability to predict a high Mach’s 5 performance Will be se ll be severely curtailed. chapter! Giey and Emotions = Chapter 4 Person Di inl eeeself-esteem Individual’ degree of ting OF disliking of themselves, self-monitoring ‘A personality trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. t Two Seta m People differ in the degree to which they like or dislike them- selves. This trait is called self-esteem.” ‘The research on self-esteem (SE) offers some Interesting insights into organizational behavior. For example, self-esteern is directly related to expectations for success. High Sts belleve that they postess 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 self-esteem. ‘The most generalizable finding on self-esteem is that low SEs are more sus- ceptible to external influence than are high Sts. Low SEs depend 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 satistac- tion. A number of studies confirm that high SEs are more satisfied with their jobs than are low Sts. Self-Monitoring A personality trait that has recently received increased atten- tion is called self-monitoring.” It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability in ad- justing 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 themselves in that way. They tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in every sit- uation; 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 to pay closer attention to the behavior of others and are more capable of conforming than are low self-monitors.”* In addition, high self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers and receive more promotions (both internal and cross-organizational).” 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 Donald Trump stands out for his willingness to take risks. He started with almost nothing in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s, he had made a for- tune by betting on a resurgent New York City real estate market. Then, trying to capitalize on his previous successes, Trump overextended himself. By 1994, he had a negative net worth of $850 million. Never fearful of taking chances, “The Donald” leveraged the few assets he had left on several New York, New Jersey, and Caribbean real estate ventures. He hit it big again. By 1999, Forbes estimated his net worth at over $2 billion, 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 theit choice. For instance, 79 managers worked on simulated personnel exercises that required them to make hiring decisions.” High risk-taking managers made more The Indiee decisions and used | i! ed less inform low risk-taking managers. Interesting both groups. : _ While itis generally correct to conclude tha risk aversive,® there are still individual differences om thic nee re Ra sult, it makes Sense to recognize these ferences an even to eon agate risk-taking propensity with specific job demands, For | ing prope ity may teal {0 more effective performence for s sock rader ia account Performs auditing activities. The latter job might b ter filled by someone with a low risk-taking propensity. — lon in mal 7 fn making their cholees than did th the decision accuracy was the same fo Je A Personali cu Type A Persoalcy De you know any people win ae excessively competi N88 mncing a chronic sense of time urgency? you do, i's a good bet that those people have a Type A personality, Ap Re “aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle 10 achieve more and more jn less an etme, and, if requ odo so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.” In the North American culture, such characteristics tend to be highly prized and post- tively associated with ambition and the successful acquisition of material son with a Type A personality goods. 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 or how much of everything they acquire. In contrast to the Type A per: posite. Type B's are “rarely harried by the desire to obta Pumber of things or participate in an endless growing series of events in an ever-decreasing amount of time.”? Type Bs 1. never suffer from a sense of ti patience; 2. feel no need to display or :ments unless such exposure is demand: 3. play for fun and relaxation rather than to ex any cost; 4. can relax without guilt. ime urgency with its accompanying im- discuss either their achievements or accom- ied by the situation; hibit their superiority at ‘Type A’s operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They sub- ject 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 be- cause 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 quan- tity and speed, they rely on past experiences when faced with problems. Chapter 4 Per and even to consider aligning f how many sonality is the Type B, who is exactly the op- a wildly increasing SS he type A personality OT Aggressive involvement in 2 chronic, incessant struggle © Ire achieve more and more in f6- Tess and less time and, if necessary, against the Jk. oppating efforts of other things or other people. Richard Branson's propensity © take risks aligns with his job d= mands of being an entrepreneu Branson, founder and chairman of 4 London-based Virgin Grou, farted risky vertures that com> pete agains industry gine His Virgin Atanscairine, for ecnple fra eaken markec share fo" Berish Airways and has eaed the Branson's risk-aking persoraity ucends (0 his sure actites of speedboat racing see, a ballooning. Shown here, Br prepares for an around reward balloon excursion.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 Type A’s hard work, the Type B's are the ones who appear to make it to the top. Great salespersons are ustially Type 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 quan- ity. Promotions in corporate and professional organizations “usually go to those who are wise rather than to those who ate 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.”"" PERSONALITY AND NATIONAL CULTURE Do personality frameworks, such as the Big Five model, transfer across cultures? Are dimensions such as locus of control and the Type A personality relevant in all cultures? Let's try to answer these questions. “The five personality factors identified in the Big Five model appear in almost al cross-cultural studies." This includes a wide variety of diverse cultures, such as China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States, Differences tend to surface by the emphasis on dimensions. Chinese, for ex: ample, use the category of conscientiousness more often and use the AW diferent emotion. | 2 | GH FP wo Vee Fe © Try wo identify them | = before lookingat | ow | Sl Sy, aoe the answers. (Top, | = —_ a EF ef to right: neutral, B ; surprise, happiness. aa Bottom: fear, 45 sadness, anger.) CG SD —_ iver, Nj: Prenice Hall Zee S Tar LA. Pap, ad OO Sears Sl Pcl, 98 (Upper St 2 We horcrapbyPal Ekman, PD. Used wth permaion. Hi CCoc motiont Tey and € Chapter 4 Persecco Source Based on R.D. Woodworth Experimental Pycholoy (New York: Hot. 1938). Do these six basic emotions surface in the workplace? Absolutely. I get angry after receiving a poor performance appraisal. | fear that | could be laid off as a re- sult of a company cutback. I'm sad about one of my co-workers leaving to take a new job in another city. I'm happy after being selected as employee-of-the- month. I'm disgusted with the way my supervisor treats the women on our team. And I'm surprised to find out that management plans a complete restructuring of the company’s retirement program. Intensity People give different responses to identical emotion-provoking stim- uli. In some cases this can be attributed to the individual's personality. Other times it is a result of the job requirements. People vary in their inherent ability to express intensity. You undoubtedly know individuals who almost never show their feelings. They rarely get angry. They never show rage. In contrast, you probably also know people who seem to be on an emotional roller coaster. When they're happy, their ecstatic. When they're sad, theyre deeply depressed. And two people can be in the exact same situation— with one showing excitement and joy, while the other is calm and collected. Jobs make different intensity demands in terms of emotional labor. For in- stance, air traffic controllers and trial judges are expected to be calm and con- trolled, even in stressful situations. Conversely, the effectiveness of television evangelists, public-address announcers at sporting events, and lawyers can depend on their ability to alter their displayed emotional intensity as the need arises. Frequency and Duration How often does an emotion need to be exhibited? ‘And for how long? Sean Wolfson is basically a quiet and reserved person. He loves his job as 2 financial planner. He doesn’t enjoy, however, having to give occasional speeches “in order to increase his visibility and to promote his programs. “If I had to speak to large audiences every day, I'd quit this business,” he says. “I think this works ~ for me because | can fake excitement and enthusiasm for an hour, a couple of times a month.” Emotional labor that requires high frequency or long durations is more de “manding and requires more exertion by employees. So whether an employee | Succestlly meet the emotional demands of a given job depends not only on Which emotions need to be displayed and their intensity, but also how fe quently and for how long the effort has to be made. CAN PEOPLE BE EMOTIONLESS? Are people who seem outwardly calm or apathetic in situations, in which othe are clearly emotionally charged, without feeling? Can people be emotionless? Part Two The IndividualSome people have severe difficulty in expressing their emotions and under- standing the emotions of others. Psychologists call this alexithymia (which is Greek for “lack of emotion”). People who suffer from alexithymia rarely cry and are often seen by others as bland and cold. Their own feelings make them uncomfort- able, and they're not able to discriminate among their different emotions. Addition- ally, they're often at a complete loss to understand what others around them feel Does this inability to express emotions and read others mean that people who suffer from alexithymia are poor work performers? Not necessrily. Consistent with our discussion on matching personality types with appropriate jobs, peo trho Tack emotion need to be In Jobs that requtte litle of ne enotoral hor ‘These people are not well suited to sales and managerial positions. But they might very well be effective performers, for instance, in a job writing program code or in any work that is confined exclusively to computer interaction. GENDER AND EMOTIONS It’s widely assumed that women are more “in touch” with their feelings than men—that they react more emotionally and are better able to read emotions in others. Is there any truth to these assumptions? The evidence does confirm differences between men and women when it comes to emotional reactions and ability to read others. In contrasting the gen- ders, women show greater emotional expression than men; they experience emotions more intensely; and they display more frequent expressions of both positive and negative emotions, except anger.” In contrast to men, women also Reading Emotions nderstanding another person's felt emotions @: a very difficult task. But we can learn to ‘read others’ displayed emotions. We do this by focusing on verbal, nonverbal, and paralinguistic cues." The easiest way to find out what someone is feel- ing is to ask them. Saying something as simple as “Are you OK? What's the problem?” can frequently provide you with the information to assess an individual's ‘emotional state. But relying on a verbal response has ‘two drawbacks. First, almost all of us conceal our emotions to some extent for privacy and to reflect social expectations. So we might be unwilling to share ur true feelings. Second, even if we want to verbally convey our feelings, we may be unable to do so. As we've noted previously, some people have difficulty Lunderstanding their own emotions and, hence, are un- able to verbally express them, So, at best, verbal re- SPonses provide only partial information, E ake by talking with a co-worker, Does the fact muse, Pack is reid, his teeth clenched, and his facial les tight tell you something about his emotional body movernents, and physi cues that can provide additional insights into what a person is feeling. The facial expressions shown in Exhibit 4-5, for instance, are a window into a person's: feelings. Notice the difference in facial features: the height of the cheeks, the raising or lowering of the brow, the turn of the mouth, the positioning of the lps, and the configuration of the muscles around the eyes. Even something as subtle as the distance someone chooses to position himself or herself from you cn convey ther feelings, oF lack thereoh of intmac. = gressiveness, repugnance, or withdrawal ‘As Janet and I talked, | noticed a sharp change in the tone of her voice and the speed at which she spoke. | was tapping into the third source of ete tion on a person’s emotions—porolanguage: communication that goes Laie par SS words, It includes pitch, amplitude quality of speech. Paralanguage reminds us eae convey their feelings not only in what they § in how they say it. $a Chapter 4 Persona_Monverbal and paralingui What explains One explanation stic cues than are men,®? a these differences? Three the different ways mer Men are taught to Possible answers have been suggested, 'n and women have been socialized, : be tough and brave; and showing emo. Women show greater emt tion is inconsistent with this image. Women, on the other emotional hn : , are socialized to be nurturing. This may accou expression than men and experience seeieally tater ok emotions more intensely. the perception that women are generally warmer and friendlier than men. For instance, women are expected to express more positive emotions. on the job (shown by smiling) than men, and they do.** A second explanation 1 that women may have more innate ability to read others and present their emo. tons than do men. Third, women may have a greater need for social approval and, thus, a higher propensity to show positive emotions such as happiness, EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON EMOTIONS ‘An emotion that is acceptable on the athletic playing field may be totally unac- ceptable when exhibited at the workplace. Similarly, what's appropriate in one Country is often inappropriate in another. These facts illustrate the role that ex- ternal constraints play in shaping displayed emotions. Every organization defines boundaries that identify what emotions are ac- ceptable and the degree to which they can be expressed. The same applies in dif- ferent cultures. In this section, we look at organizational and cultural influences on emotions. Organizational Influences If you can’t smile and appear happy, you're un- likely to have much of a career working at a Disney amusement park. And a man- ual produced by McDonald’s states that its counter personnel “must display traits such as sincerity, enthusiasm, confidence, and a sense of humor." There is no single emotional “set” sought by all organizations. However, at least in the United States, the evidence indicates that there's a bias against nega- tive and intense emotions. Expressions of negative emotions such as fear, anxi- ety, and anger tend to be unacceptable except under fairly specific conditions.” For instance, one such condition might be a high-status member of a group con- veying impatience with a low-status member. Moreover, expressions of intense emotion, whether negative or positive, tend to be typically unacceptable because they're seen as undermining routine task performance. Again, there are excep tional conditions in which this isn’t true—for example, a brief grieving over the sudden death of a company’s CEO or the celebration of a record year of profits. But for the most part, consistent with the myth of rationality, well-managed of ganizations are expected to be essentially emotion free. Cultural Influences Cultural norms in the United States dictate that employ- ees in service organizations should smile and act friendly when interacting with customers.” But this norm doesn’t apply worldwide. In Israel, smiling by supe market cashiers is seen as a sign of inexperience, so cashiers are encouraged t@ look somber.” In Moslem cultures, smiling is frequently taken as a sign of sexual attraction, so women are socialized not to smile at men.” 7s ‘The foregoing example illustrate the need to consider cultural factors asin encing what is of Isn't considered as emotionally appropriate.” What's acceptable Jn one culture may seem extremely unusual or even dysfunctional in another. An cultures differ in terms of the interpretation they give to emotions. NT arc Two The Indivicuala ceeds be be high agreement on what emotions mean within cultures a 1. For instance, one study asked Americans to match facial expres~ sions with the six basie emotions." The range of agreement was between 86 and percent. When a group of Japanese was given the same task, they correctly la- beled only surprise (with 97 percent agreement) On the other five emotions their accuracy ranged from only 27 to 70 percent. In addition, studies indicate that some cultures lack words for such standard emotions as anxiety, depression, ot guilt. Tahitians, as a case in point, don’t have a word directly e eae t ion, o ness. When Tahitians are sad, their peers typically attribute by ewiraleat ee cal illness.”* OB APPLICATIONS We conclude our discussion of emotions by considerin, cat d f ig their application to sev- eral topics in OB. In this section, we assess how a knowledge of emotions can help you to better understand the selection process in organizations, decision making, motivation, leadership, interpersonal conflict, and deviant workplace behaviors. Ability and Selection People who know their own emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may be more effective in their jobs. That, in essence, is the theme underlying recent research on emotional intelligence.”* Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an assortment of noncognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person's ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures. It’s composed of five di- mensions: Self-awareness. The ability to be aware of what you're feeling. ‘Self-management. The ability to manage one’s own emotions and impulses. Self-motivation. The ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures. Empathy. The ability to sense how others are feeling. Social skills, The ability to handle the emotions of others. Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance. For instance, one study looked at the characteristics of Bell Lab engineers who were rated as stars by their peers. The scientists concluded that stars were better at relating to others. That is; it was El, not academic 1Q, that characterized high performers, A second study of Air Force recruiters generated similar findings. Top- performing recruiters exhibited high levels of El. Using these findings, the Air Force revamped its selection criteria, A follow-up investigation found that future hires who had high El scores were 2.6 times more successful than those who didn’t. A recent poll of human resource managers asked: How important is it for yout ‘workers to demonstrate El to move up the corporate ladder? Forty percent replied “very important.” Another 16 percent said “moderately important.” ‘The implications from the initial evidence on EI is that employers should consider it 25 a factor in selection, especially in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction. Decision Making As you'll see in Chapter 5, traditional approaches to the Aud of decision making in organizations have emphasized rationality, nave downplayed, or even ignored, the role of anxiety fear, frustration, dv excitement, and similar emotions. Yet it’s naive to assume tha lar moment emotional intelligence An assortment of, noncognitive skis, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person's ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures. i than choices aren’t influenced by one's feelings at a partic " same objective data, we should expect that people may make differs Taney and Emorions a - Thapeer 4 PersoHiring for Emotional Intelligence at the Men's Wearhouse ‘The Men’s Weathouse is now the lead- ing discount retailer of men’s clothing, in the United States. It hay more than 400 stores, 6,000 employees, and an- nual revenues of $630 million. The firm is growing rapidly—adding an average of one new store per week The Men's Wearhouse founder and, CEO, George Zimmer (see photo), has built his business by trying to reinvent the shopping experience. "Most busi- ness practices repress our natural ten- dency to have fun and to socialize,” says Zimmer. “The idea seems to be at in order to succeed, you have to fer. But I believe that you do your work when you are feeling enthu- ric about things. Our business is OB in the News | based on faith in the value of human potential.” Hiring at the Men's Wearhouse re- fects Zimmer's philosophy. In selecting and training new salespeople, for in- stance, management believes. success has more to do with the ability to un derstand people than it does about un- derstanding how to sell suits, “We don’t look for people with specific levels of education and. experience,” says. the company’s vice president of training, Shlomo Maor. “We look for one crite: rion for hiring: optimism. We look for passion, excitement, energy. We want people who enjoy life.” What docs optimism have to do with selling suits? Eventhing, argues Maor. “Optimistic people do not pre- judge or pressure customers,” he says. “You have to sell the right product to the right customer for the right reas son—which often means delaying gratification and taking rejection in stride, That's emotional intelligence, ‘and it’s what makes great salespeople great.” "Aaspied trom E,Ransdl, “They Sel Sa with Sou” Fst Company, Ober 1998 pp. 66-68. choices when they're angry and stressed out than when they're calm and col- lected. Negative emotions can result in a limited search for new alternatives and a less vigilant use of information. On the other hand, positive emotions can in- crease problem solving and facilitate the integration of information.” You can improve your understanding of decision making by considering “the heart” as well as “the head.” People use emotions as well as rational and i tuitive processes in making decisions. Failure to incorporate emotions into the study of decision processes will result in an incomplete (and often inaccurate) view of the process. Motivation We'll discuss motivation thoroughly in Chapters 6 and 7. At this point, we want to merely introduce the idea that, like decision making, the dom- inant approaches to the study of motivation reflect an overrationalized view of individuals.” Motivation theories basically propose that individuals “are motivated to the extent that their behavior is expected to lead to desired outcomes. The image is that of rational exchange: the employee essentially trades effort for pay, security, promotions, and so forth.” But people aren't cold, unfeeling machines, Thelt perceptions and calculations of situations are filled with emotional content that significantly influences how much effort they exert, Moreover, when you Se idual ~ onsir jobs, they’re emotionally committed. become physically, cognitively, and emo- in the pursuit of a goal.”*” But many are. And if we focus only on rational calc! ns, we fail able to explain behaviors such as the individual who forgets to have dinner n the thrill of her work.*! people who are highly motivated in thi People who are engaged in their worl tionally immersed in the experience of activi ‘Are all people emotionally engaged in their work? No ations of inducements and contributi to be and works late into the night, lost Leadership The ability to lead others is a fundamental quality sought by organizations. We'll discuss the topic of leadership in depth in Chapter 11. Here, however, we briefly introduce how emotions can be an integral part of leader- ship. Effective leaders almost all rely on the expression of feelings to help convey ression of emotions in speeches is often the critical their messages. In fact, the e3 clement that results in individuals accepting or rejecting a leader's message. n “when leaders feel excited, enthusiastic, and active, they may be more likely to ¢ their subordinates and convey a sense of efficacy, competence, opti- energiz mism, and enjoyment.”* Politicians, as a case in point, have learned to show en- thusiasm when talking about their chances for winning an election, even when polls suggest otherwise. Corporate executives know that emotional content is critical if employees are to buy into their vision of their company’s future and accept change. When new visions are offered, especially when they contain distant or vague goals, change is often difficult to accept. So when effective leaders want to implement significant changes, they rely on “the evocation, framing, and mobilization of emotions.”®? By arousing emotions and linking them to an appealing vision, lead- ers increase the likelihood that managers and employees alike will accept change. Interpersonal Conflict Few issues are more intertwined with emotions than the topic of interpersonal conflict. Whenever conflicts arise, you can be fairly cer- tain that emotions are also surfacing. A manager's success in trying to resolve conflicts, in fact, is often largely due to his or her ability to identify the emo- tional elements in the conflict and to get the conflicting parties to work through their emotions. And the manager who ignores the emotional elements in con- flics, focusing singularly on rational and task concerns, is unlikely to be very ef- fective in resolving those conflicts. Deviant Workplace Behaviors Negative emotions can lead to a number of deviant workplace behaviors. ‘Anyone who has spent much time in an organization realizes that people often engage in voluntary actions that violate established norms and that threaten the organization, its members, or both, These actions are called em- ployee deviance."* They fal] into categories such as production (e. leaving, carly, intentionally working slowly); property (e.g, stealing, sabotage); political (€4., gossiping, blaming co-workers); and personal aggression (e.g., sexual hariss- ment, verbal abuse)."® Many of these deviant behaviors can be traced to negative emotions, a 9 Instance, envy is an emotion that occurs when You resent someone for aa oo ing that you don’t, which you strongly desire. # tt can lead to mall- s deviant behaviors, Envy, for example, has been found to be associated with ely distort- employee deviance Voluntary actions that vit ‘established norms and that threaten the organizador. members, or both. hosti a ‘ "i fe oie “backstabbing” and other forms of political behavior, negati 8 others’ successes, and positively distorting one’s own accomplishment a Emorions Chapter 4 Personality >Part Two MARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS PERSONALITY \ review of the personality literature offers general guidelines that can te fective job performan ‘ad to ef. As such, it can improve hiring, transfer, and promolit decisions, Recause personality characteristics create the a param ; behavior, they give Us a framework for predicting haven, For aae toe uals who are shy, introverted, and uncomfortable in social situations would proty ably be iitsnited as salespeople, Individuals who are submissive and confone es might not be effective as advertising “idea” people. 8 Can we predict which people will be high performers in sales, research, op assembly-tine work on the basis of their personality characteristics alone? The an. swer is No, Personality assessment should be used in conjunction with other in: formation such as skills, abilities, and experience."* But a knowledge of an indi, Vidual’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 effec- tive. A person who accepts rules, conformity, and dependence and rates high on authoritarianism is likely to feel more comfortable in, say, a structured assembly- ine 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 de- gree of creativity. EMOTIONS Can managers control the emotions of their colleagues and employees? No. Emo- tions are a natural part of an individual's makeup. Managers err if they ignore the emotional elements in organizational behavior and assess individual behavior as if it were completely rational. As one consultant aptly put it, “You can’t divorce emotions from the workplace because you can’t divorce emotions from peo- ple.”®° Managers who understand the role of emotions will significantly improve their ability to explain and predict individual behavior. Do emotions affect job performance? Yes. They can hinder performance, es pecially negative emotions, That's probably why organizations, for the most part, try to extract emotions out of the workplace. But emotions can also enhance pet- formance. How? Two ways.” First, emotions can increase arousal levels, thus act- ing as motivators to higher performance. Second, emotional labor recognizes that feelings can be part of a job’s required behavior. So, for instance, the ability to effectively manage emotions in leadership and sales positions may be critical to success in those positions. ‘Whaat differentiates functional from dysfunctional emotions at work? While there is no precise answer to this, it’s been suggested that the critical moderating variable is the complexity of the individual's task.”" The more complex a task, the lower the level of arousal that can be tolerated without interfering with perfor” mance. While a certain minimal level of arousal is probably necessary for 0% Performance, very high levels interfere with the ability to function, especially the job requires calculative and detailed cognitive processes. Given that the trene is toward jobs becoming more complex, you can see why organizations are likely to go to considerable efforts to discourage the overt display of emotion! cially intense ones—in the workplace. The Individual Sears SUM e