PERSONALITY

PERSONALITY
• One aspect that makes people different from one another is
personality. The differences translate into different behaviors,
including those in the workplaces.
• Personality refers to the sum total of ways in which individual reacts
and interacts with each others. The “ways” are the patterns of
behavior that are consistent and enduring.
Determinants of Personality
• The personality of an individual is a result of both hereditary and environment factors.
• Heredity defines the limits by which environment can develop personality characteristics.
• Hereditary factors are those facts that are determined at conception. These include the
ff:
1. physical stature
2. facial attractiveness
3. gender
4. temperament
5. muscle composition and reflexes
6. energy level
7. biological rhythms
Determinants of Personality
• Environmental factors are those that exert pressures on the formation of
an individual’s personality. It includes the ff:
1. Cultural factor – w/c refers to the established norms, attitudes, and
values that are passed along from one generation to the next and creates
consistency over time.
2. Social factor – w/c refer to those that reflects family life, religion, and the
many kinds of formal and informal groups in which the individual
participates throughout his life.
3. Situational factors – w/c indicate that the individual will behave
differently in different situations. For instance, a teenager will be less
talkative when the presence of strangers. He will be more relaxed,
however, when he is among friends and relatives.
Personality Factors and Traits
• There are certain factors that are considered in determining human
personality.
• A person’s personality traits could either be on the positive or negative side
of the factors, and they will be in various degrees of development. It is not
hard to think that two or more persons will have the same traits that are
developed in different degrees.
• This alone provides sufficient indication that individuals are really different
from one another.
• The traits are partially inherited and they will develop depending on the
environment where the person is situated. For instance, an employee may
have a natural tendency for risk taking like experimenting on
entrepreneurial ventures. This tendency will have the opportunity to grow
in an organization that encourages such activities.
Personality Factors and Traits
• The 8 factors are briefly described below:
1. Emotional stability – this personality factor characterize one as calm, self-confident
and secure. It’s opposite is emotional instability characterized by nervousness, depress
and insecurity.
- A person who possesses a high degree of emotional stability can
be expected to withstand stress.
2. Extraversion – This is the personality factor describing someone who is sociable,
gregarious and assertive. The opposite is introversion, which describes a person who tends
to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
3. Openness to experiences – This is a personality factor describing a person who is
imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad-minded, intelligent, and artistically sensitive.
The opposite is the person who is conventional and finds comfort in the familiar.
4.Agreeableness – This factor refers to the person’s interpersonal orientation. An agreeable
person is cooperative, warm, and trusting. This person is not agreeable is cold,
disagreeable, and antagonistic.
Table 1. PERSONALITY FACTORS & TRAITS
FACTORS FACTORS

1. Emotional stability
a. Emotionally stable person Calm, self-confident, secure
b. Emotional unstable person Nervous, depressed, insecure

2. Extraversion
a. Extravert - sociable, gregarious, assertive
b. Introvert - Reserved, timid, quiet

3. Openness to experience
a. Open minded person - Imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad-
minded, intelligent, artistically sensitive.
b. Close minded person - Conventional, finds comfort in the familiar

4. Agreeableness
a. Agreeableness person - Cooperative, warm, trusting
b. Disagreeableness person - Cold, disagreeable, antagonistic
Table 1. PERSONALITY FACTORS & TRAITS
FACTORS FACTORS

5. Conscientiousness
a. Highly conscientiousness person - responsible, organized, dependable, persistent
b. Personal with low score on conscientiousness - Easily distracted, disorganized, unreliable

6. Self-monitoring behavior
a. High self-monitor - Pragmatic, chameleon-like actor in social groups,
often say what others want to hear
b. Low self-monitor - Avoid situation that require him/her to adapt to
different outer images, is often inflexible
7. Risk taking and thrill seeking
a. Risk taker - Willingness to take risks and pursues thrills
b. Play safe person - Not willing to take risks and pursues thrills

8. Optimism
a. Optimist - Tendency to experience positive emotional states
and to believe that positive outcome will be
forthcoming from most activities.
Personality Factors and Traits
• The 8 factors are briefly described below:
5. Conscientiousness. This factor refers to a person’s reliability. Those with a high degree of
consciousness are responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those with a low degree
of consciousness are easily distracted, disorganized and unreliable.
6. Self-monitoring behavior. This reflects a person’s ability to adjust his/her behavior to external,
situational or environment factors. High self monitors are pragmatic, and are capable of
putting on different faces for different audiences. Low self-monitors find it hard to act or
behave as the situation requires.
7. Risk taking and thrill seeking. These refers to the person’s willingness to take a risk and pursue
thrills that sometimes are required in the workplace. Some jobs like those of movie stunts are
dangerous and will require a high degree of risk taking and thrill seeking sense.
8. Optimism. This refers to the tendency to experience positive emotional states and to typically
believe that positive outcomes will be forthcoming from most activities. This is the opposite of
pessimism which is the tendency to experience negative emotional states and to typically
believe that negative outcomes will be forthcoming from most activities.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
• Positive personality factors in combination with practical intelligence
can work wonders for the person and for the most part will be limited
only by how his/her emotions will allow.
• This provides clue on the importance of managing one’s emotions
especially in the workplaces. This implies that success in any
endeavor required a certain degree of emotional intelligence.
• The concept of emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) was
introduced by Daniel Goleman.
• EQ refers to the ability of the person to accurately perceive, evaluate,
express and regulate emotions and feelings.
The 5 components of EQ are the ff:
1. Self-regulation. This refers to the ability to calm down, anxiety,
control impulsiveness, and react appropriately to anger.
2. Motivation. This refers to the passion to work for reasons, that go
beyond money or status.
3. Empathy – This refers to the ability to respond to the unspoken
feelings of others.
4. Self-awareness. This refers to the awareness of one’s own
personality or individuality.
5. Social skills- This refers to the proficiency to manage relationships
and building networks.
MORE ON PHYSICAL ABILITY
• Most writers of OB limit their discussion of physical ability on traits like stamina, dexterity, and strength. They failed to mention
other aspects that make individuals different from each other.
• This writer feels that the ff. factors are important in determining the reasons for differences in individual behavior:
1. Sense of sight – People differ in what they could actually see.
For instance, some persons are color blind. Clearly, these persons will find it difficult to perform jobs that require the
ability to distinguish colors.
2. Sense of hearing – People differ in their ability to hear. Some people may not be able to distinguish one tone from another. This
alone makes them different from other people in term of hearing ability. Those considered tone deaf would not be able to perform as
singers, musicians, conductors, recording engineers, and the like.
3. Sense of taste – A person’s tongue may be sensitive to various tastes and this makes him/her different from another person who is
less sensitive to taste. The degrees of taste sensitivity vary from person to person.
4. Sense of smell – People have different degrees of sensitivity to smell. Those with excellent sense of smell would fit in jobs related
to the manufacture of perfume, soap, food and some others.
5. Sense of touch - A persons’ sense of touch may differ in degree with another person’s. As such, their behavior will differ when
confronted with similar situations. For instance, when five persons are blindfolded, and they requested to touch an object, some of
them may be able to identify correctly the object and some will not.
A carpenter needs a find sense of touch when doing finishing jobs on wood in house construction. Obviously, some people will not
qualify in such types of jobs.