Chapter 4

Personality and
Emotions

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
S T E P H E N P. R O B B I N S
E L E V E N T H E D I T I O N
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. WWW.PRENHALL.COM/ROBBINS PowerPoint Presentation
All rights reserved. by Charlie Cook
 What
What is
is Personality?
Personality?

Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others.

Personality Traits
Enduring Personality
Personality
characteristics that Determinants
Determinants
describe an • •Heredity
Heredity
individual’s behavior.
• •Environment
Environment
• •Situation
Situation

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 The
The Myers-Briggs
Myers-Briggs Type
Type Indicator
Indicator

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A personality test that taps four characteristics
and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality
types.

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
• •Extroverted
Extrovertedvs.
vs.Introverted
Introverted(E(Eor
orI)I)
• •Sensing
Sensingvs.
vs.Intuitive
Intuitive(S
(Sor
orN)
N)
• •Thinking
Thinkingvs.
vs.Feeling
Feeling(T
(Tor
orF)
F)
• •Judging
Judgingvs.
vs.Perceiving
Perceiving(P(Por
orJ)J)

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 The
The Big
Big Five
Five Model
Model of
of Personality
Personality Dimensions
Dimensions
Extroversion
Sociable, gregarious, and assertive

Agreeableness
Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting.

Conscientiousness
Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized.

Emotional Stability
Calm, self-confident, secure (positive) versus nervous,
depressed, and insecure (negative).

Openness to Experience
Imaginativeness, artistic, sensitivity, and intellectualism.

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 Major
Major Personality
PersonalityAttributes
Attributes Influencing
Influencing OB
OB
 Locus of control
 Machiavellianism
 Self-esteem
 Self-monitoring
 Risk taking
 Type A personality

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 Locus
Locus of
of Control
Control
Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they are
masters of their own fate.

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.

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 Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism (Mach)
Degree to which an individual is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes
that ends can justify means.

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Emotions
Emotionsdistract
distractfor
forothers
others

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 Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem and
and Self-Monitoring
Self-Monitoring

Self-Esteem (SE)
Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking
themselves.
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an
individuals ability to adjust his or her
behavior to external, situational factors.

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 Risk-Taking
Risk-Taking
 High Risk-taking Managers
– Make quicker decisions
– Use less information to make decisions
– Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial
organizations
 Low Risk-taking Managers
– Are slower to make decisions
– Require more information before making decisions
– Exist in larger organizations with stable
environments
 Risk Propensity
– Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job
requirements should be beneficial to
organizations.
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 Personality
Personality Types
Types

Proactive Personality
Identifies opportunities, shows initiative,
takes action, and perseveres until meaningful
change occurs.
Creates positive change in the environment,
regardless or even in spite of constraints or
obstacles.

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 Achieving
Achieving Person-Job
Person-Job Fit
Fit

Personality-Job Fit
Theory (Holland)
Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
Identifies six
personality types and ••Realistic
Realistic
proposes that the fit ••Investigative
Investigative
between personality
••Social
Social
type and occupational
environment ••Conventional
Conventional
determines satisfaction ••Enterprising
Enterprising
and turnover.
••Artistic
Artistic

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 Emotions-
Emotions- Why
Why Emotions
Emotions Were
Were Ignored
Ignored in
in OB
OB
 The “myth of rationality”
– Organizations are not emotion-free.
 Emotions of any kind are disruptive to
organizations.
– Original OB focus was solely on the effects of
strong negative emotions that interfered with
individual and organizational efficiency.

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 What
WhatAre
Are Emotions?
Emotions? (cont’d)
(cont’d)

Emotional Labor
A situation in which an employee expresses
organizationally desired emotions during
interpersonal transactions.
Emotional Dissonance
A situation in which an employee
must project one emotion while
simultaneously feeling another.

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 Felt
Felt versus
versus Displayed
Displayed Emotions
Emotions

Felt Emotions
An individual’s actual
emotions.
Displayed Emotions
Emotions that are organizationally required
and considered appropriate in a given job.

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 Emotion
Emotion Dimensions
Dimensions
 Variety of emotions
– Positive
– Negative
 Intensity of emotions
– Personality
– Job Requirements
 Frequency and duration of emotions
– How often emotions are exhibited.
– How long emotions are displayed.

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 Gender
Gender and
and Emotions
Emotions
 Women
– Can show greater emotional expression.
– Experience emotions more intensely.
– Display emotions more frequently.
– Are more comfortable in expressing emotions.
– Are better at reading others’ emotions.
 Men
– Believe that displaying emotions is inconsistent
with the male image.
– Are innately less able to read and to identify
with others’ emotions.
– Have less need to seek social approval by
showing positive emotions.
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 Affective
Affective Events
Events Theory
Theory (AET)
(AET)
 Emotions are negative or positive responses to a work
environment event.
– Personality and mood determine the intensity of the
emotional response.
– Emotions can influence a broad range of work
performance and job satisfaction variables.
 Implications of the theory:
– Individual response reflects emotions and mood cycles.
– Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction.
– Emotional fluctuations create variations in job
satisfaction.
– Emotions have only short-term effects on job
performance.
– Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers
and reduce job performance.
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 OB
OBApplications
Applications of
of Understanding
Understanding Emotions
Emotions
 Ability and Selection
– Emotions affect employee effectiveness.
 Decision Making
– Emotions are an important part of the decision-
making process in organizations.
 Motivation
– Emotional commitment to work and high
motivation are strongly linked.
 Leadership
– Emotions are important to acceptance of
messages from organizational leaders.

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 OB
OBApplications…
Applications… (cont’d)
(cont’d)
 Interpersonal Conflict
– Conflict in the workplace and individual emotions
are strongly intertwined.
 Customer Services
– Emotions affect service quality delivered to
customers which, in turn, affects customer
relationships.
 Deviant Workplace Behaviors
– Negative emotions lead to employee deviance
(actions that violate norms and threaten the
organization).
• Productivity failures
• Property theft and destruction
• Political actions
• Personal aggression
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 Ability
Ability and
and Selection
Selection
Emotional
Intelligence
 Emotional
EmotionalIntelligence
Intelligence(EI)
(EI)
An assortment of
–– Self-awareness
Self-awareness
noncognitive skills,
–– Self-management
Self-management
capabilities, and
–– Self-motivation
Self-motivation
competencies that
–– Empathy
Empathy
influence a person’s
–– Social
Socialskills
skills
ability to succeed in
 Research
ResearchFindings
coping with Findings
–– High
HighEIEIscores,
scores,not
nothigh
environmental high
IQ
IQscores,
scores,characterize
characterize
demands and high
highperformers.
performers.
pressures.

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