Personality and Values
CHAPTER 4
Personality
and Values
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain the factors that determine an individual’s personality.
2. Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and assess its strengths and weaknesses.
3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
4. Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work.
5. Identify other personality traits relevant to OB.
6. Define values, demonstrate the importance of values, and contrast terminal and instrumental values.
7. Compare generational differences in values and identify the dominant values in today’s workforce.
8. Identify Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Personality - What value, if any, does the Big Five model provide to managers? From the early 1900s through the mid-1980s, researchers sought to find a link between personality and job performance. “The outcome of those 80-plus years of research was that personality and job performance were not meaningfully related across traits or situations.”[i] However, the past 20 years have been more promising, largely due to the findings surrounding the Big Five. Screening candidates for jobs who score high on conscientiousness—as well as the other Big Five traits, depending on the criteria an organization finds most important—should pay dividends. Each of the Big Five traits has numerous implications for important OB criteria. Of course, managers still need to take situational factors into consideration.[ii] Factors such as job demands, the degree of required interaction with others, and the organization’s culture are examples of situational variables that moderate the personality–job performance relationship. You need to evaluate the job, the work group, and the organization to determine the optimal personality
Personality
and Values
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain the factors that determine an individual’s personality.
2. Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and assess its strengths and weaknesses.
3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.
4. Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work.
5. Identify other personality traits relevant to OB.
6. Define values, demonstrate the importance of values, and contrast terminal and instrumental values.
7. Compare generational differences in values and identify the dominant values in today’s workforce.
8. Identify Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Personality - What value, if any, does the Big Five model provide to managers? From the early 1900s through the mid-1980s, researchers sought to find a link between personality and job performance. “The outcome of those 80-plus years of research was that personality and job performance were not meaningfully related across traits or situations.”[i] However, the past 20 years have been more promising, largely due to the findings surrounding the Big Five. Screening candidates for jobs who score high on conscientiousness—as well as the other Big Five traits, depending on the criteria an organization finds most important—should pay dividends. Each of the Big Five traits has numerous implications for important OB criteria. Of course, managers still need to take situational factors into consideration.[ii] Factors such as job demands, the degree of required interaction with others, and the organization’s culture are examples of situational variables that moderate the personality–job performance relationship. You need to evaluate the job, the work group, and the organization to determine the optimal personality