Personality: Introduction, Meaning, Concept,

Characteristics, Theories, Traits, Stages,

Development, Attributes and Theories
Personality – Introduction
In modern organisations, personality attributes of a manager are
considered important, since they affect the entire behavioural
pattern of the person. In common parlance, personality refers to the
impression, which an individual forms on others through his
personal attributes making attractive or unattractive view.

It is a fact that psychological factors of an individual are rarely

known to others. An individual’s personality is not a superficial fact
or occurrence that can be easily understood, merely on his personal
appearance. Personality is the whole aspect of an individual from
general point of view. It includes a person’s physical, psychological
and emotional aspects.
Personality has come from a Latin word ‘Persona’ meaning to speak
through (mask). As in the ancient days masks were worn in Greece
and Rome by actors, while enacting plays. Thus, personality is used
for influencing others through external appearance. However,
personality is not the external appearance alone.

Personality, which makes an individual to stand apart, is the

impression of characteristic attributes. It is an aggregate of an
individual’s physical, psychological and behavioural aspects
contributing to his ‘good personality’ or no personality, according to
the presence or absence of the characteristic attributes. Some of
these, which are of significant nature, are worth mentioning.

i. Omnibus – This personality view is the aggregate of recognizable

pattern of properties-of qualities.
ii. Integration and configuration – Under this view of personality,
the organisation of personal attributes is stressed.
iii. Hierarchical – This aspect mainly deals with adaptation, survival
and evolution of the person to the environment.
iv. Distinctiveness – the definition of this category speaks the
uniqueness of each personality.
From the above areas, G.W. Allport has drawn his definition on
personality as “Personality is the dynamic organisation within the
individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment”.
In his definition, Allport has touched upon the dynamic aspect of
individual’s psychological system, which makes the adjustment with
the environment.

Personality – Meaning
Personality has a long history. It dates from the time of Greek
physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC). In order to understand the
behaviour of people in the organisational setting, we need to know
the basic nature of personality. It is a psycho-social phenomenon,
which analyses the cognitive features and presentation of individual
in the society.
Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts,
feelings and behaviour of an individual. These attributes make a
person unique. Personality originates within the individual and
remains fairly consistent throughout life. Personality exhibits
distinctive qualities of a person, especially those distinguishing
personal characteristics that make one socially appealing. If a
person wins an election on his own, society may say that he/she has
won “more on personality than on capability”.
Personality reveals distinctive traits of mind and behaviour of a
person. It is a pattern of collective character which includes
behavioural, mental, temperamental, and emotional traits of a
person that makes one socially appealing. It exhibits the quality of a
person, which is visible and impresses or disturbs others. For
example, the statements such as “He has a pleasing personality Raju
is a Crude persona” reveal the collective characters of a person
which exhibits positive or negative personality.
“Personality is the supreme realisation of the innate idiosyncrasy, of
a living being. It is an act of courage thing in the face of life, the
absolute affirmation of all that constitute the individual, the most
successful adaptation to the universal, conditions of existence,
coupled with the greatest possible freedom of self-determination.”
— C.G. Jung
“Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes
that distinguish one “person from another.” — Lawerence Ervin

“Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviours and

consistent internal states that explain a person’s behaviour
tendencies.” — RT Hogan.
“Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others.” — Stephen P. Robbins
The basic components of personality refer to the personality trait.
Many researchers have shown interest to know about individual’s
personality as it is linked with behaviour. If one can predict the
behaviour of individuals, modification of behaviour can be done in a
smoother way towards achieving the organisational goals. Each
personality factor represents a collection of related or cluster of
traits. These clusters of traits determine whether the individual is
achievement-oriented, dominating, responsible, etc.

Personality – Definitions
A number of definitions are given in respect of personality in order
to give meaningful one. Let us extract some standard definitions.
According to Gordon Allport, personality is “the dynamic
organization within the individual of those psychological systems
that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.”
Fred Luthans defines the term personality as, “how people affect
others and how they understand and view themselves, as well as
their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and the person-
situation intervention.”

Robbins defines personality as, “the sum total of ways in which an

individual reacts to and interacts until others.”
Thus, personality devotes for the methods of affecting others,
reacting to others’ actions and interacting with others. These
methods are chosen by individuals based on several factors.
Important one among these is their traits.
A careful analysis of the above definitions will observe the
followings:
i. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of
behaviour that determines an individual’s adjustment to the
environment or situation.
ii. It describes how an individual affects others, how he understands
himself and his pattern of internal as well as external measurable
traits.
iii. It is the dynamic organisation within an individual of those
psychological systems which determines his unique adjustment to
the environment.

It is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and

interacts with others.

Personality – Concept
Personality means the constitution of mental as well as the physical
health of an individual.
In his medical text book, “Principles and Practice of Medicine,”
Davidson states about personality, which is socially acquired after
having a genetic basis, over the course of time. The individual
arrives at an adult psychological stage after passing successively
through a series of maturational stages.
According to McClelland, “Personality is the most adequate
conceptualisation of an individual’s behaviour with all its details,
which the scientist can provide in a moment.”

In the definition given by Davidson, there are three different

aspects-Social, Physiological and Psychological of one’s personality
and its development and growth. McClelland has stressed mainly
the psychological aspects effecting desirable changes in the
behaviour and personality of an individual.
Hence, both these definitions throw some light on personality
development and individual behaviour. Thus, both these definitions
have utmost applicability and usefulness in organisational
behaviour apart from the comprehensive approach made by Allport
on the subject.
Personality of an individual is unique, personal and a major
determinant of his behaviour. Because of differences in personality,
individuals differ in their manner of responding to different
situations. Some personality theorists emphasize the need to
recognize the person-situation interaction, i.e., the social learning
aspects of personality. Such an interpretation is highly meaningful
to the study of human behaviour.

Personality – Nature
The nature of every individual is attributed to his personality.
Generally, an individual asserts through his behavioural
characteristics. Matured persons with their longstanding
experience, take an objective attitude towards themselves and
others. They also introspect, so as to help improve upon their nature
and behaviour.

i. Self-Conscious:
There is a vast difference between human being and other species.
The special feature of his nature is ‘self-consciousness’, which
makes him aware of his surroundings and self-identity.
ii. Adaptability to Environment:
Personality, off and on, does make adjustments according to the
changes desired. Resistance to change, means a conflict with
tension and unpleasantness. Normally, people adapt to the changed
situations and challenges. Adaptation to new situations often
follows a modification in behavioural pattern leading to a smooth
working condition and a conducive environment.
iii. Goal Oriented:
Persons strive for achievement of goal. Individuals do have the drive
to achieve goals. Wants and needs lead to motive. The desire of an
individual directs the behaviour for the fulfilment of the same. Both
the physiological and social motives make behavioural changes.
iv. Integration of Personality:
Personality works in consistency by integrating various activities (of
mental and also experiences of the individual) together. Personality
differs in the form of its integration. Persons with developed
personalities are highly integrated with values and experiences. This
depends on the standards of behaviour, which they have acquired
right from the childhood.

Personality – Characteristics
If you apply for a job you’ll be asked to list your personal qualities.
Employers are assuming that your personality is to an extent fixed
and won’t change much from one year to the next, Most of us can
relate to that idea, but where does our personality come from? Is it
in our genes or is it created more by the circumstances of our
childhood?
Of course the answer is both. There are bound to be genes which
influence our behaviour simply because our brain and the chemicals
that operate within it are made by genes. But trying to find any one
of the hundreds of genes involved is notoriously difficult. The
genetics of behaviour is complex, because personalities are complex.
Scientists are only just beginning to have any success in
understanding how genes influence behaviour.
i. Personality is organized and constant
ii. Personality is psychological, but is used by biological needs and
processes.
iii. Personality causes behaviour to happen.
iv. Personality is displayed through thoughts, feelings, behaviours
and many other ways.

Personality – Top 3 Determinants: Heredity,

Environment and Situation
Different theories propose different factors that determine an
individual personality. The most popular research work done by
Freud deals with the identification of self-concept. Self-concept
include things (factor) got by nature like gene, i.e., heredity and the
biological formations and by nurture, i.e., through the social and
environmental factors. The major determinants of personality are
heredity, environment and situation.
Determinant # 1. Heredity:
Heredity refers to those factors, which predisposes to certain
physical, mental and emotional states. It sets the outer parameters
of an individual. It also limits the range of development of
characters. The arrangement and structure of genes that are located
in the chromosomes is passed around 20% to 50% from one
generation to another. The studies reveal that twins though brought
up in different places exhibit similar characters.
Thus, heredity is the transmission of qualities from ancestor to
descendent through, a mechanism lying primarily in the genes.
There are very many achievers in their own field like Sachin
Tendulkar, U.R. Rao, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Former Prime
Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who gave a new turn to Indian
economy and many such others, who are unique in their own, way.
These achievers’ performance is directed by hereditary factor to
certain extent.
Determinant # 2. Environment:
Environment refers to the surroundings in which the individuals are
brought up. The environmental factors relating to the formation of
personality includes culture, family, society upbringing and
experiences. Experiences relate to the confrontation with that of
family members, relatives, and friends and to the social groups,
which they belong. Culture helps to find the similarity and
difference in behaviour.
Family environment refers to the individual’s upbringing, the social
and economic status the family holds and the size of the family. The
society makes an individual to play different roles thus shaping
his/her their personality. Environment tends to strengthen or
weaken hereditary traits. For example, when an individual interacts
with the environment through speech, his speech organs guarantee
that he/she is learning to speak.
Determinant # 3. Situation:
Situation has an effect both on environment and heredity. Situation
demands certain behaviour. Various psychologists have discovered
what personality trait matters to an individual in his or her career.
Being successful or unsuccessful depends upon how the individuals
control their behaviour in various situations. For example, a
candidate attending an interview may exhibit limited traits. The
other trait or behaviour is concealed or not exhibited.

Personality – 8 Major Personality Attributes that

Govern Organisational Behaviour
The major personality attributes that govern OB are as
follows:
Highlights of major personality attribute (SRI LASTMIA)
i. Locus of control.
ii. Self esteem
iii. Self-monitoring
iv. Risk taking
v. Type-A personality
vi. Introversion or Extroversion
vii. Authoritarianism
viii. Machiavellianism, and
ix. Achievement orientation.
The attributes in details:
Attribute # i. Locus of Control:
It may be defined as the degree to which people believe that they are
the master of their own fate. In simple term, it can be described as
the extent to which he believes that he knows everything.
There are two types of locus of control:
a. Internal locus of control which implies that the degree to which
an individual controls himself without other’s assistance. In this
case individual believes that he controls his destinies. Here the
individual believe that his behaviour determines many of the events
in his life. For example – individual with moderately strong internal
locus of control is successful in his job career and lives. He performs
his job better, copes better in stressful situation and is satisfied with
challenging job and performance based rewards.
b. On the other hand External locus of control may be defined as the
degree to which an individual is controlled by the help of other
people. In this case individual believes that his life is controlled by
outside forces. Here he believes that his behaviour determines
chance, luck and fate. What happens to him is due to his luck or
fate. For example – the individual with moderately strong external
locus of control may not be successful in his jobs, career and lives.
Out of these two, internal locus of control is preferred more.
Attribute # ii. Self Esteem:
It signifies the degree of liking or disliking towards a particular
object. In simple term, the extent to which an individual likes or
dislikes himself, it defers from individual to individual. Some
individual may have high self-esteem and some have low self-
esteem.
The individual with high self-esteem believes the challenging job.
But on the other hand the individual with /ore self-esteem depends
on the receipt of positive evaluation from other. He is less likely to
take unpopular stands.
Out of the two, high esteem individual is more satisfied with his job.
Attribute # iii. Self-Monitoring:
It connotes that the ability of an individual to adjust his behaviour
with respect to external situation. In simple sense it is the
sensitivity of an individual to adopt to the situational demand.
A high self-monitoring individual changes his behaviour easily
based on the situational requirements than low self-monitoring
individual. In this case, the behaviour of the individual plays a vital
role from the organisational point of view.
Attribute # iv. Risk Taking:
It refers to the propensity to take risk. It is an integral part of
decision taking in organisation.
An individual with high risk taking makes more rapid decision and
use less information in making his choice than the low risk taking
individual.
Attribute # v. Type – A Personality and Type-B
Personality:
This indicates that the aggressive involvement in the organisational
process to achieve more and more objectives. That means the type-
A personality is based on active participation towards the
organisational system. This type of personality is treated as positive
personality.
The behaviours of type-A personality are:
a. Always moving, walking rapidly, talking and eating rapidly.
b. Impatient.
c. Does two things at the same time
d. Cannot cope up with leisure time.
e. Measures success with quantity
f. Aggressive and competitive
g. Always under time pressure
h. High competitiveness.
Type-B personality indicates the individual who is relaxed &
incompetent. He is not serious about the objective of organisation
to a great extent. This type of personality is rarely participating in
an endless growing series of event in a decreasing amount of time.
The behaviour of Type-B personalities are:
a. Not concerned about time
b. Plays for fun not to win.
c. Relaxes without guilt
d. Has no pressing deadlines
e. Can reach higher position and promotion.
Attribute # vi. Introversion and Extroversion:
There two terms are normally associated with an individual’s
sociability and interpersonal orientation.
The introversion is defined as those type of individuals who are shy
and reserved, timid and quiet.
On the other hand extroversion refers to those type of individuals
who are sociable, gregarious and assertive. This dimension deals
with relationships with others.
Out of these two, extroversion individuals contribute more to
organisational success.
Attribute # vii. Machiavellianism:
This is another attribute influencing OB. It refers to the extent to
which an individual maintains emotional distance and believes that
ends can justify means. This type of attribute is named after Niccolo
Machiavellian who found out how people gain and manipulate
power. This type of attribute is earmarked under two i.e. High
Machiavellianism and Low Machiavellianism.
The individual with High Machiavellianism manipulates more &
win more. This type of trait is exhibited in order to flourish more
outcomes.
The high outcomes are obtained when he focuses on the
following points:
a. When he interacts face to face with other indirectly.
b. To allow latitude for impoverishing when the situation is not
structured nor has a minimum rules & regulation.
Attribute # viii. Achievement Orientation:
This is also another personality attribute which influences OB. This
is the type it individual who is highly need to achieve and
continuously strive to do things better. This type of individual may
be high achiever or low achiever.
The high achiever individual looks for challenges having 50-50
chance of success.
To sum up, the above attributes are essential for building up healthy
environment in the organisation provided due attention is given.

Personality – Top 5 Theories: Type Theory, Trait

Theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, Social Learning
Theory and the Humanistic Approach
Innumerable theories have been evolved on personality. Each
theory exhibits one type of unique personality of an individual.
However, following theories are considered to be more prominent
among several theories.
These five theories are briefly explained in the following
paragraphs:
1. Type Theory:
According to type theories, people are grouped into identifiable
categories. One basis for classifying personalities is based on the
physique. Sheldon proposed type theories and he feels that a
relationship is sought to be established between features of body
and personality. Thus, a short plump person (endomorph) is said to
be sociable, relaxed and even-tempered; a tall, thin person
(ectomorph) is characterized as restrained, self-conscious and fond
of solitude; a heavy-set muscular individual (mesomorph) is
described as noisy, callous, and fond of physical activity.
Classification of personalities on a physical basis is subjective.
i. Alfred Adler’s Psychological Types:
Alfred Adler postulates a single “drive” or motivating force behind
all our behaviour and experience. By the time his theory had gelled
into its most mature from, he called that motivating force the
striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfil our
potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of
you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-
actualization.
Striving for perfection was not the first phrase. Adler used to refer
to his single motivating force. His earliest phrase was the aggression
drive, referring to the reaction we have when other drives, such as
our need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved,
are frustrated. It might be better called the assertiveness drive,
since we tend to think of aggression as physical and negative. But it
was Adler’s idea of the aggression drive that first caused friction
between him and Freud.
Freud was afraid that it would detract from the crucial position of
the sex drive in psychoanalytic theory. Despite Freud’s dislike for
the idea, he himself introduced something very similar much later
in his life – the death instinct. Thus he came out with the following
psychological types in his theory based on the energy level of the
individuals.
ii. Henry Murray’s Psychogenic Needs:
American psychologist Henry Murray developed a theory of
personality that was organized in terms of motives, presses, and
needs. Murray described needs as a, “potentiality or readiness to
respond in a certain way under certain given circumstances”.
Theories of personality based upon needs and motives suggest that
our personalities are a reflection of behaviours controlled by needs.
While some needs are temporary and changing, other needs are
more deeply seated in our nature. According to Murray, these
psychogenic needs function mostly on the unconscious level, but
play a major role in our personality.
Murray’s Types of Needs:
a. Primary Needs – Primary needs are based upon biological
demands, such as the need for oxygen, food, and water.
b. Secondary Needs – Secondary Needs are generally psychological,
such as the need for nurturing, independence, and achievement.
Attributes or Needs which Influence Personality:
There are several attributes suggested by psychologists as
parameters to identify a personality. All the people have these needs
and on the basis of degree of these needs an individual’s personality
can be identified.
Influences on Psychogenic Needs:
Each need is important of itself. But Murray believed that needs can
be interrelated, can support other needs, and can conflict with other
needs. For example, the need for dominance may conflict with the
need for affiliation when overly controlling behaviour drives away
friends, family, and romantic partners. Murray also believed that
environmental factors play a role in how these psychogenesis needs
are displayed in behaviour. Murray called these environmental
forces, “presses.”
Thus, type theory focuses on needs, health and physical features to
identify personality.
2. Trait Theory:
Another interesting approach to understand personality is the trait
approach. A personality trait is understood as being an enduring
attribute of a person that appears consistently in different
situations. Each individual trait differs from the other individual in
a unique way.
Psychologists working in the area of trait theory are
concerned with two processes:
(i) Determining the basic traits that provide a meaningful
description of personality and
(ii) Finding some way to measure them.
There are two ways of assessing personality traits – (a) the person
describes himself by answering questions about this attitudes,
feelings, and behaviours and (b) someone else evaluates the
person’s traits either from what he knows about – the individual/or
from direct observations of behaviour. For this, personality
inventory or a rating scale is generally used.
3. Psychoanalytic Theory:
Sigmund Freud developed the first comprehensive personality
theory, called psychoanalytic theory.
Freud saw personality as being- composed of three elements — id,
ego, and super ego.
i. The Id:
The word ‘id’ is the Latin word for ‘it’ and refers exclusively to the
innate component of personality. The id is the mental agency
containing everything inherited, present at birth, and fixed in the
individual’s constitution, especially instincts. The id, as the original
personality system, expresses the primary principle of all human life
— the immediate discharge of psychic scenery (libido) produced by
animal drives.
Immediate tension reduction is called pleasure principle, and the id
obeys it, manifesting itself in an impulsive and irrational manner,
regardless of the consequences of its actions for others or its own
self-preservation. Thus, “Id” is the primitive and unconscious part
of the personality that contains instincts.
ii. The Ego:
Mental images do not satisfy needs. A man who is starving cannot
satisfy his hunger by eating pictures. Reality should be considered.
The ego develops out of the id because of the necessity for dealing
with the real world. The hungry man must have food if the tension
of hungry is to be reduced. Therefore, “The Ego” is the “executive”
of the personality that is partly conscious and that meditates
between the impulses of the Id, the prohibitions of the super ego
and dictates of the reality.
iii. The Super Ego:
The super ego is the third part of the personality. It represents the
internalized representation of the values and morals or society as
taught to the child by and others. The super ego judges whether an
action is right or wrong according to the standards of society.
Superego is the moral arm of the personality that internalizes the
standards and values of society and serves as the person’s
conscience. These three elements, according to Freud, help an
assessor to assess the personality.
4. Social Learning Theory:
Many activities of human behaviour is either learnt or modified by
learning.
There are two ways of learning. Learning through reinforcement of
direct experience, and learning by observing others. An individual
can learn by observing the actions of others and this is called social
learning theory. An interesting story is given in Box to have a deep
understanding of what is social learning theory.
An individual’s action in a given situation depends upon the specific
characteristics of a situation, the individual’s understanding of the
situation, and past behaviour in similar situations.
The social learning theory focuses on behaviour patterns
and cognitive activities like:
(a) Competencies;
(b) Developing cognitive Strategies;
(c) Outcome expectations; and
(d) Subjective value outcomes.
It also focuses on self-regulatory systems and plans, where the
individual differences have self-imposed goals, rules guiding the
individual’s behaviour.
5. The Humanistic Approach:
The humanistic approach share a common emphasis on man’s
potential for self-direction and freedom of choice. They are
concerned with the ‘self and the individual’s subjective experiences.
Carl Rogers Self Theory:
Carl Roger’s approach to personality is described as
phenomenological. Phenomenology is the study of the individual’s
subjective experience, feelings and private concepts as well as his
views of the world and self. According to Roger, behaviour is
dependent upon how one perceives the world. The theory
emphasizes the self and its characteristics.
Thus in Rogers’ personality theory, there are two concepts – self
and self-actualization. The self consist of all the ideas, perceptions
and values that characterized “I” or “me”. It includes the awareness
‘what I am’? Self-actualization is the basic motivating force
presenting the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its
capabilities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the
individual.

Personality – How to Predict Personality Traits?

According to Luthans the way people affect others as per their
personality traits. Personality traits include- height, weight, facial
features, colour, dimension, etc. Personality traits are enduring
characteristics like shyness, submissiveness, laziness, timidity,
loyalty, dynamism, aggressiveness, creativity, etc., exhibited in a
large number of situations.
Allport and Odbert identified 17,953 personality traits. It is highly
difficult to predict the individual behaviour based on such a large
number of traits. R.B. Cattell reduced this number to 171. He further
reduced them to 16 personality factors, or primary traits (See Table
13.1). The 16 factors are found to be generally steady and constant
sources of behaviour. They help in predicting individual behaviour
in specific situations.
1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:
This is a 100-question personality lest asking the respondents how
they usually feel or act in particular situations. This is one of the
most widely used personality tests.
According to the answers given by individuals they are
classified as:
i. Extroverts or Introverts (E or I)
ii. Sensitive or Intuitive (S or N)
iii. Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
iv. Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
These arrangements are classified into 16 personality traits (as
shown in Table 13.1).
People with INTJ viz., introverted, intuitive, thinking and judging
have original minds, and great drive for their own ideas and
purposes. Their characters are sceptical, critical, independent,
determined and often stubborn.
ESTJs are- organizers, realistic, logical, analytical, decisive and have
a natural inclination towards business/mechanics.
ENTPs are conceptualisers, innovative, individualistic and versatile
entrepreneurs, resourceful in solving challenging problems.
The persons who created successful companies (Apple Computer,
Honda Motors, Microsoft, Sony, Federal Express, etc.) are intuitive
thinkers (NTs).
2. Big Five Model:
Personality traits of an executive/supervisor influences the
behaviour of the employees in an organisation. Personality traits
like talkative, smiling, and exhibitive in facial expressions and
assertiveness are highly appropriate for executives to inspire,
motivate and lead the subordinates.
Similarly, traits like openness and frankness of the managers reduce
dysfunctional activities and conflicts and enable the subordinates to
concentrate on work related activities and increase productivity.
Mr. Jayasankaran of Delta Airlines attracts and impresses his
subordinates due to his impressive height. Mr. Vasanta Rao of L&T
is highly sociable. His subordinates are impressed with the way he
conducts the meetings and directs his juniors.
The major personality traits which influence the job behaviour and
job performance are labeled as the ‘Big-Five Personality Traits.’
These traits have emerged from the Research Studies.
They are:
I. Extroversion – Sociable, talkative and assertive.
II. Agreeableness – Good natured, cooperative and trusting.
III. Conscientiousness – Responsible, dependable, persistent and
achievement-oriented.
IV. Emotional Stability – Calm, self-confident, secure, tense,
insecure and nervous.
V. Openness to Experience – Imaginative and artistically sensitive.
3. The Self-Concept:
Almost all the people try to understand themselves by virtue of their
qualities, characters, actions, reactions, responses, etc. This process
in personality theory is called the self-concept. This process involves
the interaction of the background, one’s own psychology, values,
social, economic, religious and other internal factors of oneself. The
concepts of self-esteem and self-efficacy are concerned with self-
concept.
Mr. Michael of Human Resources Department of Lipton perceived
in 1992 that he has the skills and competence of solving issues of the
proposed corporate merger with Brooke Bond. This perception is
referred to as self-esteem.
People’s self-esteem is concerned with their self-perceived
competence and self-image. When Lipton merged with Brooke-
Bond, Mr. Michael perceived that he could counsel and train the
employees regarding the cultural diversity issues of the former
Brooke Bond employees. This is called self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has
to do with self-perceptions of how well a person can cope with
situations as they arise.
Thus, self-esteem is concerned with the perceived competence while
self-efficacy deals with the perceived performance based on the
situation.

Personality – Big Five Personality Traits:

Extroversion, Agreeableness,
Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability
and Openness to Experience
1. Extroversion:
People get the energy from their preference of extroversion or
introversion. The people who prefer extroversion get the energy
from their interactions with other people. The people who prefer
introversion get energy by spending time or doing the activities by
themselves. Extroversion types people develop and maintain wide-
range of social network while the introversion, type people narrow
down their relationships to a few people.
According to Jung, even the introverts possess social skills, but
prefer internal world of ideas, thoughts and concepts. In fact certain
societies encourage and reward extroverts. Extroverts at workplace
prefer variety and they don’t mind the interruptions at workplace by
people/co-workers.
They prefer relationships over quality and quantity of output. In
contrast, the introverts prefer complete concentration and least
disturbances at workplace by people/coworkers and telephone calls.
They prefer quality and quantity of output over relationships.
Introverts prefer to work in isolation and concentrate on
performance.
Extroversion represents a person’s interest in the external world.
Person’s interest in the external world can be exhibited through
sociability, talkativeness/gregariousness and assertiveness. Thus,
this dimension deals with relationships with others. Extroverts are
assertive, sociable, talkative, gregarious people and introverts are
reserved, timid and quiet.
(a) Sociability:
Sociability is the ability of a person in maintaining interrelationship
within a social group. Some executives possess the trait of
maintaining social relations with their subordinates. They visit the
subordinate’s houses; enquire about the subordinates’ health,
financial, family, children’s educational and marriage issues. They
participate in various social functions organized by the
subordinates.
The employees with high social skills create, nurture and develop
social networks. Such employees never feel the social relations as
disturbance even at the workplace. Sociability of executives and
superiors tend to result in positive job behaviour and improved job
performance of subordinates.
Mr. Ravi, Human Resources Manager of Nutrine Confectionary
Ltd., has been highly sociable, visits the employees’ families and
monitors their welfare. During one summer when there was heavy
demand for chocolates, employees refused to work beyond the
scheduled hours despite his repeated requests.
Then Mr. Ravi arranged for a social get-together of the employees’
family members and explained to them the demands of the
company regarding overtime work. The convinced family members
influenced the employees to concede to the demand of the HR
Manager. Thus, the sociability trait of Mr. Ravi resulted in positive
job behaviour and enhanced the production of the company.
(b) Talkative:
People with talkative skills are with open-mind and speak their
mind to others. They disseminate and share information with others
without any hesitation. They also voice various issues, ventilate
employee grievances and proact on various organizational and
employee issues. Many executives, with their speaking skills attract
and influence the subordinates regarding their job behaviour and
performance. Mr. Mahajan of Grindwell Norton is a skilled speaker.
He is good at making presentations. He talks on various issues and
attracts the employees and major customers. He makes enquiries
with the employees regarding their family issues, welfare, etc. His
subordinates are influenced by his abilities of voicing on various
issues of the company, jobs, their personal issues, etc.
(c) Assertive:
Assertiveness is confirming one’s own ideas or actions confidently
or defending oneself and/or others through positive arguments,
declaring strongly or laying claims. Subordinates like the assertive
character of their boss and mould their job behaviour and
performance to his expectations. Mr. Rajiv of Mukand Industries
never counts down on his employees though they commit mistakes.
In fact, he appreciates and defends them publicly. He calls them for
discussions privately and makes them realize their mistakes.
Similarly, he also defends himself through arguments, systematic
analysis backed up with reasoning and cause-effect presentations.
He attracts and influences his subordinates through his
assertiveness.
2. Agreeableness:
Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting,
whereas less agreeable people are cold, disagreeable and
antagonistic. Individuals with agreeable traits think from the view-
point of their employees or clients, accept the proposals, needs or
requests of the employees. Employees’ job behaviour and job
performance is influenced with such a trait. Individuals with such a
trait are good natured, cooperative and trusting.
Mr. Uday of Kotak Mahindra enters into the shoes of his employees
and customers and analyses the issues and problems from their
point of view. Added to this, his positive attitude towards others
makes him to exhibit his trait of accepting the proposals or requests
or needs of his subordinates. His subordinates are influenced
positively by his trait of agreeableness.
(a) Good Natured:
Good nature includes respecting the employees’ ideas, views,
opinions, values and considering them in decision-making. Further,
it includes involving the employees in decision-making, helping and
guiding them in their work. Good nature of the superiors influence
the job behaviour and performance of the subordinates positively.
Mr. Chowdary of Voltas respects the ideas, values and opinion of
each of his subordinates. He encourages their participation in
various activities and involvement in decision-making. They visit
the workplace of his subordinates, offers suggestions, guide them
and help them in their work. Employees in Voltas are influenced by
the good nature and treatment given by Mr. Chowdary.
(b) Cooperative:
Cooperative traits regarding attitude and practice of superiors of an
organization help the company in moulding the job behaviour and
increasing the job performance.
Mr. Singh of Max India works jointly with his colleagues and
subordinates, though; he has an independent work and
independent office. Further, he shares his resources, time and
expertise for the efficient performance of his subordinates and
colleagues. Singh’s cooperation in attitude and practice influenced
the job behaviour and performance of Max India to a greater extent
through positive reciprocation of employees.
(c) Trusting:
Trust is worthiness of being relied upon or confidence in the truth
of anything. It is resting on the integrity. Executives with the trait of
trusting provide autonomy to the people, enable them to realize
their potentialities and rise to the expectations of their boss.
Executives can concentrate on strategic and policy issues.
Mr. Premji of WIPRO entrusts the work, broadly fixes the targets
and gives freedom to the employees to achieve the targets. He
proudly says that his employees achieve targets beyond his
expectations. His employees happily reciprocate that their boss
trusts them, which changed their behaviour and enhanced their
performance.
3. Conscientiousness:
Conscientiousness refers to governing or regulating the work
activity by conscience. Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability.
Persons with a high level of conscientiousness are reliable,
organized, dependable and persistent; while persons with a low
level are easily distracted, disorganised and unreliable. The
conscientiousness trait of the executive changes the job behaviour
and enhances the job performance of the subordinates. The
conscientiousness trait includes responsibility, dependability,
persistency and achievement-oriented.
Mr. Rajesh Chowdary, an executive of Bharat Heavy Plates and
Vessels Limited (BHPVL) had no real pressure of work and
responsibility to spend longer hours in the company, take risks,
exert his energies, etc. But he worked sincerely beyond the
expectations of the organisational culture and his colleagues. The
responsive trait of Mr. Chowdary changed the work culture of his
department to a considerable extent.
(a) Responsible:
Responsible trait is responding readily to discharge one’s own
obligations towards others and the organisation. The responsible
trait of the individuals enables them to take up the work activities
with or without delegation, and makes the superiors to concentrate
on policy issues. This process improves the job performance of the
employees and moulds the employee behaviour towards
organisational requirements.
(b) Dependable:
Subordinates commit themselves to organizational goals; take up
the responsibility and carryout the organizational activities that
contribute to the strategy even they are not assigned to them. Such
subordinates are dependable. Employees with dependable traits
maximize organizational performance. Thus, the dependable trait of
the employees improves their job performance.
Mr. Prakash Singhal of Escorts frequently takes up the work
activities of the company depending upon the situation, without
being assigned to him by his boss. His boss feels that Mr. Prakash is
dependable and the work he takes up or which is assigned to him
need not be followed up.
(c) Persistent:
Persistent trait refers to the behaviour of rendering the services or
doing the work continuously at a steady pace without any
opposition. The persistent trait influences job behaviour and
performance.
Mr. John of Dr. Reddy’s Lab reacts to the needs of his subordinates
and organisational requirements continuously, steadily at a fast rate
without any opposition. This persistent trait of Mr. John influenced
the behaviour of his subordinates significantly.
(d) Achievement-Oriented:
Employees translate the objectives into achievable goals based on
ground realities and conditions and achieve the goals to a large
extent. The achievement oriented trait of employees improves their
job performance and mould the job behaviour of others and shapes
work culture.
4. Emotional Stability:
Some executives absorb the actions, reactions, views, feelings,
attitudes, outcome of activities, etc., and maintain stability of their
emotions. Consequently, they tend to be calm, self-confident and
secure. People with negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious,
depressed and insecure.
5. Openness to Experience:
Executives are expected to be open to new job experiences, learn,
absorb and integrate them with their previous experiences and
knowledge. This trait includes imaginative, artistically sensitive,
intellectual, creative and curious people. Those with low level of
openness are conventional and go along with the familiar.
(a) Imaginative:
All the business ventures come into existence only after they cross
the stage of imaginative or projective. In fact all the business
activities also cross this stage and as such, all the employees are
expected to possess the imaginative trait. In fact, those who imagine
much, achieve much.
(b) Artistically Sensitive:
Employees should be sensitive to all types of changes in the
environment and imagination. Employees with this trait learn much
from the environment and use such knowledge for the improvement
of the job performance.
(c) Intellectual:
The intellectual trait enables the individuals to think and analyse
rationally and understand systematically. This trait helps the
employee to make efficient decisions and enhance the job
behaviour.

Personality – Top 5 Variables: Personality

Traits, Attitude, Perception, Abilities and Needs
Some people are quite and passive, while others are loud and
aggressive. Certain personality types are better adopted for certain
job types. Why this is so? To know this, we will have to understand
the concept of personality.
Goldon Allport defines the personality as “the dynamic organization
within the individuals of those psychological system that determine
his unique adjustments to his environment”.
Personality is a concept describing the growth and development of a
person’s whole psychological system. For our purposes, we will
consider personality as the sum total ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others. This sum total behaviour of an
individual is the result of certain personal variables.
These are:
1. Personality traits
2. Attitude
3. Perception
4. Abilities
5. Needs
1. Personality Traits:
Psychologists have identified literally thousands of personality traits
and dimensions that differentiate one person from another. But in
recent years, researchers have identified five fundamental traits that
are especially relevant to organizations.
i. Agreeableness:
Agreeableness refers to a person’s ability to get along with others. It
seems likely that highly agreeable people are better at developing
good working relationships with co-workers, subordinates, and
higher-level managers, whereas less agreeable people are not likely
to have particularly good working relationships.
ii. Conscientiousness:
Conscientiousness refers to the number of goals on which a person
focuses. People who focus on relatively few goals at one time are
likely to be organized, systematic, careful, thorough, responsible,
and self-disciplined; they tend to focus on a small number of goals
at one time. Research has found that more conscientious people
tend to be higher performers than less conscientious people in a
variety of different jobs.
iii. Negative Emotionality:
People with less negative emotionality are relatively poised, calm,
resilient, and secure; people with more negative emotionality are
more excitable, insecure. Reactive, and subject to extreme mood
swings. People with less negative emotionality might be expected to
better handle job stress, pressure, and tension.
iv. Extroversion:
Extroversion is the quality of being comfortable with relationships;
the opposite extreme, introversion, is characterized by more social
discomfort. Extroversion reflects a person’s comfort level with
relationships. Extroverts are sociable, talkative, assertive, and open
to establishing new relationships. Introverts are much less sociable,
talkative, and assertive, and more reluctant to begin new
relationships.
Research suggests that extroverts tend to be higher overall job
performers than introverts, and that they are more likely to be
attracted to jobs based on personal relationships, such as sales and
marketing positions.
v. Openness:
Openness is the capacity to entertain new ideas and to change as a
result of new information. People with high levels of openness are
willing to listen to new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs,
and attitudes in response to new information. People with high
levels of openness may resist change.
Other Personality Traits at Work – Besides the “big five”
characteristics, several other personality traits influence behaviour
in organizations. Among the most important are locus of control,
self-efficacy, authoritarianism, Machiavallianism, self-esteem, and
risk propensity.
vi. Locus of Control:
Some people believe that they are masters of their own fate. Other
people believe that what happens to them in their lives is due to
luck or chance. A large amount of research comparing these two
types has consistently shown that individuals who believe that their
lives are being controlled by outside forces, are less satisfied with
their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from
the work setting, and are less involved on their jobs than the
individuals who believe that they control their destinies.
vii. Self-Efficacy:
A person’s self-efficacy is that person’s beliefs about his or her
capabilities to perform a task. People with high self-efficacy believe
that they can perform well on a specific task, but people with low
self-efficacy tend to doubt their ability to perform a specific task.
viii. Authoritarianism:
Authoritarianism is the belief that power and status differences are
appropriate within hierarchical social systems such as
organizations. For example- a person who is highly authoritarian
may accept directives or orders from someone with more authority
purely because the other person is “the boss.”
On the other hand, a person who is not highly authoritarian,
although he may still carry out reasonable directives from the boss,
is more likely to question things, express disagreement with the
boss, and even refuse to carry out orders if they are for some reason
objectionable.
A highly authoritarian manager may be relatively autocratic and
demanding, and highly authoritarian subordinates are more likely
to accept this behaviour from their leader. On the other hand, a less
authoritarian manager may allow subordinates a bigger role in
making decisions, and less authoritarian subordinates respond
positively to this behaviour.
ix. Machiavellianism:
People who possess the personality trait of machiavellianism behave
to gain power and control the behaviour of others. Research
suggests that degree of Machiavellianism varies from person to
person. More Machiavellian individuals tend to be rational and
nonemotional, may be willing to lie to attain their personal goals,
put little emphasis on loyalty and friendship, and enjoy
manipulating others’ behaviour.
Less Machiavellian individuals are more emotional, less willing to
lie to succeed, value loyalty and friendship highly, and get little
personal pleasure from manipulating others. In jobs that require
bargaining skills (such as labour negotiation) or where there are
substantial rewards for winning (as in commissioned sales), high
Machs will be productive.
x. Self-Esteem:
A person’s self-esteem is the extent to which that person believes he
or she is a worthwhile and deserving individual. A person with high
self-esteem is more likely to seek higher-status jobs, be more
confident in his ability to achieve higher levels of performance, and
derive greater intrinsic satisfaction from her accomplishments. In
contrast, a person with less self-esteem may be more content to
remain in a lower-level job, be less confident of his ability, and focus
more on extrinsic rewards.
xi. Risk Propensity:
A person’s risk propensity is the degree to which he or she is willing
to take chances and make risky decisions. For example- a manager
with a high risk propensity, might experiment with new ideas and
gamble on new products. He might also lead the organization in
new and different directions. This manager might be a catalyst for
innovation, or on the other hand, might jeopardize the continued
well-being of the organization if the risky decisions prove to be bad
ones.
2. Attitude:
People’s attitudes also affect their behaviour in organizations.
Attitudes are a person’s beliefs and feelings about specific ideas,
situations, or other people. When I say “I like my job,” I am
expressing my attitude about work.
In organizations, attitudes are important because they affect job
behaviour. If workers believe, For example- that supervisors,
auditors, bosses, and time and motion engineers are all in
conspiracy to make the employee work harder for the same or less
money, then it makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes
were formed, their relationship to actual job behaviour, and how
they can be made more favourable.
Attitudes are formed by a variety of forces, including our personal
values, our experiences, and our personalities. For example- if we
value honesty and integrity, we may form especially favourable
attitudes toward a manager who we believe to be very honest and
moral.
Similarly, if we have had negative and unpleasant experiences with
a particular coworker, we may form an unfavourable attitude
toward him. Any of the “big five” or individual personality traits
may also influence our attitudes. Understanding the basic structure
of an attitude helps us see how attitudes are formed and can be
changed.
Typically, there are three primary attitudes that are of concern to
us; job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational
commitment.
Job satisfaction refers to an individual’s general attitude towards
his or her job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds
positive attitudes toward the job, while a person who is dissatisfied
with his or her job holds negative attitudes about the job.
Job involvement measures the degree to which a person identifies
with his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or
her performance important to his or her self-worth.
The third job attitude we shall discuss is organizational
commitment. This attitude expresses an individual’s orientation
towards the organization by tapping his or her loyalty to,
identification with, and involvement in the organization.
Individuals who are highly committed to the organization are likely
to stay with their jobs and feel psychologically attached to them,
regardless of whether they are satisfying or not.
Attitudes are not as stable as personality attributes. For example-
new information may change attitudes. A manager may have a
negative attitude about a new colleague because of his lack of job-
related experience. After working with the new person for a while,
however, the manager may come to realize that he is actually very
talented and subsequently develop a more positive attitude.
3. Perception:
It is another important element of workplace behaviour. People
behave on the basis of what is perceived rather than what actually
is. Each person has a point of view based on individualistic
perceptions of the real world. This way, everybody having his
distinct set of thought process perceives differently. If everyone
perceived everything the same way, things would be a lot simpler
(and a lot less exciting!).
As an illustration, think about how two people exposed to a person
at the same time may form very different impressions. Hearing your
new instructor tell lots of funny stories in class, For example- you
and a classmate might reach opposite conclusions. You might find
him friendly and approachable, whereas your classmate might think
he’s unprofessional.
How can this happen? After all, the instructor is the same person.
The answer rests on the fact that our perceptions of other people
depend in great part not only on them, but on what we bring to the
situation ourselves-our own biases and past experiences.
The process of perception may be understood in context of its three
elements – stimulus, sensory registration, and cognitive process
resulting into interpretation.
Stimulus———- Sensory registration——— Interpretation
The first important factor is stimulus, or situation present.
Perception begins when a person is confronted with a situation.
During the registration phenomenon, the physiological (sensory
and neural) mechanisms are affected – the physiological ability to
hear and see would affect the perception.
Interpretation is the most significant and cognitive part of the
perception. Although perception depends largely the senses for the
raw data, the cognitive process may filter, modify, or completely
changes the data.
For example- when a person sec that his manager has entered into
the factory with raised eyebrows and expressions of anger on his
face. The stimulus is the need to guess the manager’s mood, and the
sensory registration would see the raised eyebrows and other face
expressions of the manager.
Now, the interpretation as to why it could be so, or how it would
affect the worker would depend upon the way his mind would
process the situation. Suppose he is coming late from last 6 days, or
he is not completing his target output, he may perceive that today
he is going to get scolding from the manager.
Suppose a machine is giving troubles, he may perceive that manager
is upset because of possible losses. Likewise one may have any
perception that may or may not be the actual cause of manager’s
worry.
4. Abilities:
Ability of a person is his competence to perform a particular job.
This includes general ability and technical ability both. It may be
capacity of reasoning, analytical skills, communication skills, and so
on. Ability of a person has a direct correlation with his job
behaviour. The best part is that ability can be developed by
education, training and experience.
5. Needs:
Need is not an independent variable. It depends on the individual’s
basic personality plus his environment, like his education, financial
position, family status, position of his relatives and peer group, his
ambitions, perceptions, etc. For instance, a person with a poor
financial background would prioritize money before any other need.
Again, same person’s needs keep changing over the period of time
depending upon how he is positioned in the life. This can be better
understood by studying the Maslow’s need hierarchy mode

Factors
Here we have briefly reviewed such personality
characteristics:
1. Heredity:
Some characteristics of our behaviour are genetic, which we inherit.
Some of the traits like physical height, slimness, dexterity,
intellectual capacity, ability to learn, logical power, etc. are also
inherited. All these have a significant influence on our behavioural
patterns.

2. Family background:
The socio-economic status of the family, education of the parents,
and other family members shape the personality of an individual to
a considerable extent. In fact, family members themselves try to
influence the behaviour of children in a desperate attempt to
personify their own values, roles, etc.

3. Nature of people with whom we interact:

People influence each other and such influences shape the
personality. For this reason, we often say that one’s personality is
constantly evolving and is shaped throughout one’s life.

4. Culture:
Culture shapes our personal values and predispositions. It is the
unique characteristic of a social group. The values and norms
shared by its member’s sets it apart from other social groups. The
essence of culture is the collective programming of the mind.

According to anthropological concepts, culture relates to a shared

system of beliefs, attitudes, possessions, attributes, customs, and
values that define group behaviour. Values are assumptions about
‘how things ought to be’ in the group. Thus, culture plays a
significant role in influencing the behaviour of an individual.