ORGANIZATIONAL

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER 4
PERSONALTY AND PERCEPTION

Dr. KAHSU MEBRAHTU (Asst .Prof.)

MEKELLE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGENET
POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM (MBA)

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OBJECTIVES
AFTER
AFTER STUDYING
STUDYING THIS
THIS CHAPTER,
CHAPTER,
YOU
YOU SHOULD
SHOULD BE
BE ABLE
ABLE TO:
TO:

1. Explain the factors that determine an

individual’s personality.
2. Describe the MBTI personality framework.
LEARNING

3. Identify the key traits in the Big Five

personality model.
4. Explain the impact of job typology on the
personality/job performance relationship.
5. Differentiate emotions from moods.
6. Contrast felt versus displayed emotions.

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O B J E C T I V E S (cont’d)
AFTER
AFTER STUDYING
STUDYING THIS
THIS CHAPTER,
CHAPTER,
YOU
YOU SHOULD
SHOULD BE
BE ABLE
ABLE TO:
TO:

7. Read emotions.
8. Explain gender-differences in emotions.
9. Describe external constraints on emotions.
10.Apply concepts on emotions to OB issues.
11.Explain how two people can see the same
LEARNING

thing and interpret it differently.

12.List three determinants of attribution.
13.Describe how shortcuts can assist in or distort
our judgment of others.

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 Opening
Opening Discussion
Discussion
One day Haftom had withdrawn 500,000 Birr from his
bank account and took it to his family home . His
family home is very secured and protected with electric
fence. That day night he slept with his well manner
brother Dagnachew but at that given night he did wake-
up every half an hour to check the presence of his
stated amount of money . Early in the morning he paid
the money to the daily workers in his construction site
and slept seven hours in the day time.

What is your reaction to the behavior of Haftom?

Do you think the act of Haftom is right or wrong ?
Why?
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 What
What is
is Personality?
Personality?

•When we talk of personality, we don’t mean that a person

has charm, a positive attitude toward life, a smiling face, or is
a finalist for “ Happiest” in this year’s Miss Ethiopia contest.
•When psychologists talk of personality, they mean a
dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a
person’s whole psychological system.
• Rather than looking at parts of the person, personality looks
at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the
parts.

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 What
What is
is Personality?
Personality?

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 Cont…
Cont…
 Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of
behaviors and consistent internal states that explain a
person’s behavioral tendencies .

 Personality has both internal and external elements :

The external traits are the observable behavior that

we rely on to identify someone’s personality
Example: sociability, comfortable acts with others etc

The internal states represent the thoughts, values ,

and genetic characteristics that we infer from the
observable behaviors.
 Personality
Personality Determinants
Determinants

• •Heredity
Heredity
• •Environment
Environment
• •Situation
Situation

 Heredity: refers to those factors that were determined at conception.

Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, energy
level etc.
 Environment: Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality
formation are the culture in which we are raised, our early conditioning,
the norms among our family, friends and social groups etc.
 Situation: A third, the situation, influences the effects of heredity and
environment on personality. An individual’s generally stable and
consistent, does change in different situations.

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 Personality
Personality Traits
Traits

Sixteen
Sixteen
Primary
Primary
Traits
Traits

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The
The Big
Big Five
Five Model
Model of
of Personality
Personality
1. Conscientiousness . Conscientiousness refers to
people who are careful, dependable, and self-
disciplined. People with low conscientiousness
tend to be careless, less thorough, more
disorganized, and irresponsible
2. Agreeableness . This includes the traits of being
courteous, good-natured, empathic, and caring.
People with low agreeableness tend to be
uncooperative, short-tempered, and irritable.
3. Openness to Experience
People who are high in this are sensitive, flexible,
creative, and curious. Those who score low on
this dimension tend to be more resistant to
change, less open to new ideas, and more fixed 4–10
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in
 The
The Big
Big Five
Five Model
Model …
…
4. Extroversion
Extroversion characterizes people who are outgoing,
talkative, sociable, and assertive. The opposite is
introversion , which refers to those
who are quiet, shy, and cautious.
Introverts feel quite comfortable being alone,
whereas extroverts do not.
5.Neuroticism .
People who are high neuroticism (low emotional
stability) have high levels of anxiety, hostility,
depression. In contrast, people with low neuroticism
(high emotional stability) are poised, secure, and
calm.
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 Major
Major Personality
Personality Attributes
Attributes Influencing
Influencing OB
OB

 Locus of control
 Machiavellianism
 Self-esteem
 Self-monitoring
 Propensity for risk taking
 Type A personality

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 Locus
Locus of
of Control
Control

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 Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism

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 Con..
Con..
 Example 1 : Wedi Hanbeda is a young bank
manager in CBE. He had had three promotions in
the last 4 years .
 He makes no apologies for the aggressive tactics
he has used to propel his career upward .
 “I am prepared to do whatever I have to do to get
ahead” , he says . Wedi Hanbeda would properly
be called Machiavellian
Example 2.Amleset is assertive and persuasive ,
and she is effective at manipulating customers to
buy her product line.
Many of her colleagues , including her boss,
consider her as Machiavellian
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 Cont….
Cont….

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Distracting
Distractingemotions
emotions

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

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 Con…
Con…
 Individuals with high in self –monitoring :

 show considerable adaptability in adjusting their

behavior to external situations

 tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in

every situation

 There is high behavioral consistency between who

they are and what they do.

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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

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 Personality
Personality Types
Types

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 Achieving
Achieving Personality-Job
Personality-Job Fit
Fit

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
••Realistic
Realistic
••Investigative
Investigative
••Social
Social
••Conventional
Conventional
••Enterprising
Enterprising
••Artistic
Artistic

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 Holland’s
Holland’s
Typology
Typologyof
of
Personality
Personality
and
and
Congruent
Congruent
Occupations
Occupations

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 Opening
Opening Discussion
Discussion
1. One day you had seen Ato Michaele while
coming out of a local chat distributor . He was
walking straight with a beautiful young girl and
entered in to a bar. The time was around 10 pm .

1. In the down town Arodom was talking with some

one from the opposition parties. You knew him
(Arodom) in the past as a member of TPLF, but
he used to raise wild ideas in every meeting.

What is your reaction to these situations or

events ?
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“we see reality only as shadows
reflected on the rough wall of a cave.
In other words, reality is filtered
through an imperfect perceptual
process” Greek philosopher Plato

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 What
What Is
Is Perception,
Perception, and
and Why
Why Is
Is ItIt Important?
Important?

••People’s
People’s behavior
behavior isis
based
based on
on their
their
perception
perception of of what
what
reality
reality is,
is, not
not on
on
reality
reality itself.
itself.
••The
The world
world asas itit isis
perceived
perceived isis the
the worldworld
that
that isis behaviorally
behaviorally
important.
important.

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 Cont…
Cont…

 Perception is the process of receiving information

about and making sense of the world around us.
It involves deciding :
 Which information to notice?
How to organize this
information and ?
How to interpret it within the
framework of our knowledge?
Factors
Factors
That
That
Influence
Influence
Perception
Perception

••Perceiver
Perceiver
••Situation
Situation
••Target
Target

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 Person
Person Perception:
Perception: Making
Making Judgments
Judgments About
About
Others
Others

Attribution theory
A perceptual process whereby we interpret the causes
of behavior in terms of the person (internal
attribution) or the situation(external attributions).
Basically, the theory suggests that when we observe
an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine
whether it was internally or externally caused.

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•Attribution theory describes how people explain the
causes of their own and other people’s behavior

•Common internal attributions include ability, effort,

and personality.
 Poor performance may be attributed to lack of effort or
ability, and
poor relations with coworkers may be attributed to
personality.

• Common external attributions include luck, chance,

and easy tasks.
 A worker’s accomplishment may be viewed as a
stroke of luck.
Con…
Con…
Internal factors originate from within a person ,
such as the individual’s ability or motivation.
 Example We make an internal attribution by
believing that an employee performs the job poorly
because he or she lacks the necessary competencies
or motivation.
External factors originate from the environment ,
such as availability of resources , supportiveness of
co-workers , or just luck.
Example external attribution would occur if we
believe that the employee performs the job poorly
because he /she does not receive sufficient
resources to do the task.
•Clarification of the differences between internal and
external causation:

• Internally caused behaviors are those that are

believed to be under the personal control of the
individual.

• Externally caused behavior is seen as resulting

from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as
having been forced into the behavior by the
situation.
 Person
Person Perception:
Perception: Making
Making Judgments
Judgments About
About
Others,
Others, Contd.,
Contd.,

Rules of Attribution

Determinants:
Determinants:

1.1.Distinctiveness:
Distinctiveness:shows
showsdifferent
differentbehaviors
behaviorsinindifferent
different
situations.
situations.
2.2.Consensus:
Consensus:response
responseisisthe
thesame
sameas
asothers
otherstotosame
samesituation.
situation.
3.3.Consistency:
Consistency:responds
respondsininthe
thesame
sameway
wayover
overtime.
time.
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 Attribution
AttributionTheory
Theory
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 Cont…
Cont…
Example : Suppose that an employee is making poor
quality products one day on a particular machine.

We would probably conclude that there is

something wrong with the machine (an external
attribution) :
•If the employee has made good quality products on
this machine in the past (low consistency),
•The employee makes good quality products on other
machines(high distinctiveness), and
• Other employees have recently had quality problems
on this machine (high consensus ).
 Errors
Errors and
and Biases
Biases in
in Attributions
Attributions

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Con…
Con…
For example Ato Engeda is late for work,
observers conclude that he is lazy
instead of thinking that external factors
may caused this behavior.

Fundamental attribution error mainly

occurs because we have limited
information about the situational
contingencies affecting other people.
 Errors
Errors and
and Biases
Biases in
in Attributions
Attributions (cont’d)
(cont’d)

We take credit for our

successes and blame others or
the situation for our mistakes

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 Frequently
Frequently Used
Used Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Judging
Judging Others
Others

1. Selective perception
2. Halo effect
3. Contrast effects
4. Projection
5. Stereotyping

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 Frequently
Frequently Used
Used Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Judging
Judging Others
Others

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 Frequently
Frequently Used
Used Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Judging
Judging Others,
Others,
Contd.,
Contd.,

Projection Bias
This occurs when we believe other
people have the same beliefs and
behaviors that we do.

If you are eager for a promotion , you

might think that others in your position
are similarly motivated.

Most of the time such behaviors are

defensive mechanisms
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 Frequently
Frequently Used
Used Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Judging
Judging Others
Others

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 Specific
Specific Applications
Applications of
of Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Organization
Organization
 Employment Interview
– Perceptual biases affect the accuracy of interviewers’ judgments of
applicants.
 Performance Expectations
– Self-fulfilling prophecy (pygmalion effect): The lower or higher
performance of employees reflects preconceived leader
expectations about employee capabilities.
 Performance Evaluations
– Appraisals are subjective perceptions of performance.
 Employee Effort
– Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject to
perceptual distortion and bias.
 Employee Loyalty
– Employee support towards the organization.

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Thank You !!!