Does personality matter? - Chapter 2

Personality refers to the regularities in feeling, thought and action that are characteristic of an individual. Understanding your own personality and that of others is critical for an effective workplace. This is because the following two reasons:

• Personality and other individual differences are rather stable over the life course.
• Personality is linked to social behavior in organizations. It may affect our work habits and how we interact with colleagues.

However, it is important to be aware that personality and most individual differences are not like other areas of OB, where the manager can influence the outcomes by some sort of intervention. Instead, individual differences are aspects of OB that must be understood. Leaders must work with them rather than trying to change the people. 

Is personality hereditary?

Are personality traits innate or learned? Can a brilliant scientist who is introverted, change his personality to become an extraverted visionary leader? The role of genetics for personality has been studied by the famous Minnesota twin studies. Different studies showed that 40% of the variation in choice of work and work motivation is due to genetics. The implications for a leader are that, although personality might change (a bit), it is a relatively stable individual difference. A leader should try to learn about personality differences, understand how different personalities operate at work, and then learn to work effectively with different types.

Exercise: think about the following question. Are leaders born or made? In other words, is leadership born (hereditary) or learned (through, for instance, training)? Motivate your opinion. If leadership is both hereditary and learned, as some researchers believe, what do you think is the best way to identify leadership potential? 

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most frequently administered personality test that is used for non-psychiatric populations. This test is based on four general personality preferences:

• Introversion (I) vs. extraversion (E): extraverts tend to be outgoing; introverts tend to be shy.
• Sensing (S) vs. intuition (N): sensing types tend to be practical; intuitive people tend to be 'idea people'.
• Thinking (T) vs. feeling (F): thinking types tend to use logical; feeling people tend to use emotion.
• Judging (J) vs. perceiving (P): judging types tend to make quick decisions; perceiving people tend to be more flexible. 

One limitation of the MBTI is that there is limited research support for the reliability and validity of this test. If you take the test again, you may receive a different score. In addition, Whether people are actually classifiable into the sixteen categories is questionable. However, the MBTI still is the most popular personality test that is used for organizations. It is important to be aware that the MBTI is not validated for selection (hiring people). It is best to use the test for conflict resolution and teambuilding. 

Which of the factors of the Big Five theory predicts job performance best?

The Big Five theory of personality consists of the following five factors:

1. Openness: refers to the willingness of a person to embrace new ideas and situations.
2. Conscientiousness: refers to the characteristic of being a person who follows through and gets things done.
3. Extraversion: refers to being outgoing, talkative, and sociable as well as enjoying social situations.
4. Agreeableness: refers to being a nice person in general.
5. Neurocitism: refers to the tendency to be anxious or moody and this characteristic is often referred to by its opposite: emotional stability. 

A lot of research has been done on whether these five traits predict job performance. Results indicate that the second dimension (conscientiousness) best predicts job performance. Indeed, people who are more achievement-oriented and dependable are often better employees and also better leaders. Moreover, conscientiousness is related to job satisfaction, income and higher occupational status.

Does stress kill?

You probably heard the phrase that stress kills. But is there any truth to this? Researchers have identified the following four types of personality:

• Type A: competitive, aggressive
• Type B: relaxed, easygoing
• Type C: nice, hardworking people who try to please others
• Type D: distressed personality

Cardiologists discovered a link between type A behavior and cardiovascular heart disease. Their theory was based on observations of patients in their waiting room. Some patients sat patiently whilst reading a book or magazine, while others sat on the edge of their seats and stood up frequently. They asked their patients questions such as:

• Do you feel guilty if you use spare time to relax?
• Do you need to win in order to derive enjoyment from games and sports?
• Do you generally move, walk, and eat rapidly?
• Do you often try to do more than one thing at a time?

All patients were classified as A, B or C. By the end of the study, it was found that 70% of the people of type A had coronary heart disease. More recently, type D was added. In addition, research showed lower recovery rates for coronary heart disease patients with type D personality. In conclusion, while research on personality and health risk continues, there does seem to be a relation between certain personality traits and higher risk of disease, suppressed immune system functioning and slower recovery from illness. 

How do other relevant personality traits influence employees? 

In this section, three other relevant personality traits are discussed briefly.

Machiavellianism (or Mach) refers to a person who believes that the end justifies the means. To put it differently, the person will do whatever is takes to win. The trait is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote a book called The Prince, that outlined his strategies for gaining and holding onto power in the sixteenth century. Characteristics of machiavellianism are distrust of others, desire for status, desire for control, amoral manipulation. Mach employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors, such as purposely wasting office supplies. They report lower job satisfaction and experience more stress on the job. 

The Dark Triad is a combination of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. Narcissism is the expression of grandiosity, entitlement, dominance and superiority. Narcissist may appear charming or pleasant at first, but they have difficulty trusting others and fail to develop effective work relationships on the long term. Psychopathy refers to impulsivity and thrill seeking behavior combined with low empathy and anxiety. These individuals lack feelings of guilt, are impulsive and seek for immediate gratification of their needs. A study of 793 workers in their early careers found that narcissism is positively related to salary and Machiavellianism is positively related to leadership position and career satisfaction. Psychopathy, on the other hand, was negatively related to all career outcomes. To conclude, the Dark Triad as a combination did not predict career satisfaction and success, but individual traits may have a relation with higher salary. 

Another trait is self-monitoring, referring to self-observation and self-control guided by situational cues to social appropriateness. High self-monitors are very adaptable to situations, and low self-monitors are not able to pretend that they are someone that they are not. Self-monitors are true to themselves and do not take cues to change their behavior from social situations. For instance, a person may give honest feedback, even if it is hurtful. High self-monitors pay more attention to the actions of others and adjust to fit the situation. This type of person will withhold negative feedback to allow the other person to save face. In the working environment, high self-monitors perform better and become leaders, but have lower organizational commitment. They do however develop better work relations with their boss, which explains the higher performance ratings they receive. 

Furthermore, resilience is a trait that refers to the degree of positive adaptation when faced with adversity. So, how quickly do you bounce back and adjust after a traumatic event? Resilience acts as a buffer when employees experience stressful events at work. It can be learned and for students to succeed and experience well-being it is a critical skill. Resilience has three components:

1. Sense of Mastery: refers to a person's optimism, self-efficacy, and adaptability. 
2. Sense of Relatedness: refers to a person's ability to develop and rely on relationships
3. Emotional Reactivity: refers to the speed and strength of a person's negative emotional response

Lastly, risk taking is a personality trait that refers to any purposive activity that entails novelty or danger sufficient to create anxiety in most people. Some people are naturally prone to taking risks. Others are avoiding risks as much as possible. Research from 77 countries suggests that risk taking declines across the life span. In other words, as we get older, we take fewer risks. However, this differs across countries. In countries where there is social unrest and economic strife, risk does not decline as people age. These findings suggest that when resources are scarce, people must continue to assume risk to compete for resources. In addition, the finding that risk taking may change during one's life supports the idea that some personality characteristics are state-like (relatively changeable over time) rather than trait-like (relatively stable over time). 

What is psychological capital? 

Positive organizational behavior (POB) refers to the study and application of positive-oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today's workplace. POB is an emerging field. These positive psychological capacities are considered state-like, hence they could develop through training programs and other engagement interventions. These interventions focus on improving the psychological capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is more than what we know or who you know. It is focused on who you are and who you are becoming. PsyCap focusses on the following four state-like characteristics:

• Efficacy: a person's belief that he or she has the ability to execute a specific task in a given context.
• Optimism: a positive outcome outlook or attribution of events, including positive emotions and motivation.
• Hope: the will to succeed and the ability to identify and pursue the path to success.
• Resiliency: coping in the face of risk or adversity; the ability to bounce back after a setback. 

Initial results of novel research suggests that the four elements predict job performance and satisfaction. 

Why is person-environment fit important for employees?

Person-environment (PE) fit: when an individual's personality aligns with his or her environment, it yields job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and better job performance. It also decreases the chances to quit their job. There are two different forms of PE fit.

• Person-Organization (PO) fit: the match between a person's values and those of the organization. Good PO fit is positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance.
• Person-Job (PJ) fit: match between the person's personality, motivation and abilities and the characteristics of the job. There are two forms of PJ fit:
  1. Demands-abilities (DA) fit, which refers to the job being not too difficult and not too easy for the employee, and;
  2. Needs-supplies (NS) fit, which addresses whether the job fulfills the needs of the employee for interesting work and a sense of meaning in his or her work. 

A well-known research theory of PJ fit is the personality job-fit theory of John Holland (1997). He found six different personality types and studied occupations that match these six types. The six personality types are:

1. Realistic (R)
2. Investigative (I)
3. Artistic (A)
4. Social (S)
5. Enterprising (E)
6. Conventional (C)

This is also known as the RIASEC model. John Holland developed a questionnaire entitled the Vocational Preference Inventory to assess these personality types and their match to 160 different jobs. Types are closer to one another on the hexagon are more similar. Types that are opposite (e.g., R and S) are most dissimilar. These six types are linked to the following characteristic description:

• Realistic: doers
• Investigative: thinkers
• Artistic: creators
• Social: helpers
• Enterprising: persuaders
• Conventional: organizers

A recent meta-analysis of 92 studies showed that the match between personality traits and job demands significantly predicts job performance.

What should leaders of an organization do?

In summary, this chapter discussed various personality characteristics. It also described that personality is relatively stable over the life course with the exception of PsyCap which may be changed through training. Hence, leaders may not be able to change other people's personality. Thus, it is important for leaders to understand others and work effectively with different personality types. Leaders can, and should, do two important things: examine each applicant's personality type and vocational interests when making hiring decisions, and assess personality characteristics of their team members (for instance using Big Five, Type A, and CSE). Personality has the potential of being both positive and negative on the work floor. Understanding personality differences is thus essential for leader effectiveness.