MGMT1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Learned Helplessness, Extraversion And Introversion, Conscientiousness
18 May 2018
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6 – Managing individual differences and behaviour
Personality and individual behaviour
• Personality – stable psychological traits and behavioural attributes that give a person
his or her identity
• The Big Five personality dimensions
1. Extroversion – how outgoing, talkative, sociable and assertive a person is
2. Agreeableness – how trusting, good-natured, cooperative and soft-hearted one is
3. Conscientiousness – how dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented and
persistent one is
4. Emotional stability – how relaxed, secure and unworried one is
5. Openness to experience – how intellectual, imaginative, curious and broad-
minded one is
• The proactive personality – someone who is more apt to take initiative and
persevere to influence the environment
More satisfied with jobs, committed to employer
Five important personality traits in organisations
1 Locus of control: how much people believe they control their fate through their own
efforts
Internal locus of control means you believe in your own destiny
External locus of control means you believe external forces control you
Implications for managers:
(a) Expect different degrees of structure and compliance for each type
(b) Employ different reward systems for each type
2 Self-efficacy: elief i oes persoal ailit to do a task
Low self-efficacy associated with learned helplessness
(a) Correlates to a low locus of control
Implications for managers:
(a) Assign jobs accordingly
(b) Develop self-efficacy
3 Self-esteem: the extent to which people like or dislike themselves (self-evaluation)
High self-esteem more apt to handle failure better, take risks and stay positive
Low self-esteem more apt to be influenced by others, less likely to take
independent positions
4 Self-monitoring: extent to which people can observe their own behaviour and adapt
it to external situations
5 Emotional intelligence: ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and
the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought
Ability to cope, empathise with others and to be self-motivated
EI composed of:
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2
(a) Self-awareness – ability to read own emotions and gauge moods accurately
(b) Self-management – ability to control emotions and act with honesty and
integrity in reliable and adaptable ways
(c) Social awareness – includes empathy and organisational intuition
(d) Relationship management – ability to communicate clearly and convincingly,
disarm conflicts and build strong personal bonds
Values, attitudes and behaviour
• Formal influences on behaviour in an organisation
Goals, policies, hierarchy, structure
• Informal influences on behaviour in an organisation
Values, attitudes, personalities, perceptions, conflicts, culture
• Organisational behaviour (OB): trying to explain and predict workplace behaviour
Individual – values, attitudes, personality, perception and learning
Group – norms, roles and teams
• Values: what are your consistent beliefs and feelings about all things
Individual values – abstract ideals that guide oes thikig ad ehaiour aross
all situations
• Attitudes: what are your consistent beliefs and feelings about specific things
Learned predisposition towards a given object
Components of attitudes:
(a) Affective – feelings or emotions about a situation
(b) Cognitive – beliefs and knowledge about a situation
(c) Behavioural – how one intends or expects to behave towards a situation
• Cognitive dissonance – psychological discomfort a person experiences between their
cognitive attitude and incompatible behaviour (proposed by Leon Festinger)
Three factors to deal with it: importance, control and rewards
• Behaviour: ho alues ad attitudes affet peoples atios ad judgets
Perception and individual behaviour
• Perception – process of interpreting and uderstadig oes eiroet
1. Selective attention: did I notice something?
2. Interpretation and evaluation: what was if I noticed and what does it mean?
3. Storing in memory: remember it as an event, concept, person or all three?
4. Retrieving from memory to make judgments and decisions
• Four distortions in perception:
Stereotyping – tendency to attribute to an individual the characteristics one
believes are typical of a group to which that individual belongs
(a) Sex-role: males/females suited to different roles
(b) Age: older workers less involved, less satisfied and less motivated
(c) Race/ethnicity
Halo effect – form an impression of an individual based on a single trait
(a) i.e. attractive people seen to be happier, kinder and more successful
Recency effect – tendency to remember recent information better than earlier
information
Casual attributions – activity of inferring causes for observed behaviour
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Document Summary
More satisfied with jobs, committed to employer. 1 locus of control: how much people believe they control their fate through their own efforts. Internal locus of control means you believe in your own destiny. External locus of control means you believe external forces control you. Implications for managers: (a) expect different degrees of structure and compliance for each type (b) employ different reward systems for each type. 2 self-efficacy: (cid:271)elief i(cid:374) o(cid:374)e(cid:859)s perso(cid:374)al a(cid:271)ilit(cid:455) to do a task. Low self-efficacy associated with learned helplessness (a) correlates to a low locus of control. Implications for managers: (a) assign jobs accordingly (b) develop self-efficacy. 3 self-esteem: the extent to which people like or dislike themselves (self-evaluation) High self-esteem more apt to handle failure better, take risks and stay positive. Low self-esteem more apt to be influenced by others, less likely to take independent positions. 4 self-monitoring: extent to which people can observe their own behaviour and adapt it to external situations.
