CHAPTER 2- PERSONALITY AND LEARNING
What Is Personality?
•The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way
people interact with their environment & how they feel, think, & behave.
•Where does it come from? Dimensions & traits determined by genetic predisposition
& one’s long-term learning history.
•People have a variety of personality characteristics.
Personality & Organizational Behaviour
•Personality has a long history in OB
–Initially believed that personality was an important factor in many areas of
organizational behaviour, including motivation, attitudes, performance, and
leadership
•The role of personality in OB has often been debated in what is known as the
“person-situation debate”
•This has led to three approaches:
–The dispositional approach – “individuals possess stable traits or
characteristics that influence their attitudes and behaviours”
–The situational approach – “characteristics of the organizational setting, such
as rewards and punishment, influence people’s feelings, attitudes, and
behaviour”
–The interactionist approach – “OB is a function of both dispositions and the
situation” ie to predict and understand OB, one must know something about
an individual’s personality and the setting in which he/she works
Five-Factor Model of Personality
Five basic but general dimensions that describe personality:
www.notesolution.com
•Openess to experience – not related to job satisfaction
•Each “Big Five” dimensions is related to job performance (Conscientiousness
strongest).
• “Big Five” related to work motivation, job satisfaction, & life satisfaction; predict job
search & career success & related to vocational interests & preferences.
Other Personality Variables
•Locus of Control- a set of beliefs about whether one’s behaviour is controlled mainly
by internal (themselves) or external forces (luck, fate..)
•Self-Monitoring—the extend to which people observe and regulate how they appear
and behave in social settings and relationships. High self monitoring act
according to social surroundings; low self monitoring say/do what they want
•Self-Esteem – the degree to which a person has a positive evaluation
•Behavioural plasticity theory: people w/ low self esteem tend to be more
susceptible to external and social influences than those who have high self
esteem
•Positive affectivity – propensity to view the world, including oneself and other
people, in a positive light
•Negative affectivity—propensity to view the world, including oneself and other
people, in a negative light
www.notesolution.com
•Proactive personality—a stable personal disposition that reflects a tendency to take
personal initiative across a range of activities and situations and to effect positive
change in one’s environment act to change and influence their environment
•General self-efficacy – a general trait that refers to an individual’s belief in his or
her ability to perform successfully in a variety of challenging situation
•Individual’s belief that he/she can succeed at a variety of task
•More success in lie = higher general self-efficacy
•Core self-evaluations- a broad personality concept that consists of more specific
traits that reflect the evaluations people hold about themselves and their self-worth
What is Learning?
•A relatively permanent change in behaviour potential as a result of practice or
experience.
•The practice or experience that prompts learning stems from an environment that
provides feedback concerning the consequences of behaviour.
•What do employees learn?
–Practical skills – job specific skills, knowledge, and technical competence
–Intrapersonal skills—problem solving, critical thinking, learning about
alternative work processes, and risk taking
–Interpersonal skills—communicating, teamwork, and conflict resolution
–Cultural awareness – learning the social norms of organizations and
understanding company goals, business operations and company expectations
and priorities
Operant Learning Theory
•The subject learns to operate on the environment to achieve certain consequences.
•Operantly learned behaviour is controlled by the consequences that follow it.
•It is the connection between the behaviour & the consequence that is learned.
Increasing the Probability of Behaviour
www.notesolution.com