Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB
1. Locus of control
A person’s perception of the source of his/her fate is termed locus of
control.
Internals: People who believe that they are masters of their own fate.
Externals: People who believe they are pawns of fate.
•Individuals who rate high in externality 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 are internals.
•Internals, facing the same situation, attribute organizational outcomes to
their own actions. Internals believe that health is substantially under their
own control through proper habits; their incidences of sickness and, hence,
of absenteeism, are lower.
2. There is not a clear relationship between locus of control and turnover because
there are opposing forces at work.
3. Internals generally perform better on their jobs, but one should consider
differences in jobs.
•Internals search more actively for information before making a decision,
are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their
environment, therefore, internals do well on sophisticated tasks.
Internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of
action.
•Externals are more compliant and willing to follow directions, and do well
on jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends
heavily on complying with the direction of others.
4. Machiavellianism
Named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on
how to gain and use power.
•An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional
distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and
persuade others more.
•High Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors and flourish
when they interact face to face with others, rather than indirectly, and when
the situation has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing
latitude for improvisation.
•High Machs make good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or
that offer substantial rewards for winning.
5. Self-esteem
Self-esteem—the degree to which people like or dislike themselves.
•(SE) is directly related to expectations for success.
•
Individuals with high self-esteem will take more risks in job selection and
are more likely to choose unconventional jobs than people with low self-
esteem.
The most generalizable finding is that low SEs are more susceptible to
external influence than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on the
receipt of positive evaluations from others.
•In managerial positions, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing
others.
•High SEs are more satisfied with their jobs than are low SEs.
•
6. Self-monitoring
It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They
are highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different
situations, and are capable of presenting striking contradictions between
their public persona and their private self.
•Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to
display their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation resulting in a
high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.
•The research on self-monitoring is in its infancy, so predictions must be
guarded. Preliminary evidence suggests:
a. High self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of
b. High self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers
c. High self-monitor is capable of putting on different “faces” for different
7. Risk taking
•The propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an
impact on how long it takes managers to make a decision and how much
information they require before making their choice.
•High risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used less
information in making their choices.
•While managers in organizations are generally risk-aversive, there are
still individual differences on this dimension. As a result, it makes sense
to recognize these differences and even to consider aligning risk-taking
propensity with specific job demands.
8. Type A
A Type A personality is “aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant
struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and, if required to
do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.’’
They are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly, are impatient with the
rate at which most events take place, are doing do two or more things at
once and cannot cope with leisure time. They are obsessed with numbers,
measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything
they acquire.
9. Type B
•Type Bs never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying
impatience and feel no need to display or discuss either their
achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by
the situation.
•Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any
cost and can relax without guilt.
1. Locus of control
A person’s perception of the source of his/her fate is termed locus of
control.
Internals: People who believe that they are masters of their own fate.
Externals: People who believe they are pawns of fate.
•Individuals who rate high in externality 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 are internals.
•Internals, facing the same situation, attribute organizational outcomes to
their own actions. Internals believe that health is substantially under their
own control through proper habits; their incidences of sickness and, hence,
of absenteeism, are lower.
2. There is not a clear relationship between locus of control and turnover because
there are opposing forces at work.
3. Internals generally perform better on their jobs, but one should consider
differences in jobs.
•Internals search more actively for information before making a decision,
are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their
environment, therefore, internals do well on sophisticated tasks.
Internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of
action.
•Externals are more compliant and willing to follow directions, and do well
on jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends
heavily on complying with the direction of others.
4. Machiavellianism
Named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on
how to gain and use power.
•An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional
distance, and believes that ends can justify means.
High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and
persuade others more.
•High Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors and flourish
when they interact face to face with others, rather than indirectly, and when
the situation has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing
latitude for improvisation.
•High Machs make good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or
that offer substantial rewards for winning.
5. Self-esteem
Self-esteem—the degree to which people like or dislike themselves.
•(SE) is directly related to expectations for success.
•
Individuals with high self-esteem will take more risks in job selection and
are more likely to choose unconventional jobs than people with low self-
esteem.
The most generalizable finding is that low SEs are more susceptible to
external influence than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on the
receipt of positive evaluations from others.
•In managerial positions, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing
others.
•High SEs are more satisfied with their jobs than are low SEs.
•
6. Self-monitoring
It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They
are highly sensitive to external cues, can behave differently in different
situations, and are capable of presenting striking contradictions between
their public persona and their private self.
•Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to
display their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation resulting in a
high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.
•The research on self-monitoring is in its infancy, so predictions must be
guarded. Preliminary evidence suggests:
a. High self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of
b. High self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers
c. High self-monitor is capable of putting on different “faces” for different
7. Risk taking
•The propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an
impact on how long it takes managers to make a decision and how much
information they require before making their choice.
•High risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used less
information in making their choices.
•While managers in organizations are generally risk-aversive, there are
still individual differences on this dimension. As a result, it makes sense
to recognize these differences and even to consider aligning risk-taking
propensity with specific job demands.
8. Type A
A Type A personality is “aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant
struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and, if required to
do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.’’
They are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly, are impatient with the
rate at which most events take place, are doing do two or more things at
once and cannot cope with leisure time. They are obsessed with numbers,
measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything
they acquire.
9. Type B
•Type Bs never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying
impatience and feel no need to display or discuss either their
achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by
the situation.
•Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any
cost and can relax without guilt.