Personality
This lesson begins our focus on the individual in the organization. You will learn about individual differences—those physical, psychological, and emotional differences that distinguish each of us. This lesson addresses the individual variations in personality, attitudes, and emotions.
Personality is one of the determinants of behavior. Researchers have identified several personality dimensions and traits that you will be introduced to in this chapter. The Big Five Personality Factors present five dimensions of personality in which each dimension is a collection of personality traits that are used to describe personality. For greater clarity of the relation between personality and behavior, it is sometimes helpful to focus on individual personality traits such as self-esteem, locus of control, introversion/extroversion, and emotional intelligence. These personality traits are considered to be more useful personality traits for describing an individual's personality. Managers need to be familiar with each of these dimensions and traits and be able to recognize them in others. This is important so managers can take into consideration how differences in personality components motivate and affect employees.
The following chart identifies personality characteristics that are congruent with particular occupations. Think about individuals you know who are in these particular occupations. Do their personality characteristics seem congruent with their personality type and their occupation?
Matching Personality and Occupations
Should organizations try to match personality characteristics of employees with the requirements of the job? According to John Holland's personality-job fit theory, the answer is YES. Holland's model is based on the concept of fit between a person's interests—interpreted to represent personality—and his or her occupation. According to this theory, there are six basic personality types. An individual's satisfaction and propensity to leave a job depend on the degree to which an individual's personality matches his or her occupation. That is, satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest where personality and occupation are in agreement. The key point of this model is that there do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals in different occupations. When individuals' personalities are congruent with their occupations, they are more satisfied and less likely to resign than people in incongruent occupations. The following are examples of the six personality types, typical personality characteristics, and matching congruent occupations: |
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Personality Type |
Personality Characteristics |
Congruent Occupations |
| Artistic | Involves: Self-expression, creativity, emotional activities | Art, music, writing, design, architecture |
| Enterprising | Involves: Attaining power and status, verbal activities to influence and persuade | Law, small-business management, public relations |
| Social | Involves: Interpersonal and communication activities | Social work, teaching, counseling, foreign service |
| Investigative | Involves: Thinking, organizing, and understanding concepts | Mathematics, news reporting, biology, physical sciences |
| Realistic | Involves: Physical activities, skill, strength, coordination, assertive behaviors | Farming, forestry, training |
| Conventional | Involves: Rule-regulated activities, sublimation of personal needs to organization or person of power and status | Accounting, finance, corporate management |
| Based on: Holland, J. Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985. | ||