Summary Organisational Behaviour
,Chapters
Chapter 4: Personality and Values 2
Chapter 3: Attitudes and Job Satisfaction 5
Chapter 6: Emotions and Moods 7
Chapter 7: Motivation Concepts 10
Chapter 8: Motivation: Form Concepts to Applications 14
Chapter 9: Foundations of Group Behaviour 16
Chapter 10: Understanding Work Teams 19
Chapter 11: Power and Politics 22
Chapter 13: Leadership 25
Chapter 15: Organisational Culture 29
1
,Chapter 4: Personality and Values
Linking an Individual’s Personality and Values to the Workplace
- Personality-Job Fit: a theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that
the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover.
- Person-Organisation Fit: a theory that people are attracted to and selected by
organisations that match their values, and leave when there is no compatibility.
Personality
Personality: the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
- The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys in
which individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors. Research indicates that
culture influences the way we rate ourselves.
Heredity: factors determined at conception; one’s biological, physiological, and inherent
psychological makeup.
Personality traits: enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour.
Personality Frameworks:
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A personality assessment tool that
categorises individuals into 16 personality types based on four dichotomies:
Extroversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and
Judging/Perceiving.
- The Big Five Model: Proposes that five basic dimensions underlie all others and
encompass most of the significant variation in human personality. These dimensions
are Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and
Openness to Experience.
2
, - The Dark Triad: A trio of negative personality traits comprising
- Machiavellianism (manipulativeness): the degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify
means.
- Narcissism (self-centeredness): the tendency to be arrogant, have a
grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and
possess a sense of entitlement.
- Psychopathy (lack of empathy): the tendency for a lack of concern for others
and a lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm.
Other personality traits relevant to Organisational Behaviour:
- Core Self-Evaluation (CSE): bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their
capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
- Self-monitoring: a personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust
their behaviour to external, situational factors.
- Prospective personality: people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take
action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.
Situation strength theory: a theory indicating that the way personality translates into
behaviour depends on the strength of the situation. → situation strength, the degree to which
norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behaviour.
Situation strength in organisations in terms of:
1. Clarity → jobs high in clarity produce strong situations because individuals can
readily determine what to do.
2. Consistency → jobs with high consistency represent strong situations because all
the cues point toward the same desired behaviour.
3. Constraints → jobs with many constraints represent strong situations because an
individual has limited individual discretion.
Beyond the basics, it is not always desirable for organisations to create strong situations for
their employees.
Trait activation theory (TAT): a theory that predicts that some situations, events, or
interventions “activate” a trait more than others.
- TAT applies personality tendencies.
Values
Values: basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable.
- Rokeach Value Survey: A tool developed by Milton Rokeach, categorising values
into two types: terminal values (desirable end-states) and instrumental values
(modes of behaviour).
- Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence; the goals a person would
like to achieve during their lifetime.
- Instrumental values: preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving
one’s terminal values.
Value system: a hierarchy based on a ranking on an individual’s values in terms of their
intensity.
Values are key in organisations because they lay the foundation for understanding the
attitudes and motivation, and they influence our perceptions.
3
,Chapters
Chapter 4: Personality and Values 2
Chapter 3: Attitudes and Job Satisfaction 5
Chapter 6: Emotions and Moods 7
Chapter 7: Motivation Concepts 10
Chapter 8: Motivation: Form Concepts to Applications 14
Chapter 9: Foundations of Group Behaviour 16
Chapter 10: Understanding Work Teams 19
Chapter 11: Power and Politics 22
Chapter 13: Leadership 25
Chapter 15: Organisational Culture 29
1
,Chapter 4: Personality and Values
Linking an Individual’s Personality and Values to the Workplace
- Personality-Job Fit: a theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that
the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover.
- Person-Organisation Fit: a theory that people are attracted to and selected by
organisations that match their values, and leave when there is no compatibility.
Personality
Personality: the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
- The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys in
which individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors. Research indicates that
culture influences the way we rate ourselves.
Heredity: factors determined at conception; one’s biological, physiological, and inherent
psychological makeup.
Personality traits: enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour.
Personality Frameworks:
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A personality assessment tool that
categorises individuals into 16 personality types based on four dichotomies:
Extroversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and
Judging/Perceiving.
- The Big Five Model: Proposes that five basic dimensions underlie all others and
encompass most of the significant variation in human personality. These dimensions
are Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and
Openness to Experience.
2
, - The Dark Triad: A trio of negative personality traits comprising
- Machiavellianism (manipulativeness): the degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify
means.
- Narcissism (self-centeredness): the tendency to be arrogant, have a
grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and
possess a sense of entitlement.
- Psychopathy (lack of empathy): the tendency for a lack of concern for others
and a lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm.
Other personality traits relevant to Organisational Behaviour:
- Core Self-Evaluation (CSE): bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their
capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.
- Self-monitoring: a personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust
their behaviour to external, situational factors.
- Prospective personality: people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take
action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.
Situation strength theory: a theory indicating that the way personality translates into
behaviour depends on the strength of the situation. → situation strength, the degree to which
norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behaviour.
Situation strength in organisations in terms of:
1. Clarity → jobs high in clarity produce strong situations because individuals can
readily determine what to do.
2. Consistency → jobs with high consistency represent strong situations because all
the cues point toward the same desired behaviour.
3. Constraints → jobs with many constraints represent strong situations because an
individual has limited individual discretion.
Beyond the basics, it is not always desirable for organisations to create strong situations for
their employees.
Trait activation theory (TAT): a theory that predicts that some situations, events, or
interventions “activate” a trait more than others.
- TAT applies personality tendencies.
Values
Values: basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable.
- Rokeach Value Survey: A tool developed by Milton Rokeach, categorising values
into two types: terminal values (desirable end-states) and instrumental values
(modes of behaviour).
- Terminal values: desirable end-states of existence; the goals a person would
like to achieve during their lifetime.
- Instrumental values: preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving
one’s terminal values.
Value system: a hierarchy based on a ranking on an individual’s values in terms of their
intensity.
Values are key in organisations because they lay the foundation for understanding the
attitudes and motivation, and they influence our perceptions.
3
