Individual Differences in Organizational Behavior
Thesis: Individual differences influence our attitudes and behaviors at work. People are not alike (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, education, etc…). Today, we will focus on personality and its relationship to work-related behaviors.
Dispositional perspective: We tend to behave consistently because of our personality; people have long-term traits that influence their behavior in work settings. .
Interactional perspective: It is the interaction of personality and situation that determines our behaviors. People shape situations, and situations shape people. The effect of personality is not the same in all situations-- personality more relevant in "weak" situations where behavior is not constrained.
The purpose of this class is to give you some insight into several individual differences that are related to various organizational behaviors. By definition, you can't change your personality. But you can change your behaviors to be more consistent with desirable traits.
Individual Differences in Organizational Behavior:
1) The Five Factor Model of Personality (we will focus on four of the five factors):
Extraversion: gregarious, sociable, assertive, ambitious. Predicts performance in jobs with a large social component, and success in training. Related to "getting ahead" behaviors at work.
Agreeableness: cooperative, caring, trusting, friendly. Predicts performance in jobs with a large customer service component, or when working in teams (best FFM predictor of teamwork). Related to "getting along" behaviors at work.
Conscientiousness: careful, thorough, planful, hard-working. The best FFM predictor of job performance. Seems to be a measure of work-related motivation. Related to "getting things done" at work.
Openness to experience: imaginative, creative, innovative. Not consistently related to overall job performance, but does predict training success. Related to "receptivity to change" and creativity or artistic ability.
2) Proactive personality: People high on this dimension of personality identify opportunities and act on them, show initiative, and persevere until they bring about changes. Less proactive people are reactive and passive; they tend to adapt to circumstances rather than change them.
Proactive personality is related to job performance, leadership, entrepreneurship, career success, and team performance.
3) Locus of control: The extent to which you believe you can control events effecting you.
Internal locus of control: you believe that your own behaviors primarily affect the events in your life..
External locus of control: change is caused by outside sources. Chance, fate, or other people are the primary determinants in the events in your life.
Internal locus of control is related to managerial success. Internals are more active politically and socially, seek information about situations more actively than externals, and are more likely to try to influence others and less likely to be influenced by others. Internals are more achievement-oriented than externals, and appear to adjust more rapidly as expatriates. Externals prefer more structure in their work lives and directive supervision.
4) Self-monitoring: sensitivity and responsiveness to social and interpersonal cues to situational appropriateness. High self-monitors adapt their behaviors to fit the situation; they have chameleon-like impression management skills.
High self monitoring is positively associated with the number of promotions one receives and the number of career changes one makes. They are more active in searching for information about potential employers and analyzing their own interests and abilities.
5) Job Involvement: the extent to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her job and considers his or her performance level important to self-worth. People with high job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do. It is related to lower absences and turnover, and is an especially strong predictor of turnover (up to 16%).