Chapter 5

Personality,
Perception,
and Employee
Attitudes

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Copyright 2011 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives
Define the overall meaning of personality.
Identify the Big Five personality traits and the
Myers-Briggs types.
Describe the perceptual process and its major
dimensions.
Examine the sources and outcomes of the major
employee attitudes job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and organizational
citizenship behaviors.
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Meaning of Personality
Personality will mean how people affect others
and how they understand and view themselves, as
well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable
traits and the person-situation interaction.

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Foundation Components of Personality

Self-esteem
Peoples self-perceived competence and self-image.
It is applied to the organization domain called
organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), defined as
the self-perceived value that individuals have of
themselves as organization members acting within an
organization context.

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Foundation Components of Personality (Continued)

Person-situation interaction
This dimension suggests that people are not static,
acting the same in all situations, but are ever changing
and flexible.
Organizations that can find, develop, and retain
people who can fit into the dynamically changing
situation will be most successful.

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Foundation Components of Personality (Continued)

Socialization process
Continuous impact from the social environment
Steps to successful organizational socialization:
Provide a challenging first job
Provide relevant training
Provide timely and consistent feedback
Select a good first supervisor to be in charge of socialization
Design a relaxed orientation program
Place new recruits in work groups with high morale

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Table 5.1 - The Big Five Personality Traits

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Table 5.2 - The Jung Theory Dimensions and the

Meyes-Briggs Type Indicators

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Table 5.2 - The Jung Theory Dimensions and the

Meyers-Briggs Type Indicators (Continued)

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The Perception Process

The perceptual process or filter can be defined as
a complicated interaction of selection,
organization, and interpretation.
The existence of several subprocesses gives
evidence of the complexity and the interactive
nature of perception.

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Sub Processes of Perception

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Social Perception
Characteristics of the perceiver
Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others
accurately.
Ones own characteristics affect the characteristics
one is likely to see in others.
People who accept themselves are more likely to be
able to see favorable aspects of other people.
Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill.

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Social Perception (Continued)

Characteristics of the perceived
The status of the person perceived will greatly
influence others perception of the person.
The person being perceived is usually placed into
categories to simplify the viewers perceptual
activities. Two common categories are status and role.
The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly
influence others perception of the person.

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Social Perception (Continued)

Stereotyping
Tendency to perceive another person as belonging to a
single class or category.
Frequently used term to describe perceptual errors.

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Social Perception (Continued)

The halo effect

A person is perceived on the basis of one trait.

Is a common rater error.
Has both true and illusory components.
Has led to inflated correlations among rating
dimensions and is due to the influence of a general
evaluation and specific judgments.
Has negative consequences and should be avoided or
removed.

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Work-related Attitudes: PA/NA

The dispositions of positive affectivity (PA) and
negative affectivity (NA) are important
antecedents to attitudes about ones job.
Those with high NA are more likely to have a
negative attitude toward themselves, others, and
the world around them.
Those with high PA have the opposite disposition
and tend to have an overall sense of well-being,
to see themselves as pleasurably and effectively
engaged, and to experience positive attitudes.
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Job Satisfaction
Three generally accepted dimensions to job
satisfaction:
It is an emotional response to a job situation; it
cannot be seen; it can only be inferred.
It is often determined by how well outcomes meet or
exceed expectations.
Job satisfaction represents several related attitudes.

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Job Satisfaction (Continued)

The most important characteristics of a job about
which employees have affective responses:
The work itself
Pay
Promotions
Supervision
Work group
Working conditions

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Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Satisfaction and performance
A positive relationship exists; however, job
satisfaction should not be considered the endpoint in
human performance.

Satisfaction and turnover

An inverse relationship exists.

Satisfaction and absenteeism

A weak negative relationship exists.

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Other Effects and Ways to Enhance Satisfaction

Make jobs more fun
Have fair pay, benefits, and promotion
opportunities
Match people with jobs that fit their interest and
skills
Design jobs to make them exciting and satisfying

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Organizational Commitment
Strong desire to remain a member of a particular
organization.
Willingness to exert high levels of effort on
behalf of the organization.
Definite belief in, and acceptance of, the values
and goals of the organization.

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Organizational Commitment (Continued)

Dimensions of commitment:
Affective commitment - emotional attachment
Continuance commitment - costs associated with
leaving the organization
Normative commitment - feelings of obligation to
stay

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Guidelines to Enhance Organizational

Commitment
Commit to people-first values
Clarify and communicate your mission
Guarantee organizational justice
Create a sense of community
Support employee development

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Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs)

Individual behavior that is discretionary, not
directly or explicitly recognized by the formal
reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes
the effective functioning of the organization.
Major OCB forms: altruism; conscientiousness;
civic virtue; sportsmanship; courtesy.
OCBs do relate to group and organization
performance and effectiveness.

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Questions

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