PERSONALITY, ABILITY,

ATTITUDES & VALUES

 Objectives:
• Define personality in the workplace
• Describe the big five personality traits in the work setting.
• Explain personality traits in the workplace
• Identify types of abilities that are used to categorize performers in the
organization
• Dicuss attitudes, its formation and how to change it
• Name the two important attitudes in the workplace
• Differentiate terminal from intrumental values
• Identify different values found across culture.
• Every workplace behavior cannot be understood
without considering the concepts of personality,
ability, attitudes and values. These are important
individual characteristics that can influence work
performance.
 Personality at Work

• It encompasses the relatively feelings, thoughts, and

behavioral patterns that have been formed
significantly by genetic and environmental factors
which give an individual his identity.
• An individual’s personality differentiates him from
other people.
 Cont’

• Understanding someone’s personality offers clues

about how that person is expected to act and feel in
a variety of situations.
• Understanding of different employees’ personalities
is useful in order to successfully manage OB.
 Nature
• The genetic or hereditary origins of a person.
• Genetic makeup has been inherited from the mother
and father of the individual.
• Heredity is not the only factor that influences
personality.
 Nurture
• Personality is also affected heavily by nurture.
• Consists of the person’s socialization, life experiences
and other forms of interaction in the environment.
 Big Five Personality Traits
with an acronym of “CANOE”
 Conscientiousness

• Refers to the number of goals on which a person focuses.

• People who focus on few goals are organized, systematic,
punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable.
• YOU are accomplishment striving or a strong desire to
complete a task-related goals as a means of expressing
personality.
 Agreeableness
• The person’s ability to get along with others.
• It causes an employee to be nice, tolerant, sensitive,
trusting, kind and warm.
• It helps others at work consistently.
• Valuable team player and may be effective leaders
because they create a fair environment when they are
in leadership positions.
 Neuroticism
• It refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable,
aggresive, temperamental and moody.
• These people are likely to have emotional adjustment
problems and experience stress and depression on a habitual
basis.
• If very high in neuroticism experience a number of problems
at work.
• They tend to experience relationship difficulties.
 Openness
• Mirrors a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range
interests.
• People with high levels of openess are original,
intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas.
• They are flexible and willing to learn new things.
• They are highly motivated to study new skills, and they
do well in training settings.
 Extraversion
• It reflects an individual’s comfort level with relationships.
• Extroverts tend to be outgoing, talkative and sociable.
• They tend to be effective in jobs involving sales and
marketing.
• As a leader, they show inspirational leadership behaviors.
Other Personality Traits
in the Workplace
 Proactive Personality
• Person’s preference to fix what is supposed as
erroneous and apply initiative to solve problems.
• They take action to start significant change and get
rid of the obstacles they encounter along the way.
 Machiavellianism
• It describes behavior directed towards attaining
power and controlling the behavior of other people.
• Each person has his own degree of Machiavellianism.
• They are rational, non-emotional, willing to
accomplish their personal goals in life.
 Risk Propensity
• Degree of willingness of a person to take chances and
create risky decisions.
• Manager with high risk of propensity is willing to
experiment with new ideas and may venture to new
products.
 Creativity
• It is a personality trait that must be promoted and
expanded inside any organizations by offering
employees opportunity and freedom to think
unconventionally.
 ABILITY
• A person’s talent to perform mental or physical task.
 How about Aptitudes?

• It refers to the natural talents that aid employees in

learning specific task more speedily and execute
them better.
 Learned Capabilities
• These are skills and knowledge that a person
currently has.
 The following abilities have been
discoveredd to help differentiate between
higher and lower performance in the
workplace: Mental Ability, Emotional
Intelligence, Tacit Knowledge & Physical
Ability
 Mental Ability

• Known as intelligencce is a better predictor of

training proficiency and job success when selecting
candidates for a position.
• The acquisition and application of knowledge in
solving problems.
Types of Mental Abilities:
 Verbal Ability

• The ability to understands and express oral and

written communication quickly and accurately. There
are two abilities under verbal ability namely: Oral
Comprehension (ability to understand spoken words
and sentences) and Written Comprehension (ability
to understands written words and sentences)
 Quantitave Ability

• It refers to the two types of mathematical abilities.

• There are two abilities under quantitative ability:
Numerical Aptitude- ability to perform basic
mathematical operations quickly and accurately,
while Numerical Reasoning- is the ability to analyze
logical relationships and to recognize the underlying
principles underlying them.
 Reasoning Ability

• The ability to analyze information so as to make valid

judgements on the basis of insights, rules and logic.
• There are four abilities under reasoning ability
specifically; Problem sensitivity, Deductive
reasoning, Inductive reasoning and Originality.
 Problem Sensitivity
• The ability to sense that there is a problem at present
or likely to be one in the future.
 Deductive Reasoning
• The ability to draw a conclusion or make a choice
that logically follows from existing assumptions and
data.
 Inductive Reasoning
• The ability to identify after observing specific cases or
instances the general rules that govern a process or
that explain an outcome.
 Originality
• The ability to develop clever and novel ways to solve
problems.
 Spatial Ability
• This is the ability linked to visual and mental
representation and manipulation of objects in space.
It has two types to be precise Spatial orientation and
visualization.
Spatial Orientation
• Having good understanding of where one is relative
to other things in the environment.
Visualization
• The ability to imagine and to be able to manipulate
them mentally.
 Perceptual Ability
• The ability to perceive, understand and recall
patterns of information.
• Under this, Speed and Flexibility Closure and
Perceptual Speed
Speed and Flexibility Closure

• The ability to pick out a pattern of information

quickly in the presence of distracting information
even without all the information present
Perceptual Speed

• The ability to examine and compare numbers, letters

and objects quickly.
 Emotional Intelligence
• The handling relationships and interactions with others. It has
four basic components:
1. The ability to recognize and regulate our own emotions. (to
hold our temper)
2. To recognize and influence other’s emotions (enthusiastic)
3. Self motivation (not to give up)
4. The ability to form effective long-term relationship with
others.
 Tacit Knowledge
• Also called Informal Knowledge
• It refers to unwritten, unspoken and hidden vast
storehouse of work related practical know-how that
employees acquire based on his or her emotions,
experiences, insights, intuition, observations and
internalized information.
 Let’s take a look on this....

• Here are some examples of tacit knowledge critical to

any organization/ business that is difficult to write
down, visualize and teach:
How to Speak a Language
• It is really complicated to write down the rules of a
language. Learning a specific language involves
immersion or using language for long periods of time.
Leadership
• It is difficult to teach a complex social skill like
leadership.
• There is no real process or training that can be
assured to make a leader. It widens from experience.
Innovation
• Indescribable skill
• Some individuals exert great effort with innovation
for many decades with modest success.
Aesthetic Sense
• Art and culture is engaging
• This sense is embedded in an individual’s world view.
• It can be refined but not taught.
Body Language
• Extremely significant to communication
Sales
• This is another social skill that is quite tricky to teach.
• Great salespeople are normally described as
“naturals” because it is not easy to transfer the skill
to others.
Intuition
• The ability to comprehend things with no application
of logic.
• It is vital to innovation and decision making.
Humor
• It is not always likely to make clear why something is
funny.
• It is hard to teach a sense of humor.
Emotional Intelligence
• The ability to read and use emotions to influence
results.
• It is difficult to teach or express.
Snowboarding
• Tasks that necessitate physical coordination like
riding a snowboard or bicycle are regarded as tacit
knowledge.
 Physical Ability
• Performing job-related tasks requiring manual labor
or physical skill.
 Here are a few important types of physical abilities:

• Strength
• Stamina
• Psychomotor ability
• Sensory ability
Strength
• It refers to the degree to which the body is cappable of
exerting force.
• Static- ability to use hands, arms, legs, shoulders
• Explosive- to exert short bursts of energy to move the
body or an object
• Dynamic- needed for jobs that need employee to climb..
Stamina
• The ability of the person’s lungs and circulatory system to work
efficiently while he is engaging in prolonged physical activity.
• Dynamic flexibility- quic bends, twists or reaches such as house
painter, Athletes, dancers, choreographers etc.
• Gross body coordination- to sychronize the movements of the
body.
• Gross body equilibrium- to maintain the balance of the body
Psychomotor Ability
• It means the capability to manipulate and control objects
• Fine manipulative- ability to keep the arms and hands steady while
using the hands to do precise owrk
• Control movement- to make precise adjustment using machinery
• Response orientation- ability to choose the right action swiftly in
response to several different signals
• Response time- ability that reflects how quickly a person responds to
signaling information after it happens.
Sensory Ability
• The capability related with vision and hearing.
• Near & far vision- to see details of an object
• Night vision- to see things in low light
• Visual color discrimination- to detect differences in colors
• Depth perception- relative distances
• Hearing insensitivity- to hear differences in sounds
• Auditory attention- ability to focus on a source of sounds
• Speech recognition- to identify and understand the speech of others
 ATTITUDES IN THE WORKPLACE
• Attitudes are shaped by experience
• It is a persistent mental state of readiness to feel and
behave in a favorable or unfavorable manner about a
particular person, object or idea.
 3 significant conclusions are:

 Attitudes are stable- without strong reasons to change

attitudes, it will remain the same
 Attitudes are directed towards some person, object or idea-
specific yet differing attitudes about their superviors or a
friend.
 An attitude on an object or a person relates to an
individual’s behavior towards that object or person-
attitudes may influence their actions.
 Attitude Formation
• Personal values, experiences and personalities are
some forces that could form attitudes.
Three components of
Attitude
Affective
• Emotional component of an attitude which includes
the feelings of a person about an object that could be
positive, negative or neutral. It is often learned from
parents, teachers and peers.
Eg. “ I am afraid of rats”
Cognitive
• Person’s perceptions, beliefs, and options about
something.
Eg. “ I believe rats are dangerous”
Behavioral
• A tendency of a person to take action in a definite
way toward someone or something.
Eg. “ I will avoid rats and scream if I see one”
Two Important Attitudes
in the Workplace:
Inside the workplace, people have different
attitudes about so many things. Salary, benefits,
potential promotions, their boss....hmmmmm
 Job Satisfaction
 The degree of gratification or fulfillment of an
employee in his work.
 Personal factors like needs and aspirations determine
are drivers of job satisfaction
 Organizational factors like realtionship with co-
workers and supervisors, working conditions, work
policies and compensation also affect job satisfaction
 Organizational Commitment
• A highly committed employee would see himself as a
true member of the organization.
• Would ignore negligible sources of dissatisfaction, ad
would have intention to stay in the job.
 Values
• It refers to stable and evaluative life goals that people
have, reflecting what is important to them.
• Values that are significant to people affect the types
of decision they make, how they see the
environment, and their real behaviors.
Types of Values
 Instrumental Values
• It is defined as specific methods of behavior.
• Character traits and personal characteristics, like
being imaginative and independent make up most of
the instrumental values.
 Instrumental Values include:
• Cheerfulness • Politeness • Obedience
• Ambition • Honesty • Helpfulness
• Love • Imagination • Responsibility
• Cleanliness • Independence • Forgiveness
• Self-control • Intellect
• Capability • Broad-
• Courage mindedness
• Logic
 Terminal Values
• Overall goals that people hope to achieve in their
lifetime.
• It includes inner harmony, social recognition, and
world of beauty.
 Terminal values include:

• A world at peace- free of war and conflict

• Family security- taking care of loved ones
• Freedom-independence; free choice
• Equality- equal opportunity for all
• Happiness-contentedness
 Values Congruence
• It refers to how similar an individual’s values
hierarchy to the values hierarchy of the organization.
 Cross-Cultural Values
• Organizational behavior is an essential element in
every organization.
Individualism
• Identity is based on individual
• Personal uniqueness
• Personal freedom
• Unique qualities that distinguishes them from others.
Collectivism
• Identity is based on the group to which one belongs
• Direct confrontations should be avoided
Power Distance
• It can be defined as the extent to which people allow
unequal distribution of power in a society and in an
organization.
Uncertainty Avoidance
• This is the extent a culture programs its members to
feel either uncomfortbale or comfortable in
unstructured situations.
Achievement Orientation
• It means that when work-related goals come into
conflict with other areas of life, the desire to achieve
will win out.
• “work-life balance”