Материал: Management-and-Organization-Behavior

Review Questions

1.Explain the perceptual process and the factors influencing the perception?

2.Examine with suitable examples from the real world how a sound knowledge of perception helps a manger in managing people and situations?

3.What is learning? Explain any two learning theories you are familiar with?

4.Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement?

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Lesson - 15 : Personality And Individual Differences

Objectives

After going through this lesson, you should be able to:

ӹӹGrasp The Meaning Of Personality;

ӹӹUnderstand The Factors Contributing For Personality Development;

ӹӹGain The Knowledge Of Various Personality Theories; And

ӹӹFind Out The Impact Of Personality Differences On Behavior.

Lesson Outline

ӹӹMeaning And Definition Of Personality

ӹӹDeterminants Of Personality

ӹӹTheories Of Personality

ӹӹPersonality Traits And Their Impact On Behaviour

ӹӹReview Questions

Meaning and Definition of Personality

Personality is a complex phenomenon and difficult understand. There is no single universally acceptable definition. Personality refers to the personal characteristics that lead to consistent patterns of behaviour. It represents the overall profile or combination of stable characteristics that capture the unique nature of a person. Personality combines a set of physical and mental characteristics that reflect how a person looks, thinks, acts and feels. It has both internal and external elements. External traits are observable behaviours on the basis of which we can understand one’s personality. The internal factors are thoughts, values and genetic characteristics that are inferred from the observable behaviours. According to Hogan, personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviours and consistent internal states that explain a person’s behavioural tendencies.

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We can understand from the above definition that people have some traits in common with others and some uncommon with them. Each employee in an organization is unique and he may or may not act similarly in a similar situation. Therefore, managers cannot use the same kind of rewards or motivation techniques to influence employee’s behaviour. The above definition does not mean that people do not ever change. It simply indicates that individuals do not change drastically overnight and their thoughts, feelings, values, and actions remain relatively stable over time. Personality changes in individuals occur slowly over an extended period of time. However, an understanding of personality dimensions would enable managers to predict the behaviour of employees and manage them effectively.

Determinants of Personality

Having understood the concept of personality, now we can move further to know how an individual’s personality is determined? Is it inherited (genetically determined) or is it formed after years of experience? There are no simple answers to these questions. In fact, several factors influence the shaping of our personality. Primarily, there are two sources contributing for personality differences. They are i. heredity and ii. environment. Environment has several factors within it like culture, family background, life experiences and the groups we interact with. The following diagram shows how personality is shaped by these factors.

PERSONALITY

Figure 15.1: Determinants of Personality

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Heredity

Our personality is partly inherited genetically from our parents. For example, whether we are fair or dark, tall or short, strong or weak are all characteristics that have something to do with heredity. Personality characteristics are partly influenced by environmental factors also like experiences in life. Some traits may have strong genetic component while others may be largely learned.

Culture

Culture refers to the distinctive ways in which people organize and live their lives. Hence people belonging to different societies will have different cultural orientations. Persons born into a particular society are exposed to family and societal values and to norms of acceptable behaviour in the culture of that society. People in the West and those in the East have cultural differences between themselves. In US culture, people are rewarded for being independent while in Japanese culture they are rewarded for being group oriented. These differences are primarily due to variations in cultural norms and expectations of acceptable behaviours in the respective societies. You may also note that though cultural values may have an impact on personality differences among people in different cultures, people born in the same culture may also differ from each other in many characteristics. Managers should keep this in mind when they are dealing with the employees.

Family Background

An important tool of socializing a person into a particular culture is the person’s immediate family. Factors like the socio-economic status of the family, the number of children in the family and birth order, and education of the parents and extended members of the family such as cousins, uncles and aunts influence personality formation. In this regard, you may note that parents’ influence on children’s development is significant and it happens in three ways:

i.Through their own behaviours they influence children’s behaviours;

ii.They serve as role models; and

iii.They selectively reward and punish the behaviour of children.

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