Employees with negative affectivity are inclined to

1

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Chapter 3 Understanding People at Work: Individual Differences and

Perception

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

1. Define personality and describe how it affects work behaviors.

2. Understand the role of values in determining work behaviors.

3. Explain the process of perception and how it affects work behaviors.

4. Understand how individual differences affect ethics.

5. Understand cross-cultural influences on individual differences and perception.

Kronos Uses Science to Match Candidates to Jobs You are interviewing a candidate for a position as a cashier in a supermarket.

You need someone polite, courteous, patient, and dependable. The candidate

you are talking to seems nice. But how do you know who is the right person for

the job? Will the job candidate like the job or get bored? Will they have a lot of

accidents on the job or be fired for misconduct? Don’t you wish you knew

before hiring? One company approaches this problem scientifically, saving

companies time and money on hiring hourly wage employees.

Retail employers do a lot of hiring, given their growth and high turnover rate.

According to one estimate, replacing an employee who leaves in retail costs

companies around $4,000. High turnover also endangers customer service.

Therefore, retail employers have an incentive to screen people carefully so that

they hire people with the best chance of being successful and happy on the job.

Unicru, an employee selection company, developed software that quickly

became a market leader in screening of hourly workers. The company was

acquired by Massachusetts-based Kronos Inc. in 2006.

3

The idea behind the software is simple: If you have a lot of employees and

keep track of your data over time, you have access to an enormous resource.

By analyzing this data, you can specify the profile of the “ideal” employee. The

software captures the profile of the potential high performers, and applicants

are screened to assess their fit with this particular profile. More important, the

profile is continuously updated as new employees are hired. As the database

gets larger, the software does a better job of identifying the right people for the

job.

If you applied for a job in retail, you may have already been a part of this

database: The users of this system include giants such as Albertsons, Universal

Studios, Costco Wholesale Corporation, Macy’s, Blockbuster Inc., Target

Brands Inc., and other retailers and chain restaurants. In companies such as

Target or Blockbuster, applicants use a kiosk in the store to answer a list of

questions and to enter their background, salary history, and other

information. In other companies, such as some in the trucking industry,

candidates enter the data through the Web site of the company they are

applying to. The software screens people on basic criteria such as availability

in scheduling as well as personality traits.

Candidates are asked to agree or disagree with statements such as “slow

people irritate me” or “I don’t act polite when I don’t want to.” After the

candidates complete the questions, hiring managers are sent a report

complete with a color-coded suggested course of action. Red means the

candidate does not fit the job, yellow means proceed with caution, and green

means the candidate can be hired on the spot. Interestingly, the company

contends that faking answers to the questions of the software is not easy

because it is difficult for candidates to predict the desired profile. For example,

4

according to their research, being a successful salesman has less to do with

being an extraverted and sociable person and more to do with a passion for

the company’s product.

Matching candidates to jobs has long been viewed as a key way of ensuring

high performance and low turnover in the workplace, and advances in

computer technology are making it easier and more efficient to assess

candidate-job fit. Companies using such technology are cutting down the time

it takes to hire people, and it is estimated that using such techniques lowers

their turnover by 10%–30%.

Sources: Berta, D. (2002, February 25). Industry increases applicant

screening amid labor surplus, security concerns. Nation’s Restaurant

News, 36(8), 4; Frauenheim, E. (2006, March 13). Unicru beefs up data in

latest screening tool. Workforce Management, 85(5), 9–10; Frazier, M. (2005,

April). Help wanted. Chain Store Age,81(4), 37–39; Haaland, D. E. (2006,

April 17). Safety first: Hire conscientious employees to cut down on costly

workplace accidents. Nation’s Restaurant News,40(16), 22–24; Overholt, A.

(2002, February). True or false? You’re hiring the right people. Fast

Company, 55, 108–109; Rafter, M. V. (2005, May). Unicru breaks through in

the science of “smart hiring.” Workforce Management, 84(5), 76–78.

Individuals bring a number of differences to work, such as unique

personalities, values, emotions, and moods. When new employees enter

organizations, their stable or transient characteristics affect how they

behave and perform. Moreover, companies hire people with the expectation

that those individuals have certain skills, abilities, personalities, and values.

Therefore, it is important to understand individual characteristics that

matter for employee behaviors at work.

5

3.1 The Interactionist Perspective: The Role of Fit

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Differentiate between person–organization and person–job fit.

2. Understand the relationship between person–job fit and work behaviors.

3. Understand the relationship between person–organization fit and work behaviors.

Individual differences matter in the workplace. Human beings bring in their

personality, physical and mental abilities, and other stable traits to work.

Imagine that you are interviewing an employee who is proactive, creative, and

willing to take risks. Would this person be a good job candidate? What

behaviors would you expect this person to demonstrate?

The question posed above is misleading. While human beings bring their traits

to work, every organization is different, and every job within the organization

is also different. According to the interactionist perspective, behavior is a

function of the person and the situation interacting with each other. Think

about it. Would a shy person speak up in class? While a shy person may not

feel like speaking, if the individual is very interested in the subject, knows the

answers to the questions, and feels comfortable within the classroom

environment, and if the instructor encourages participation and participation

is 30% of the course grade, regardless of the level of shyness, the person may

feel inclined to participate. Similarly, the behavior you may expect from

someone who is proactive, creative, and willing to take risks will depend on

the situation.

When hiring employees, companies are interested in assessing at least two

types of fit. Person–organization fit refers to the degree to which a person’s

6

values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the

organization. Person–job fit is the degree to which a person’s skill, knowledge,

abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands. Thus, someone

who is proactive and creative may be a great fit for a company in the high-tech

sector that would benefit from risk-taking individuals, but may be a poor fit

for a company that rewards routine and predictable behavior, such as

accountants. Similarly, this person may be a great fit for a job such as a

scientist, but a poor fit for a routine office job. The opening case illustrates one

method of assessing person–organization and person–job fit in job applicants.

The first thing many recruiters look at is the person–job fit. This is not

surprising, because person–job fit is related to a number of positive work

attitudes such as satisfaction with the work environment, identification with

the organization, job satisfaction, and work behaviors such as job

performance. Companies are often also interested in hiring candidates who

will fit into the company culture (those with high person–organization fit).

When people fit into their organization, they tend to be more satisfied with

their jobs, more committed to their companies, and more influential in their

company, and they actually remain longer in their company. [1] One area of

controversy is whether these people perform better. Some studies have found

a positive relationship between person–organization fit and job performance,

but this finding was not present in all studies, so it seems that fitting with a

company’s culture will only sometimes predict job performance. [2] It also

seems that fitting in with the company culture is more important to some

people than to others. For example, people who have worked in multiple

companies tend to understand the impact of a company’s culture better, and

therefore they pay more attention to whether they will fit in with the company

when making their decisions. [3] Also, when they build good relationships with

7

their supervisors and the company, being a misfit does not seem to lead to

dissatisfaction on the job. [4]

KEY TAKEAWAY

While personality traits and other individual differences are important, we need to

keep in mind that behavior is jointly determined by the person and the situation.

Certain situations bring out the best in people, and someone who is a poor

performer in one job may turn into a star employee in a different job.

EXERCISES

1. How can a company assess person–job fit before hiring employees? What are the

methods you think would be helpful?

2. How can a company determine person–organization fit before hiring employees?

Which methods do you think would be helpful?

3. What can organizations do to increase person–job and person–organization fit after

they hire employees?

3.2 Individual Differences: Values and Personality

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand what values are.

2. Describe the link between values and individual behavior.

3. Identify the major personality traits that are relevant to organizational behavior.

4. Explain the link between personality, work behavior, and work attitudes.

5. Explain the potential pitfalls of personality testing.

8

Values

Values refer to stable life goals that people have, reflecting what is most

important to them. Values are established throughout one’s life as a result of

the accumulating life experiences and tend to be relatively stable. [1] The values

that are important to people tend to affect the types of decisions they make,

how they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviors. Moreover,

people are more likely to accept job offers when the company possesses the

values people care about. [2] Value attainment is one reason why people stay in

a company, and when an organization does not help them attain their values,

they are more likely to decide to leave if they are dissatisfied with the job

itself. [3]

What are the values people care about? There are many typologies of values.

One of the most established surveys to assess individual values is the Rokeach

Value Survey. [4] This survey lists 18 terminal and 18 instrumental values in

alphabetical order. Terminal values refer to end states people desire in life,

such as leading a prosperous life and a world at

peace. Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conduct,

such as being honest and ethical, and being ambitious.

According to Rokeach, values are arranged in hierarchical fashion. In other

words, an accurate way of assessing someone’s values is to ask them to rank

the 36 values in order of importance. By comparing these values, people

develop a sense of which value can be sacrificed to achieve the other, and the

individual priority of each value emerges.

Figure 3.2 Sample Items From Rokeach (1973) Value Survey

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Where do values come from? Research indicates that they are shaped early in

life and show stability over the course of a lifetime. Early family experiences

are important influences over the dominant values. People who were raised in

families with low socioeconomic status and those who experienced restrictive

parenting often display conformity values when they are adults, while those

who were raised by parents who were cold toward their children would likely

value and desire security. [5]

Values of a generation also change and evolve in response to the historical

context that the generation grows up in. Research comparing the values of

different generations resulted in interesting findings. For example, Generation

Xers (those born between the mid-1960s and 1980s) are more individualistic

and are interested in working toward organizational goals so long as they

coincide with their personal goals. This group, compared to the baby boomers

(born between the 1940s and 1960s), is also less likely to see work as central to

their life and more likely to desire a quick promotion. [6]

The values a person holds will affect his or her employment. For example,

someone who has an orientation toward strong stimulation may pursue

extreme sports and select an occupation that involves fast action and high risk,

10

such as fire fighter, police officer, or emergency medical doctor. Someone who

has a drive for achievement may more readily act as an entrepreneur.

Moreover, whether individuals will be satisfied at a given job may depend on

whether the job provides a way to satisfy their dominant values. Therefore,

understanding employees at work requires understanding the value

orientations of employees.

Personality

Personality encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and

behavioral patterns a person has. Our personality differentiates us from other

people, and understanding someone’s personality gives us clues about how

that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. In order to

effectively manage organizational behavior, an understanding of different

employees’ personalities is helpful. Having this knowledge is also useful for

placing people in jobs and organizations.

If personality is stable, does this mean that it does not change? You probably

remember how you have changed and evolved as a result of your own life

experiences, attention you received in early childhood, the style of parenting

you were exposed to, successes and failures you had in high school, and other

life events. In fact, our personality changes over long periods of time. For

example, we tend to become more socially dominant, more conscientious

(organized and dependable), and more emotionally stable between the ages of

20 and 40, whereas openness to new experiences may begin to decline during

this same time. [7] In other words, even though we treat personality as

relatively stable, changes occur. Moreover, even in childhood, our personality

shapes who we are and has lasting consequences for us. For example, studies

show that part of our career success and job satisfaction later in life can be

explained by our childhood personality. [8]

11

Is our behavior in organizations dependent on our personality? To some

extent, yes, and to some extent, no. While we will discuss the effects of

personality for employee behavior, you must remember that the relationships

we describe are modest correlations. For example, having a sociable and

outgoing personality may encourage people to seek friends and prefer social

situations. This does not mean that their personality will immediately affect

their work behavior. At work, we have a job to do and a role to perform.

Therefore, our behavior may be more strongly affected by what is expected of

us, as opposed to how we want to behave. When people have a lot of freedom

at work, their personality will become a stronger influence over their

behavior. [9]

Big Five Personality Traits

How many personality traits are there? How do we even know? In every

language, there are many words describing a person’s personality. In fact, in

the English language, more than 15,000 words describing personality have

been identified. When researchers analyzed the terms describing personality

characteristics, they realized that there were many words that were pointing to

each dimension of personality. When these words were grouped, five

dimensions seemed to emerge that explain a lot of the variation in our

personalities. [10] Keep in mind that these five are not necessarily the only

traits out there. There are other, specific traits that represent dimensions not

captured by the Big Five. Still, understanding the main five traits gives us a

good start for describing personality. A summary of the Big Five traits is

presented in Figure 3.4 "Big Five Personality Traits".

Figure 3.4 Big Five Personality Traits

12

Openness is the degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual,

creative, and open to new ideas. People high in openness seem to thrive in

situations that require being flexible and learning new things. They are highly

motivated to learn new skills, and they do well in training settings. [11] They

also have an advantage when they enter into a new organization. Their open-

mindedness leads them to seek a lot of information and feedback about how

they are doing and to build relationships, which leads to quicker adjustment to

the new job. [12] When supported, they tend to be creative. [13] Open people are

highly adaptable to change, and teams that experience unforeseen changes in

their tasks do well if they are populated with people high in

openness. [14] Compared to people low in openness, they are also more likely

to start their own business. [15]

Conscientiousness refers to the degree to which a person is organized,

systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable.

13

Conscientiousness is the one personality trait that uniformly predicts how

high a person’s performance will be, across a variety of occupations and

jobs. [16] In fact, conscientiousness is the trait most desired by recruiters and

results in the most success in interviews. [17] This is not a surprise, because in

addition to their high performance, conscientious people have higher levels of

motivation to perform, lower levels of turnover, lower levels of absenteeism,

and higher levels of safety performance at work. [18] One’s conscientiousness is

related to career success and being satisfied with one’s career over

time. [19] Finally, it seems that conscientiousness is a good trait to have for

entrepreneurs. Highly conscientious people are more likely to start their own

business compared to those who are not conscientious, and their firms have

longer survival rates. [20]

Extraversion is the degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, and

sociable, and enjoys being in social situations. One of the established findings

is that they tend to be effective in jobs involving sales. [21] Moreover, they tend

to be effective as managers and they demonstrate inspirational leadership

behaviors. [22] Extraverts do well in social situations, and as a result they tend

to be effective in job interviews. Part of their success comes from how they

prepare for the job interview, as they are likely to use their social

network. [23] Extraverts have an easier time than introverts when adjusting to a

new job. They actively seek information and feedback, and build effective

relationships, which helps with their adjustment. [24] Interestingly, extraverts

are also found to be happier at work, which may be because of the

relationships they build with the people around them and their relative ease in

adjusting to a new job. [25] However, they do not necessarily perform well in all

jobs, and jobs depriving them of social interaction may be a poor fit.

Moreover, they are not necessarily model employees. For example, they tend

14

to have higher levels of absenteeism at work, potentially because they may

miss work to hang out with or attend to the needs of their friends. [26]

Agreeableness is the degree to which a person is nice, tolerant, sensitive,

trusting, kind, and warm. In other words, people who are high in

agreeableness are likeable people who get along with others. Not surprisingly,

agreeable people help others at work consistently, and this helping behavior is

not dependent on being in a good mood.[27] They are also less likely to retaliate

when other people treat them unfairly. [28] This may reflect their ability to

show empathy and give people the benefit of the doubt. Agreeable people may

be a valuable addition to their teams and may be effective leaders because they

create a fair environment when they are in leadership positions. [29] At the

other end of the spectrum, people low in agreeableness are less likely to show

these positive behaviors. Moreover, people who are not agreeable are shown to

quit their jobs unexpectedly, perhaps in response to a conflict they engage

with a boss or a peer. [30] If agreeable people are so nice, does this mean that

we should only look for agreeable people when hiring? Some jobs may actually

be a better fit for someone with a low level of agreeableness. Think about it:

When hiring a lawyer, would you prefer a kind and gentle person, or a pit bull?

Also, high agreeableness has a downside: Agreeable people are less likely to

engage in constructive and change-oriented communication. [31] Disagreeing

with the status quo may create conflict and agreeable people will likely avoid

creating such conflict, missing an opportunity for constructive change.

How Accurately Can You Describe Your Big Five Personality Factors? Go to http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ to see how you score on these

factors.

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
15

Neuroticism refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable,

aggressive, temperamental, and moody. These people have a tendency to have

emotional adjustment problems and experience stress and depression on a

habitual basis. People very high in neuroticism experience a number of

problems at work. For example, they are less likely to be someone people go to

for advice and friendship. [32] In other words, they may experience relationship

difficulties. They tend to be habitually unhappy in their jobs and report high

intentions to leave, but they do not necessarily actually leave their jobs. [33]

Being high in neuroticism seems to be harmful to one’s career, as they have

lower levels of career success (measured with income and occupational status

achieved in one’s career). Finally, if they achieve managerial jobs, they tend to

create an unfair climate at work. [34]

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Aside from the Big Five personality traits, perhaps the most well-known and

most often used personality assessment is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

(MBTI). Unlike the Big Five, which assesses traits, MBTI measures types.

Assessments of the Big Five do not classify people as neurotic or extravert: It is

all a matter of degrees. MBTI on the other hand, classifies people as one of 16

types. [35] In MBTI, people are grouped using four dimensions. Based on how a

person is classified on these four dimensions, it is possible to talk about 16

unique personality types, such as ESTJ and ISTP.

MBTI was developed in 1943 by a mother–daughter team, Isabel Myers and

Katherine Cook Briggs. Its objective at the time was to aid World War II

veterans in identifying the occupation that would suit their personalities.

Since that time, MBTI has become immensely popular, and according to one

estimate, around 2.5 million people take the test annually. The survey is

criticized because it relies on types as opposed to traits, but organizations who

16

use the survey find it very useful for training and team-building purposes.

More than eighty of the Fortune 100 companies used Myers-Briggs tests in

some form. One distinguishing characteristic of this test is that it is explicitly

designed for learning, not for employee selection purposes. In fact, the Myers

& Briggs Foundation has strict guidelines against the use of the test for

employee selection. Instead, the test is used to provide mutual understanding

within the team and to gain a better understanding of the working styles of

team members. [36]

Figure 3.6 Summary of MBTI Types

Positive and Negative Affectivity

You may have noticed that behavior is also a function of moods. When people

are in a good mood, they may be more cooperative, smile more, and act

friendly. When these same people are in a bad mood, they may have a

tendency to be picky, irritable, and less tolerant of different opinions. Yet,

some people seem to be in a good mood most of the time, and others seem to

be in a bad mood most of the time regardless of what is actually going on in

their lives. This distinction is manifested by positive and negative affectivity

17

traits. Positive affective people experience positive moods more frequently,

whereas negative affective people experience negative moods with greater

frequency. Negative affective people focus on the “glass half empty” and

experience more anxiety and nervousness. [37] Positive affective people tend to

be happier at work, [38] and their happiness spreads to the rest of the work

environment. As may be expected, this personality trait sets the tone in the

work atmosphere. When a team comprises mostly negative affective people,

there tend to be fewer instances of helping and cooperation. Teams dominated

by positive affective people experience lower levels of absenteeism. [39]When

people with a lot of power are also high in positive affectivity, the work

environment is affected in a positive manner and can lead to greater levels of

cooperation and finding mutually agreeable solutions to problems. [40]

OB Toolbox: Help, I work with a negative person! Employees who have high levels of neuroticism or high levels of negative

affectivity may act overly negative at work, criticize others, complain about

trivial things, or create an overall negative work environment. Here are some

tips for how to work with them effectively.

 Understand that you are unlikely to change someone else’s personality.

Personality is relatively stable and criticizing someone’s personality will not

bring about change. If the behavior is truly disruptive, focus on behavior, not

personality.

 Keep an open mind. Just because a person is constantly negative does not

mean that they are not sometimes right. Listen to the feedback they are giving

you.

 Set a time limit. If you are dealing with someone who constantly complains

about things, you may want to limit these conversations to prevent them from

consuming your time at work.

18

 You may also empower them to act on the negatives they mention. The next

time an overly negative individual complains about something, ask that

person to think of ways to change the situation and get back to you.

 Ask for specifics. If someone has a negative tone in general, you may want to

ask for specific examples for what the problem is.

Sources: Adapted from ideas in Ferguson, J. (2006, October 31). Expert’s

view…on managing office moaners. Personnel Today, 29; Karcher, C. (2003,

September), Working with difficult people. National Public Accountant, 39–

40; Mudore, C. F. (2001, February/March). Working with difficult

people. Career World, 29(5), 16–18; How to manage difficult people. (2000,

May). Leadership for the Front Lines, 3–4.

Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring refers to the extent to which a person is capable of monitoring

his or her actions and appearance in social situations. In other words, people

who are social monitors are social chameleons who understand what the

situation demands and act accordingly, while low social monitors tend to act

the way they feel. [41] High social monitors are sensitive to the types of

behaviors the social environment expects from them. Their greater ability to

modify their behavior according to the demands of the situation and to

manage their impressions effectively is a great advantage for them. [42] In

general, they tend to be more successful in their careers. They are more likely

to get cross-company promotions, and even when they stay with one company,

they are more likely to advance.[43] Social monitors also become the “go to”

person in their company and they enjoy central positions in their social

networks. [44] They are rated as higher performers, and emerge as

leaders. [45] While they are effective in influencing other people and get things

done by managing their impressions, this personality trait has some

19

challenges that need to be addressed. First, when evaluating the performance

of other employees, they tend to be less accurate. It seems that while trying to

manage their impressions, they may avoid giving accurate feedback to their

subordinates to avoid confrontations. [46] This tendency may create problems

for them if they are managers. Second, high social monitors tend to experience

higher levels of stress, probably caused by behaving in ways that conflict with

their true feelings. In situations that demand positive emotions, they may act

happy although they are not feeling happy, which puts an emotional burden

on them. Finally, high social monitors tend to be less committed to their

companies. They may see their jobs as a stepping-stone for greater things,

which may prevent them from forming strong attachments and loyalty to their

current employer. [47]

Proactive Personality

Proactive personality refers to a person’s inclination to fix what is perceived as

wrong, change the status quo, and use initiative to solve problems. Instead of

waiting to be told what to do, proactive people take action to initiate

meaningful change and remove the obstacles they face along the way. In

general, having a proactive personality has a number of advantages for these

people. For example, they tend to be more successful in their job

searches. [48] They are also more successful over the course of their careers,

because they use initiative and acquire greater understanding of the politics

within the organization. [49] Proactive people are valuable assets to their

companies because they may have higher levels of performance. [50] They

adjust to their new jobs quickly because they understand the political

environment better and often make friends more quickly. [51]Proactive people

are eager to learn and engage in many developmental activities to improve

their skills. [52] Despite all their potential, under some circumstances a

proactive personality may be a liability for an individual or an organization.

20

Imagine a person who is proactive but is perceived as being too pushy, trying

to change things other people are not willing to let go, or using their initiative

to make decisions that do not serve a company’s best interests. Research

shows that the success of proactive people depends on their understanding of

a company’s core values, their ability and skills to perform their jobs, and their

ability to assess situational demands correctly. [53]

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about

his or herself. People with high self-esteem view themselves in a positive light,

are confident, and respect themselves. On the other hand, people with low

self-esteem experience high levels of self-doubt and question their self-worth.

High self-esteem is related to higher levels of satisfaction with one’s job and

higher levels of performance on the job. [54]People with low self-esteem are

attracted to situations in which they will be relatively invisible, such as large

companies. [55] Managing employees with low self-esteem may be challenging

at times, because negative feedback given with the intention to improve

performance may be viewed as a judgment on their worth as an employee.

Therefore, effectively managing employees with relatively low self-esteem

requires tact and providing lots of positive feedback when discussing

performance incidents.

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is a belief that one can perform a specific task successfully.

Research shows that the belief that we can do something is a good predictor of

whether we can actually do it. Self-efficacy is different from other personality

traits in that it is job specific. You may have high self-efficacy in being

successful academically, but low self-efficacy in relation to your ability to fix

your car. At the same time, people have a certain level of generalized self-

21

efficacy and they have the belief that whatever task or hobby they tackle, they

are likely to be successful in it.

Research shows that self-efficacy at work is related to job

performance. [56] This relationship is probably a result of people with high

self-efficacy setting higher goals for themselves and being more committed to

these goals, whereas people with low self-efficacy tend to

procrastinate. [57] Academic self-efficacy is a good predictor of your GPA,

whether you persist in your studies, or drop out of college. [58]

Is there a way of increasing employees’ self-efficacy? Hiring people who are

capable of performing their tasks and training people to increase their self-

efficacy may be effective. Some people may also respond well to verbal

encouragement. By showing that you believe they can be successful and

effectively playing the role of a cheerleader, you may be able to increase self-

efficacy. Giving people opportunities to test their skills so that they can see

what they are capable of doing (or empowering them) is also a good way of

increasing self-efficacy. [59]

OB Toolbox: Ways to Build Your Self-Confidence Having high self-efficacy and self-esteem are boons to your career. People who

have an overall positive view of themselves and those who have positive

attitudes toward their abilities project an aura of confidence. How do you

achieve higher self-confidence?

 Take a self-inventory. What are the areas in which you lack confidence? Then

consciously tackle these areas. Take part in training programs; seek

opportunities to practice these skills. Confront your fears head-on.

22

 Set manageable goals. Success in challenging goals will breed self-confidence,

but do not make your goals impossible to reach. If a task seems daunting,

break it apart and set mini goals.

 Find a mentor. A mentor can point out areas in need of improvement, provide

accurate feedback, and point to ways of improving yourself.

 Don’t judge yourself by your failures. Everyone fails, and the most successful

people have more failures in life. Instead of assessing your self-worth by your

failures, learn from mistakes and move on.

 Until you can feel confident, be sure to act confident. Acting confident will

influence how others treat you, which will boost your confidence level. Pay

attention to how you talk and behave, and act like someone who has high

confidence.

 Know when to ignore negative advice. If you receive negative feedback from

someone who is usually negative, try to ignore it. Surrounding yourself with

naysayers is not good for your self-esteem. This does not mean that you

should ignore all negative feedback, but be sure to look at a person’s overall

attitude before making serious judgments based on that feedback.

Sources: Adapted from information in Beagrie, S. (2006, September 26).

How to…build up self confidence. Personnel Today, p. 31; Beste, F. J., III.

(2007, November–December). Are you an entrepreneur? In Business, 29(6),

22; Goldsmith, B. (2006, October). Building self confidence. PA Times,

Education Supplement, p. 30; Kennett, M. (2006, October). The scale of

confidence. Management Today, p. 40–45; Parachin, V. M. (March 2003,

October). Developing dynamic self-confidence. Supervision, 64(3), 13–15.

Locus of Control

Locus of control deals with the degree to which people feel accountable for

their own behaviors. Individuals with high internal locus of control believe

23

that they control their own destiny and what happens to them is their own

doing, while those with high external locus of control feel that things happen

to them because of other people, luck, or a powerful being. Internals feel

greater control over their own lives and therefore they act in ways that will

increase their chances of success. For example, they take the initiative to start

mentor-protégé relationships. They are more involved with their jobs. They

demonstrate higher levels of motivation and have more positive experiences at

work.[60] Interestingly, internal locus is also related to one’s subjective well-

being and happiness in life, while being high in external locus is related to a

higher rate of depression. [61] The connection between internal locus of control

and health is interesting, but perhaps not surprising. In fact, one study

showed that having internal locus of control at the age of ten was related to a

number of health outcomes, such as lower obesity and lower blood pressure

later in life. [62] It is possible that internals take more responsibility for their

health and adopt healthier habits, while externals may see less of a connection

between how they live and their health. Internals thrive in contexts in which

they have the ability to influence their own behavior. Successful entrepreneurs

tend to have high levels of internal locus of control. [63]

Understand Your Locus of Control by Taking a Survey at the Following Web Site: http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/questions/lc_short_1.html

Personality Testing in Employee Selection

Personality is a potentially important predictor of work behavior. Matching

people to jobs matters, because when people do not fit with their jobs or the

company, they are more likely to leave, costing companies as much as a

person’s annual salary to replace them. In job interviews, companies try to

assess a candidate’s personality and the potential for a good match, but

http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/questions/lc_short_1.html
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interviews are only as good as the people conducting them. In fact,

interviewers are not particularly good at detecting the best trait that predicts

performance: conscientiousness. [64] One method some companies use to

improve this match and detect the people who are potentially good job

candidates is personality testing. Companies such as Kronos and Hogan

Assessment Systems conduct preemployment personality tests. Companies

using them believe that these tests improve the effectiveness of their selection

and reduce turnover. For example, Overnight Transportation in Atlanta found

that using such tests reduced their on-the-job delinquency by 50%–100%. [65]

Yet, are these methods good ways of selecting employees? Experts have not yet

reached an agreement on this subject and the topic is highly controversial.

Some experts believe, based on data, that personality tests predict

performance and other important criteria such as job satisfaction. However,

we must understand that how a personality test is used influences its validity.

Imagine filling out a personality test in class. You may be more likely to fill it

out as honestly as you can. Then, if your instructor correlates your personality

scores with your class performance, we could say that the correlation is

meaningful. In employee selection, one complicating factor is that people

filling out the survey do not have a strong incentive to be honest. In fact, they

have a greater incentive to guess what the job requires and answer the

questions to match what they think the company is looking for. As a result, the

rankings of the candidates who take the test may be affected by their ability to

fake. Some experts believe that this is a serious problem. [66]Others point out

that even with faking, the tests remain valid—the scores are still related to job

performance. [67] It is even possible that the ability to fake is related to a

personality trait that increases success at work, such as social monitoring. This

issue raises potential questions regarding whether personality tests are the

most effective way of measuring candidate personality.

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Scores are not only distorted because of some candidates faking better than

others. Do we even know our own personality? Are we the best person to ask

this question? How supervisors, coworkers, and customers see our personality

matters more than how we see ourselves. Therefore, using self-report

measures of performance may not be the best way of measuring someone’s

personality. [68] We all have blind areas. We may also give “aspirational”

answers. If you are asked if you are honest, you may think, “Yes, I always have

the intention to be honest.” This response says nothing about your actual level

of honesty.

There is another problem with using these tests: How good a predictor of

performance is personality anyway? Based on research, not a particularly

strong one. According to one estimate, personality only explains about 10%–

15% of variation in job performance. Our performance at work depends on so

many factors, and personality does not seem to be the key factor for

performance. In fact, cognitive ability (your overall mental intelligence) is a

much more powerful influence on job performance, and instead of personality

tests, cognitive ability tests may do a better job of predicting who will be good

performers. Personality is a better predictor of job satisfaction and other

attitudes, but screening people out on the assumption that they may be

unhappy at work is a challenging argument to make in the context of employee

selection.

In any case, if you decide to use these tests for selection, you need to be aware

of their limitations. Relying only on personality tests for selection of an

employee is a bad idea, but if they are used together with other tests such as

tests of cognitive abilities, better decisions may be made. The company should

ensure that the test fits the job and actually predicts performance. This

process is called validating the test. Before giving the test to applicants, the

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company could give it to existing employees to find out the traits that are most

important for success in the particular company and job. Then, in the selection

context, the company can pay particular attention to those traits. The

company should also make sure that the test does not discriminate against

people on the basis of sex, race, age, disabilities, and other legally protected

characteristics. Rent-A-Center experienced legal difficulties when the test they

used was found to be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The test they used for selection, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality

Inventory, was developed to diagnose severe mental illnesses and included

items such as “I see things or people around me others do not see.” In effect,

the test served the purpose of a clinical evaluation and was discriminating

against people with mental illnesses, which is a protected category under

ADA. [69]

KEY TAKEAWAY

Values and personality traits are two dimensions on which people differ. Values are

stable life goals. When seeking jobs, employees are more likely to accept a job that

provides opportunities for value attainment, and they are more likely to remain in

situations that satisfy their values. Personality comprises the stable feelings,

thoughts, and behavioral patterns people have. The Big Five personality traits

(openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) are

important traits that seem to be stable and can be generalized to other cultures.

Other important traits for work behavior include self-efficacy, self-esteem, social

monitoring, proactive personality, positive and negative affectivity, and locus of

control. It is important to remember that a person’s behavior depends on the match

between the person and the situation. While personality is a strong influence on job

attitudes, its relation to job performance is weaker. Some companies use personality

testing to screen out candidates. This method has certain limitations, and companies

27

using personality tests are advised to validate their tests and use them as a

supplement to other techniques that have greater validity.

EXERCISES

1. Think about the personality traits covered in this section. Can you think of jobs or

occupations that seem particularly suited to each trait? Which traits would be

universally desirable across all jobs?

2. What are the unique challenges of managing employees who have low self-efficacy

and low self-esteem? How would you deal with this situation?

3. What are some methods that companies can use to assess employee personality?

4. Have you ever held a job where your personality did not match the demands of the

job? How did you react to this situation? How were your attitudes and behaviors

affected?

5. Can you think of any limitations of developing an “ideal employee” profile and

looking for employees who fit that profile while hiring?

3.3 Perception

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the influence of self in the process of perception.

2. Describe how we perceive visual objects and how these tendencies may affect our

behavior.

3. Describe the biases of self-perception.

4. Describe the biases inherent in perception of other people.

5. Explain what attributions mean, how we form attributions, and their consequences

for organizational behavior.

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Our behavior is not only a function of our personality, values, and preferences,

but also of the situation. We interpret our environment, formulate responses,

and act accordingly. Perception may be defined as the process with which

individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli. What makes human

perception so interesting is that we do not solely respond to the stimuli in our

environment. We go beyond the information that is present in our

environment, pay selective attention to some aspects of the environment, and

ignore other elements that may be immediately apparent to other people. Our

perception of the environment is not entirely rational. For example, have you

ever noticed that while glancing at a newspaper or a news Web site,

information that is interesting or important to you jumps out of the page and

catches your eye? If you are a sports fan, while scrolling down the pages you

may immediately see a news item describing the latest success of your team. If

you are the parent of a picky eater, an advice column on toddler feeding may

be the first thing you see when looking at the page. So what we see in the

environment is a function of what we value, our needs, our fears, and our

emotions. [1] In fact, what we see in the environment may be objectively, flat-

out wrong because of our personality, values, or emotions. For example, one

experiment showed that when people who were afraid of spiders were shown

spiders, they inaccurately thought that the spider was moving toward

them. [2] In this section, we will describe some common tendencies we engage

in when perceiving objects or other people, and the consequences of such

perceptions. Our coverage of biases and tendencies in perception is not

exhaustive—there are many other biases and tendencies on our social

perception.

Visual Perception

Our visual perception definitely goes beyond the physical information

available to us. First of all, we extrapolate from the information available to us.

29

Take a look at the following figure. The white triangle you see in the middle is

not really there, but we extrapolate from the information available to us and

see it there. [3]

Figure 3.7

Our visual perception goes beyond the information physically available. In this

figure, we see the white triangle in the middle even though it is not really there.

Our visual perception is often biased because we do not perceive objects in

isolation. The contrast between our focus of attention and the remainder of

the environment may make an object appear bigger or smaller. This principle

is illustrated in the figure with circles. Which of the middle circles is bigger?

To most people, the one on the left appears bigger, but this is because it is

surrounded by smaller circles. The contrast between the focal object and the

objects surrounding it may make an object bigger or smaller to our eye.

Figure 3.8

30

Which of the circles in the middle is bigger? At first glance, the one on the left

may appear bigger, but they are in fact the same size. We compare the middle

circle on the left to its surrounding circles, whereas the middle circle on the right

is compared to the bigger circles surrounding it.

How do these tendencies influence behavior in organizations? You may have

realized that the fact that our visual perception is faulty may make witness

testimony faulty and biased. How do we know whether the employee you

judge to be hardworking, fast, and neat is really like that? Is it really true, or

are we comparing this person to other people in the immediate environment?

Or let’s say that you do not like one of your peers and you think that this

person is constantly surfing the Web during work hours. Are you sure? Have

you really seen this person surf unrelated Web sites, or is it possible that the

person was surfing the web for work-related purposes? Our biased visual

perception may lead to the wrong inferences about the people around us.

Self-Perception

Human beings are prone to errors and biases when perceiving themselves.

Moreover, the type of bias people have depends on their personality. Many

people suffer from self-enhancement bias. This is the tendency to overestimate

our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light

than others see us. People who have a narcissistic personality are particularly

subject to this bias, but many others are still prone to overestimating their

abilities. [4] At the same time, other people have the opposing extreme, which

may be labeled as self-effacement bias. This is the tendency for people to

underestimate their performance, undervalue capabilities, and see events in a

way that puts them in a more negative light. We may expect that people with

low self-esteem may be particularly prone to making this error. These

tendencies have real consequences for behavior in organizations. For example,

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people who suffer from extreme levels of self-enhancement tendencies may

not understand why they are not getting promoted or rewarded, while those

who have a tendency to self-efface may project low confidence and take more

blame for their failures than necessary.

When perceiving themselves, human beings are also subject to the

false consensus error. Simply put, we overestimate how similar we are to

other people.[5] We assume that whatever quirks we have are shared by a larger

number of people than in reality. People who take office supplies home, tell

white lies to their boss or colleagues, or take credit for other people’s work to

get ahead may genuinely feel that these behaviors are more common than they

really are. The problem for behavior in organizations is that, when people

believe that a behavior is common and normal, they may repeat the behavior

more freely. Under some circumstances this may lead to a high level of

unethical or even illegal behaviors.

Social Perception

How we perceive other people in our environment is also shaped by our

values, emotions, feelings, and personality. Moreover, how we perceive others

will shape our behavior, which in turn will shape the behavior of the person we

are interacting with.

One of the factors biasing our perception is stereotypes. Stereotypes are

generalizations based on group characteristics. For example, believing that

women are more cooperative than men, or men are more assertive than

women, is a stereotype. Stereotypes may be positive, negative, or neutral.

Human beings have a natural tendency to categorize the information around

them to make sense of their environment. What makes stereotypes potentially

discriminatory and a perceptual bias is the tendency to generalize from a

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group to a particular individual. If the belief that men are more assertive than

women leads to choosing a man over an equally (or potentially more) qualified

female candidate for a position, the decision will be biased, potentially illegal,

and unfair.

Stereotypes often create a situation called a self-fulfilling prophecy. This cycle

occurs when people automatically behave as if an established stereotype is

accurate, which leads to reactive behavior from the other party that confirms

the stereotype. [6] If you have a stereotype such as “Asians are friendly,” you

are more likely to be friendly toward an Asian yourself. Because you are

treating the other person better, the response you get may also be better,

confirming your original belief that Asians are friendly. Of course, just the

opposite is also true. Suppose you believe that “young employees are slackers.”

You are less likely to give a young employee high levels of responsibility or

interesting and challenging assignments. The result may be that the young

employee reporting to you may become increasingly bored at work and start

goofing off, confirming your suspicions that young people are slackers!

Stereotypes persist because of a process called selective perception. Selective

perception simply means that we pay selective attention to parts of the

environment while ignoring other parts. When we observe our environment,

we see what we want to see and ignore information that may seem out of

place. Here is an interesting example of how selective perception leads our

perception to be shaped by the context: As part of a social experiment, in 2007

the Washington Post newspaper arranged Joshua Bell, the internationally

acclaimed violin virtuoso, to perform in a corner of the Metro station in

Washington DC. The violin he was playing was worth $3.5 million, and tickets

for Bell’s concerts usually cost around $100. During the rush hour in which he

played for 45 minutes, only one person recognized him, only a few realized

33

that they were hearing extraordinary music, and he made only $32 in tips.

When you see someone playing at the metro station, would you expect them to

be extraordinary? [7]

Our background, expectations, and beliefs will shape which events we notice

and which events we ignore. For example, the functional background of

executives affects the changes they perceive in their

environment. [8] Executives with a background in sales and marketing see the

changes in the demand for their product, while executives with a background

in information technology may more readily perceive the changes in the

technology the company is using. Selective perception may perpetuate

stereotypes, because we are less likely to notice events that go against our

beliefs. A person who believes that men drive better than women may be more

likely to notice women driving poorly than men driving poorly. As a result, a

stereotype is maintained because information to the contrary may not reach

our brain.

Let’s say we noticed information that goes against our beliefs. What then?

Unfortunately, this is no guarantee that we will modify our beliefs and

prejudices. First, when we see examples that go against our stereotypes, we

tend to come up with subcategories. For example, when people who believe

that women are more cooperative see a female who is assertive, they may

classify this person as a “career woman.” Therefore, the example to the

contrary does not violate the stereotype, and instead is explained as an

exception to the rule. [9] Second, we may simply discount the information. In

one study, people who were either in favor of or opposed to the death penalty

were shown two studies, one showing benefits from the death penalty and the

other discounting any benefits. People rejected the study that went against

their belief as methodologically inferior and actually reinforced the belief in

34

their original position even more. [10] In other words, trying to debunk people’s

beliefs or previously established opinions with data may not necessarily help.

One other perceptual tendency that may affect work behavior is that

of first impressions. The first impressions we form about people tend to have a

lasting impact. In fact, first impressions, once formed, are surprisingly

resilient to contrary information. Even if people are told that the first

impressions were caused by inaccurate information, people hold onto them to

a certain degree. The reason is that, once we form first impressions, they

become independent of the evidence that created them. [11] Any information

we receive to the contrary does not serve the purpose of altering the original

impression. Imagine the first day you met your colleague Anne. She treated

you in a rude manner and when you asked for her help, she brushed you off.

You may form the belief that she is a rude and unhelpful person. Later, you

may hear that her mother is very sick and she is very stressed. In reality she

may have been unusually stressed on the day you met her. If you had met her

on a different day, you could have thought that she is a really nice person who

is unusually stressed these days. But chances are your impression that she is

rude and unhelpful will not change even when you hear about her mother.

Instead, this new piece of information will be added to the first one: She is

rude, unhelpful, and her mother is sick. Being aware of this tendency and

consciously opening your mind to new information may protect you against

some of the downsides of this bias. Also, it would be to your advantage to pay

careful attention to the first impressions you create, particularly during job

interviews.

OB Toolbox: How Can I Make a Great First Impression in the Job Interview?

35

A job interview is your first step to getting the job of your dreams. It is also a

social interaction in which your actions during the first 5 minutes will

determine the impression you make. Here are some tips to help you create a

positive first impression.

 Your first opportunity to make a great impression starts even before the

interview, the moment you send your résumé. Be sure that you send your

résumé to the correct people, and spell the name of the contact person

correctly! Make sure that your résumé looks professional and is free from

typos and grammar problems. Have someone else read it before you hit the

send button or mail it.

 Be prepared for the interview. Many interviews have some standard

questions such as “tell me about yourself” or “why do you want to work here?”

Be ready to answer these questions. Prepare answers highlighting your skills

and accomplishments, and practice your message. Better yet, practice an

interview with a friend. Practicing your answers will prevent you from

regretting your answers or finding a better answer after the interview is over!

 Research the company. If you know a lot about the company and the job in

question, you will come out as someone who is really interested in the job. If

you ask basic questions such as “what does this company do?” you will not be

taken as a serious candidate. Visit the company’s Web site as well as others,

and learn as much about the company and the job as you can.

 When you are invited for an office interview, be sure to dress properly. Like

it or not, the manner you dress is a big part of the impression you make. Dress

properly for the job and company in question. In many jobs, wearing

professional clothes, such as a suit, is expected. In some information

technology jobs, it may be more proper to wear clean and neat business casual

clothes (such as khakis and a pressed shirt) as opposed to dressing formally.

Do some investigation about what is suitable. Whatever the norm is, make

sure that your clothes fit well and are clean and neat.