Organisational Behaviour 151030025

Week 3:

Personality, Difference, Values, (Ch5)

Perceptions &
Decision Making (Ch6)

Dr Helen Macnaughtan hm39@soas.ac.uk

 Personality, Perception & Decision Making

▪ Defining & Measuring Personality

▪ Personality Framework Models

▪ Personality & Values in the Workplace

▪ Perception & Attribution Theory

▪ Decision-Making
 Defining Personality
– Personality is a dynamic concept describing the
growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system.
– The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts to and interacts with others.
– Enduring characteristics are personality traits

– Hereditary or Environment?
 ‘Measuring’ Personality
– Can be useful for managers to understand, assess and
try to measure personality

– Personality tests can be useful in hiring decisions and

help managers forecast who might be best fit for a job

– The most common means

of measuring personality is
through self-assessment surveys

– However, observer-ratings surveys

can also help measure job performance
 Personality, Perception & Decision Making

▪ Defining & Measuring Personality

▪ Personality Framework Models

▪ Personality & Values in the Workplace

▪ Perception & Attribution Theory

▪ Decision-Making
 MBTI Model

• The most widely used personality framework is the

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
MBTI Model
MBTI and Big Five Model
 Video explaining MBTI

Myers-Briggs Explained in Less than 5 Minutes

- 16 Personalities

Myers-Briggs Explained in Less than 5 Minutes - 16

Personalities – YouTube
 The Big Five Model
The Big Five Model Dimensions
(that underly all personality dimensions)

– Extraversion
– Agreeableness
– Conscientiousness
– Emotional stability
– Openness to experience
 MBTI and Big Five Model
Individual Propensity for:

– Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
– Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
– Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
– Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
 Personality, Perception & Decision Making

▪ Defining & Measuring Personality

▪ Personality Framework Models

▪ Personality & Values in the Workplace

▪ Perception & Attribution Theory

▪ Decision-Making
 Defining Values

Values:
our basic convictions about
what is right, good, or desirable

Values have both content & intensity attributes

Values are generally stable and enduring

An individual’s set of values ranked in terms of

intensity is considered the person’s value system
 Personality & Values
Personality Traits Relevant to OB

– Core Self-Evaluation: bottom line conclusions individuals have

about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.

– Self-Monitoring: measures an individual’s ability to adjust his

or her behavior to external, situational factors.

– Proactive Personality: people who identify opportunities,

show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful
change occurs.

Values: our personal value system interacts with personality and

influences our attitude, motivation and behaviour at work
 Ability
Ability: individual’s capacity to perform
tasks/activities in an organization

Ability interacts alongside personality & values

in the workplace

– Intellectual Ability: mental capacity e.g. thinking, reasoning,

problem solving, decision making
– Physical Ability: activities that demand stamina, resilience,
strength, dexterity, flexibility
Personality & ‘Fit’

– People high on extraversion

fit well with aggressive and
team-oriented cultures.

– People high on agreeableness match up better with a

supportive organisational climate than one focused on
aggressiveness.

– People high on openness to experience fit better in

organisations that emphasise innovation rather than
standardisation.
 Personality & ‘Fit’
Dimensions of Fit
A person’s ‘fit’ with a job and organisation will
determine compatibility, satisfaction and outcomes

• Although personality-job fit and

person-organisation fit are considered the most
salient dimensions for workplace outcomes,
other avenues of ‘fit’ are also worth examining

Person-Group fit
Person-Supervisor fit
Personality & ‘Fit’
 Personality & ‘Fit’
Holland research identified six personality types:
realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising, artistic
 Personality & ‘Fit’
Trait activation theory predicts that some situations, events,
or interventions “activate” a trait more than others
 Studies of National Culture
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
 Video Summary
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwa1tkH7LEI&t=158s
Studies of National Culture
 Studies of National Culture
The 9 dimension of the GLOBE Project
Implications for Managers

• Consider screening job candidates

for high conscientiousness—as well as the other Big

Five traits—depending on the criteria your organisation
finds most important.
Other aspects, such as core self-evaluation may be
relevant in certain situations.

• Although the MBTI has faults, you can use it for

training and development; to help employees better
understand each other, open up communication in work
groups, and possibly reduce conflicts.
Implications for Managers
• Evaluate jobs, work groups, and
your organisation to determine
the optimal personality fit.

• Take into account employees’ situational factors when

evaluating their observable personality traits, and lower
the situation strength, to better ascertain personality
characteristics.

• The more you consider people’s different cultures,

the better you will be able to determine their work
behaviour and create a positive organisational climate
that performs well.
 Personality, Perception & Decision Making

▪ Defining & Measuring Personality

▪ Personality Framework Models

▪ Personality & Values in the Workplace

▪ Perception & Attribution Theory

▪ Decision-Making
 Defining Perception
• Perception is a process by which individuals
organize and interpret their sensory impressions in
order to give meaning to their environment
 Defining Perception
→ Perception is important to the study of OB because

people’s behaviours are based on their

perception of what reality is, not always on
reality itself….
 Attribution Theory
• Attribution theory suggests that when we observe
an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine
what contributed to and/or caused that behaviour

• Determination depends on three factors:

– Distinctiveness
– Consensus
– Consistency
 Attribution Theory

Clarification of the differences between internal

and external causation:

– Internally caused
those that are believed to
be under the personal
control of the individual

– Externally caused
resulting from outside
causes
 Bias in Attribution Theory
• Fundamental attribution error
– We have a tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal or personal factors.

• Self-serving bias
– Individuals attribute their own successes to
internal factors (e.g. ability/effort), while blaming
failure on
external factors
(e.g. luck)
Video explaining Attribution Theory

Attributional Processes: Attributing Behavior –

Psychology & Sociology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUy0wUTPrb0
 Attribution Theory
Common Shortcuts in
Judging Others…

– Selective perception
• Any characteristic that makes
a person, object, or event
stand out will increase the probability that it
will be perceived.

• Since we can’t observe everything going on

around us, we engage in selective perception.
 Attribution Theory

– Halo effect
• The halo effect occurs when we draw a general
impression on the basis of a single characteristic.

• Contrast effects
– We do not evaluate a person in isolation.
– Our reaction to one person is influenced by other
persons we have recently encountered.
 Attribution Theory
Stereotyping

– Judging someone on the basis of our perception

of the group to which he or she belongs.

– We have to monitor ourselves to make sure we’re

not unfairly applying a stereotype in our
evaluations and decisions.
Attribution Theory
Applications of Attribution Theory
& Bias in Organisations….

Employment Interview
• Evidence indicates that interviewers make
perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate.

➢Interviewers generally draw early impressions

that become very quickly entrenched.
➢Studies indicate that most interviewers’
decisions change very little after the first four or
five minutes of the interview.
 Attribution Theory
Performance Expectations
– Evidence demonstrates that people will
attempt to validate their perceptions of reality,
even when those perceptions are faulty.

• Self-fulfilling prophecy,
or the Pygmalion effect,
characterizes the fact
that people’s expectations
determine their behaviour

→Expectations become reality

 Attribution Theory
Performance Evaluation

– An employee’s performance
appraisal is very much
dependent upon ‘perception’

• Many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms

• Subjective measures are problematic because of
selective perception
Influence of Social Media – obtaining information
on people through social media insights will inform
our perceptions (bias) of them
 Personality, Perception & Decision Making

▪ Defining & Measuring Personality

▪ Personality Framework Models

▪ Personality & Values in the Workplace

▪ Perception & Attribution Theory

▪ Decision-Making
 Decision Making (Tutorial presentations)

• Decision-Making Theories:

- Rational, Bounded, Intuitive

• Decision-Making can be impacted by bias:

- our selective perceptions, judgement,

values, ethics, culture, personality….
 Decision Making
• Individuals make decisions
– choosing from two or more
alternatives

• Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem

– There is a discrepancy between some current state of

affairs and some desired state, requiring
consideration of alternative courses of action

• One person’s problem is another person’s

satisfactory state of affairs
Rational Decision Making
 Rational Decision Making
Assumptions & Challenges of the Rational Model

that the decision maker…

• has complete information.
• is able to identify all the relevant options in an
unbiased manner.
• chooses the option with the highest utility.

→ Most decisions in the real world

don’t follow the rational model

“Most significant decisions are made by judgment,

rather than by a defined prescriptive model”
 Bounded
Rationality
– Most people respond to a complex problem by reducing it
to a level at which it can be readily understood.
• People satisfice – they seek solutions that are
satisfactory and sufficient.

– Individuals operate within the confines of

bounded rationality…
• They construct simplified models that extract the
essential features.
• A limited list of the more conspicuous choices is
identified.
• The decision maker then reviews the list, looking for a
solution that is “good enough.”
 Intuition & Decision Making
– Intuitive decision making

occurs outside conscious thought;

it relies on holistic associations, or links between
disparate pieces of information, is fast, and is
affectively charged, meaning it usually engages
the emotions.

– The key is neither to

abandon nor rely solely on
intuition, but to supplement
it with evidence and
good judgment.
 Videos: Decision Making -
Intuition vs Rationality

Decision Making Intuition vs Rationality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-
jwf_ERPY

The Rational Decision Making Model: Steps

and Purpose in Organizations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOqi9NP
TVoY
 Bias in Decision Making

– Overconfidence Bias:
individuals whose intellectual and interpersonal
abilities are weakest are most likely to overestimate
their performance and ability.

– Anchoring Bias:
fixating on initial information as a starting point and
failing to adequately adjust for subsequent information.
Bias in Decision Making

• Confirmation Bias:
a type of selective perception
– Seek out information that reaffirms past choices,
and discount information that contradicts past
judgments.

• Availability Bias:
tendency for people to base judgments on
information that is readily available.
Bias in Decision Making
• Escalation of Commitment:
staying with a decision even
when there is clear evidence
that it’s wrong.
• Likely to occur when individuals view
themselves as responsible for the outcome.

• Randomness Error:
our tendency to believe we can predict the outcome of
random events.
• Decision making becomes impaired when we try
to create meaning out of random events.
 Bias in Decision Making
• Risk Aversion:
the tendency to prefer a sure thing
instead of a risky outcome.
• Ambitious people with power that can be taken away
appear to be especially risk averse.
• People will more likely engage in risk-seeking
behavior for negative outcomes, and risk-averse
behavior for positive outcomes, when under stress.

• Hindsight Bias:
the tendency to believe falsely that one has accurately
predicted the outcome of an event
(after that outcome has occurred and is known)
Reducing Bias in Decision Making
 Individual Differences and Decision Making

Individual Differences can impact Decision Making

– Personality
– Gender
– Age
– Mental Ability
– Cultural Differences
– Experience
– Nudging
 Organisations & Decision Making
Organisational Constraints can impact Decision Making
Ethics & Decision Making
• Utilitarianism:
decisions are made solely on the basis
of their outcomes or consequences
(e.g. to maximise happiness & wellbeing)

• Focus on Rights: calls on individuals to make

decisions consistent with fundamental liberties
and privileges

• Impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially to

ensure justice or an equitable distribution of
benefits and costs
 Ethics & Decision Making
• Behavioral ethics: an area of study that analyses how
people actually behave when confronted with ethical
dilemmas.

– Individuals do not always follow ethical standards

promulgated by their organisations, and we
sometimes violate our own standards.

– There are ways to increase

ethical decision making
in organisations.
Ethics & Decision Making
Lying

• One of the top unethical activities

we may indulge in daily.
• It undermines all efforts toward sound
decision making.

• Managers—and organisations—cannot make good

decisions when facts are misrepresented and people
give false motives for their behaviours.
 Creativity & Decision Making
• Creativity is the ability to produce novel and useful ideas.
– These are ideas that are different from what has been
done before, but that are also appropriate to the
problem.
Implications for Managers
• Behaviour follows perception, so to influence
behaviour at work, managers need to
assess how people perceive their work.

Often behaviours we find puzzling can be explained by

understanding the initiating perceptions.

• Make better decisions by recognising perceptual biases

and decision-making errors we tend to commit.

→ Understanding these problems doesn’t always

prevent us from making mistakes, but it does help
Implications for Managers
• Adjust your decision-making
approach to ensure compatibility with the
workplace environment and organisational culture
and your organisational brand

• Adjust your decision-making approach to

ensure compatibility with
organisational ethics and values

• Adjust your decision-making approach to

the demograhics & diversity of your employees

• Adjust your decision-making

approach to the national culture
you’re operating in
 Week 3 Lecture – Resources (textbook chapters & videos)
Chapter 5 (textbook): Personality, Individual Differences
https://soas.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1352790432

Chapter 5 (video): Personality & Values (Obenauer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UTXYSXeZM

Chapter 6 (textbook): Perceptions, Individual Decision Making

https://soas.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1352790432

Chapter 6 (video): Perceptions and Individual Decision Making (Obenauer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkpOkeocsO8
 Week 3 Topics – Supplementary Videos

Myers-Briggs Explained in Less than 5 Minutes - 16 Personalities

Myers-Briggs Explained in Less than 5 Minutes - 16 Personalities –
YouTube

Attribution Theory: Attributing Behavior – Psychology & Sociology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUy0wUTPrb0
 Week 4 Tutorial: Decision-Making in Organisations

Video: Decision Making Intuition vs Rationality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-jwf_ERPY
Video: The Rational Decision Making Model: Steps and Purpose in Organizations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOqi9NPTVoY
OB Textbook p.222-225: Ethics in Decision Making
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.soas.idm.oclc.org/lib/soas-
ebooks/reader.action?docID=7184744&ppg=223
Article: Harvard Business Review “Incorporating DEI into Decision-Making”
https://hbr.org/2023/09/incorporating-dei-into-decision-making

Guidance for Presentation Topics:

(1) What are key theories and ideas on decision-making?
What are strengths & weaknesses of different approaches to decision-making?
(2) How can ethical considerations impact decision-making?
(3) How can DEI impact decision-making?