3- Personality at Work

Question 1

Personality definition

Answer 1

“Those characteristics of the person that
account for consistent patterns of experience and action” (Pervin, Cervone, & John, 2004)

Question 2

Reasons for key differences in personality

Answer 2

1. Genetic Inheritance
2. Family Experience
3. Culture
4. Life experience
   ➔Product of all of these

Question 3

Nature vs Nuture debate

Answer 3

Nature
– Determined at birth
– Stable and unchanging
Nurture
– Determined by experience
– Evolves through life

Question 4

Type personality theory

Answer 4

• Distinct
• One is either introvert or extrovert
• Bimodally distributed

Question 5

Trait personality theory

Answer 5

• Idea that people differ in amount on a single continuim
• Normally distributed

Question 6

What are the Big 5 (Costa and McCrae, 1992)

Answer 6

• Openess
• Conscientiouness
• Extraversion
• Agreeable
• Neuroticism

Question 7

Overview of the big 5

Answer 7

• Developed since 1960s; major progress in 1980s.
• Relatively independent of each other.
• Normal distribution for each trait- most in the middle
• Measured via self reported inventories.

Question 8

Openness to experience

Answer 8

Like working with ideas and possibilities, ready to re-examine attitudes and values

Question 9

Conscientiousness

Answer 9

Highly organised and thorough in one’s approach to tasks, a desire to do things well

Question 10

Extraversion

Answer 10

Quantity and intensity of energy directed
outwards into the social world, outgoing, assertive.

Question 11

Agreeableness

Answer 11

Being helpful to others, mindful of
others’ feelings, preferring cooperation to competition, kind, sympathetic.

Question 12

Neuroticism

Answer 12

Prone to worry and self-doubt, highly
affected by their emotions in stressful situations.

Question 13

Psychometric Criteria role

Answer 13

Helps judge psychological tests.

Question 14

Psychometric Criteria categories

Answer 14

• Reliability
• Criterion-related validity
• Content validity
• Construct validity

Question 15

Criterion-related validity

Answer 15

The strength of relationship between a
predictor (e.g. personality/intelligence test, interview) and the criterion (e.g. effective work behaviours)

Question 16

Conscientiousness and job performance

Answer 16

Positively predicts job performance across a range of jobs.

Question 17

Emotional stability (i.e. low Neuroticism) – and job performance

Answer 17

Is positively associated with job performance; law enforcement; military.

Question 18

Extraversion and job performance

Answer 18

Positive relation in some jobs i.e. social jobs, such as sales and management.

Question 19

Agreeable and job performance

Answer 19

Positively related to teamwork; healthcare

Question 20

Openness and job performance

Answer 20

Positively predicts training performance; professional occupations

Question 21

The big 5 needed for training

Answer 21

Positive associations with openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness (Barrick et al., 2001)

Question 22

The big 5 needed for leadership emergence

Answer 22

Associated with high extraversion, conscientiousness, openness,
emotional stability.

Question 23

The big 5 needed for leadership effectiveness

Answer 23

Positive associations with extraversion, openness, emotional
stability, and (agreeableness & conscientiousness)
(Judge et al., 2002)

Question 24

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Answer 24

Developed from Jung 4 dichotomies ➔16 personality types
extraversion v introversion
sensing v intuition
thinking v feeling
judging v perceiving

Question 25

Jung's Theory

Answer 25

* 8 different patterns for how we carry out mental activities * 8 Function / combined into pairs

Question 26

Criticism of MBTI

Answer 26

* Construct validity – doesn’t replicate in research studies * Reliability – Many people would be reclassified if they took the test five weeks from now. * Incomplete – doesn’t address emotional stability * Strongly criticized * Use is generally problematic, also for recruitment and selection * However, it is very popular in the UK… * Some practitioners claim it is useful for team development

Question 27

What is personality testing used in business for?

Answer 27

* Recruitment and selection * Succession & Transitions * Teambuilding & Development * Coaching and training courses – helping people understand their own and others’ preferences

Question 28

What should businesses care about in terms of personality testing?

Answer 28

-Validity: a) Do tests predict important work behaviours? b) do tests measure what they say they measure? - Reliability: e.g., test-retest reliability: if a person redoes a test, will they get the same result?

Question 29

Problem with companies using the big 5 to recruit?

Answer 29

- People fake a good impression- faking increases scores for conscientiousness and emotional stability

Question 30

Problems with faking

Answer 30

- Honest candidates are screened out - You can't fake in a performance GMA test - It doesn't affect criterion-related validity for the big 5 but problematic for extreme fakers.

Question 31

Why are personality tests important for businesses?

Answer 31

* They seem to make people understandable * They can help in staff selection and development * Sufficiently inexpensive: benefits of outweigh costs

Question 32

The assumptions of using personality tests

Answer 32

* Tests scores are accurate * Personality influences behaviour * The behaviour influenced by personality is crucial for work performance

Question 33

Criterion-related validity for intelligence and job performance for the selection process

Answer 33

High

Question 34

Criterion-related validity for personality and job performance for the selection process

Answer 34

Moderate

Question 35

What is more effective fixed choice responses or single stimuli?

Answer 35

Fixed choice (Salgado and Tauriz, 2014)

Question 36

Important consideration when linking personality and performance?

Answer 36

- The particular type of performance being examined.