Introduction to management

3. 

Personality: When we describe people as quiet and passive or loud and 

aggressive or ambitious, we are portraying an aspect of their personality. 

Personality is a set of traits and characteristics, habit patterns and 

conditioned responses to certain stimuli that formulate the impression an 

individual makes upon others. This personality may come out as warm and 

friendly, or arrogant and aggressive. Many psychologists contend that 

personality traits develop in the early childhood years and very; few 

personality changes can be made after the childhood years. Some 

personality characteristics such as physical build and intelligence are 

biological in nature, but most traits such as patience, open mindedness, 

extrovertness or introvertness, etc. are learned. Some of these personality 

traits are highly influential in certain organizational operations from 

organizational behaviour point of view. For example, Tedeschi and 

Lindskold propose that people who are open minded seem to work out 

better in bargaining agreements than people who are narrow minded. 

Similarly, people who are extroverts and outgoing are more likely to be 

successful as managers than those who are introverts. 

4. 

Values: Values, according to Milton Rokeach, represent basic convictions 

that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or 

socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-

state of existence. They generally identify a person's moral structure on 

which the concept of good or bad and right or wrong is based. Values are 

emotionally charged priorities and are passionately defended. Values and 

behaviour are highly correlated. The values indicate behaviour pattern and 

 

461

while they do not necessarily and accurately predict behaviour, when 

behaviour occurs, it is likely to be in line with the values one holds. Value 

system, according to Prof. A Dasgupta, "is a framework of personal 

philosophy which governs and influences the individual's reactions and 

responses to any situations. These reactions and responses direct 

individuals in a society to selectively attend to some goals and to 

subordinate other goals. In other words, value systems represent a 

prioritizing of individual values in relation to their relative importance. 

This value system develops from the cultural environment in which the 

individual is brought up, the concept of nuclear family, religious 

influences on his code of conduct, respect for traditional concepts of ethics 

and morality, and degree of faith in the socially inherited religious 

elements and beliefs. These values are highly stable and enduring and 

once a value is internalized, it becomes, consciously or subconsciously a 

standard or criterion for defining action, for developing and maintaining 

attitudes towards relevant objects and situations, for justifying one's own 

and other's actions and attitudes, for morally defining self and others and 

for comparing self with others. The value system also determines the form 

of social organization in terms of family, groups or community and the 

role and status. Positions of individuals within the community. This will 

also determine the 'decision maker in the family or the opinion leader in 

the community or the leader in the organizations. Values are important in 

relation to the study of organizational behaviour because an organization 

is a composite of attitudes, perceptions, personalities and individual 

behaviours of managers as well as workers. Values determine what is right 

and what is wrong where right or wrong is interpreted in terms of 

perceived values of the decision maker. Values sometimes overpower 

even objectivity and rationality. For example, in order to open a profitable 

manufacturing plant in a developing country, it may be necessary to bribe 

a government official for granting of the license. This bribe may be 

customary and routinely accepted and rationally it could be justified. 

 

462

However, the value system of the management may be such as to consider 

bribery unethical and hence the value system would overpower rationality. 

The study of value system of the managerial class becomes significant 

when one appreciates the areas over which the value system can 

significantly influence the manager's outlook and behaviour. It is now 

generally accepted that: 

  A manager's value system influences his perception of problems 

and his understanding of the various situations, which he faces 

from day-to-day. 

  Value system effectively influences a manager's decision-making 

process as well as hi & inter-personal behaviour. 

  Each manager largely functions within certain ethical and moral 

parameters and the value systems play an important role in 

determining the boundaries of such parameters. 

15.4 ENVIRONMENTAL 

IMPACT ON BEHAVIOUR 

While behaviour is a reaction to situations and the type of reaction is based upon 

some inherited and some learned behavioural characteristics, the environment is 

an important catalyst in determining such type of reactions. If the environment is 

complementary to established behaviour, then the actions are positively 

reinforced. However, if the environment is hostile to the values and skills of the 

worker, then negative reactions take place. For example, some of the coolest 

people have been known to lose temper under certain situations. Highly skilled 

people have changed jobs because the environment in the job situations was not 

conducive to their enhancement. On the other hand, less skilled people have 

learned skills and forged ahead because of the right environment. The 

environment surrounding the work place has two elements. These are physical 

and social. The physical environment at a work place is the arrangement of people 

and things so that this setting has a positive influence on people. Some of the 

physical factors that influence behaviour are noise level, heat, light, ventilation, 

cleanliness, accessibility of work tools, space utilization, color coordination, 

nature of job, office furnishing and number of people working at a given place. 

 

463

The open communication between the manager and the subordinates has a 

positive effect on behaviour. The common cafeteria for management and workers 

in the factories and offices in Japan has been known to be highly motivating to 

workers. Recent studies in "open wall" office concept showed that some 

employees were more productive and satisfied with their work place in open 

space when their jobs did not require private office space. 

The social environment relates to interaction among people and respect for 

numerous social and societal laws, rules and norms created by people to regulate 

and control behaviour of people. These social influences are affected by family 

environment, friends, associates, peers at work, and groups to which an individual 

belongs. Much of the behaviour is an outcome of respect for norms and laws. 

Norms are unwritten rules and informal expectations about how people behave in 

certain social situations. For example, standing in the back of a line for a service 

is expected behaviour from people. Any person cutting in the line will be 

ridiculed and perhaps not allowed to do so. These norms are useful in 

standardizing behaviour of all people in a particular environment. "When in 

Rome, do as the Romans do" is perhaps intended to respect the norms of a certain 

social group, which you come in contact with. 

Rules and laws on the other hand are formalized and written standards of 

behaviour. Both rules and laws are strictly enforced; laws by the legal system and 

rules by the social system. Laws relate to all members of the society. For 

example; stealing property of others is illegal and punishable by law and applies 

to all people within that system. Rules on the other hand affect only a particular 

segment of the society. These may be the rules of a family, a group, a club or an 

organization. Working from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is an organizational rule. Airlines 

have certain rules about wearing safety belt and smoking. There are rules for 

visitors visiting a public place or a tourist place. Observing the norms, rules and 

laws voluntarily makes for an orderly society and allows for predictability of 

behaviours. 

15.5  BEHAVIOUR AS AN INPUT-OUTPUT SYSTEM 

 

464

We have discussed earlier that human behaviour is a function of the person and 

his environment where the "person" is primarily shaped by general biological 

characteristics, and environment, which generates external stimuli. It does not 

include the possibility of randomness of human behaviour and it assumes that all 

human behaviour is goal directed so that a measurable correlation exists between 

the goals and behaviour. The external stimulus is most important since it excites 

the internal processes to activate and the behaviour takes place, that an external 

input is necessary to elicit behavioural responses. The basic input-output model 

can be described as S<->O->B model where S stands for the stimuli generated by 

the external environment as input, O stands for human organism which is 

activated by physiological as well as psychological processes, and B stands for 

behaviour as the output. Before behaviour is exhibited, there is mutual interaction 

between the stimulus and the organism and except for reflex actions, the organism 

"decides" as to the type of behaviour outcome. This interaction results in 

perception and it becomes the cause of human behaviour. 

Another input-output model has been proposed by Kolasa, which describes 

human behaviour in terms of a systems model, which may describe the process in 

a more objective manner. The input from the external environment is processed 

and analyzed through a central processing function which is similar to human 

organism "O" in the previous model except that this central processing region is 

the crucial region of cognition consisting of perception and such core processes as 

thinking, reasoning, logic, problem solving and decision making. 

Here the stimuli forms the input and is transformed into information by various 

sensory organs. This information is organized by the central information 

processing function in a manner, which is meaningful to the individual. This 

organization takes place through the perceptual processes that are formed through 

experience in the social setting, and is a function of the personality traits as far as 

the values and the utility of information is concerned. The second step in the 

behavioural sequence is the analysis of the information, choice of alternatives in 

dealing with the information, then selecting the most beneficial alternative to the 

individual and taking action. This step is known as the decision-making and 

 

465

action taking and becomes the output of the system and this output reflects the 

behaviour of the person. 

15.6  BEHAVIOUR AND PERFORMANCE 

According to Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn performance of is a reflection of   

characteristics. These are:  

  Individual's “capacity” to perform  

  Individual's “willingness” to perform 

  Organizational support 

While organizational support basically provides an individual with an 

"opportunity" to perform which does affect behaviour to some degree, the 

capacity and the "willingness" are directly associated with the human behaviour. 

The capacity to perform is an outcome of such competency characteristics as 

ability and aptitude, which can be considered as, inherited characteristics of 

behaviour. Ability, which is partly a measure of intelligence, is the basic and 

important ingredient for effective performance and all the motivation and 

organizational efforts will not be of any help towards performance if the basic 

ability does not exist. Accordingly, job performance is facilitated when ability 

matches the requirements. 

Even when the ability fits the task requirements, it does not necessarily result in 

high performance. To achieve high levels of performance, the individuals must 

show willingness to perform and put in adequate work effort. The effort or the 

degree of willingness to perform effectively would depend upon the degree of 

motivation of the individual. This motivation, which is a behavioural concept, 

defines the forces within the individual that account for the direction and level of 

effort relating to a given task. For example, in a classroom setting, all students 

generally come from a similar background, similar' age, and similar abilities and 

are exposed to the same instructor and similar study requirements, but all students 

will not get similar grades because some students will be highly motivated to 

work harder than the others. 

Organizational support and resources affect human behaviour in a significant way 

and the performance is influenced by this behaviour. Physical facilities and 

 

466

technology in the organizational structure, as well as advice and direction from 

the leaders are highly conducive to positive outlook towards work, resulting in 

high quality performance. Inadequate support systems such as rush jobs, 

unavailability of best tools to perform work, unclear guidance and instructions are 

all influences in a negative way on behaviour and performance. Some of the 

symptoms of inadequate organizational support are given as follows: 

  Lack of time 

  Inadequate budgets 

  Inadequate tools, equipment, supplies 

  Unclear instructions and job related information  

  Unfair levels of expected performance 

  Lack of job-related authority 

  Lack of required services and help from others 

  Inflexibility of procedures. 

All the above constraints intrude on work performance. 

15.7 SUMMARY 

Human behaviour, being the most complex phenomenon, is most difficult to 

assess in quantifiable terms. However, since behaviour constitutes a set of 

responses to external and internal stimuli, some relationship between a given 

stimuli and its predictable response can be established. There are two factors that 

have a direct bearing on human behaviour. One is the person himself with regard 

to some characteristics that he is born with or he acquires because of his family 

value influences. Second is the environment to which the person is exposed and 

the environmental forces that are constantly impacting his personality and 

behaviour. Both these factors are interlinked so that behaviour cannot be 

explained in itself by either of the two factors, independent of the other factor. 

Behavioural characteristics are considered to be both inherited and learned. 

Inherited behavioural characteristics include physiological aspects, intelligence, 

sex, age and religion. Learned characteristics include a person's perception about 

his surrounding environment, his attitude towards life itself and towards other 

people, his personality and his ethical values. Both the inherited as well as learned 

 

467

characteristics together have an important bearing on the behaviour of a person 

and knowing the extent of the influences of these factors on the person, his 

behaviour may be predictable, at least in general terms. The external environment 

is known to have a considerable effect on a person's behaviour as a response to 

particular stimuli in the external environment. For example, if a particular 

situation in the environment is hostile to a person's values and established 

behavioural pattern, then the behaviour may temporarily change as a response to 

such a situation. For example, some of the coolest people have been known to 

lose temper under certain hostile situations. Behaviour can be considered as an 

input output system. This concept assumes that behaviour is not simply a random 

phenomenon but is goal directed so that a measurable correlation exists between 

the goals and behaviour. The external stimulus or input excites the internal 

processes to activate and the behavioural responses occur. This means that 

behaviour is related to performance and productivity. Performance is a reflection 

of three characteristics. These are an individual's "capacity" to perform, his 

"willingness" to perform and the extent and nature of the organizational support. 

While organizational support basically provides an "opportunity" to perform 

which does affect behaviour to some degree, the capacity and the willingness are 

directly associated with human behaviour. 

15.8  SELF-TEST QUESTIONS 

1. 

Behaviour is considered to be a function of the person and his 

environment. Describe the importance of each of these two factors relative 

to behaviour and explain as to which one of these factors has more impact 

on behaviour and why? 

2. 

What do we mean by "biological foundations of behaviour?" Is behaviour 

really founded on "biological" manipulations? Explain your reasoning. 

3. 

Describe some of the inherited characteristics of behaviour. Do you 

believe that these characteristics can be changed or modified? Give 

reasons. 

4. 

Is intelligence an inherited trait or a learned trait? If it is a learned trait, 

what steps can be taken to improve upon intelligence? 

 

468

5. 

Describe some of the learned characteristics of behaviour. DO these 

characteristics change with the change in the environmental situation? 

Which of these traits are formed early in years and how difficult it is to 

change these traits? 

6. 

Define the concept of values and ethics. Are these values absolute in 

nature or differ from person to person aria situation to situation? Explain 

15.9 SUGGESTED 

READINGS 

1. 

Elton Mayo, the Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, Macmillan 

Publishing Company, New York. 

2. 

Keith Davis, Human Behaviour at Work, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi. 

3. 

Laurie J. Mullins, Management and Organisational Behaviour (2

nd

 ed.), 

Pitman. 

4. 

Fred Luthans, Organisational Behaviour (8

th

 ed.), Irvin/Tata McGraw Hill. 

5. 

Stephen P. Robbins, Organisational Behaviour (9th ed.), Prentice Hall 

India. 

6. 

Earnest R. Hilgard and Gordon Power, Theories of Learning, Prentice 

Hall. 

 

469

SUBJECT: 

Management Concepts and Organization Behavior 

COURSE CODE: MC 101 

 

 

 

           Author: Ms. Richa Verma 

CHAPTER NO: 16 

 

 

 

 

           Vetter: Dr. B.K.Punia   

 

PERSONALITY 

Objective:  

The main objective of this lesson is to make the students learn about the 

word personality and different aspects related to it. 

 

Structure: 

16.1 Introduction 

16.2 

Determinants of Personality 

16.3 Approaches/Theories 

of 

Personality 

16.4 

Personality Dimensions/Attributes Influencing Behavior 

16.5 

Personality Assessment Tests 

16.6 

Summary 

16.7 

Self Assessment Exercise 

16.8 

Suggested Reading 

 

16.1 INTRODUCTION 

Personality is a concept that we use in our routine working while dealing with 

people. We generally talk about people who are close to us or may or may not 

related to us. We generally say that a person has good, bad, arrogant or aggressive 

personality. Thus the word good, bad, arrogant and aggressive explains that 

personality is related with the behavior of an individual. The term personality has 

been derived from the Latin word 'per sonare' which means to speak through. This 

Latin word denotes the mask, which the actors used to wear in ancient Greece and 

Rome. Long ago when plays were performed the numbers of actors used to be 

less than the number of roles. So the same actor used to change the masks to make 

people realize that they are performing a different character. Perhaps due to this 

reason people relate personality to physical and outward appearance. It is also 

related with social status of the individual, as the person with high social status is 

 

470

having good personality. Thus in simple sense, personality is sum total of ways in 

which an individual reacts and interacts with others. Thus, 

“Personality is the supreme realization of the individuality of a particular living 

being". 

Personality is a word or characteristics, which is of great importance now a day in 

every field of life. Every organization examines the personality of the applicant 

before he became the employee of the concern. Every entrance test, that may be a 

professional course, job or future studies have logical, relational and constructive 

personality assessment questions because they form the personality of an 

individual. All the interviews are designed with the questions that can bring out 

the personality of the candidate. According to Gordon Allport, 

"Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of those 

psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his 

environment". 

Thus, personality embraces all the unique traits and patterns of adjustments of the 

individual in his relationship with others and his environment. Personality is a 

process of change and it is related with psychological growth and development of 

an individual. According to R.B.Cattel,  

“Personality is that which predict of what a person will do in a given situation". 

 

16.2 DETERMINANTS 

OF PERSONALITY 

The factors, which shape, change or develop the personality of an individual, are 

discussed as under. These determinants of personality can be classified into 

following categories: 

1.  Biological factors: The ways an individual sense the external event data, interpret 

and respond to them are general biological characteristics of human biological 

system. The study of biological contribution to personality can be divided into: 

a)  Heredity:  It is transmission of the qualities from ancestor to descendant through a 

mechanism lying primarily in the chromosomes of the germ cells. These qualities are 

present in a person by birth. Heredity refers to those factors like physical stature, 

facial attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition, energy level and 

 

471

biological rhythms etc. that were determined at conception. At conception, each 

parent contributes chromosomes containing thousands of genes, which seems to be 

transmitter of traits in the child. Saying such as “like father, like son" proves the 

above discussion. Thus, heredity is generally more important in determining a 

person's temperament than his values and beliefs. 

b)  Brain: It plays very important role in shaping personality. The structure of brain 

determines personality. People normally say that a person with more number of lines 

on his brain is more intelligent. Different people will give value to different things. 

For some beauty is more valuable than intelligence. However, no conclusive proof is 

available so far about the nature of relationship between brain and personality. 

c)  Physical Features: Another factor that contributes to personality formation is physical 

characteristics of an individual. While defining personality some individuals give 

higher weights to physical features of an individual. The external appearance includes 

height, weight, colour, facial features etc of the individual while determining his 

personality. The normal belief is that the healthy person is lazy and the thin is angry 

determines the individual personality. In today's competitive environment for the job 

of sales executive the physical appearance is an asset of an individual. 

 

2.  Family and Social Factors: Family plays an important role in early personality 

development. The infant acquires those behaviour patterns that depend upon the 

socio-economic level of the family, family size, birth-order, race, religion, parent 

education level, geographic location etc. Social factors include the person’s 

interaction with other people throughout his life. The family and social factors are 

categorize as below: 

a)  Home environment: It is a critical factor in personality development. A child will 

have soft personality if he will grow in a warm, loving and protective environment. 

And if everybody in the family is busy in their life and have no concern for each other 

then the infant will have rigid personality. The key variable is not the parents per se 

rather the type of environment that is generated for the child.  

b)  Family Members: Parents and other family members have strong influence on 

personality development of the child. Parents have more impact than other members 

 

472

of the family do in building the child's personality. We generally see that small 

children behave like their parents. The relationships between the parents and children 

are higher then between the children and teachers in building child's personality. 

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

c)  Social Group: In addition to home environment and family members, there are other 

influences from the social placement of the family. Social groups includes the 

person’s interaction with other people which starts with playmates during childhood 

and continue with peers at work, associates and other work groups. The internal and 

external work environment continues to influence the people personalities, perception 

and behaviour throughout his life. 

The home environment, family members and social groups influence the 

socialization and identification process of an individual. Socialization is a process by 

which an infant acquires from the wide range of behavioral potentialities that are 

open to him at birth, those behavior patterns that are customary and acceptable to 

family and social groups. It starts with the initial contact between an infant and 

mother and continues with interaction of infant with other family members and social 

groups.  Identification process occurs when a person tries to identify himself with 

some person whom he feels ideal in the family. Generally a child in the family tries to 

behave like his father or mother.  

 

1)  Biological Factors 

a)  Heredity 

b)  Brain 

c)  Physical Features 

2)  Family and Social Factors 

a)  Home Environment 

b)  Family Members 

c)  Social Groups 

3)  Cultural Factors 

4)  Situational Factors 

5)  Other Factors 

a)  Temperament 

b)  Interest 

c)  Character 

 

473

3.  Cultural Factors: According to Hoebel, Culture is sum total of learned behaviour 

traits which are manifested and shared by the members of the society. The culture 

within which a person is brought up is very important determinant of behaviour of a 

person. Culture is a unique system of perception, beliefs, values, norms, patterns of 

behaviour and code of conduct that influence the behaviour of the individual. It 

determines what a person is and what a person will learn. The way of talking and 

dressing sense of Hindus and Muslims are entirely different, as they are prone to 

different cultures. Each culture trains its members to behave in the ways that are 

acceptable to the group. The difference among individual behaviour is also based 

upon socio-economic classes, ages, education, professions and geographic regions. 

As skilled have different behaviour pattern than the unskilled workers do. 

 

4.  Situational Factors: An individual personality is generally stable and consistent; it 

may change in different situations. An individual life is unique in terms of events and 

experience, but these experience sometimes change the structure of the entire 

personality of an individual. Suppose there is a worker who is very fond of doing 

work. But sometime due to overload he becomes frustrated from the existing job. Due 

to this changed situation, his personality composition also changes. Thus demand of 

different situation may call for different aspects of one’s personality. 

 

5.  Other Factors: 

a)  Temperament: It is the degree to which one responds emotionally. It is distributed 

according to normal distribution. 

b)  Interest: An individual has many interests in various areas. Top executives in any 

organization do not have common interest. Thus the organization should provide 

them job rotation and special training programs to satisfy their interest. 

c)  Character: It means honesty. It is very important requirement for responsible jobs. It 

is resistance to stealing and cheating others. It is likely that an individual may not 

steal in normal circumstances, but this can be the demand of undesirable 

circumstances. For example, if the family of an individual is starving, there is a great 

 

474

probability that one will steal.  Thus before analyzing the undesirable character of an 

individual, one should study his situation as well. 

d)  Schema: It is an individual’s belief, frame of reference, perception and attitude which 

the individual possesses towards the management, job, working condition around 

him, pay scale, fringe benefits, compensation mechanism, development towards 

religion, government and satisfaction gained from environment. Thus the complete 

behavior of an individual is dependent upon the external stimuli. 

e)  Motives: These are the inner drivers of an individual. They represent goal directed 

behavior of individual. Motives help in determining one’s behavior towards a goal. 

 

Thus, the above factors affect the formation and development of personality. At 

each stage of the life every individual learns from the environment he lives in and the 

persons he interacts with. 

 

16.3 APPROACHES/THEORIES 

OF 

PERSONALITY 

1.  Psycho-analytical Theory: The mile stone in the study of personality is Freud’s 

psychoanalytical theory. Freud is of the belief that the personality as a reflection of 

behaviour has been primarily based on the unconscious nature of personality. The 

human behaviour and motivation is outcome of following psychoanalytical concepts. 

Such as: 

a)  ID: It is the unconscious part of the human personality. It is most primitive part and is 

the storehouse of biologically based urges. Example- urges to have food, water etc. 

ID is original source of personality present in a newborn or infant. The principal of 

working for ID is ‘Pleasure’. Id tries to satisfy the urge as soon as possible without 

considering the realities of life. 

b)  Ego: Ego manages ID through the realities of the external environment. Ego is 

conscious in nature and is a mechanism to relate our conscious urge to outside real 

world. As Ego is conscious and logical part of human personality, ID is guided and 

governed by Ego. It explains the ways of thinking and behaving. ID demands 

immediate pleasure at whatever cost, Ego controls it so that the pleasures are granted 

at appropriate time and in acceptable manner. Ego delays satisfying ID motives and 

channels the behaviour, which is socially acceptable. It makes people work to live 

 

475

and adjusting to the realities of life. The principle of ego to work is ‘Reality 

Principle’. It takes into account what is possible in this world.  

As the function of ID and Ego are contrary there is always ongoing tension 

between ID and Ego i.e. between urges and realities of life which keeps Ego to 

develop more sophisticated thinking skills. Thus to keep ID under control, Ego is 

supported by Super Ego. 

c)  Super Ego: It is higher level restraining force and can be described as the conscience 

of the person. The conscience creates standards of what is right or wrong. It 

represents the rules and the norms that check the cultural, moral or ethical behavioral 

values of the individual in the social environment. However, an individual is not 

aware of presence and working of superego in oneself. It is developed slowly in a 

person when he absorbs central values and follows the standards of society. Superego 

keeps ego to judge what is right or wrong. 

Example: A Boy is feeling hungry because of ID. He passes through a shop with food 

displayed in the window and thus the urge of hunger arises more strongly. But the boy 

has no penny and the Ego suggest the ways to satisfy hunger that if you don’t have 

money to buy food, steal and run. Then, Super Ego warns boy that there is something 

wrong as stealing is considered blundered in society and it is punishable.