Transcript Document
Chapter 2
Individual Behaviour,
Personality, and Values
Values, Personality, and Self-Concept at
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has
excelled as North America’s
largest luxury hotel operator by
hiring people such as Yasmeen
Youssef (shown here) with the
right values and personality
and then nurturing their selfconcept.
Yasmeen Youssef
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
MARS Model of Individual
Behaviour
Situational
factors
Values
Motivation
Personality
Perceptions
Emotions
Ability
Attitudes
Stress
Role
perceptions
Individual
behaviour and
results
Employee Motivation
Internal forces that affect a person’s
voluntary choice of behaviour
• direction
• intensity
• persistence
S
M
A
R
BAR
Employee Ability
Natural aptitudes and learned capabilities
required to successfully complete a task
Competencies personal characteristics that
lead to superior performance
Person job matching
• selecting
• developing
• redesigning
S
M
A
R
BAR
Role Perceptions
Beliefs about what behaviour is required to
achieve the desired results:
• understanding what tasks to perform
• understanding relative importance of tasks
• understanding preferred
behaviours to accomplish tasks
S
M
A
R
BAR
Situational Factors
Environmental conditions beyond the
individual’s short-term control that constrain
or facilitate behaviour
• time
• people
• budget
• work facilities
S
M
A
R
BAR
Defining Personality
Relatively enduring pattern of thoughts,
emotions, and behaviours that characterize a
person, along with the psychological
processes behind those characteristics
• External traits – observable behaviours
• Internal states – thoughts, values, etc inferred from
behaviours
• Some variability, adjust to suit the situation
Nature vs Nurture of Personality
Heredity explains about half of behavioural
tendencies and 30% of temperament preferences
Minnesota studies of twins, including those
separated at birth, very similar behaviour patterns
Nurture also counts -- socialization, life
experiences, learning
Personality stabilizes over time -- executive function
Five-Factor Personality Model
(CANOE)
Conscientiousness
Careful, dependable
Agreeableness
Courteous, caring
Neuroticism
Anxious, hostile
Openness to Experience
Sensitive, flexible
Extroversion
Outgoing, talkative
Five-Factor Personality and
Organizational Behaviour
Conscientiousness and emotional stability
• Motivational components of personality
• Strongest personality predictors of performance
Extroversion
• Linked to sales and mgt performance
• Related to social interaction and persuasion
Agreeableness
• Effective in jobs requiring cooperation and helpfulness
Openness to experience
• Linked to higher creativity and adaptability to change
Jungian Personality Theory
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung
Identifies preferences for perceiving the
environment and obtaining/processing
information
Commonly measured by Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Extroversion versus introversion
• similar to five-factor dimension
Sensing versus intuition
• collecting information through senses versus through
intuition, inspiration or subjective sources
Thinking versus feeling
• processing and evaluating information
• using rational logic versus personal values
Judging versus perceiving
• orient themselves to the outer world
• order and structure or flexibility and spontaneity
Feeling Valued at Johnson &
Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is one of the most
respected employers because it
recognizes the value of supporting each
employee’s self-concept
Self-Concept Defined
An individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations
“Who am I?” and “How do I feel about myself?”
Guides individual decisions and behaviour
Three “C’s” of Self-Concept
Complexity
• People have multiple self-concepts
Consistency
• Improved wellbeing when multiple self-concepts
require similar personality traits and values
Clarity
• Clearly and confidently described, internally
consistent, and stable across time.
• Self-concept clarity requires self-concept
consistency
Three “Selves” of Self-Concept
Self-enhancement
• Promoting and protecting our positive self-view
Self-verification
• Affirming our existing self-concept (good and bad
elements)
Self-evaluation
• Evaluating ourselves through self-esteem, self-
efficacy, and locus of control
Self-Concept: Self-Enhancement
Drive to promote/protect a positive self-view
• competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, valued
Strongest in common/important situations
Positive self-concept outcomes:
• better personal adjustment and mental/physical
health
• inflates personal causation and probability of
success
Self-Concept: Self-Verification
Motivation to verify and maintain our existing
self-concept
Stabilizes our self-concept
People prefer feedback consistent with their
self-concept
Self-verification outcomes:
• We ignore or reject info inconsistent with self-
concept
• We interact more with those who affirm/reflect selfconcept
Self-Concept: Self-Evaluation
Defined mainly by three dimensions:
1. Self-esteem
• Global self-evaluation
• High self-esteem -- less influenced, more persistent/logical
2.
Self-efficacy
• Belief in one’s ability, motivation, role perceptions, and
situation to complete a task successfully (i.e. MARS)
• General vs task-specific self-efficacy
3.
Locus of control
• General belief about personal control over life events
• Higher self-evaluation with internal locus of control
The Social Self
Social identity -- defining ourselves in terms of
groups to which we belong or have an emotional
attachment
We identify with groups that have high status -- aids
self-enhancement
Contrasting Groups
Great West Life
Employee
Live in
Canada
An individual’s
social identity
University of
Manitoba Graduate
Employees at
other firms
People living in
other countries
Graduates of other
schools
Values in the Workplace
Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our
preferences
Define right or wrong, good or bad
Value system -- hierarchy of values
Espoused vs. enacted values:
• Espoused -- the values we say and often think we
use
• Enacted -- values we actually rely on to guide our
decisions and actions
Schwartz’s Values Model
Schwartz’s Values Model
Openness to change – motivation
to pursue innovative ways
Conservation -- motivation to
preserve the status quo
Self-enhancement -- motivated by
self-interest
Self-transcendence -- motivation
to promote welfare of others and
nature
Values and Behaviour
Habitual behaviour usually consistent with
values, but conscious behaviour less so
because values are abstract constructs
Decisions and behaviours linked to values
when:
• Mindful of our values
• Have logical reasons to apply values in that
situation
• Situation does not interfere
In Search of Congruent Values
Chad Hunt chose Husky
Injection Molding Systems Ltd.
as an employer because of
values congruence. “I need to
work for a company that shares
my values, and that includes
caring about our impact on the
environment,” says Hunt.
Values Congruence
Where two or more entities
have similar value systems
Problems with incongruence
• Incompatible decisions
• Lower satisfaction/loyalty
• Higher stress and turnover
Benefits of incongruence
• Better decision making
(diverse perspectives)
• Avoids “corporate cults”
Values Across Cultures:
Individualism and Collectivism
Degree that people value duty to their group
(collectivism) versus independence and
person uniqueness (individualism)
Previously considered opposites, but
unrelated -- i.e. possible to value high
individualism and high collectivism
Individualism
High Individualism
Canada.
Italy
India
Denmark
Taiwan
Low Individualism
The degree to which people
value personal freedom,
self-sufficiency, control over
themselves, being
appreciated for unique
qualities
Collectivism
High Collectivism
Italy
Taiwan
India
Denmark
Canada
Low Collectivism
The degree to which people
value their group
membership and
harmonious relationships
within the group
Power Distance
High Power Distance
Malaysia
• Value obedience to authority
Venezuela
• Comfortable receiving
commands from superiors
• Prefer formal rules and authority
to resolve conflicts
Japan
Canada
Denmark
Israel
Low Power Distance
High power distance
Low power distance
• expect relatively equal power
sharing
• view relationship with boss as
interdependence, not
dependence
Uncertainty Avoidance
High U. A.
Greece
Japan
• feel threatened by ambiguity
and uncertainty
• value structured situations and
direct communication
Italy
Canada
High uncertainty avoidance
Low uncertainty avoidance
• tolerate ambiguity and
uncertainty
Singapore
Low U. A.
Achievement-Nurturing
Achievement
Japan
High achievement
orientation
• assertiveness
• competitiveness
China
Canada
France
Chile
• materialism
High nurturing orientation
• relationships
• others’ well-being
Sweden
Nurturing
Diversity of Canadian Values
Francophone vs Anglophone values
• More liberal and permissive than Anglophones –
reverse of a few decades ago
First Nations Values
• high collectivism
• low power distance
• low uncertainty avoidance
• moderately nurturing orientation
Canadian vs American Values
Subtle, but important differences:
Question authority
More liberal
More multicultural values
More egalitarian
More collective rights
More deference to authority
More conservative/ideological
More melting pot values
More patriarchal authority
More individual rights
Three Ethical Principles
Utilitarianism
Individual
Rights
Distributive
Justice
Greatest good for the greatest number
of people
Fundamental entitlements
in society
People who are similar should receive
similar benefits
Influences on Ethical Conduct
Moral intensity
• degree that issue demands ethical principles
Ethical sensitivity
• ability to recognize the presence and determine the
relative importance of an ethical issue
Situational influences
• competitive pressures and other conditions affect
ethical behaviour
Supporting Ethical behaviour
Ethical code of conduct
Ethics training
Ethics officers
Ethical leadership and culture
Chapter 2
Individual Behaviour,
Personality, and Values