Personality, values, and attitudes

Essentials of Educational

ManagementBy:

Cristina Marie M. Juanzo

PersonalityPersonality

Psychological characteristics

Stable over time and across situations.

A set of characteristics rather than one trait

Makes the person unique and different from others

Personality has two meanings:

1. It refers to the impression a person makes on others

2. It refers to the underlying , unseen structures and processes inside a person that explain why we behave the way we do.

Personality Traits and Leadership• Traits refer to recurring

regularities or trends in a person’s behavior.

• The trait approach to personality maintains that people behave the way they do because of the strengths of the traits they possess.

Personality Traits and Leadership (continued)

• Personality traits are useful concepts for explaining why people act fairly consistently from one situation to the next.

• Knowing how two people differ on a particular personality trait can help us predict more accurately how they will tend to act in a variety of situations.

Personality Traits and Leadership (continued)

• A leader’s behavior reflects an interaction between his or her personality traits and various situational factors:– Weak situations– Strong situations

Personality TraitsPersonality Traits: Include

tendencies to be enthusiastic, demanding, easy-going, nervous, etc.-Each trait can be viewed on a

continuum, from low to high.There is no “wrong” trait, but rather

leaders have a complex mix of traits.

Personality Traits (cont.)

MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)Curphy Version

MBTI Sample

Personality TraitsMBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)Preferences distinguish one

personality from another, based on four basic dimensions used to create one of 16 possible psychological styles.Extraversion-and-introversionSensing-and-intuitionThinking-and-feelingJudging-and-perceiving

Extraversion-and-Introversion

The extraversion-and-introversion dimension is fundamentally concerned with where people get their energy.

Some leaders are naturally gregarious and outgoing.

Their spontaneous sociability makes it easy for them to strike up conversations with anyone about almost anything.

Not surprisingly, such extraverts have a breadth of interests and a large circle of acquaintances. They are energized by being around others, but their tendency to “think out loud” and speak whatever is on their mind can sometimes get them into trouble.

Extraversion-and-Introversion (cont.)

Other leaders are more comfortable alone, or with just a few others.

Introverts can interact effectively with others, but they are fundamentally both more reserved and more deliberate than extraverts.

Introverted leaders prefer to think things through and only announce their final decisions, and followers may have a difficult time understanding the process the leaders used to reach his or her conclusions.

Sensing-and-IntuitionThe sensing-and-intuition dimension is

concerned with how people look at data. Leaders who prefer their sensing mode like

facts and details; the focus of information gathering concerns the real, the actual, the literal, the specific, and the present.

Hence, sensing leaders tend to be practical, orderly, and down-to-earth decision makers.

• By contrast, leaders who rely on their intuition look for the big picture beyond particular facts or details; information is most meaningful for its pattern, framework, figurative meaning, and future possibilities.

• Intuitive leaders tend to be innovative and conceptual (though sometimes impractical), and are more comfortable with their hunches.

Thinking-and-FeelingThe thinking-and-feeling dimension is

concerned with the considerations leaders prefer when making decision.

Thinking leaders like to analyze, criticize, and approach decisions impersonally and objectively.

They use their heads to adopt a relatively detached stance toward decisions and pay more attention to operational, bottom-line considerations.

• Feeling leaders naturally empathize and appreciate, and prefer to approach decisions personally and subjectively.

• They value humaneness and social harmony and use their hearts to weigh the impact of any decision on particular people.

Judging-and-Perceiving

The judging-and-perceiving dimension has to do with the amount of information a leader needs before feeling comfortable making a decision.

Judging leaders • strive for closure;• they like things to be settled and come

across as decisive, methodical and organized

• make poorer decisions. • get nervous before decisions are made

and only want a minimal amount of information when making decisions.

• Although they make up their minds quickly, they may not have all relevant facts and as a result

Perceiving leaders like to keep their options open; they are curious, spontaneous, and flexible.

Perceivers prefer to collect as much information as possible before making a decision or a commitment.

Perceivers often get nervous after a decision is made, as they may not feel that enough information was collected or data was analyzed.

Big Five Model• Advantages of the Big Five Model

– Most personality researchers currently use one form of the Big Five Model

– The model is usefully categorized– It is a useful heuristic (shortcut)for

categorizing or profiling people– It appears to be universally applicable

across cultures

Big Five Model (cont.)• Disadvantages of the Big Five

Model– Some argue that five factors are not

enough to adequately encompass all the different personality traits

– The Big Five personality dimensions tend to be fairly heterogeneous internally, which makes them poor predictors of job performance as compared to personality traits.

Other TraitsSelf-esteemAttitudesNeed for achievement MoodsNeed for affiliationJob SatisfactionNeed for powerOrganizational commitmentValuesPerception

Locus of Control The degree to which leaders believe they

control their own fate Internal Locus of Control: Leaders

believe they are responsible for their fate.See their actions as important to achieving

goals External Locus of Control: Leaders

believe outside forces are responsible for their fate.Their actions make little difference in achieving

outcomes Leaders need an Internal Locus of Control!

Less anxious Set harder goals Manage stress well and adapt to

change More considerate of followers and

less likely to use coercive power Internal CEOs select risky and innovative strategies

Characteristics of IndividualsCharacteristics of Individualswith Internal Locus of Controlwith Internal Locus of Control

Dark-Side Personality Traits• Everyone has at least one dark-

side personality trait.• Dark-side traits have bigger

influence on performance for people in leadership versus followership roles.

• The dark-side traits are usually only apparent when leaders are not attending to their public image.

Dark-side Personality Traits• Dark-side personality traits are

irritating or counterproductive behavioral tendencies which interfere with a leader’s ability to form cohesive teams and cause followers to exert less effort towards goal accomplishment.

Dark-Side Personality Traits

• Dark-side traits co-vary with social skills and are difficult to detect in interviews, assessment centers, or with bright-side personality inventories.

• The behaviors associated with dark-side personality traits can occur at any leadership level, and many times organizations tolerate these behaviors because the leader is smart, experienced, or possesses unique skills.

Dark-Side Personality Traits• Argumentative

• Interpersonal insensitivity

• Narcissism

Dark-Side Personality Trait, continued • Fear of failure

• Perfectionism

• Impulsivity

A persistent tendency to feel and behave in a favorable or unfavorable way toward a specific person, object, or idea.

Attitudes

Important Conclusions

• Reasonably stable• Directed toward some person, object or idea• Relates to one’s behavior toward that object

or person• People tend to behave in ways that are

consistent with their feelings• Behaviors are also influenced by

motivational forces and situational factors

Object, Person, or Idea

Attitude Toward Object, Person, or Idea

Behavior Toward Object, Person, or Idea

Other Influences

Influence of Attitudes on Behavior

Important Workplace Attitudes

JobJobSatisfactionSatisfaction

OrganizationalOrganizationalCommitmentCommitment

Job Satisfaction

A collection of feelings and beliefs that managers have about their current jobs.


Job Satisfaction Outcomes• Highly positive effect on intentions to stay in

the job• Modest effect on actually staying in the job• Modestly positive effect on regular attendance

at work• Positive effect on performance (may also be

positively affected by performance)• Moderately strong relationship with motivation


•Managers high on job satisfaction have a positive view of their jobs.

•Levels of job satisfaction tend to increase as managers move up in the hierarchy in an organization.


Organizational Commitment– The collection of feelings and beliefs

that managers have about their organization as a whole


Organizational Commitment Outcomes• Positive effects on intentions to stay in the job• Modest effects on actually staying in the job

and attending work regularly• Significantly related to motivation• Positive effects on job performance


• Role ambiguity• Supervision/leadership• Pay and benefits• Nature of the job• Organization climate• Stress• Perceptions of fair treatment

Causes


Values are “constructs representing generalized behaviors or states of affairs that are considered by the individual to be important.”

---(simply said, representations of our behavior based on what we see as important).

What Are Values?

Values cont..–Describe what managers try to achieve through work and how they think they should behave

• Individuals in the same work unit can have considerably different values.

• We can only make inferences about people’s values based on their behavior.

Value System–What a person is striving to achieve in life and how they want to behave

Terminal Values– A personal conviction about life-long

goalsInstrumental Values

– A personal conviction about desired modes of conduct or ways of behaving

Values are a primary determinant in what data are reviewed by leaders and how they define problems.

Values often influence leader’s perceptions of individual and organizational successes as well as the manner in which these successes are achieved.

Values help leaders choose right from wrong, and between ethical and unethical behavior.

How Values Impact Leadership

Leaders tend to like followers with similar values and dislike those with dissimilar values.

It is important for leaders to surround themselves with followers who possess divergent values.

Leaders are motivated to act in ways consistent with their values, and they typically spend most of their time engaged in activities that are consistent with their values.

Implications Implications for leaders and managers:

Knowing about one’s personality, values, and attitude, can help one understand why people act differently and why working with people with different personalities can be a source of harmonious relationship or a conflict in an organization.

It gives leaders ideas on how to deal with a certain problem.

There are no certain personality traits that will guarantee one will be a successful leader or manager.

The impact of any personality trait on behavior will vary with the situation.

• Leaders should expect to face a variety of challenges to their own system of ethics, values, or attitudes during their careers.

• Interacting with individuals and groups holding divergent and conflicting values is inevitable.

• Leaders in particular have a responsibility not to let their own personal values interfere with professional leader-subordinate relationships.