hey i had dis in 1 sem.hope ull find sm info.
Personality:
Personality is the sum total of internal and external attributes of an individual. Conventionally, Personality has been perceived as the outer physical attributes of an individual like looks, height, weight, etc. The word “Personality” is derived form the word “persona” which means “speak through”. Personality could be considered as a mask put on by people when they play the various Roles to fulfill various Goals.
We all play multiple Roles to fulfill multiple Goals.
To achieve our Goals effectively, we need to have Role clarity and Goal clarity.
The direction towards the Goal is taken through action steps, habits, behaviors, etc which are appropriately required for the achieving the Goal.
Personality constitutes the Role that we play as a result of our inner and outer make up
Thus we have Role Personality.
We all have several Role Personalities to achieve the various Goals.
It must be remembered that we all have one True Personality, which simply stated constitutes the “way we are”. This True Personality is based on the Values that we nurture and live by.
Key Determinants to Personality
Broadly there are three key determinants to Personality:
a) Heredity
b) Situation
c) Environment
a) Heredity: It is said that Heredity impacts our Personality. We all have characteristics, resembling those of our parents in some way or the other, transferred through the genes. These characteristics could be physical like the color of our hair, the facial features, the walk, etc and behavioral like anger, alertness, sharpness, etc.
Although Heredity plays a role, Personality is not completely dictated by Heredity. It is one of the contributory factors.
There are exceptions to the Heredity factor. We come across people who come from good social backgrounds who are not necessarily good in the way they conduct themselves in social settings. We also come across those who parents are handicapped, but the children are not.
b) Situation: Events that are contextual with time constitute Situations. The context of the Situation plays a Role in the Personality formation of the individual. If the Situation is demanding in task, the Personality also moulds as a task-oriented one. Since Situations keep changing, we have Personalities that keep changing with Situations, i. e. Role Personality.
Although we may feel helpless about a Situation impacting our Personality, getting an impression that it is beyond our control, in reality we have the choice to language the Situation to our advantage and Goal focus.
For example, a home with frequent quarrels and fights may imply that people in that house may have the Personality of a quarrelsome nature; it may not be the case. This is seen in many instances, wherein people are seen to control the Situation, rather than allowing the Situation to control them.
c) Environment: All that pervades around us is Environment. It is the outcome of our own actions repeated over a period of time. We could have same or similar Situations repeating all the time, going unchanged, resulting in an Environment formation. For example, we dump garbage for one day in the neighborhood and this gets repeated day after day. Soon an Environment of filth would prevail.
Similarly, if we create a negative work Situation on a day and if this Situation repeats regularly we create a negative Environment sooner or later.
Like Situation, Environment also impacts Personality. It is seen that Environment impacts Personality more strongly.
It must be remembered that although the above factors seem to make us feel that we are “choiceless” in our Personality makeup, we all have choices.
We could choose Goals and thus play Roles which enhance our Personality. For example, a person born dark and ugly may seem “doomed” by normal people. If he were to “fall for” that, then he would get nowhere. Instead, if he chooses to capitalize on his “looks” he may “creatively” enhance his Personality, like in case of the comedian Johnny Lever. He chose a Goal of making people laugh and plays the Role well and thus projects his Personality well.
There are many examples in the real world which “defy” the above factors, thereby inferring that the above three determinants are not totally impactful.
Types of Personality
There are two aspects to a Personality. The physical aspect manifested by the Body Types and the internal makeup aspect manifested through the Types of Personality as seen in the behaviors, habits, attitudes, etc.
There are several models of Personality types. One model addresses Four Types of Personality, based on characteristics.
The types are:
i) Melancholic
ii) Sanguine
iii) Choleric
iv) Phlegmatic
i) Melancholics are thoughtful, analytical, idealistic types. They are perfectionists and give importance to details.
ii) Sanguines have appealing looks, good sense of humor, cheerful, lives in the present.
iii) Cholerics have Leadership qualities. They are dynamic and initiate change, and exude confidence.
iv) Phlegmatics are laid back, low key people, and patient, consistent, keep emotions within, quiet.
It must be noted that each of us has one of the above types more dominant, followed by another style that comes into play as a Back up. The dominant style is what is usually seen by others under normal circumstances, while the Back up is what comes into play whenever a critical incident surfaces.
Personality types are not conclusive statements of people but more inferential, which implies that we need to study and interpret the individual’s Personality not by these types alone, but using other means as well. Even then, the Personality that we observe is inferential and not conclusive. One should not jump to conclusions about habits and behaviors of people based on the groupings under each type and be rigid. These are indicators.
Major Personality Traits that influence Organizational Behavior.
A trait is a tendency in an individual to display a certain behavior under certain circumstances. It could be interpreted as an Attitude (which is defined as an internal choice one makes towards a certain situation) which is in the process of getting manifested externally as a Behavior. In other words, when Attitude is yet to manifest as Behavior, it goes through a transition phase, displayed largely para language, body language form of communication. It is as if what you want to express you are “displaying” without telling in words. You may say something that appears different, but you are truly expressing yourself in words and body expressions that “slip out” of you.
There are Personality Traits that influence Organizational Behavior. These are:
a) Locus of Control – the extent to which the individual feels under control of a situation. Thus we have Internals who feel they are in control of a situation, as against Externals who feel they are helplessly out of control of a situation.
b) Machiavellianism- derived from the name Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian philosopher who was known to a master manipulator. We have high Machs and low Machs. Those with high Machs are the ones who are pragmatic, maintain an emotional distance, and believe that means justify ends. They are seen as “ace” manipulators. On the other hand, those with low Machs are least manipulative and believe that means do not always justify the ends.
c) Self Esteem – The way one treats oneself is reflected in Self Esteem. If one treats oneself respectfully and responsibly, he is said to have a High Self Esteem. On the other hand, if one treats oneself disrespectfully and irresponsibly with self abuse, he is said to be having low Self Esteem.
d) Self Monitoring – the capacity in an individual to think, pause, introspect and render feedback to himself for making corrections in his actions is Self Monitoring. Through Self Monitoring, one learns how to adapt to changing circumstances.
e) Risk Taking – Risk implies making a choice when the unknown elements are more and the stakes are high. Some people have a natural ability to be high risk individuals, while many other would like to “play it safe” and be low Risk persons.
f) Type A & Type B - Type A people are hard driving, expressive, ambitious, always on the move, achievers, while Type B are laid back, unexpressive, lazy, allow things to slip away.
These above Traits are seen to affect Personality of the individual in life situation