Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 2: Personality and Person–Environment Fit
Learning Objectives
2.1: Define personality and discuss the role of heredity.
2.2: Discuss the benefits and limitations of using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in
organizations.
2.3: List and explain the five factors in the Big Five theory of personality.
2.4: Compare and contrast the Type A and Type B behavior patterns.
Chapter Summary
Chapter summary here.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. The Personality Effect in Unicorns
A. Unicorns are privately held startup companies with a value over $1 billion.
B. WeWork co-working office spaces: Cofounder Adam Neumann’s charismatic
personality allowed WeWork to rapidly expand and easily attract investors.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
iv. On submitting WeWork’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) paperwork in mid-
August 2019, large losses were revealed to the public. Investors lost
confidence and the IPO was halted.
v. In September 2019, Neumann stepped down as CEO claiming he was “a
significant distraction” to the company’s plan of going public.
C. Cults of personality have been gaining traction in venture capital investing.
D. So–called “industry disrupters” may be gaining investor confidence because of the
charming personality of a founder rather than the quality of their business.
II. What is Personality?
A. Personality: Regularities in feeling, thought, and action that are characteristics of
B. Minnesota twin studies: Research conducted using a registry of twins born in
Minnesota between 1936 and 1955. Twins were reared apart for various reasons
and participated in psychological studies about the influence of heredity.
i. 50% of occupational choice may be attributed to heredity.
III. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
A. The MBTI is the most often administered personality test in nonpsychiatric
populations; over 2 million people annually take this test.
B. Based on four general personality preferences that are combined to make 16
personality types:
i. Introversion (I) vs. extraversion (E): Extraverts tend to be outgoing;
introverts tend to be shy.
C. Limitations of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
i. Limited research support for the MBTI’s reliability and validity.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
ii. Retaking the test may produce a different result.
iii. Has not been validated for selection and should not be used to select job
candidates
D. How the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Is Used in Organizations
i. Valuable in conflict resolution and team building
ii. Enables the discussion of personality differences and their effects on work
strategy in a nonjudgmental way
IV. “The Big Five”
A. Openness: A person’s willingness to embrace new ideas and new situations
i. More open individuals adjust better to organizational change.
B. Conscientiousness: The characteristic of being a person who follows through and
gets things done
V. Personality Traits and Health Research
A. Four main personality types have diverse health outcomes:
i. Type A: Competitive, aggressive personality type energized by stress
a. After the original long-term study, 70% of Type A men had
coronary heart disease. Later studies linked this to the Type A
behavior of hostility (irritation, bossiness, and domineering
nature).
b. A “healthy” Type A pattern is characterized by the ability to express
one’s emotions and share their stress with another person.
B. A “hardy” or resilient personality reduces the potential for personality type to
affect health.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
C. Social support ameliorates certain health hazards of personality traits.
VI. Other Relevant Personality Traits
A. Machiavellianism
i. Machiavellianism (sometimes abbreviated Mach): A person who believes
that the “ends justify the means,” someone who will do whatever it takes to
win
a. Named for Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince about
strategies for gaining and retaining power in the 16th century
ii. Dark Triad: A combination of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and
psychopathy
a. Narcissism: The expression of grandiosity, entitlement, dominance,
and superiority. They may appear charming or pleasant in the short
term, but struggle to trust others and develop effective working
relationships.
b. Psychopathy: Impulsivity and thrill-seeking combined with low
empathy and anxiety. Psychopaths lack guilt and seek immediate
gratification.
B. Self-Monitoring
i. Self-monitoring: Self-observation and self-control guided by situational
cues to social appropriateness
a. High self-monitors are very adaptable and sensitive to social cues
and fitting in. They receive higher performance ratings and become
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
leaders; however, they have lower organizational commitment.
Moreover, they develop better working relationships with bosses
and have more rapid career mobility. Nevertheless, they may
engage in counterproductive work behavior such as taking extra or
longer breaks and showing a Mach-like strategy of doing whatever
it takes to win.
C. Resilience
i. Resilience: The degree of positive adaptation when faced with adversity
has three components:
a. Sense of Mastery: A person’s optimism, self-efficacy, and
adaptability, all of which are key protective resources
ii. Resilience improves adaptation and influences the negative effects of
stress after adversity.
iii. Evidence suggests resilience can be learned to improve well-being, job
performance, anxiety, and stress levels.
D. Risk-Taking
i. Risk-taking: Any purposive activity that entails novelty or danger
sufficient to create anxiety in most people. It can be physical, social, or a
combination
a. Entrepreneurs have a higher risk-taking propensity compared to
general managers.
b. Risk-taking declines across the lifespan unless the environment is
characterized by hardship and strife.
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
iv. Psychological capital (PsyCap): Characteristics that are more stable than
fleeting states of mind but are open to change. A movement of positive
psychology
VII. Psychological Capital
A. Positive organizational behavior (POB) is an emerging field concerning the study
and development of human strengths in business.
B. There are four components to PsyCap:
i. Efficacy: A person’s belief that they have the ability to execute a specific
task in a given context
C. PsyCap predicts job performance and satisfaction; this relationship is not
reversible (high performance does not predict PsyCap).
D. The four components of PsyCap are related to positive emotions at work, which
affect the acceptance of organizational change.
VIII. Person–Environment Fit
A. Person–environment (PE) fit: When an individual’s personality is aligned with
his or her environment, it results in job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
and better performance on the job.
B. Person–Organization Fit
i. Person–organization (PO) fit: A type of PE fit describing the match
between a person’s individual values and those of the organization they
work for
a. Often considered in the context of recruiting employees that “fit in”
with the organizational culture and values
C. Person–Job Fit
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
i. Person–job (PJ) fit: Occurs when job characteristics are aligned with
employees’ personalities, motivations, and abilities
a. Lack of fit increases burnout and physical symptoms.
b. Demands–abilities (DA) fit: Refers to the compatibility between
the employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and the demands of
the job
D. Personality–Job Fit Theory
i. Personality–job fit theory: One of the best researched theories of PJ fit,
developed by John Holland who classified six personality types and
matched them to occupations (RIASEC):
a. Realistic (R) – Practical, often introverted, people who get things
done
ii. Predictive of job performance and turnover intentions
IX. Leadership Implications: Understanding Others
A. Changing the personalities of others may be futile.
B. Applying personality surveys may improve performance metrics or hiring
decisions.
C. Dark Triad personality traits and even Type A behavior patterns may be
challenging to work with. To disarm these personalities:
i. Adopt a neutral stance; do not interrupt or touch the person
ii. Rise slowly if seated; make eye contact and use body language such as
crossed arms or a “stop” gesture
iii. Say their name to snap them out of an episode
Instructor Resource
Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
c. Was the problem caused by bad information or miscommunication?
d. How did I respond to each event?
e. Can this situation be prevented in the future?
D. Personality can contribute positively and negatively to the workplace, so it’s
important to understand personality differences.