5 What is personality and how does it affect behaviour?Personality is the stable
patterns of behaviour and consistent internal states that determine how an indi-
vidual reacts to and interacts with others. A review of the personality literature
offers general guidelines that can lead to effective job performance. As such, it can
improve hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions. Personality attributes give us a
framework for predicting behaviour. Personality affects how people react to others
and the types of jobs that they may desire. For example, individuals who are shy,
introverted, and uncomfortable in social situations would probably make poor
salespeople. Individuals who are submissive and conforming might not be effec-
tive as advertising “idea” people. Be aware, though, that measuring personality is
not an exact science, and as you no doubt learned from the discussion of attribu-
tion theory it is easy to attribute personality characteristics in error.
6 Can emotions help or get in the way when weÕre dealing with others?Emotions
are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. Positive emotions
can be motivating for everyone in the workplace. Negative emotions may make it
difficult to get along with others. Can managers control the emotions of their col-
leagues and employees? No. Emotions are a natural part of an individual’s makeup.
At the same time, managers err if they ignore the emotional elements in OB and
assess individual behaviour as if it were completely rational. Managers who under-
stand the role of emotions will significantly improve their ability to explain and pre-
dict individual behaviour.
Do emotions affect job performance? Yes. Emotions, especially negative ones, can
hinder performance. That’s probably why organizations, for the most part, try to
remove emotions from the workplace. But emotions can also enhance perform-
ance. How? Two ways.10 3First, emotions can increase arousal levels, thus acting as
motivators to higher performance. Second, emotional labour recognizes that feel-
ings can be part of a job’s required behaviour. So, for instance, the ability to effec-
tively manage emotions in leadership and sales positions may be critical to success
in those positions. Research also indicates the importance of emotional intelli-
gence, the assortment of noncognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that
influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and
pressures.56 Part 1 Understanding the Workplace