Personality, Perception and Attribution/Attitudes and Values

A brief definition for personality is that it is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. Personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. Some of the fundamental characteristics of personality are: self-concept (self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-monitoring), positive or negative affect, locus of control (internal: person controls its own destiny and external: belief that things happen because of other people, luck). Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. It´s important to have cleared that people’s perception is affected by internal factors such as: stimuli from environment and context in which they operate.  Attribution is a concept that people make sense of their surroundings on the basis of what they consider is the cause and what is the effect of a phenomenon. It suggests that individuals observe their own behavior or experience, try to figure out what caused it, and then shape their future behavior accordingly. Explanations of behavior fall into two categories.  One is internal attribution, which is associated with personal factors such as personality, ability and motivation. And the other is external attribution, which is related to environment factors such as organizational rules, luck and natural environment.

The attitudes are the feelings about certain situations or people and it’s highly related to one’s behavior. The ABC model explains three main components of attitudes, such as the affect (the feelings and verbal statements), the behavioral intentions (how the person behaves and the verbal statements about the intentions) and the cognition (attitudes and beliefs). The attitudes are created mainly by two reasons: direct experience and social learning.

Values are those beliefs about some conducts that are accepted and are divided in two main categories: instrumental (how to achieve goals) and terminal (the goals to be achieved). In the organization there are some values generally accepted, such as concern for others, honesty and fairness.

Source: Bryan Eisenberg.2008.Retrieved February 28, 2011, From: http://www.semvironment.com

They Pygmalion effect is how a perception about the performance of a person affects its behavior and performance.  

Retrieved February 28, 2011, From: http://www.accel-team.com/pygmalion/index.html

DISCUSSION: Why is important for managers and employees to be able to understand different types of personalities?

Understanding the different types of personality is helpful for appreciating that while people are different, everyone has a value, and special strengths and qualities, and that everyone should be treated with care and respect. Both employees and managers can become tolerant by recognizing the different types of personalities. Also are useful for management, recruitment, selection, training and teaching. 

References:

- Takao Inamori, Farhad Analoui, "Beyond Pygmation effect: the role of managerial perception", Journal of Management Development, Vol.29 Iss:4.

- Martin de Castro G., Navas Lopez J., Lopez Saez P., Alama Salazar, E.(2006) "Organizational capital as competitive advantage of the firm" Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol 7 Iss:3.