Personality, Perception and Attribution + Attitudes and Values

Personality, Perception and Attribution

Personality can be defined as "An individual's pattern of psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and other major areas of psychological function. Personality is expressed through its influences on the body, in conscious mental life, and through the individual's social behavior." (Mayer, 2005).

According to this definition we can conclude that the personality makes each person unique and influences behavior creating a big difference between one human being and another.

An individual’s personality has a lot to do with the way he/she develops in an organization. The way a person acts, his self-control, his self-esteem, his self-efficacy, his self-monitoring and the way that a person reflects his affection (positive or negative). According to this, a person will reflect his personality inside the organization, meaning that he will be a better employee if his personality has more positive than negative aspects.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, perception is “the process of becoming aware or conscious of a thing or things in general; the state of being aware; consciousness; understanding.”
Perceptions refer to the way an individual sees the world, his/her understanding and interpretation. They are closely related with the senses (touch, smell, hearing, vision and taste).

"If, therefore, we attend to that act of our mind which we call the perception of an external object of sense, we shall find it in these three things: First, Some conception or notion of the object perceived; Secondly, A strong and irresistible conviction and belief of its present existence; and, Thirdly, That this conviction and belief are immediate, and not the effect of reasoning" (1).

Another important aspect inside the organizations is the perception that people have from each other. How they perceive others messages, acts, actions, attitudes, etc. will influence their decision making inside the corporation. Everyone has a different point of view that sometimes doesn’t match with the other’s points of view, but it is really important to learn how to perceive a message or action in a positive way, so you can avoid any kind of conflict inside the organization.

Finally, it is really relevant to understand the meaning of attributions. Fritz Heider described attribution theory as a “method that can be used for evaluating how people perceive the behavior of themselves and of other people. How people make casual explanations” (2).

There are external and internal attributions. The external attributions are caused by outside factors, which people can’t control, for example: the weather. Internal attributions are caused by inside factors that people can control, for example: intelligence.

People within organizations have to take into account all three aspects when analyzing and judging another person, even if he/she is going to be hired or if the person has belonged to that organization for years.


References:
• (1) Reid, Thomas, 1753-1762/1937, Philosophical Orations of Thomas Reid, [in Latin], W.R. Humphries (ed.), Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
• (2) Heider, Fritz. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations.New York: Wiley, 1958.
• Mayer, J. D. (2005). A classification of DSM-IV-TR mental disorders according to their relation to the personality system. In J. C. Thomas & D. L. Segal (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of personality and psychopathology (CHOPP) Vol. 1: Personality and everyday functioning. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
• "Perception." In Oxford English Dictionary (2007), http://www.oed.com.
• London, Manuel (Ed.), How People Evaluate Others in Orgnizations, Mahwah NJ:
Erlbaum, 2001.
• Levine, Michael W., and Jeremy M. Shefner, Fundamentals of Sensation and Perception, (2nd Ed), Brooks/Cole, Pacific Grove CA, 1991
• http://biogeocv.wikispaces.com/file/view/5_senses.jpg/52734822/5_senses.jpg (August, 2010)
• http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/perceptionperceivability.htm
• Takao Inamori, Farhad Analoui, "Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Iss: 4, pp.306 – 321


Attitudes and Values



“An attitude, roughly, is a residuum of experience, by which further activity is conditioned and controlled ... We may think of attitudes as acquired tendencies to act in specific ways toward objects.” (krueger & Reckless, 1931).

“An attitude is a predisposition to experience, to be motivated by, and to act toward, a class of objects in a predictable manner.” (Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956).

According to these definitions, we can conclude that attitudes are formed with time and experience; they can be changed or transformed with the pass of the years.

Past experiences and social learning help people to form their attitudes and based on these each individual behave inside an organization; this means that organizational behavior depends on people’s attitude, because they always reflect their attitudes, values and personality in their daily job. This can be in a positive or negative way, but always affects ones work and satisfaction inside the company.

“Values are traits or qualities that are considered worthwhile; they represent your highest priorities and deeply held driving forces. When you are part of any organization, you bring your deeply held values and beliefs to the organization. There they co-mingle with those of the other members to create an organization or family culture.” (Susan M. Heathfield)

Values refer to every belief that helps a person grow in his personal dignity. They are primarily influenced by the family, are present in everyone’s life and are much related in everyday’s decisions.

People take their personal values to the group that they belong, and some others are learned or acquired inside the organization, because the vision and mission of each company reflect its own values. Even though people may have different values depending on their cultures and families, they must be respected and understood by others.


References:
• Gregorio Martín-de-Castro, José Emilio Navas-López, Pedro López-Sáez, Elsa Alama-Salazar, (2006) "Organizational capital as competitive advantage of the firm", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 7 Iss: 3, pp.324
• http://www.psych.umn.edu/courses/spring06/borgidae/psy5202/images/attitude%20definitions.pdf
• Krueger, E. T., and Reckless, W. C., Social Psychology. Pp. vii, 578. New York: Longmans, Green & Company, 1931.
• Susan M. Heathfield, Human Resources expert in the article Success in Life and Work: Identify and Live Your Personal Values.
• Jerome S. Bruner, M. Brewster Smith, Robert W. White, David F. Aberle, Stanley G. Estes, Eugenia Hanfmann, Sheldon J. Korchin “Opinions and Personality”.

Question

1. Please explain, using your own words, the concept of Pygmalion Effect.
What are the potential implications, uses, or challenges that this effect may pose for organizations engaging into international operations that require the understanding of diverse cultural contexts? Can you use this concept to explain the relationship between national and organizational cultures?

Pygmalion Effect refers to the expectation that someone has of other’s performance and how this interferes in the relationship that exists between the perceiver and the target. Meaning this that when someone believes in another person’s capabilities for achieving a goal, that other person will be more capable of doing things right and will achieve that goal in a proper way.

When a person has positive expectations towards another one, the performance of the second person will be successful. But also when he/she has negative expectations, the performance of the other person will have negative consequences, because this person will feel discouraged in many ways.

After understanding its meaning and applications, we can conclude that the Pygmalion Effect is an important motivational tool inside organizations. When the boss trusts in his employee’s potential and capabilities, and has positive expectations about his performance, the employee will feel encouraged and will see this level of trust and confidence as a stimulus for doing an excellent job.

Pygmalion Effect phenomenon also describes the way in which people sometimes feel that they should adapt their behavior to other person’s expectation. In this way, when someone has high expectations about other´s performance, the other one will try harder and will do his best to please him and when someone has low expectations from other person, he/she may lower his/her performance.

“The Pygmalion Effect affirms that one's expectations about a person can eventually lead that person to behave and achieve in ways that confirm those expectations" Tauber (1998).

Organizations engaged into international operations have to face different cultures, which may manage their organizations in a different way, having different values and attitudes inside the company. It could be easier to encourage your team members’ work when they share your culture and beliefs, but it may be difficult to express yourself and try to demonstrate what your expectations are from their performance when these members belong to a different culture.

Nowadays, organizations have to deal with different cultures when they are willing to be known all around the world or even if they just do businesses with an organization in another country. In these cases leaders and employees should have really clear the concept of Pygmalion Effect. On one side, leaders should know how to encourage not only people within their same culture, but people who belong to other cultures. The way everybody will perform concerning to the business and organization will depend on the expectations leader’s have from them. On the other side, employees have to be committed with the entire organization, even if it is or is not in their native county, or belongs to the same culture, and try to response to those positive expectations in the way they can accomplish their bosses’, themselves’ and the entire organization’s goals and objectives.

Even if an organization has to deal with diverse cultural contexts, people inside that company should not feel threatened by the cultural differences they might face. Instead they should learn about that other culture and understand it to the point that they can have the same expectation from the results they will get as if they were engaged only with national operations. Each team member has to study the diverse cultural context that they will have to face, so they can have the greatest expectations and therefore performance anywhere in the globalized world.

Pygmalion Effect can also explain the relationship between national and organizational cultures, because as seen in the past chapters and classes, national culture influences people’s behavior, attitudes and values and all these aspects are then reflected, having a great impact inside the organization’s environment and therefore influencing organizational culture. When a person is new in an organization, he may modify his behavior in order to be accepted by the rest of the organization’s members and to fulfill his bosses’ expectations.

People that work inside an organization with a different culture than their national one, are often forced to adapt their behavior, attitudes, believes, etc. to those inside that specific organization in which they are working or they want to work. Pygmalion Effect plays an important role in these cases, because it reflects how people are willing to modify their beliefs imposed by a culture and family, for the simple fact of belonging to an organization and meeting the expectations that others have on him.

References:
• Rosenthal, Robert & Jacobson, Lenore Pygmalion in the classroom (1992). Expanded edition. New York: Irvington
• Tauber, R. (1998). Good or Bad, What Teachers Expect from Students They Generally Get!" ERIC Digest. 1-4.
• Takao Inamori, Farhad Analoui, "Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Iss: 4, pp.306 – 321
• Livingston, S, "Pygmalion in Management", Harvard Business Review, Vol 47, 1967, pp 8-9

Images taken from:

• http://hubpages.com/hub/Some-Tips-for-Personality-Development

• http://www.investorforce.com/aboutus/corporatevalues.html