What is the personality dimension describing the extent someone feels secure and unworried under pressure?

Abstract

Drawing on victim precipitation theory, we propose that certain employees are more likely to perceive abusive supervision because of their personality traits. Specifically, we hypothesize that subordinates' emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness will be negatively related to perceived abuse from their supervisor and that negative emotions at work will mediate these relationships. We surveyed 222 employees and found that emotional stability and conscientiousness negatively predicted employees' self-reports of abusive supervision and that this relationship was mediated by negative emotions. Thus, employees lower in emotional stability or conscientiousness are more likely to experience negative emotions, which in turn is related to higher levels of abuse.

Journal Information

The Journal of Business Ethics publishes original articles from a wide variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives concerning ethical issues related to business. Since its initiation in 1980, the editors have encouraged the broadest possible scope. The term 'business' is understood in a wide sense to include all systems involved in the exchange of goods and services, while 'ethics' is circumscribed as all human action aimed at securing a good life. Systems of production, consumption, marketing, advertising, social and economic accounting, labour relations, public relations and organisational behaviour are analysed from a moral viewpoint. The style and level of dialogue involve all who are interested in business ethics – the business community, universities, government agencies and consumer groups. Speculative philosophy as well as reports of empirical research are welcomed. In order to promote a dialogue between the various interested groups as much as possible, papers are presented in a style relatively free of specialist jargon.

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consists of the stable psychological traits and behavioral attributes that give a person his or her identity.

Big five personality dimensions:

1.) extroversion
2.) agreeableness
3.) conscientiousness
4.) emotional stability
5.) openness to experience

Personality dimension:
Extroversion

how outgoing, talkative, socialble and assertive a person is

Personality dimension:
Agreeableness

how trusting, good natured, cooperative, and soft hearted one is.

Personality dimension:
Conscientiousness

how dependable, responsible, achievement oriented, and persistent one is

Personality dimension:
emotional stability

how relaxed, secure and unworried one is

Personality dimension:
Openness to experience

How intellectual, imaginative, curious, and broad minded one is

Two findings in predicting a match between personality and job performance:

Extroversion-outgoing personality
Conscientiousness-dependable personality

Cautions about using personality tests in the workplace: (pg. 341) table 11.1

someone who is more apt to take initiative and persevere to influence the environment.

5 of the most important personality traits managers need to be aware of:

1.) locus of control
2.) self efficacy
3.) self esteem
4.) self monitoring
5.) emotional intelligence

"I am/am not the captain of my fate"
-indicates how much people believe they control their fate through their own efforts.

"I can/cant do this task"
-belief in ones personal ability to do a task

the debilitating lack of faith in ones ability to control ones environment

"I like/dislike myself"
-the extent to which people like or dislike themselves, their overall self evaluation.

People with high self esteem:

compared with ppl of low self esteem, people with high self esteem are more apt to handle failure better, to emphasize the positive, to take more risks, and to choose more unconventional jobs.

People with low self esteem:

conversely, low self esteem people confronted with failure have been found to have focused on their weaknesses and to have had primarily negative thoughts.
-more dependent on others and are more apt to be influenced by them

Ways managers can build employee self esteem:

-Reinforce employees positive attributes and skills
-provide positive feedback whenever possible
-break larger projects into smaller tasks and projects
-express confidence in employees abilities to complete their tasks
-provide coaching whenever employees are seen to be struggling to complete tasks

"Im fairly able/unable to adapt my behavior to others"
-is the extent to which people are able to observe their own behavior and adapt it to external situations.

"Im pretty good/not good at understanding my emotions and the emotions of others"
-the ability to cope, to empathize with others, and to be self motivated.

the importance of developing higher emotional intelligence (EI):

1.) better social relations for children and adults
2.) better family and intimate relationships.
3.) being percieved more positively by others
4.) better academic achievement
5.) higher task performance
6.) better psychological well being

popularized the trait of EI:

Daniel Goleman concluded that EI is composed of 4 key components:

1.) self awareness
2.) self management
3.) social awareness
4.) relationship management

-Most essential trait of EI. This is the ability to read your own emotions and gauge your moods accurately, so you know how you're affecting others

this is the ability to control your emotions and act with honesty and integrity in reliable and adaptable ways. You can leave occasional bad moods outisde the office.

This includes empathy, allowing you to show others that you care, and organizational intuition, so you keenly understand how your emotions and actions affect others.

This is the ability to communicate clearly and convincingly, disarm conflicts, and build strong personal bonds

2 ways to improve your EI:

1.) develop awareness of your EI level
2.) learn about areas needing improvement

Organizational behavior (OB)

is dedicated to better understanding and management of people at work.
-tries to help managers not only explain workplace behavior but also to predict it, so that they can better lead and motivate their employees to perform productively.

Individual behavior and group behavior

abstract ideals that guide ones thinking and behavior across all situations.
-global beliefs and feelings that are directed toward all objects, people or events.

is defines as a learned predisposition toward a given object.

3 components of attitudes:

1.) affective
2.) cognitive
3.) behavioral

Affective component of an attitude

"I feel"
-consists of the feelings or emotions one has about a situation.
-"I hate being given the runaround"

Cognitive component of an attitude

"I believe"
-consists of the beliefs and knowledge one has about a situation
-"That company doesnt know how to take care of customers"

Behavioral component of an attitude

"I intend"
-also known as the "intentional component", refers to how one intends or expects to behave toward a situation
-"Ill never call them again"

to describe the psychological discomfort a person experiences between his or her cognitive attitude and incompatible behavior
-Leon Festinger proposed the term

Leon Festinger suggested 3 factors to deal with discomfort:

1.) importance
2.) Control
3.) Rewards

Main ways to reduce cognitive dissonance:

-change your attitude and/or behavior
-Belittle the importance of the inconsistent behavior
-find consonant elements that outweigh the dissonant ones

their actions and judgements

defined as the extent to which an individual is immersed in his or her present job.

3 types of attitudes managers are particularly interested in are:

1.) employee engagement
2.) job satisfaction
3.) organizational commitment

"how connected are you to your work?"
-defined as an individuals involvement, satisfaction, and enthusiasm for work.

"How much do you like or dislike your job?"
-the extent to which you feel positive or negative about various aspects of your work.

Organizational commitment

reflects the extent to which an employee identifies with an organization and is committed to its goals.

1.) performance and productivity
2.) absenteeism and turnover
3.) organizational citizenship behaviors
4.) counterproductive work behaviors

when an employee doesnt show up for work

when employees leave their jobs

Organizational citizenship behaviors

those employee behaviors that are not directly part of employees job descriptions that exceed their work role requirements

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWB)

types of behavior that harm employees and the organization as a whole

The process of interpreting and understanding ones environment.

4 steps in the process of perception

1.) selective attention-"did I notice something?"
2.) interpretation and evaluation-"What was it I noticed and what does it mean?"
3.) storing in memory-"remember it as an event, concept, person, or all three?"
4.) retrieving from memory to make judgements and decisions-"What do I recall about that?"

4 distortions in perception

1.) selective perception
2.) stereotyping
3.) the halo effect
4.) causal attribution

"I dont want to hear about that"
-the tendancy to filter out information that is discomforting, that seems irrelevant, or that contradicts ones beliefs

"Thos sorts of people are pretty much the same"
-the tendancy to attribute to an individual the characteristics one believes are typical of the group to which that individual belongs

principal areas of stereotyping

1.) sex role stereotypes
2.) age stereotypes
3.) race/ethnicity stereotypes.

we form an impression of an individual based on a single trait.
-also called the "horn and halo effect"

the activity of inferring causes for observed behavior.
ex. "Joe drinks too much because he has no will power; but I need a couple of drinks after work because im under a lot of pressure."

2 attributional tendencies that can distort ones interpretation of observed behavior:

1.) fundamental attribution bias
2.) self serving bias

Fundamental attribution bias

people attribute another persons behavior to his or her personal characteristics rather than to situation factors.
-ex. a study of manufacturing employees found that top managers attributed the cause of industrial back pain to individuals, whearas workers attributed it to the environment.

people tend to take more personal responsibility for success than for failure.
-ex. the way students typically analyze their performance on exams shows self serving bias, with "A" students likely to attribute their grade to high ability or hard work and "D" students blaming factors suck as bad luck, unclear lectures, and unfair testing.

Self-fulfilling prophecy or aka Pygmalion effect

desribes the phenomenon in which peoples expectations of themselves or others lead them
to behave in ways that make those expectations come true
-expectations are important
-ex. a waiter who expects some poorly dressed customers to be stingy tippers, who therefore gives them poor service and so gets the result he or she expected.

the tension people feel when they are facing or enduring extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities and are uncertain about their ability to handle them effectively.

the source of stress
-can be both negative and positive

6 sources of stress on the job:

1.) demands created by individual differences-"stress created by genetic or personality characteristics"
2.) individual task demands-"stress created by the job itself"
3.) individual role demands-"stress created by others expectations of you"
4.) group demands-"stress created by co-workers and managers"
5.) organizational demands-"stress created by the environment and culture"
6.) nonwork demands-"stresses created by forces outside the organization"

they are involved in a chronic, determined struggle to accomplish more in less time.
-impatient, hurried, deadline ridden personality characteristic

people who are born worriers, those with a genetic mutiation that Yale researchers identify with people who chronically obsess over negative thoughts.

sets of behaviors that people expect of occupants of a position.

role overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity

occurs when others expectations exceed ones ability.
-ex. if you as a student are carrying a full course load plus working two thirds time plus trying to have a social life.

occurs when one feels torn by the different expectations of important people in ones life.
-ex. your supervisor says the company needs you to stay late to meet an important deadline, but your family expects you to be present for your childs birthday party.

occurs when others expectations are unknown.
-ex. you find your job description and the criteria for promotion vague, a compaint often voiced by newcomers to an organization

-is constructive and can energize you, increasing your effort, creativity, and performance.
-ex. getting married

-desctructive, resulting in poorer quality work, dissatisfaction, errors, absenteeism, and turnover

3 kinds of symptoms of negative stress:

-physiological signs
-psychological signs
-behavioral signs

physiological signs of negative stress

lesser physiological signs are sweaty palms, restlessness, backaches, headaches, upset stomach, and nausea. More serious signs are hypertension and heart attacks.

psychological signs of negative stress

sympotms include boredom, irritability, nervousness, anger, anxiety, hostility, and depression.

behavioral signs of negative stress

symptoms include sleeplessness, changes in eating habits, and increased smoking/alcohol/drug abuse. Stress may be revealed through reduced performance and job satisfaction.

a state of emotional, mental, and even physical exhaustion.
-expressed as listlessness, indifference, or frustration.
-"when you keep investing more energy and the return remains low, thats when you burn out" suggested Michael Staver

greatest consequence of negative stress in an organization:

-are apt to call in sick, miss deadlines, take longer lunch breaks, and show indifference to performance
-however some may put in great numbers of hours at work without getting as much accomplised as previously.

or "administrative changes", that managers can make to reduce the stressors that lead to employee burnout.
-ex. extra staff or equipment at peak periods. Increased freedom to make decisions. Recognition for accomplishments.

Some general organizational strategies for reducing unhealthy stressors:

-roll out employee assistance programs
-recommend a holistic wellness approach
-create a supportive environment
-make jobs interesting
-make career counseling available

Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

include a host of programs aimed at helping employees to cope with stress, burnout, substance abuse, health related problems, family and marital issues, and any general problem that negatively influences job performance.

Holistic wellness program

focuses on self responsibility, nutritional awareness, relaxation techniques, physical fitness, and environmental awareness.
-encourages employees to strive, in one definition, for "a harmonious and productive balance of physical, mental, and social well being brought about by the acceptance of ones personal responsibility for developing and adhering to a health promotion program.

Why do people do the things they do?

they are motivated to fulfill their wants and needs

What is the extent to which people feel secure in unworried?

What is the term for the attitudes or beliefs that affect our understanding actions and decisions in an unconscious manner?

What is the term for the way individuals perceive their ability?

Are beliefs and feelings that are directed toward specific objects people or events?