THE BIG FIVE

MYER-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TYPES

OB
 Personality
 Personality can be defined as “the complex
of characteristics that distinguishes an
individual or a nation or group; especially :
the totality of an individual’s behavioral and
emotional characteristics”.
 Understanding personalities is a vital part of
being a manager.
 People are different and that’s a fact and to
better understand how to interact and
engage with them it is important to
understand what type of personality your
dealing with.
 Having an understanding of personality and
learning styles of individuals in your
organization can generate a productive
pleasant place to work.
Big Five (Costa & McCrae)

1. Neuroticism
2. Extraversion
3. Openness to Experience
4. Agreeableness
5. Conscientiousness
Neuroticism

 Tendency to experience negative

(unpleasant) feelings

 Emotionally reactive, intense

 On other end: calm, emotionally stable, free

from persistent negative feelings
Neuroticism Facets

1. Anxiety – sense of danger or threat

- Tense, jittery, nervous …calm, fearless
2. Anger
3. Depression – feel sad, dejected, low
- Lack energey, feel dejected….free from depressive feelings
4. Self-consciousness – sensitive to what others think of them
- feel uncomfortable around others, easily embarrassed….don’t feel
discomfort in social situations, don’t fear being judged by others
5. Immoderation – strong cravings and urges that are hard to
resist
6. Vulnerability – susceptibility to stress
• Feel panic, helpless under pressure….feel poised, confident
under pressure
Extraversion

 Enjoy being with others

 High energy
 Tendency to experience positive emotions

 Low scorers:
• Quiet, less engaged in social world
• NOT shyness or depression
Extraversion Facets

1. Friendliness
- like others and easily reach out to other people…distant and
reserved
2. Gregariousness
- Enjoy being around others, like crowds…need more privacy
and time to self, dislike crowds
3. Assertievness
- Like to speak out, take charge, leaders…let others control
group direction
4. Activity Level
- Much action, energetic, quick…slower paced, less activity
5. Excitement-Seeking
- Easily bored, seek thrills…unlikely to take risks, adverse to
thrill-seeking
6. Cheerfulness
- High on positive emotions such as happiness, optimism,
enthusiasm, and joy…low scores don’t’ experience as much
joy (but NOT depressed)
Openness To Experience

 Most disagreement about what this factor is

and what to call it.

 Imaginative, intellectually curious, sensitive

to aesthetics and feelings …. Down to earth,
practical,conventional

 Not a measure of intelligence

Openness Facets

1. Imagination
- Fantasy…fact
2. Artistic Interests
- Love beauty, aesthetics…not interested in arts
3. Emotionality
- Awareness of and expression of feelings…less aware and
expressive
4. Adventurousness
- Like new activities, experience different things…prefer
familiar things
5. Intellect
- Like to play with ideas…prefer concrete things over ideas
6. Liberalism
- Challenge authority and convention…prefer conventional
approaches
Conscientiousness

 Deliberate in actions, controlled, planful

 Low: impulsive
Conscientiousness Facets

1. Self-efficacy
2. Orderliness
3. Dutifulness
4. Achievement Striving
5. Self-discipline
6. Cautiousness
Agreeableness

 Social harmony, ability to get along with

others

 Low: mistrustful of others, difficulty getting

along with others
Agreeableness Facets

1. Trust
2. Morality
3. Altruism
4. Cooperation
5. Modesty
6. Sympathy
Big Five Personality Traits

Extraversion – tendency to
experience positive emotions and
moods and feel good about oneself
and the rest of the world

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Big Five Personality Traits

 Managers high in extraversion tend to be

sociable, affectionate, outgoing and friendly

 Managers low in extraversion tend to be less

inclined toward social interaction and have a
less positive outlook

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Measures

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Big Five Personality Traits

Negative affectivity – tendency to experience

negative emotions and moods, feel distressed,
and be critical of oneself and others

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Big Five Personality Traits

 Managers high in negative affectivity may often

feel angry and dissatisfied and complain about
their own and others’ lack of progress

 Managers who are low in negative affectivity do

not tend to experience many negative emotions
and moods and are less pessimistic and critical
of themselves and others

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Measure of Negative Affectivity

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 Big Five Personality Traits

Agreeableness –
tendency to get
along well with
others

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Big Five Personality Traits

 Managers high in agreeableness are likable,

affectionate and care about others

 Managers with low agreeableness may be

distrustful, unsympathetic, uncooperative and
antagonistic

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Big Five Personality Traits

Conscientiousness –
tendency to be
careful, scrupulous,
and persevering

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Big Five Personality Traits

 Managers high in this trait are organized and

self-disciplined

 Managers low in this trait lack direction and

self-discipline

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Big Five Personality Traits

Openness to Experience – tendency to be

original, have broad interests, be open to a
wide range of stimuli, be daring and take risks

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Big Five Personality Traits

 Managers who are high in openness to

experience may be especially likely to take
risks and be innovative in their planning and
decision making

 Managers who are low in this trait may be less

prone to take risks and be more conservative in
their planning and decision making

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Factor I

 Extroversion, Sociability, Surgency

 High
• Sociable
• Energetic
• Adventurous
• Enthusiastic
• Outgoing
 Low
• Quite
• Reserved
• Shy
Factor II

 Agreeableness
 High
• Forgiving
• Kind
• Appreciative
• Trusting
• Sympathetic
 Low
• Cold
• Unfriendly
• Quarrelsome
Factor III

 Conscientiousness
 High
• Organized
• Thorough
• Deliberate
• Responsible
• Precise
 Low
• Careless
• Disorderly
• Frivolous
Factor IV

 Emotional Stability (Neuroticism)

 High
• Tense
• Moody
• Anxious
• Fearful
• Touchy
 Low
• Stable
• Calm
• Contented
Factor V

 Openness to Experience
• Curious
• Imaginative
• Wide interests
• Original
• Intelligent
 Low
• Narrow interests
• Simple
• Shallow
Other Personality Traits

Internal locus of control

 Belief that you are responsible for your own
fate
 Own actions and behaviors are major and
decisive determinants of job outcomes

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Other Personality Traits

External locus of control

 Believe that outside forces are responsible for
what happens to and around them
 Do not think their own actions make much of a
difference

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Other Personality Traits

Self-Esteem
• The degree to which people feel good about
themselves and their abilities
- High self-esteem causes a person to feel competent,
deserving and capable.
- Persons with low self-esteem have poor opinions of
themselves and are unsure about their capabilities.

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Other Personality Traits

Need for Achievement

• The extent to which an individual has a strong desire
to perform challenging tasks well and meet personal
standards for excellence

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Other Personality Traits

Need for Affiliation

• The extent to which an individual is concerned about
establishing and maintaining good interpersonal
relations, being liked, and having other people get
along

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Other Personality Traits

Need for Power

• The extent to which an individual desires to control
or influence
others

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Pure Markers of the Big Five

Openness: artistic, creative, broad interests, cultured,

knowledgeable
Conscientiousness: careful, fussy, tidy, hardworking, neat,
punctual
Extraversion: extraverted, frank, talkative, fun loving,
sociable
Agreeableness: acquiescent, mild, gentle, softhearted
Neuroticism: angry, anxious, worried, guilt ridden, nervous
Big Five Personality Traits

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Five-Factor Personality Model
(CANOE)

Conscientiousness Careful, dependable

Agreeableness Courteous, caring

Neuroticism Anxious, hostile

Openness to Experience Sensitive, flexible

Extroversion Outgoing, talkative

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Five-Factor Personality and
Organizational Behavior
 Conscientiousness and emotional stability
• Motivational components of personality
• Strongest personality predictors of performance
 Extroversion
• Linked to sales and mgt performance
• Related to social interaction and persuasion
 Agreeableness
• Effective in jobs requiring cooperation and helpfulness
 Openness to experience
• Linked to higher creativity and adaptability to change

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Myers-Briggs
 The Myers-Briggs test was developed by a mother/daughter team in the 40’s
based of off the lifelong work of Carl Jung.
 The test was intended to bring a everyday applications of Jung’s work to the
public in order to provide personality matches for social and work
environments.
 The test was a new interpretation of Jung’s theory and added to it by including
how people deal with the outside world.
 There have been over 600 dissertations written about the study and 1000’s of
articles and books.
The Test
The test is broken down into four categories.
1. Favorite World: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or your own
inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
2. Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or
do you prefer to interrupt and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or
Intuition (N)
3. Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and
consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is
called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
4. Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things
decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This
is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
Extraversion ( E )
 Act First
 Prefers interaction from the outside world.
 Motivated by the outside forces and people
 Enjoys a wide verity of relationship with several individuals
Introversion ( I )

 Think and reflect before responding

 Needs time alone to recharge
 Finds motivation from within, closes mind off from outside world
 Prefers one-on-one time in relationships
Sensing ( S )

 Mental state of mind dwells in the present

 Uses common sense to create practical solutions
 Vivid memory recall rich in detail
 Utilizes past experiences for improvisation
 Prefers clear concrete information
Intuition ( N )

 Mentally dwells in the future and future possibilities

 Uses imagination and creativity to formulate new solutions
 Memory recalls patterns, content, and connections
 Comfortable with deciphering fuzzy data
Thinking ( T )

 Make decisions based on facts and logic

 Notices task and work to be done
 Provides objective and critical analysis
 Accept conflict as part of human nature in relationships
Feeling ( F )

 Use personal feeling to make decisions

 Sensitive to the needs of others and takes others into consideration
 Seeks approval from peers and sides with popular opinion
 Becomes unsettled around conflict and disorder
Judging ( J )

 Plans details in advance

 Focus task at hand and completes meaningful segments before moving on
 Works to avoid stress and stays ahead of deadlines
 Uses target dates and goals to manage life
Perceiving ( P )

 Moves into action with out a plan

 Multitask and mixes work with pleasure
 Tolerant of deadlines, dose best work under pressure
 Avoids commitments that interfere with flexibility, freedom, and variety
 How Types Manage
Time

• Get distracted by Introverts

the outside world
• Get into their own project and
• Work more
forget the outside world.
productively
• Productively work alone.
Extraverts when other are
Enjoy working alone.
involved.
• Are invaded by others’ demands.
• Invade other’s
time/space.
Intuitives
• Focus on the present. • Focus on the future.
•Perceive time as a •Perceive time as endless.
Sensors particular moment •Look to the future for enjoyment.
•Enjoy each day as it is.

Thinkers Feelers
• Perceive time as objective.
• Perceive time as relational.
• Organize a presentation
•Organize a presentation to meet
according to logical principles.
the audience’s needs.
• Present information tersely.
• Present information personably.

Judgers Perceivers
• Overlook tasks not on a schedule. • Do unscheduled tasks.
• Dislike being caught at the • Dislike coming to conclusions
last minute. until they have to.
• Tend to separate work & play. • Tend to mix work and play.
The Code
 After taking the test a four
letter code is generated
based on your answers.
 There are 16 possible
combinations of letters and
each combination defines the
individuals personality.
 Taking your combination of
letters into consideration
determines your personality
preferences.
 Sensing-Intuition

 How do you acquire information?

 How do you attend to the world around you?

Sensing

 Immediate experience, present moment

• which leads to enjoyment of the present moment,
realism, acute observation, memory for detail,
practicality.
• Work with what is “given” in a situation. Pays
attention to those things which can be seen, heard,
or touched.

 Prefers to think in concrete, realistic ways

rather than philosophically.
Intuition

 Possibilities, meanings, relationships

(unconscious perception)
• which leads to imagination, theoretical and future
orientation, creativity, abstractness.
• Big picture, grasps patterns.
• Pays attention to the meanings behind things,
rather than the things themselves.
 Prefers to think about things in philosophical
or poetic ways, rather than in concrete or
realistic ways.
Scenario

 You are the director of an HR department.

The company is struggling and you must lay
off 15% of your workforce.

 How do you decide who stays and who

goes?
Thinking-Feeling

 How do you make decisions?

 It’s not about the outcome of the decision.

 It’s about the process you go through to

make the decision and what you consider
when making it.
Thinking

 Links ideas logically

 Impersonal cause-effect leads to

• objectivity, attention to justice and fairness,
• seeks order through logic.
• Weighs the evidence, even the unpleasant truth.

 Preference for decisions based on clear cut

principals, without regard for how the
decisions will affect others.
• Puts an emphasis on fairness, justice, and logic.
Feeling

 Weighs relative values and merits-

• more subjectively attuned to others’ values, group values,
human aspects of problems,
• leads to need for affiliation, desire for harmony, and warmth,
• seeks order according to harmony among subjective values.
• Looks at what is important to people involved, decides based
on how much investment you have in each alternative-
leading to tact and empathy.

 Prefers decisions based on values

• paying attention to how people will be affected by decisions.
• Puts an emphasis on feelings, on relationships, and on
getting along with others.
 Thinking - Feeling
Thinking:
Feeling: I like
I’m impressed
him. He’ll fit
with his
in great with
the team.
credentials .
Question

 Think about the last time you left on a

vacation that extended over a few days.

 When did you start packing?

 How did you pack?

 Judging-Perceiving

 How do you orient toward the outer world?

Judging

 Business before pleasure; organize events

 Wants to get things settled

 Prefers to get things done and accomplished,

to stay organized, and to finish one project
before starting on the next one
Perceiving

 Experience and adapt to events in life.

 Flexible, spontaneous.
 Understand life rather than control it.
 Adapt to the moment.
 Prefers to have several projects going at the
same time.
• Finds it easy to leave one project to start on
another one, and isn’t necessarily bothered if the
first project never gets finished.
Extroversion-Introversion

 From where do you get your energy?

 Where do you prefer to focus your attention?

 What’s Energizing
Extroversion

 Attention flows out to objects and people in

the environment,
• desires to act on the environment, affirm its
importance;
• awareness and reliance on environment for
stimulation and guidance;
• action oriented, impulsive, frank, sociable.
• Energized by what goes on in the outer world.
 Preference for people and things.
• Likes being with people and working on things,
even more than thinking about them or studying
them.
• Appears outgoing and socially at ease.
Introversion

 Energy drawn from environment and consolidated

within inner world of ideas and concepts, reliance on
enduring concepts (not environmental events)
• thoughtful contemplative detachment,
• enjoyment of solitude and privacy.

 Preference for ideas and concepts.

• Likes thinking about things, even more than doing them.
• May appear to be shy or sometimes withdrawn.
 Validate Your Type

Your Self-selected Your Preferences

Preferences Identified on Myers
Briggs Type Inventory

E---------------------------I E---------------------------I
S--------------------------N S--------------------------N
T--------------------------F T--------------------------F
J--------------------------P J--------------------------P
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Extroversion versus introversion
• similar to five-factor dimension
 Sensing versus intuition
• collecting information through senses versus
through intuition, inspiration or subjective sources
 Thinking versus feeling
• processing and evaluating information
• using rational logic versus personal values
 Judging versus perceiving
• orient themselves to the outer world
• order and structure or flexibility and spontaneity

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