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Week 4 Tutorial 3 – Personality and Values. Materials: Case Study: ‘The Nice Trap?’ page 107, Robbins et al., 2011Case Study: Recommended Responses to questions.Video: The Corporate Psychopath (16 minutes 38 seconds)Purpose The goal in this tutorial exercise are to develop an understanding of the Big Five Model – a well researched and supported personality assessment model, through a case study analysis. Recommended time for this activity is 30 minutes. Students will also be introduced to the concept of the ‘Corporate Psychopath’ through a video and identify strategies for managing challenging personalities in the workplace. Recommended time for this activity is 45 minutes.The argumentative essay ‘Traits are powerful predicators of behaviour’ will also be discussed. Recommended time for this discussion is 20 minutes.StepsStudents are to work in groups of 3 – 4 and individually read the Case Study. This is to be followed by a discussion in groups of the questions that follow the case Introduce the case by reminding students of the the Big Five Model and recent that points to ‘agreeableness’ being a trait that is valued by employers but this does not necessarily mean these traits will lead to better performance..Groups then reconvene as a whole class and the instructor leads a debrief on the question responses.Overview: In discussing personality it is also important to mention the issue of ‘personality disorder’. This is a clinical term for a consistent pattern of behaviour in an individual that is maladaptive such as anti-social or narcissistic behaviour (note narcissism will be discussed further in the lecture on Leadership). One personality disorder that is gaining increased attention in the OB literature is the anti-social personality disorder which is defined as a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture and marked inability to get along with other or abide by societal rules.People with this type of disorder are sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths. With increased attention to bullying in the corporate setting, the concept of the Office Psychopath has become popularised. While some of the media reports may suggest this is a widespread problem, and we can all think of people we know with ‘dysfunctional’ personalities, actual diagnoses of personality disorder are quite rare.Show the video to students ‘The Corporate Psychopath’.Ask students to work in pairs or triads and discuss the following:Have you ever encountered a boss or colleague like this?What strategies do you think are important in managing such a situation? For example: Discussion may include the ability to self-monitor; the importance of clarifying instrumental and terminal values; and the importance of personality-job fit. How might development of the Big Five traits of personality predict behaviour and mitigate the anti-social behaviours? Discussion here on the trait of emotional stability would be valuable.Please allow approximately 20 minutes to discuss the “basics” of the argumentative essay – “Traits are powerful predictors of behaviour” – topic on page 104 of Robbins et al., 2011 textbook. This may include:The essay structure (please refer to the Unit Outline pp. 17 – 18)What is plagiarism?Referencing (Harvard System)Range of topic referencesQuality of material (ie no Wiki referencesCorrect citations in listLayout and presentation of reference listAuthors in text and list matchNumber of references (approximately 10 academic references)Essay contentHow to structure an argumentAssessment RubricReminders regarding due date and value of assessmentCase Study: ‘The Nice Trap?’Questions for discussion and suggested responses:Do you think there is a contradiction between what employers want in employees (agreeable employees) and what employees actually do best (disagreeable employees)? Why or why not?Answer: Students will likely agree a contradiction exists. It exists because each factor has a different set of perceptions about how to achieve organisational success. Although they agree on what they want to achieve, the steps needed to achieve the goals is the place of dissention. Often, the effects of personality depend on the situation. Can you think of some job situations in which agreeableness is an important virtue? And in which it is harmful?Answer: This is an opinion question. The answer depends on the student’s experience. For jobs that agreeableness is appropriate might be customer service, marketing, sales, or human resources. Jobs where agreeableness is a potential detriment would be jobs such as product engineering, plant manufacturing, finance, or accounting.In some research we’ve conducted, we’ve found that the negative effect of agreeableness on earnings is stronger for men than for women (that is, being agreeable hurt men’s earnings more than women’s). Why do you think this might be the case?Answer: This answer might depend on the expectations of men versus women in the workforce. Women might be expected to be more agreeable and, therefore, their behaviours at work are more fulfilling to their responsibilities. Men expected to be less agreeable in work requirements, that is more questioning and analytical, may affect job performance judgments when they are seen as agreeable and, therefore, passive in their performance.Source: T. A. Judge, B. A. Livingston and C. Hurst, ‘Do nice guys—and gals—really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on earnings’, working paper, University of Florida, 2009; S. N. Kaplan, M. M. Klebanov and M. Sorensen, ‘Which CEO characteristics and abilities matter?’, working paper, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 2008, <;; L. K. Thaler and R. Koval, The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness, Doubleday/Currency, New York, 2006; E. Horrell, The Kindness Revolution, AMACOM, New York, 2006; D. Brady, ‘Being mean is so last millennium’, Business Week, 15 January 2007, p. 61; L. Schillinger, ‘Nice and ambitious: Either, neither, or both?’, New York Times, 14 January 2007, p. 1; Congeniality factor: Employers become pickier about personality’, Gainesville Sun, 6 November 2007, p. 6B. ................
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