In this chapter, we look at five psychological concepts-personality

In this chapter, we look at five psychological concepts-personality, perception, expectations, attitudes, and learning-and demonstrate how these concepts can he p managers to better understand the behavior of those people with whom they have to work.

Some people are quiet and passive; others are loud and aggressive. When we describe people in terms such as quiet, passive. loud, aggressive, ambitious, or persistent, we are categorizing them in terms of personality traits. An individual's personality is the combination of the psychological traits we use to classify that person.

There are literally dozens of personality traits, but a small number have been found to be particularly valuable in providing insights into employee behavior. We review those traits in this section.

LOCUS OF CONTROL

Some people believe that they are masters of their own fate. Other people see themselves as pawns of fate, believing that what happens to them in their lives is due to luck or chance. The first type, those who believe that they control their destinies, have been labeled internals, whereas the latter, who see their lives as being controlled by outside forces, have been called externals.

Comparisons of internals with externals have consistently shown that individuals who rate high in externality are less satisfied with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from the work setting, and are less involved in their jobs than are internals. Why are externals more dissatisfied? The answer is probably because they perceive themselves as having little control over those organizational outcomes that are important to them. Internals, facing the same situation, attribute organizational outcomes to their own actions. If the situation is unattractive, they believe that they have no one to blame but themselves. Also, the dissatisfied internal is more likely to quit a dissatisfying job.

The effect of locus of control on absenteeism is an interesting one. Internals believe that health is substantially under their own control through proper habits, so they take more responsibility for their health and have better health habits. Consequently, internals have lower incidences of sickness and, hence, lower absenteeism than externals.

The overall evidence indicates that internals generally perform better on their jobs, but that conclusion should be moderated to reflect differences in jobs. Internals search more actively for information before making a decision, are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their environment. Externals, however, are more compliant and willing to follow directions. Therefore, internals do well on jobs that involve sophisticated tasks — which include most managerial and professional positions— that require complex information processing and learning. In addition, internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of action In contrast, externals should do well on jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends heavily on complying with the directions of others.

ARHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION

We noted that internals are motivated to achieve. This achievement orientation has also been singled out as a personality characteristic that varies among employees and that can be used to predict certain behaviors