Page 168 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 8: Foundations of Organisational Behaviour

refers to how people influence others through their external appearances and actions. But for Notes
psychologists, personality includes:
1. Eternal appearances and behaviour

2. The inner awareness of self as a permanent organising force, and
3. The particular organisation of measurable traits, both inner and outer.
Personality is an individual difference that lends consistency to a person's behaviour. Personality
is defined as a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual's behaviour.
For our purposes, you should think of personality as the sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others. This is most often described in terms of measurable personality
traits that a person exhibits.

8.8.1 Definition of Personality

Through psychologists and social scientists unanimously agree to the importance of personality,
they are unable to come up with a unanimous definition. Many authorities on the subject have
defined personality in different ways. Some of the definitions are reproduced below:

Probably the most meaningful approach would be to include both the person and the role as
Floyd L Ruch does in his definition. He states that:
"the human personality includes:

1. External appearance and behaviour or social stimulus value.
2. Inner awareness of self as a permanent organising force.
3. The particular pattern or organisation of measurable traits, both "inner and "outer"."
Gordon Allport gave the most frequently used definition of personality nearly 70 years ago. He
said personality is "the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment".

J.B Kolasa defines personality as – "Personality is a broad, amorphous designation relating to
fundamental approaches of persons to others and themselves. To most psychologists and students
of behaviour, this term refers to the study of the characteristic traits of an individual, relationships
between these traits and the way in which a person adjusts to other people and situations".
According to Gluck – "Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that
influences his or her behaviour toward goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of
protecting these states".

James D Thompson and Donald Van Houten define personality as – "a very diverse and complex
psychological concept. The word 'personality' may mean something like outgoing, invigorating
interpersonal abilities … but we must also recognize and explain the fact that development
results in man acquiring a distinctiveness or uniqueness which gives him identity which enables
him and us to recognize him as apart from others. These distinguishing characteristics are
summarized by the term 'personality'".
From the above definitions we can say that personality is a very diverse and complex psychological
concept. It is concerned with external appearance and behaviour, self, measurable traits, and
situational interactions. The words of Clyde Kleeckholn and H.A. Murray can be used to sum up
the meaning of this complex term personality, when they said, "to some extent, a person's
personality is like all other people's, like some other people's, like no other people's."

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