Page 170 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 8: Foundations of Organisational Behaviour

will affect the self-concept. Practically all would agree that physical characteristics Notes
have at least some influence on the personality. According to Paul H Mussen, "a
child's physical characteristics may be related to his approach to the social
environment, to the expectancies of others, and to their reactions to him. These, in
turn, may have impacts on personality development."
If personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at
birth and no amount of experience could alter them. But personality characteristics are not
completely dictated by heredity. There are other factors also which influence personality.
2. Cultural Factors: Among the factors that influence personality formation is the culture in
which we are raised, early conditioning, norms prevailing within the family, friends and
social groups and other miscellaneous experiences that impact us. Traditionally, cultural
factors are usually considered to make a more significant contribution to personality than
biological factors. The culture largely determines attitudes towards independence,
aggression, competition, cooperation and a host of other human responses. According to
Paul H Mussen, "each culture expects, and trains, its members to behave in ways that are
acceptable to the group. To a marked degree, the child's cultural group defines the range
of experiences and situations he is likely to encounter and the values and personality
characteristics that will be reinforced and hence learned." Culture requires both conformity
and acceptance from its members. There are several ways of ensuring that members
comply with the dictates of the culture. The personality of an individual to a marked
extent is determined by the culture in which he or she is brought up. It follows that a
person reared in a western culture has a different personality from a person reared in our
Indian culture.
3. Family Factors: Whereas the culture generally prescribes and limits what a person can be
taught, it is the family, and later the social group, which selects, interprets and dispenses
the culture. Thus, the family probably has the most significant impact on early personality
development. A substantial amount of empirical evidence indicates that the overall home
environment created by the parents, in addition to their direct influence, is critical to
personality development. For example, children reared in a cold, unstimulating home are
much more likely to be socially and emotionally maladjusted than children raised by
parents in a warm, loving and stimulating environment.
The parents play an especially important part in the identification process, which is
important to the person's early development. According to Mischel, the process can be
examined from three different perspectives.
(a) Identification can be viewed as the similarity of behaviour including feelings and
attitudes between child and model.
(b) Identification can be looked at as the child's motives or desires to be like the model.
(c) It can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes
of the model.
From all three perspectives, the identification process is fundamental to the understanding
of personality development. The home environment also influences the personality of an
individual. Siblings (brothers and sisters) also contribute to personality.
4. Social Factors: There is increasing recognition given to the role of other relevant persons,
groups and especially organisations, which greatly influence an individual's personality.
This is commonly called the socialization process. Socialization involves the process by
which a person acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioural potentialities
that are open to him or her, those that are ultimately synthesized and absorbed.
Socialization starts with the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. After

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