Discussion questions for

 Schneider, B. & Smith, D. B., eds. (2004). Personality in Organizations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

Chap 1. Personality Psychology for Organizational Researchers (R. Hogan) p. 3 

  1. How has the behaviorist model of social behavior impeded progress towards a better understanding of personality and what would be an alternative view?
  2. What are the reasons why there has been no agreement on an agenda for personality and what should it be for I/O psychology?
  3. How do the three definitions of motivation relate to the state & trait notions that imply a predisposition to respond?
  4. How do the dimensions of temperament and mood states relate to the manifested big five traits?
  5. What are some factors that would cause an actor or observer perspective to be a more accurate description of an individual's Big Five traits?
  6. What is the theoretical foundation for a socioanalytic theory of personality development and how does Hogan characterize it into two basic orientations?
  7. What role would the big five traits be expected to play in teamwork, organizational effectiveness, and leadership?

Chap 3. Four Lessons Learned From the Person-Situation Debate: A Review and Research Agenda (G. Stewart & M. Barrick) p. 61   

  1. Choose a job you have had and identify three situations in which specific traits (Hogan's 7) would predict high performance.
  2. Identify weak and strong situations in a college professor's job that would allow or not allow for specific trait expression.
  3. How does the strength of the response set (i.e. job environment) affect the usefulness of personality testing in the selection process?
  4. Give some examples of how research findings have shown that the composition of personality traits among team members can enhance or impede team performance. 
  5. What would be needed to show a better linkage between personality traits and occupations?
  6. Of the three motivational goals (orientations) identified by Stewart and Barrick ("mapping the process..."), which did they conclude were the most important and why?
  7. How does emotional stability act as a mediator in the personality-performance relationship?

Chap 4. Personality, Interactional Psychology, and Person-Organization Fit (T. Judge & A. Kristof-Brown) p. 87  

  1. Why has interactional psychology been resisted for so long?
  2. Distinguish between non-additive, mediating, non-interactive additive, and reciprocal effects. Give an example of each.
  3. How does perceptual interaction differ from those above?
  4. Does the OCP measure values, organizational culture or both?
  5. What organizational outcomes are influenced by congruence?
  6. Of the four types of reasons for goal pursuit (Sheldon & Elliot, 1998), which motivates you in pursuing your career goals?
  7. If individual level perceptions are used in research on person-group relations, is it truly meso-level? Explain.

Chap 5. The Implications of Impression Management for Personality Research in Organizations (B. Smith &  C. Robie) p. 111

  1. Why do the authors believe it is important to distinguish between impression management and self-deception?
  2. What are the authors' three objections to studying impression management in the laboratory? What do they advocate instead?
  3. What do findings from the effect size differences between the GPI Impressing scale and the CPI Good impression scales comparing the Promotion/Selection v. Development tell about the relative fakability of each?
  4. Why would one expect validity coefficients for predictive designs to be lower than those for concurrent designs? What did Hough find?
  5. What evidence if there for a "frame of reference" or contextual effect explanation for response distortion?
  6. Why do to many researchers (e.g. McCrae & Costa, Smith & Ellingson) say it would be inappropriate to control for social desirable responding?
  7. How were the conflicting findings from Douglas et al. (1996) and Schmit and Ryan's (1993) regarding the effects of impression management on factor structure resolved?
  8. What are two promising approaches to reducing faking? Which is more reasonable to use?
  9. What contributes to response distortion more, self-impression or overt faking?
  10. Should we make self-presentation easier or more difficult with item construction?

Chap 6. Vocational Psychology and Personality (W. Walsh) p. 141  

  1. Which of the two FFM traits are most closely associated with Holland's RIASEC personality types? Why?
  2. Why should self-efficacy be related to career choice?
  3. How much variance in occupational groupings do the Strong Interest Inventory and Skills Confidence Inventory account for (Donnay & Borgen, 1999)?
  4. What do you think explains the relationship between goal setting and subjective well-being (Robbins & Kliewer, 2000)?
  5. What has most influenced your subjective well-being and what factors have caused it to change if it has?
  6. How useful for career counseling are inventories such as the Strong and Holland's RIASEC model?  

Chap 7. The Dispositional Approach to Job Attitudes; An Empirical and Conceptual Review (B. Staw) p. 193 

  1. What evidence do Staw and Ross (1985) and Goiten (1977) provide to support their contention that dispositions can explain much of job satisfaction?
  2. What was needed for personality theorists to "fight back"?
  3. Is there any evidence to support the notion for an inherited component of job satisfaction?
  4. Do you agree with arguments made by Staw or Davis-Blake & Pfeffer with regard to the relative contribution of dispositional and situational effects on job satisfaction?
  5. Which is the most compelling of the three problems (common method var; theory; dimensionality) Staw raises about the PANAS?
  6. Do those with positive affect actually perform better or is it a perception of the rater?

Chap 10. Personality and Leadership (W. Spangler, R. House & Palrecha) pgs. 291-265

  1. Of the many reasons House and Aditya (1997) attribute the failures to find evidence for traits and leadership in early research, which do you find most compelling?
  2. What combination of the big five traits do you think should best predict leadership?
  3. Why do you think Judge, et al. (2001) found a larger contribution of traits to leadership than earlier research?
  4. What criticisms of the MBTI may explain why it should not be a good predictor of leadership?
  5. Do high self-monitors make better leaders than low self-monitors  (Zaccaro et al. 1991)?
  6. How might IQ play a role in effective leadership?
  7. Find examples of "strong" and "weak" organizational situations. Show how various leadership types would be fit them.
  8. Is leadership best explained with implicit or explicit theories?
  9. To make you an effective leader, what kind of organizational role demands will best fit your McClelland motives?

Chap 11: Personality & Citizenship Behavior in Organizations (p. 291) Organ & McFall

Chap 12. The Role of Personality in Group Processes (L. Moynihan & R. Peterson) p. 317

  1. What are 4 ways of measuring personality at the group level and why is it important to know the distinction between them?
     
  2. What are the principal assumptions made by each of the three theoretical perspectives (universal, contingent, configurationl) and what are their implications for studying the role of personality in group processes?
     
  3. Based on the Universal Approach,which of the Five Factor Model traits should best predict positive group outcomes?  Why?
     
  4. Based on the empirical research findings grounded in the contingency approach, do you think the cultural moderators operating in Aronoff et al. (1983) and Chatman and Barsade (1995) studies will generalize to field settings?
     
  5. Based on findings from DeBasio, 1986), could you use a field independence/dependence measure to select who should work on a unstructured team task that requires quick decisions? Why?
     
  6. Based on findings from Hogan et al. (1988) what personality traits would you select for in establishing teams to perform a mechanical task and a social task?
     
  7.  What effects do homogeneity and heterogeneity of traits have on group processes and under what conditions does each promote positive group outcomes?
     
  8. Which of the three theoretical approaches is reflected in the research conducted by Barrick, Stewart, Neubert, & Mount (1998) "Relating member ability and personality to work-team processes and team effectiveness"?

 Chap 15. Where We've Been and Where We're Going: Some conclusions Regarding Personality and Organizations (B. Smith & B. Schneider)