CONVOCATORIA EN EL ESTADO DE PUEBLA PARA LA SOLICITUD Y ASIGNACIÓN DE APOYOS DEL COMPONENTE VI. PLANTACIONES FORESTALES COMERCIALES DEL PROGRAMA NACIONAL

Over the years, as many as 1,700 adjectives have been used to describe vari- ous aspects of personality.56 _{Accordingly, efforts have been made to create}

more simplified groupings of traits that capture most of these characteristics. The Big Five is one of the more established personality frameworks. The five personality dimensions are:57

1. Extraversion: being sociable, assertive, talkative, and energetic. The oppo- site trait is introversion.

2. Emotional stability: associated with not being anxious, depressed, angry, and insecure. The opposite trait is neuroticism.

3. Agreeableness: being polite, flexible, trusting, cooperative, forgiving, and tolerant. The opposite trait is disagreeableness.

4. Conscientiousness: associated with being careful, thorough, responsible, organized, and prone to planning as well as being hardworking, achieve- ment-oriented, and persistent. The opposite trait is lazy.

5. Openness to experience: being imaginative, cultured, curious, broad- minded, and artistically sensitive. The opposite trait is closed-mindedness. So what do these Big Five traits mean to organizations? Of the five, emo- tional stability and conscientiousness tend to have the strongest and most consistently positive relationship with performance motivation.58 _Conscien-

tiousness is known to be positively associated with a variety of work outcomes, including training performance. Highly conscientious individuals also have greater confidence in their abilities.59 _{However, some aspects of conscientious-}

ness, including dependability, order, and dutifulness, can reduce performance when adaptability to changing task conditions is important.60 _{Lower emo-}

tional stability may result in reductions in attention and reduced motivation, in part through reductions in self-confidence.

More open individuals are, by definition, more receptive to experiencing and learning new things. As a result, they are more likely to maintain their focus on learning and on sustaining motivation when learning becomes chal- lenging.61 _{Evidence suggests that openness to experience is a good predictor}

of training success, while the evidence for conscientiousness appears to be mixed.62 _{Openness is also related to success in expatriate assignments.}63

Extraversion is positively related to training outcomes,64 _{possibly because}

extroverted individuals are more energetic, assertive, and sociable. Extroverted individuals may also be better able to maintain an outward focus, enabling learn- ing. Other than web-based or computer programs, many training programs in- clude some component of interpersonal interaction. To the degree that training and learning require social interaction, extraversion is likely to facilitate and en- hance such interactions, reducing anxiety and increasing motivation to learn.65

Murray Barrick and Mick Mount reviewed 117 studies with 23,994 partici- pants and found that conscientiousness was consistently positively related to all performance criteria for all occupational groups. Extraversion was a good predictor of performance for occupations involving social interaction (e.g. man- agement and sales). Extraversion and openness to experience were good pre- dictors of training proficiency criteria.66 _{Agreeableness has also been found to}

predict job67 _{and training performance.}68 _{Emotional stability, extraversion, con-}

scientiousness, and agreeableness are all positively related to job satisfaction.69

Emotionally stable, agreeable, and conscientious people tend to set higher goals, and emotionally stable extroverts tend to have higher self-confidence.70

Theories of personality generally assume stability in traits such as consci- entiousness, but emerging evidence suggests that age is related to changes in

Big Five

A personality framework consisting of extroversion, emotional stability,

agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience

personality. In particular, agreeableness and conscientiousness seem to show increases with age whereas extraversion, neuroticism, and openness show declines.71

It is important to remember that the Big Five traits do not explain all of human personality. Traits including honesty, conservativeness, sense of humor, and manipulativeness are not captured by these five traits. The factors are also not completely independent. For example, emotional stability is often pos- itively related to extraversion—people who are not anxious or insecure tend to be more outgoing. The most significant contribution of the Big Five model is the establishment of a taxonomy that helps to organize a previously scattered and disorganized group of personality traits.

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is defined as an individual’s general strategy for dealing with other people and the degree to which they feel they can manipulate oth- ers in interpersonal situations.72 _{With its roots in Machiavelli’s publication of}

The Prince in 1532, a Machiavellian personality has been defined as some-

one who “employs aggressive, manipulative, exploiting, and devious moves to achieve personal or organizational objectives.”73

The Machiavellian individual manipulates others for his or her own pur- pose—the needs, feelings, or rights of others are secondary.74 _{The character-}

istics of a Machiavellian include deceit, manipulation (although not obvious), suspicion of others, and emotional detachment. Machiavellians also tend to be impersonal, opportunistic, ambitious, impatient, and appear unresponsive to personal or ethical concerns of others.75 _{No difference in intelligence has been}

found between high and low Machiavellian individuals.76

Since Machiavellian characteristics exist in most individuals in differing degrees, managers need to learn about this characteristic. Two important rea- sons for understanding Machiavellianism are the issues of loyalty and ethics. Loyalty refers to a person’s commitment to another person, task, or organiza- tion. Self-interest is the most powerful force affecting loyalty and ethics. Ma- chiavellian employees are less likely to be loyal to their job or organization. Highly Machiavellian people are also less ethically sensitive than are lower Machiavellian people, and they agree less with ethical policies and rules of behavior. Highly Machiavellian managers tend to perceive ethical problems as less serious and are less likely to take action in the face of ethical breaches.77

The positive effects of ethical leader behavior on employee engagement are also reduced when the leader is more highly Machiavellian.78

Because Machiavellian managers are reluctant to punish unethical behav- ior, enforcing an ethical code of conduct is essential. Organizations must make it in the best interest of Machiavellians to behave ethically—severe punish- ments for unethical behavior and significant rewards for ethical behavior are what Machiavellians respond to the most.79 _{Machiavellian employees have}

also been found to prefer transactional relationships with their employers that increase the likelihood of deviant behaviors.80 _{An opportunity to assess your}

own Machiavellianism is presented in Table 3-4.

The results of research on Machiavellianism have found that: 1. Men are generally more Machiavellian than women.

2. Older adults tend to have lower Mach scores than younger adults.

3. There is no significant difference between high Machiavellians and low Machiavellians on measures of intelligence or ability.

Machiavellianism

An individual’s general strategy for dealing with other people and the degree to which they feel they can manipulate others in interpersonal situations

4. Machiavellianism is not significantly related to demographic characteris- tics such as educational level or marital status.

5. High Machiavellians tend to be in professions that emphasize the control and manipulation of individuals—for example, lawyers, psychiatrists, and behavioral scientists.82

An understanding of this type of aggressive personality and leadership style can help you to be more effective in your job. If you can recognize high Machiavellian characteristics in coworkers or supervisors, you can take action to prevent damage to yourself or to your organization.