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INTRINSIC MOTIVATION:Why Choose Big Five Framework?, THE OUTCOME OF FIVE FACTOR MODEL

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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)
VU
Lesson 4
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Abstract: This theoretical paper studies and proposes to explore further the dispositional causes of intrinsic
motivation and, therefore, contributes to both personality as well as motivational literature. Because of its
relatively longer history, during which it has endured many tests, Big Five Framework is proposed to map the
construct personality. The paper probes into the etiology of one of the most powerful forms of motivation, the
intrinsic motivation (IM) or engaging in a task for its engagement value. Three elements, cognition; affect and,
values are identified as the basis of an intrinsically motivated behavior. These three elements are used in
developing the dynamics of link between personality and intrinsic motivation. On the basis of theoretical
discussions and various empirical evidences provided, five propositions, linking the five factors of Big Five
Model with propensity for intrinsic motivation, are suggested. The need for developing more reliable,
generalize-able and, valid measures of intrinsic motivation is stressed for future researchers so that the two
constructs of personality and intrinsic motivation are studied more objectively with more empirical evidence at
hand.
DISPOSITIONAL CAUSES OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Introduction
In the past ten to fifteen years extensive work has been carried out in exploring the link of construct personality
with other constructs like job performance, job satisfaction, work values, psychological contracts, emotions
and, cognition. Link of personality with intrinsic motivation exists, but there is paucity of literature exploring
the link from a multi faceted perspective. This theoretical paper is an attempt to review the literature for
exploring the relationship between personality and operational zed forms of intrinsic motivation, such as job
satisfaction and emotions, at individual levels, and to synthesize and integrate these explorations and to
formulate a comprehensive model providing a mechanism through which these different facets of motivation
link up with personality providing deeper insights into the anatomy of overall relation between the two
constructs.
Raja et al. (2002), in presenting their model considering how personality affects the formation of psychological
contracts, find it "surprising to note that although the distinctly personal nature of psychological contracts
suggest a pivotal role for personality, most research has looked at situational, rather than personal determinants
of contract formation, breach and, violation." Intrinsic motivation also has a distinctive personal and inherent
nature and as such the role of personality in its development and sustainability cannot be overlooked.
This paper explores the basis of the constructs personality (from the perspective of Big Five Model) and
intrinsic motivation and suggests a link-up through theoretical and empirical evidence presented step by step
and presenting specific arguments for the five suggested propositions.
The Construct: PERSONALITY
In our day-to-day life almost all of us make a conscious or at least subconscious assessment about other fellow
human beings: everyone is different. And different in nearly all conceivable ways, different in appearance, voice,
body language, habits, attitudes, behaviors, preferences and, the list goes on and on. These differences are
boundless and whether they remain insignificant and unnoticeable by others (Goldberg, 1990), they still are
there and with the changing global work practices, the impact of these differences or diversity is assuming all
the more importance. Whatever the history and outcome of these personal differences may be, one common
element accountable for these differences is our personality.
Personality theory has been an integral part of psychology and is basically concerned with framing and
evaluating models of human nature (Hogan, 1991) and for the past 25 years or so many theories and
frameworks of personality have been put forward. In this paper I will be following personality from the context
of Big Five Model or the Five Factor Model (FFM). But before coming to the FFM, let's first come to terms
with the concept of personality and the traits on which it is based.
Hogan (1991) defines personality at two levels; one which is open to others or public aspect and another,
internal or private level, where personality is referred to as "structures, dynamics, processes, and propensities
inside a person that explain why he or she behaves in a characteristic way." Personality, therefore, encompasses
both the public and private aspects of our behavior.
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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)
VU
Traits, corresponding to two aspects of personality, also operate at two levels; on the one hand trait refers to
recurring regularities or trends in a person's behavior and on the other hand, trait also denotes psychological
features, attitudes, emotions, and ways of perceiving and thinking, the ways that exist inside a person and
explain the recurring tendencies in a person's behavior (Hogan, 1991). In short, traits are the stylistic
consistencies exhibited by individuals in their social behaviors or broadly referring to stable and consistent ways
of thinking, feeling, or acting exhibited by individuals (Judge, Locke & Durham, 1997). It is, however,
important to note that researchers acknowledge the major value of traits lying not in their usefulness in
predicting specific behaviors, but in their value as predictors of aggregated behavior, that is, of behavior in the
longer run averaged over many situations, occasions, and responses (Epstein & O'Brien, 1985).
Why Choose Big Five Framework?
Big Five Framework has a reasonably long history to its credit and has endured many a tests imposed on it by
personality researchers, and the recent verdict on FFM by Funder (2001) is that it is," "latitude and longitude"
along which any new personality construct should be routinely mapped.
Sir Francis Galton was probably among the first scientists to recognize explicitly the fundamental lexical
hypothesis, meaning that most important individual differences in human behavior can be encoded as single
terms in some or all of the world's languages (Goldberg, 1990). Galton (1884) is known to have come up with
full one thousand words expressing human character. Thurstone, a pioneer in the development of factor
analysis, later on in 1934, developed a list of sixty adjectives for describing people. It was the application of
factor analysis on these sixty adjectives that identified five factors as we know them today. By1936, the
personality taxonomy of Raymond B. Cattell. Allport and Odbert, catalogued about 18,000 such terms.
Personality researchers have utilized two prominent systems for naming the five factors, one derived from the
lexical tradition and one from the questionnaire tradition (McCrae & John, 1992). Many writers take Norman's
(1963) annunciation of an "adequate taxonomy of personality attributes" derived from Cattell's reduction of
natural language trait terms as the formal beginning of the FFM, and the factor numbers and names Norman
chose ­ I: Extraversion or Surgency; II: Agreeableness; III: Conscientiousness; IV: Emotional Stability; and V:
Culture ­ are often used to this day. Peabody and Goldberg (1989) have noted that the order in which these
factors emerged roughly parallels their representation among English language trait items in the dictionary.
The second tradition that led to the modern FFM comes from the analysis of questionnaires, and particularly
from the work of H.J. Eysenck, who identified Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N) as major components of
psychological tests.
The five factor model so obtained was later reaffirmed by Fiske (1949) and Tupes and Christal (1961). It was
later corroborated in four subsequent studies by Borgatta (1964), Hakel (1974), Norman (1963) and, Smith
(1967). Borgatta's findings are considered especially noteworthy because he obtained five stable factors across
five methods of data gathering. Norman's work is also especially significant because his labels (Extraversion,
Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Culture) are used commonly in the literature and
have been referred to, subsequently, as "Norman's Big Five" or simply as the "Big Five" (Barrick & Mount,
1991).
This nomenclature and taxonomy development is a major achievement of the FFM as one of the difficulties
with personality studies previously conducted is that they lacked a coherent and uniform taxonomy resulting in
a wide variety of personality traits being measured, utilizing a mixture of different types of methodologies. The
emergence of the Big Five personality model has been widely accepted as a valid and reasonably generalized
taxonomy for personality structure and has been used by numerous researchers as a framework to explore the
criterion-related validity of personality in relation to job performance and other industrial settings (Clarke &
Robertson, 2005). Research in the recent years has demonstrated the generalizability of FFM and the Big Five
personality marker studies conducted in New Zealand showed great similarity with US findings in terms of
their relation to job satisfaction and contextual performance criteria (Guenole & Chernyshenko, 2005). This is a
major advantage of using the FFM as it provides the opportunity for integrating commonalities among diverse
approaches to personality, and hence making the Big Five particularly useful for cumulating results across
studies (Bono & Judge, 2004).
Digman reported in 1990 that, "in the past 10 years, the views of many personality psychologists have
converged regarding the structure and concepts of personality. Generally, researchers agree that there are five
robust factors of personality which can serve as a meaningful taxonomy for classifying personality attributes".
There are many work area and fields in industrial and organizational psychology where FFM has been put to
rigorous tests. One such area is job performance and job satisfaction where numerous studies and meta-
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analyses during the past 15 years (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Judge, Locke & Durham, 1997; Witt, Burke, Barrick
& Mount, 2002; Judge & Mount, 2002; Barrick, Stewart & Piotroweski, 2002; Judge, Heller & Mount, 2002;
Judge & Llies, 2003; Thoresen, Bradley, Bliese & Thoresen, 2004) have not only confirmed the dispositional
impact on performance and satisfaction, but have also, repeatedly confirmed the validity and applicability of the
FFM across different occupations, job situations and with varying samples.
In more recent times researchers have linked up FFM with more diverse fields. FFM has been linked with
accident propensities in occupational and non occupational settings (Clarke & Robertson, 2005), longevity and
health behavior in a study involving US presidents, from Washington to Nixon (McCaan, 2005), cross-cultural
investigation of work values (Furnham, Petrides, Tsaousis, Pappas & Garrod, 2005; Aluja & Garcia, 2004),
adult attachment and job mobility (Van Vianen, Feij, Krauz & Taris, 2003), general mental ability and career
success (Judge & Higgins, 1999), formation and violation of psychological contracts (Raja, Ntalianis & Johns,
2002), transformational and transactional leadership (Bono & Judge, 2004) etc. FFM has also withstood the
demands imposed on it through testing its measuring instruments and their validity and reliability. Guenole and
Chernyshenko (2005) found FFM to be generalizable across cultures in their study on Big Five personality
markers and evaluation of its criterion validity. Similarly Bernard, Walsh & Mills (2005) reported their findings
in Counseling & Clinical Psychology Journal about the comparative validity of various measures of five factors.
In short the empirical status of FFM shows evidence of comprehensiveness. In the words of McCrae & John
(1992),"Amelang and Borkenau (1982) collected both self-reports and peer ratings on a set of German
adjective trait rating scales, and self-reports on a diverse set of personality inventories. Five factors were found
in each data set which showed some similarities to the standard five." McCrae and Costa (1985 & 1987)
showed convergence for all five factors across both observers and instruments. McCrae & John (1992) also
report similar findings by Goldberg (1989), Ostendorf (1990), and Trapnell and Wiggins (1990). Similarly, the
subsequent research on questionnaire measures, such as, Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) and NEO
Personality Inventory confirm the comprehensiveness of the FFM.
THE OUTCOME OF FIVE FACTOR MODEL
I will now turn to the heart of this paper by formulating profiles of the five components of the FFM. I will use
Goldberg's (1990) approach of developing two poles for each of the component so that a clear picture of the
whole continuum emerges.
I.
Extraversion
According Raja, Ntalianis & John (2002), "extraversion is one of the most widely researched personality traits
from the Big Five personality taxonomy" (Borgatta, 1964; Goldberg, 1990; Hakel, 1974, McCrae & Costa,
1989; Norman, 1963). They also assert that, "according to Hogan (1983) ambition and sociability are the two
primary components that synthesize extraversion. However, more recent research has illustrated that
extraversion is a multifaceted dimension synthesized by several other components" (Watson & Clark, 1997).
Bono & Judge (2004) point out the other components formulating extraversion when they report Depue and
Collins (1999) arguing that, "extraversion is composed of two central components, affiliation (having and
valuing warm personal relationships) and agency (being socially dominant, assertive, and influential). Positive
emotionality is at the core of extraversion ­ extraverts experience and express positive emotions."
The following bipolar list of narrow or specific traits provides a description of extraversion: (The traits under
positive pole are those which are exhibited by individuals high on extraversion whereas those under negative
pole are the ones shown by individuals low on extraversion, not the traditional connotations associated with
the words positive and negative).
Positive Pole of Extraversion
·
·
·
Sociable
High sensation seekers
Vanity
·
·
·
Gregarious
Experiencing
positive
Sensuality
·
·
emotions (PA)
Assertive
Lower level of vigilance
·
·
·
Spirit
Talkative
More liable to be involved in
·
Spontaneity
·
accidents
Active
·
·
·
Boisterousness
Decrement  in  performance
Energetic
·
under monotonous conditions
·
Conceit
Enthusiastic
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Negative Pole of Extraversion
·
·
·
Unfriendliness
Un aggressive
Lethargy
·
·
·
Reserved
Passive
Aloofness
·
·
·
Shy
Pessimist
Silence
·
·
Inhibited
Modesty
II.
Agreeableness
Individuals high in agreeableness basically value affiliation and avoid conflict (Bono & Judge, 2004). As the
name of the factor suggests, these individuals are generally easy to get along and are quite friendly. One of their
basic trait is flexibility; their ability to adapt and adjust in different situations and circumstances. That is
probably the reason why agreeableness has also been named as friendliness, social conformity and more
recently as likeability (Noller, Law & Comrey, 1987). According to Raja et al. agreeableness, in the context of
psychological contract formation, "refers to preference for interpersonal relationships and social interactions
that are socially desirable. In contrast to extraverts, agreeables are flexible and generous and do not have a high
desire for economic rewards and status (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1990). They are adept at problem
solving and uninclined to engage in conflict and acts of hostility. Agreeables themselves feel more secure when
they act as team rather than individual players (Antonioni, 1998). They are ready to give up their personal
interests to satisfy the concerns of other parties (Rahim, 1992). Its high levels are associated with dependency,
passivity, and symptoms of excessive conformity. Less vigilant, will have lower expectations, greater desire for
stability, security and relationships".
Positive Pole of Agreeableness
·
·
·
Trust, compliance & altruism
Courteous
Appreciative
·
·
·
Flexible
Generous
Friendly compliance
·
·
·
Trusting
Kind
Having Humane aspect of
·
·
humanity
Sympathetic
Good natured
·
·
·
Amiability
Pleasant
Cooperative
·
Moral
·
·
Not defensive
Forgiving
·
·
·
Warm
Soft hearted
Easy to get along
·
Natural
·
·
Tolerant
Tactful
Negative Pole of Agreeableness
·
·
·
Stubborn
Hostility
Over critical
·
·
·
Indifference to others
Antagonist
Distrusting
·
·
·
Self-centered
Dogmatic
Selfish
·
·
·
Spiteful
Belligerent
Callous
·
·
·
Cunning
Jealous
Bossy
·
·
·
Hostile noncompliance
Rude
Prejudiced
·
·
·
Vindictive
Cruel
Unfriendly
·
·
·
Volatile
Ill humor
Pompous
·
·
·
Stinging
Disdainful
Irritable
·
Thoughtless
III.
Conscientiousness
Conscientious people are described as organized, reliable, hardworking, determined, self-disciplined and
achievement oriented (Barrick, Stewart & Piotroweski, 2002). Along with extraversion, Conscientiousness is
also one of the extensively studied factors of the Big Five model.
At its roots, conscientiousness relates to a desire to exercise self-control and autonomy and thereby to follow
the dictates of one's conscience (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Therefore most of the conscientious employees' main
focus is task accomplishment and fulfillment of obligations and are high on accomplishment striving, which
reflects an individual's intentions to accomplish tasks and is characterized by a high task orientation (Barrick et
al, 2002).
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Human Resource Development (HRM-627)
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Raja et al. (2002) denotes conscientiousness as related with two major facets of achievement and dependability
while Bono & Judge (2004) credit these individuals with a tendency to have a strong sense of direction and
working hard to achieve their goals. In a unique study on the health behavior of US presidents, McCaan (2005),
associate conscientiousness with a feeling of general well being and having perception of good health. Since
conscientiousness is related with task achievement and accomplishment, it is no surprise when people high on
it are also linked with higher educational achievements (Smith, 1967; Wiggens et al, 1969; Digman, 1972). As a
matter of fact the will to achieve, accomplish, organize and order is so basic to the theme of conscientiousness
that Digman (1990) has used it interchangeably with the word "will".
In their constellation approach to examine personality's influence on work behavior, (cross-dimensional effects
of personality traits), Witt, Barrick, Burke & Mount (2002) identify the existence of, "a particularly relevant
interaction effect between conscientiousness and agreeableness in explaining job performance." This seems
quite plausible as one can easily foresee as to what can the combined effect of will (conscientiousness) and
flexibility (agreeableness) could do to job performance!
Positive Pole of Conscientiousness
·
·
·
Thoroughness in decision making
Mature
Organized
·
·
·
Feeling of well being
Passionless
Achievement oriented
·
·
·
Perception of good health
Logical
Persevering
·
·
·
Will
Conventional
Efficient
·
·
·
Link with educational achievements
Punctual
Planners
·
·
·
Dependable
Decisive
Reliable
·
·
·
Careful
Dignified
Industrious
·
·
·
Thorough
Precise
Evangelists (zealous)
·
·
Responsible
Graceful
Negative Pole of Conscientiousness
·
·
Negligent
Forgetful
·
·
Rebellious
Reckless
·
·
Irreverent (profane)
Aimless
·
·
Provincial (awkward, unrefined)
Sloth
·
·
Self-indulgent (excessive)
Frivolous
·
·
Disorganized
Non conforming
·
Inconsistent
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:The Concept and its Dimensions, Targets of Development
  2. FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR:Attitudes, Personality, Emotional Intelligence
  3. PERCEPTION:Attribution Theory, Shortcuts Frequently Used in Judging Others
  4. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION:Why Choose Big Five Framework?, THE OUTCOME OF FIVE FACTOR MODEL
  5. FIVE FACTOR MODEL:The Basis of Intrinsically Motivated Behavior, Intrinsic Motivation and Values
  6. MOTIVATION:EARLY THEORIES OF MOTIVATION, Designing Motivating Jobs
  7. The Motivation Process:HOW TO MOTIVATE A DIVERSE WORKFORCE?,
  8. INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION:PRINCIPLES OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
  9. THE WORLD BEYOND WORDS:DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION, MINDFUL LISTENING
  10. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS:EGO STATES, Parent Ego State, Child Ego State
  11. TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS:Complementary Transactions, Crossed Transactions, Ulterior Transactions
  12. NEURO-LINGUISTIC-PROGRAMMING
  13. CREATE YOUR OWN BLUEPRINT
  14. LEADERSHIP:ORGANIZATIONAL DEMOCRACY
  15. LEADERSHIP:Environment and Strategic Leadership Link, Concluding Remarks
  16. UNDERSTANDING GROUP BEHAVIOR:Stages of Group Development, Advantages of Group Decision Making
  17. UNDERSTANDING TEAM BEHAVIOR:TYPES OF TEAMS, Characteristics of Effective Teams,
  18. EMOTIONAL FACET:PHYSICAL FACET
  19. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT & THE ROLE OF GOVERNACE:Rule of Law, Transparency,
  20. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:The Concept and Its Dimensions, Targets of Development
  21. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI):Methodology,
  22. REPORTS:Criticisms of Freedom House Methodology, GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS
  23. SECTORS OF A SOCIETY: SOME BASIC CONCEPTS:PUBLIC SECTOR, PRIVATE SECTOR
  24. NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOS):Types, Methods, Management, Citizen organization
  25. HEALTH SECTOR:Health Impact of the Lebanon Crisis, Main Challenges,
  26. A STUDY ON QUALITY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
  27. ADULT EDUCATION:Lifelong learning
  28. THE PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE OF ADULT EDUCATION:Problems of Adult Literacy, Strategies for Educating Adults for the Future
  29. TECHNICAL & VOCATIONAL EDUCATION:VET Internationally, Technical Schools
  30. ASSESSING THE LINK BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL FORMATION AND PERFORMANCE OF A UNIVERSITY
  31. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION:Social responsibility, Curriculum content
  32. ENVIRONMENT:Dark Greens and Light Greens, Environmental policy instruments
  33. HDI AND GENDER SENSITIVITY:Gender Empowerment Measure
  34. THE PLIGHT OF INDIAN WOMEN:
  35. ENTREPRENEURSHIP:Characteristics of entrepreneurship, Advantages of Entrepreneurship
  36. A REVISIT OF MODULE I & II
  37. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & ECONOMIC GROWTH (1975 TO 2003):
  38. PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP:Origins, The Desired Outcomes of PPPs
  39. PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP):Situation in Pakistan,
  40. DEVOLUTION REFORMS – A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT:
  41. GOOD GOVERNANCE:Participation, Rule of law, Accountability
  42. MACROECONOMIC PROFILE OF A COUNTRY: EXAMPLE ECONOMY OF PAKISTAN
  43. COORDINATION IN GOVERNANCE: AN EXAMPLE OF EU, The OMC in Social Inclusion
  44. MOBILIZING REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: THE ASEAN UNIVERSITY NETWORK, A CASE STUDY
  45. GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES AND POLICIES:Role of Government, Socio Cultural Factors in Implementing HRD Programs