Individual differences & its importance

1. Individual Differences
Dr. G C Mohanta, BE, MSc(Engg), MBA, PhD(Mgt)
Professor

2. Individual Differences
 People show substantial individual
differences, or variations in how they
respond to the same situation based on
personal characteristics.
 Behavior is a function of person interacting
with the environment: B = f (P x E).
 Behavior is, therefore, determined by the
effects of the individual and the environment
on each other .

3. Importance of Individual Differences
Importance of individual differences among
employees are as follows:
 Individual differences have a direct effect on behavior
 People who perceive things differently behave differently
 People with different attitudes respond differently to
directives
 People with different personalities interact differently with
bosses, coworkers, subordinates, and customers
 Some people embrace change and others are fearful of it
 Some employees will be productive only if they are closely
supervised, while others will be productive if they are not
 Some workers learn new tasks more effectively than others

4. Consequences of individual
differences
 People differ in productivity.
 Quality of work varies because people vary in their
propensity for achieving high-quality results.
 Empowerment is effective with some workers, but not
with all.
 A given leadership style does not work with all people.
 People differ in their need for contact with other
people.
 Company management will find that commitment to
the firm varies considerably.
 Workers vary in their level of self-esteem that in turn
influences their productivity and capacity to take on
additional responsibility.

5. Individual Differences in
Workplace
 Individual differences in hereditary and diversity
factors, personality, ability and skills, perception and
attitude will affect work behavior like productivity,
creativity and performance.
 Demographic characteristics are the background
characteristics that help shape what a person becomes.
 Important demographic characteristics for the
workplace are gender, age, race, ethnicity and able-
bodiedness.

6. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
Gender
 There is no consistent differences between men and women
in problem-solving abilities, analytical skills, competitive
drive, motivation, learning ability and sociability.
 As compared to men, women are more conforming, have
lower expectations of success, have higher absenteeism and
lower earnings.
Age
 Older workers are often stereotyped as inflexible.
 They sometimes complain that their experience and skills
are not valued.
 They generally have lower turnover and lower avoidable
absences.

7. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
Able-bodiedness
 Despite evidence of effective job performance, most
disabled persons are unemployed.
 Most disabled persons want to work and more firms
are likely to hire disabled workers in the future.
Racial and ethnic groups
 Differences in job performance and behavior of
racial and ethnic groups are usually attributable to
culture rather than ethnicity itself.

8. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
Aptitude and Ability
 Aptitude is a person’s capability of learning something.
 Ability is a person’s existing capacity to perform the
various mental or physical tasks needed for a given job.
 It includes relevant knowledge and skills.
 Intellectual Ability is the capacity to do mental
activities.
 Intelligence contains four sub-parts: cognitive, social,
emotional, and cultural.

9. Individual Differences in Workplace
(Contd.)
 Groups of Mental abilities (L.L.Thurston)
 Verbal factor (V)-Comprehension of verbal relations,
words & ideas.
 Spatial factor (S)-Involved in any task in which the
subject manipulates an object imaginatively in space.
It can also refer to how people perceive the object in
front of them
 Numerical factor (N)-Ability to do numerical
calculations rapidly and accurately.
 Memory factor (M)-Involves the ability to memorize
quickly.
 Word fluency factor (W)-Involved whenever the
subject is asked to think of isolated words at a rapid
rate.

10. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
 Inductive reasoning factor (RI)-The ability to draw
inferences or conclusions on the basis of specific
instances.
 Deductive reasoning factor (RD) - is the ability to
make use of generalized results.
 Perceptual factor (P) - is the ability to perceive
objects accurately.
 Problem solving ability factor (PS) - is the ability to
solve problem with independent efforts.

11. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
 Multiple Intelligences (Howard
Gardner’s Work )
 1. Linguistic intelligence – good at using words well,
both when writing and speaking.
 2. Logical-mathematical intelligence - good at
reasoning, recognizing patterns and logically analyzing
problems.
 3. Musical intelligence – good at music, musical
composition and performance.
 4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence - good at body
movement, performing actions and physical control.

12. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
 5. Spatial intelligence - good with directions,
maps, charts, videos and pictures.
 6. Interpersonal intelligence - good at
understanding and interacting with other people.
 7. Naturalist intelligence - more in tune with
nature, interested in nurturing, exploring the
environment and learning about other species.
 8. Intrapersonal intelligence - good at being aware
of their own emotional states, feelings and
motivations.

13. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
Physical Abilities - The capacity to do tasks demanding
stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.
Nine Physical Abilities are:
Strength factor
 Dynamic- Ability to exert muscle force repeatedly over
time.
 Trunk- Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk
muscles.
 Static-Ability to exert force against external objects.
 Explosive-ability to exert a maximal amount of force in the
shortest possible time interval.

14. Individual Differences in
Workplace (Contd.)
Flexibility factor
 External-Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as
far as possible.
 Dynamic-Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing
movements.
Other factors
 Body coordination-Ability to coordinate the simultaneous
actions of different parts of the body.
 Balance-Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces
pulling off balance.
 Stamina- Ability to continue maximum effort requiring
prolonged efforts over time.