Topic: A New Dynamic Perspective on Personality

Speaker: Professor Robert Wood, Australian Graduate School of Management, UNSW

Host: Prof. XIE Xiao-Yun

Time: 14:00-16:00 October  13th, 2017(Friday)

Venue: Room 302

Abstract:

In management and organizational behaviour research, the study of individuals has focused on traits, values and styles that describe systematic differences between people, including people of different cultures. In this approach, the variability of individuals over times and situations is ignored or treated as error variance. More recently scholars have begun to study the dynamic within-person variations in personality, states, behaviours and values of individuals. This new approach has been made possible by the development of new technologies and methods for collecting longitudinal data, such as mobile phones to collect daily experience sampling method (ESM) data.

In the presentation, the results of several studies using ESM data to examine within person variability in personality states of conscientiousness and emotionality as a function of situational demands will be reported. These situation contingent responses are based on the “if this, then that” behavioural signatures of the Cognitive Affective Processing System framework (Mischel&Shoda, 1995).  A recent study of the impact of behavioural signatures on emergent leadership in Chinese university dormitories will also be reported. The results of these studies add to a small but emerging body of studies that establish behavioural signatures as an important variable for understanding behaviour in organizations and point to new directions for the personal development.

About the Speaker:

Professor Robert Wood is a professor in Australian Graduate School of Management, the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences - Australia, the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management; the American Psychological Association (Division 14) and the International Association of Applied Psychologists. He has previously served on the Executive Boards of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and the International Association of Applied Psychology.

Professor Wood has held senior academic appointments at top institutions across Australia and the globe, including Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Western Australia and Visiting Professor at the Kellogg School (North Western University.) He has a wealth of experience in designing and delivering leadership programs and consulting to senior management teams at large organizations.