ABSTRACT
Individual-level variables, such as personality, values, attitudes, mental abilities, and other forms of diversity, affect individuals, groups, and organizations’ capabilities and functionings. Dispositional traits, goals and values, and life stories characterize a person’s personality. Significantly, five basic personality dimensions underlie all others: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. Values, which form the basis of capabilities, refer to what is important to individuals in their lives and work. Attitudes represent predispositions to respond favourably or unfavourably to other persons or objects. Work and organizational psychologists can assist managers in appreciating the dynamic relationships between beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioural intentions. Intelligence is the ability to make meaningful life choices and achieve them, given one’s cultural background. The key to achieving these goals is identifying one's strengths and weaknesses, then capitalizing on the strengths and compensating for the weaknesses. It is not enough to emphasize diversity to eliminate gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and other biases. Implicit biases that may be unintentional might undermine a skilled individual's self-worth. Inclusion instead of merely diversity management is an important area of intervention for work and organizational psychologists. A fundamental question is whether individual differences (such as personality and values) are culture-specific.
