Personality and Work Performance - Literature review Example

Personality and Work Performance Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Personality is the character, emotions, thoughts, and the general behavior that one has along with his own psychological influence that one portrays. Personality plays an important part in one’s life as it determines the extent to which he/she will carry out activities. People vary in terms of the personalities that they portray in life therefore making them to have different levels of success. It is personality that will determine the extent to which one will be pushing towards achieving certain goals. The different traits shown by different personalities will determine the level of self-determination, motivation levels and also, the ability to persevere in difficult situation. In any organization, employees’ personalities is very important as it will always determine the performance levels they will achieve. Always, those employees who have a positive personality will be of great value to an organization. Work performance is an individual decision that always is determined by self-motivation, and ability to persevere in any situation to see his own goals achieved. The measure of work performance in an organization is always measured by the ability of a person to achieve activities and goals that have been set for him/her. Factors like experience and the level of being positive will always have a great role in ensuring that performance of an organizational (Spain et al, 2014). There different types of personalities that will always determine to what levels work performance will be achieved in an organization. There are those with positive effects due to their personalities, and those who portray the negative personalities. All these kinds of people can be found in an organization and the performance levels will be different for each. It is important that an organization should identify each and every person’s personality before assigning him/her any kind of work. Due to the difference in personalities, an organization should consider the level of; Agreeableness, Openness to experience, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness. All these will determine the characters that one has in an organization and how he is fit to do a given task. From these the following characteristics of an individual are determined; Carefulness, dependableness, Courteousness, caring, Anxious, hostile, Sensitive, flexible, Outgoing, and talkative. All the above characters are important when undertaking any given job in an organization. It will be important for an organization to choose employees in performing different levels of jobs (Kim et al, 2009). To a certain extent, different personalities can be seen as a problem to an organization. This is because, management of different personalities can be problematic and cause stress to those who are managers. However, different personalities in an organization in an organization can make problem solving easy. The ability of different personalities combining towards solving a given problem can be very rewarding to organizational work performance. This is important as people tend to have different values towards an organization. In terms of value, there are those that are personal and those that the organization that will portray as a whole (Barrick et al, 2013). It is important for an organization to mix all these, as it will be of great importance. In these paper, we are going to discuss on how реrsоnаlity is а key fасtоr in determining how well an еmрlоyее will реrfоrm their job. Effects of personality on Work Behavior In all aspects, a person is always affected by his/her personality. This will go to an extent where it determines on how he/she will react when facing certain job situation. It is important to understand that personalities are different and no all of them that will be fit for all the job positions in an organization. There is need for an organization to identify different personality portraits, and use them to best pair the duties that they are going to assign to employees according the one they are best in. if this is done in the right way, there will be increased job satisfaction and productivity (Sadi & Al-Buraey, 2009). Also, it will help to efficiently carry out business functions. Some of the personal traits that employees can portray are as follows; Outgoing or Introverted These are individual who have a character of interacting a lot. They are best suited in those functions that require more interaction with people both within and outside the organization. They work best in activities that require constant interaction hence they may not perform well in those jobs that are in closed doors (Peeters et al, 2006). Work Ethic This is a character that determines to what extent a given employee regards his job. Those with high work ethic, will often try to perform their work early and do their job on expected timelines. They always try to ensure that every bit of their job is complete may it be on time or late. However, those employees that have low work ethic character, will always require close management to do their work compared with those with strong ethics who will always require minimum supervision on their job (Judge et al, 2007). Attention to Detail Some of the employees are those who always ensure that they are performing their jobs while paying close attention of the present and the future likely events. They are always creative in what they are doing, while ensuring that the company future is well catered for. They are specific in what they are doing, however, they are not good in the execution of wider plans. They are always organized. An organization should chose giving them those specialized activities as they will ensure that they are performed in the right way (Peltokorpi, 2008). Motivation An organization will always have different people with different reasons as to why they do come to work. These will always determine to which extent they will be committed towards performing their job functions. It is important to note that an organization will always be performing better if it comes with strategies that will ensure the motivation level of employees is elevate. There are those who come to work for money, job satisfaction and self-fulfillment. Clever managers should ensure that different packages that are made for employees are those that will accommodate all the three types of employees (Mechinda & Patterson, 2011). From the above, it is important to note that, to a great extent personalities will depend the kind of job that one will undertake in an organization. It is important for the organization to give an employee a job that his related to his personality. To a greater extent, personalities will always determine the performance that one will put in an organization. Job performance and the big five model Neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness are some of the big five traits that are shown by an individual according to the big five model. Below is a discussion of each of the trait and its importance to employee’s performance. Extroversion This is the first personality trait that is shown by people. McShane and Glinow (2010), established that those who are said to be sociable, assertive and outgoing can be said to portray an extroversion character. In addition to the above, they are said to be energetic, cheerful and optimistic in nature. Those who do not portray this characters and score lowly, are said to be introverts. On the other hand, introverts portray the traits of; quietness, reserved, and independent in what they are doing. There are two components that are contained when it comes to extroversion dimension. They are; sociability (exhibitionist, expressive and sociable), and ambition (ambition, initiative, impetuous, and surgency). Individuals who have this character, will always be energetic, direct participate and confidence in airing their views and they do not like being in conflict with others. They usually want to put up a good performance in what they are doing. They are best suited in management job performance. They are always the best people to use when wanting to predict on how a given job is to be performed in the long run. Due to the fact that extraverted trainees are always active in training sessions in an organization, they are likely to be pointers of how a given task will be performed better in an organization. Therefore, this group of individuals will always perform better in their tasks. Neuroticism This is the second trait that is considered under the model. These category of individuals are often referred to as stability, emotional stability, neuroticism and emotionality. Some of the traits that are being considered in determining the performance of these people include; angry, depression, anxiety, worried, insecurity and emotion. Those individuals who are not emotionally unstable, have always not been able to perform better in their jobs and it is difficult for them to be satisfied due to the feelings that they will always have. However, those people who are emotionally stable, they will always perform their jobs better. They will always be able to handle different situations as they come and avoid the experience of negative incidents while on their jobs. This suggests that higher neuroticism will always have high levels of satisfaction which will always translate to increase performance on their jobs. Emotionally stable individuals will always be in apposition of handling increase pressure as compare to those who are neurotic (Staw, 2005). The ability to handle different frustrations in life will always determine how they pick and move on with life. Agreeableness It is the third trait under this model. It considers those individuals who are empathic, courteous, caring and good in nature. Scholars like Some scholars prefer to McShane & Glinow, 2010 have referred this people to be “friendly compliance” a while those with the opposite character being referred to as “hostile non-compliance”. They are said to important people in an organization. The have high agreeableness levels, they are usually sympathetic to others, cooperative, softhearted, and good natured. They are important people in an organization when it comes to social interaction. They are able to build interpersonal relationships that will enable the organization grow faster. Therefore due to this ability, they will encourage the team by ensuring that effectiveness and cohesiveness is within the team. They will always encourage positive mentality and emotions within a team (Panaccio & Vandenberghe, 2012). This means that agreeableness leads to an increased job performance. Conscientiousness It’s the fourth personality trait in the model. It discusses about the different personality dimensions that are within the employees in an organization when carrying out different tasks. Conscientiousness has been able to specifically refer to those people who are dependable, self-disciplined and careful. Those people who have low consciousness will always tend to more disorganized, careless, irresponsible and less thorough (McShane & Glinow, 2010). Conscientiousness will always determine the clarity of the job that an individual will always have in a working environment. Those with less conscientiousness will always be harmful to an organization. Conscientiousness is always associated with the variability of perseverance, hardworking, and achievement oriented. Individuals who have strong conscientiousness trait will always be reliable and righteous, responsible and earnest, comprehensive and careful, good at planning and hardworking. This makes them to be good in performing duties that are related to many fields. Hence, conscientiousness is one of the trait that will determine to what level that job performance will be achieved in an organization. Openness It’s the fifth and the most complex personality trait of the model. It usually deals with people’s creativity, imaginations, curiosity, and aesthetic sensitivity. Those people who have high levels of openness are usually creative, imaginative, curious and aesthetic sensitive. On the other hand, those with low levels of openness, are; less open to new ideas, more resistant to change, and are more fixed and convectional to their original lifestyle. These people are willing to try new ideas. They are curious to know what is happening within their inner life and outside world in general. To them original ideas and values are important but they like comparing them with new ones in deciding which the best way to follow is. However, those with low openness will always try to play it safe maintaining the status quo. Acceptance to change, learning and gaining new experience is one of the ways that does help openness people to positively perform on their job. They always try to ensure that their jobs are performed in a unique and new way. They are always happy when they are trying new ideas, this indicate that openness will contribute to a greater extent to what extent work performance level of an organization will be (Tziner, 2008). The above discussed traits indicate that individuals have got different personal traits that can be used in influencing the performance level. The traits can either be negative or positive hence the job performance will directly be influenced by the personal trait. Employee’s attitude in relation to work According to the big five model, employees will always perform well according to the experience they have. The professional experience that an employee will acquire from his practice, will always depend on the attitude that he had on performing his job. Motivation, concentration and readiness to ensure that that a task is performed, are some of the determinants of the level of experience that one will gain. However, it is important to note that, professional experience cannot be measured through the period one has been working, the number of assignments he/she has been able to complete, or the abilities that one has on performing a given activity. Instead it is the professional experience that affects him on the approaches the he uses in solving a given task (Semykina & Linz, 2007). Experienced personnel will always try to use different methods that are easy and simple in performing what they are doing best. It is until the time an employee accepts to taking up challenges and having an attitude of solving different problems that will always enable him to acquire different knowledge on how he will be handling different situations. An employee’s professional, personal and work related attitude will always determine the kind of work performance that one will put up. Employees with positive attitudes will always be committed in what they are doing. Where there is an elevated commitment towards performance of a given activity, they will always increase their productivity. It is from the attitude of an employee that cases of concentration and absenteeism will always be determined (Silverman at el, 2005). Generally, attitude to a greater extent will affect the general commitment within an organization. Need for managers to concentrate in ensuring thorough analysis on ensuring that a positive attitude is within an organization is key. This can be achieved through undertaking job involvement practices and also organization commitment practices. Conclusion From the above discussion and review, I can be able to conclude personality plays an important role when it comes to employee’s performance in an organization. Organizations should focus on having employees with different personalities to help them come up with a cooperative environment to ensure that it succeeds in its mission. Personality will always determine to what level an employee will be committed towards an organization. It is important to deal with the general attitude in an organization as t will influence to a great extent the personality of a given employee. I agree with the above statement that реrsоnаlity is а key fасtоr in determining how well an еmрlоyее will реrfоrm their job. References Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Li, N. (2013). The theory of purposeful work behavior: The role of personality, higher‐order goals, and job characteristics. Academy of Management Review, 38(1), 132‐153. Judge, T. A., Jackson, C. L., Shaw, J. C., Scott, B. A., & Rich, B. L. (2007). Self‐efficacy and work‐related performance: the integral role of individual differences. Journal of applied psychology, 92(1), 107. Kim, H. J., Shin, K. H., and Swanger, N. (2009). 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