Effects of personality on work performance and organization behaviour - Essay Example

? Effects of Personality on Work Performance and Organization Behaviour Insert Insert Grade Insert Effects of Personality on Work Performance and Organization Behaviour Introduction Workforce diversity has increasingly become a major issue for an organization in the contemporary work environment. As observed by Mkonji & Sikalieh (2012), organizational performance has been therefore increasingly becoming highly dependent on behavioural patterns and personality of individuals; it is one of the important factors when gauging such dependent factors. Personality refers to the unique pattern of emotions, thoughts and behaviour exhibited by individuals. It is important that organizations understand different personalities and nurture them to perform towards a harmonized organization value or goals (Borman, 2004). The increasingly globalised and technologically enhanced operational environment has meant that today’s organizations have been pushed towards post-modernism. In effect, management has to be conscious of the different personalities within the organization so that performance is not negatively affected. This paper examines the extent to which personality of workers is likely to affect both performance and behaviour in today’s organizations. It looks at the negative and positive effects of different personality traits in relation to job performance. Different organizational behavioural theories will be used as the basis of discussions. The five factor model of different individual’s personality that includes extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience will be mainly used in the discussions. This paper will also address the implications of the findings to management in today’s organizations. With competition and customer sensitivity increasingly becoming major concerns in today’s global markets, it is important that management understand the internal factors that may affect performance and employees’ personality is one such important area that should be focused on (Tyler & Newcombe, 2006). Discussions To begin, personalities affect the work place because of the manner in which it influences behaviour in given situations workers are caught up in. This approach where an individual’s personality is gauged on the way they react in certain situations is referred to as the interactionist perspective of viewing personalities. A violent worker, for instance, will be likely to react negatively to agitation by other workers or interruptions in the systems. However, this might vary due to the implications of his actions or the consequences. In such cases, the personality of the individual may be restrained to the benefit of the organization even though it may not fully guarantee performance. Consequently, personality may, in turn, be influenced by several factors that may include job demands and social norms (Funharm, 2008). Whereas job demands are those duties or tasks assigned to particular jobs, social norms refer to the pressures that come with an individual’s association or otherwise to certain groups that may include organizational culture. Generally, these factors are classified as either facilitators or constraints. On one hand, the facilitators are those that encourage an individual to behave in a certain way whereas the constraints discourage individuals from certain behaviours. This is therefore an important aspect of personality influence on organizational behaviour and work performance. An organization with a standard personality that is likely to encourage faster execution of tasks and fewer interruptions is likely to record performance. On the other hand, an organization with conflicting personality types that have no bearing on each other will likely be faced with difficulties in ensuring good performance. This is because it is likely to have both non performers and good performers in the same set up who cannot guide each other to success. While there are factors that influence an individual’s personality and therefore performance in the organization, it is important to note the major personality traits as proposed by the five-model framework and how they contribute to either negativity or positivity in organizational performance. The following discussion will focus on the big five personality categories and explore their effects to organizational performance and behaviour. Extraversion Extraversion refers to an individual’s way of being open and comfortable with relationships. It therefore has an effect to the behaviour of individuals as well as that of organizations. For instance, an individual that is more open to relationships in the workplace is likely to be more understanding to the clients, employees and management of the organization (Barrick & Ryan, 2004). In addition, the same individual is likely to promote teamwork, which depends highly on such personalities. A combination of these qualities is likely to contribute positively to organizational behaviour and performance. It is obvious that teamwork and interaction in the organization is a recipe of good performance as propagated by extraversion. It is however important to note that sometimes one is not necessarily restricted to one category of personality and other factors that influence personality as mentioned earlier are also likely to influence this (O'Neill & Allen, 2011). Generally, an organization or department that is majorly run by individuals of this category are likely to be good at performance and interpersonal relationships since the characteristics exhibited by this category is more inclined to motivate workers. Another category of individuals similar to the one discussed in this category are the agreeable ones as shall be discussed in the following section. However, it is important to note that while extraversion is more inclined to positive performance, agreeableness is on the other hand inclined to positive organizational behaviour. Agreeableness Organizations with functions that require high levels of interaction are more likely to benefit from this category of personality. Individuals who are more agreeable are important to an organization because they may be big influencers and therefore have the potential to take future leadership positions in the organization. Organizations also may need this category of individuals when faced with issues that need a lot of convincing and reaching out to employees (Ehiobuche, 2012). For instance, they may be important during negotiations and during implementation of changes in the structures or functions of the said organization. Improved customer satisfaction that is the dream of every organization can be as well achieved when this category of persons form part of the organization’s work force. This is because they are likely to convince customers in cases where they are directly involved in customer service or interaction. Generally, agreeable individuals in an organization are likely to promote harmony which is important for the organization’s performance as well as through positive behaviour (Truxillo et al., 2012). As in the case of extraversion, this category of personality enhances relationships that may be linked with motivational forces that are beneficial to employees in organizations. Employee turnover is bound to be reduced by these personalities because of the way they are likely to bond with other employees and remain committed to their contractual obligations. However, this is also where the greatest weakness of these categories of individuals lies. Their tendency to make rush decisions is likely to result in high employee turnover in cases of unrests and other economic or social imbalances. Conscientiousness As earlier mentioned, this ‘big five’ personality trait refers to someone who is dependable, reliable, organized and persistent (Tok, 2011). It is however important to note that while this category represents personality dimensions with self discipline and ambition, the other extreme end of this may result in carelessness and even impulsiveness which can be disastrous to performance. An organization depends on highly ambitious and self-motivated individuals like the ones in this category. This personality dimension therefore results into positive performance when exhibited by employees. For instance, a self-disciplined individual will be able to work under minimal supervision and ensure that all operations under his or her care run smoothly (Mansur et al., 2011). However, the other extremes of this personality dimension pose a risk to both organizational behaviours as well as on the job performance. When the workers, for instance, are more impulsive and unreliable to perform their tasks or duties, the organization is at a great risk of being locked out of the market by its competitors because of the great inefficiency that they might bring. This personality dimension is therefore unique in the sense that it might result in over or underperformance depending on the two extremes. Apart from affecting performance, the dimension’s extremes may also have a great bearing on the way the organization’s goals, mission and values are likely to be observed by employees and hence having either negative or positive effects on the organizational behaviour. Another personality dimension that might affect the performance and behaviour of employees in the organization is the Neuroticism as shall be discussed in the following section. Neuroticism/Emotional Stability This personality dimension refers to the category of people with the tendency to have extreme emotions or otherwise who are emotionally unstable. Neuroticism mainly exhibits itself in characters that are nervous, moody, emotional, insecure, and unstable among other instability factors. Individuals with neuroticism are therefore generally unhappy or disinterested with most life and work functions. This in turn influences the way they are able to conduct themselves in organizations as well as perform their duties. This personality type, therefore, is likely to impact negatively on an individual’s performance and the general organizational behaviour. For instance, an individual with a lower emotional stability is likely to poorly encode messages and hence interrupt smooth flow of information within the organization. This in turn influences the way the organization will be run since informational flow is very critical to an organization’s performance. However, as is seen in conscientiousness, this personality dimension is likely to have extremes. While some individuals may be nervous, others may be calm or composed and in that case they are therefore able to perform their duties even though they might not contribute much to the improvement of organizational behaviour. Openness to Experience This is the ideal personality dimension to modern organizations that operate in a dynamic business environment. Generally, openness creates individuals who are curious, imaginative, innovative and sometimes complex. The individuals in this area are always on the look out to be able to generate new ideas and to seek new challenges through the assignment of new responsibilities or tasks (Schneider et al., 2012). The organization is therefore likely to perform better with such people. For example, an organization that operates in a highly competitive industry may benefit from the creativity of these individuals if they are able to channel that potential into good use (Kusluvan, 2003). This personality dimension is therefore an important one for any given organization that requires innovation, creativity and ambition. It enhances both organizational performance and behaviour. The five-factor model centres on personalities and the way they are likely to affect performance. However, it is not the only method that brings this into focus. Another method of classifying personalities is that of using the dimensions of positive or negative affectability. Positive and Negative Affectability In an organization, there are individuals who are always active, sociable and hardworking. Such categories of people are said to have a high positive affectability as compared to others. It is therefore imperative that those with a high positive affectability are likely to perform better than those with a negative affectability (Aslam et al., 2011). This dimension affects teamwork, decision-making and work rate, which have direct impacts on the general organizational performance. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is notable that one’s personality has a greater bearing on performance at work and the general organizational behaviour. Personality affects teamwork, decision making and work attitude. These are major influencers of organizational performance that every management is reliant on. However, it is evident that there are external factors like situations and job specifications that may also influence one’s personality. Other analysts have also argued out that personality may not have huge influence on performance and it only depends on cognitive factors (Jang, 2012). As indicated by Griffin and Moorhead (2011), managers should be consciously aware of the different personalities that they work with within the organization, since work place diversity cannot be ignored to achieve effective and successful management and job performance. On the other hand, they should be prudent enough to control external factors that influence organizational behaviour and performance so that all employees work in some form of harmony regardless of their personality types. References Aslam, H. D. et al. (2011). A journey from individual to organizational learning. International Journal of Academic Research, 3, (3), 738-745. Barrick, M. & Ryan, A. (2004). 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Relationship between work performance and personality traits. International Journal of Selection & Assessment, 14, (1), 37-50. Read More