Personality Theory in Organizational Behavior - Assignment Example

Organizational Behavior Worksheet [Name [ID [Date 1. Increasing focus has been put on personality theory in organizational behavior. “Skepticism regarding the importance of personality traits as predictors of organizational behavior criteria has given way to an appreciation of the broad array of work outcomes predicted by personality” (Judge et al, 2008). Let us take the “Big Five” theory: Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience; and how all of these traits relate to accounting and managing the financial department. An accountant needs to plan for different amounts of extroversion, for example. Some people will be very good at communicating with clients, people within the company, and competitors. These people should be assigned to tasks that involve outreach with customers or other businesses. Other people might be less extroverted. Putting them onto, say, account management and debt collection might not be wise. Similarly, accountants will need to make sure their workers are conscientious, undoubtedly the most important element of accounting. But if workers have difficulties with conscientiousness, this isn't the end of the world. Training can be one solution. Another solution can be putting more time in to infrastructure: Making procedures simpler and less ambiguous, providing managerial support and monitoring, etc. Perhaps the same people who have difficulties with conscientiousness are those extroverted people who will be great handling communication. Finally, take agreeableness. A worker who might be insubordinate might just have a low agreeableness score: They might need accommodation to blossom. The key insight of personality theory is that everyone has different skills and that this is not a problem but a boon to organizations. Like everything in business, organizations simply have to adapt to this as a fact of the market and of life. Companies that do this well thrive, companies that don't die. Accountants will need to work with a wide variety of personality types that vary along the Big Five axes. 2. Luthans et al examined hundreds of managers in different industries and found that all of their skills and job descriptions boiled down to four roles: Management, communication, human resource management, and networking (Robbins). Management is traditional managerial roles such as distributing tasks, planning and decision-making. Communication is paperwork and exchanging information. Human resource management is motivating, hiring, firing, etc. (It is the least important task according to Luthans et al; Robbins). And networking is interacting mostly with others, but also inside the company in terms of socializing and engaging in office politics. Accountants clearly do all four roles, but let us analyze communication and networking. “Hard”“Soft”InternalTraditional ManagementCommunicationExternalHuman Resource ManagementNetworking Luthans et al found that the networking aspect, though it took up the least of the average managers' times and job descriptions, was the most important for success. Accountants network by interacting with other accountants, with professionals outside of the company, and certainly engage in politicking with accounts receivable and accounts payable people within their organization. Their networking outside and inside out of the organization can be key to getting favorable or efficient audits, getting people to comply with accounting procedures, etc. Meanwhile, communication may seem unimportant to the accountant, since they deal so much with hard numbers and facts, but in fact communication is essential. Accountants need to be good at communicating in order to get good information. If they can't communicate what they need, how can people within the organization comply with directives? They also need to be good at communicating in order to work with other accountants and auditors, communicate financial problems or goals with superiors, and be able to communicate to outsiders findings and discoveries. Brevity and clarity in particular is important. And since communication includes routine paperwork, being clear and accurate is the essence of the accountants' role. 3. In the study of organizational behavior, negotiation is communication between two parties, or dialogue, designed to resolve disputes or come to agreement. It can involve arbitration, contract negotiation, bargaining for collective advantage (or for individual advantage in some instances such as between one worker or contractor and the company), discussing plans and determining courses of action, etc. Accountants would logically seem to not need to negotiate, since their work is generally cut-and-dry and is based on pretty strict legal and corporate standards. But, in fact, accountants do find that negotiation, both formal and informal, is an essential skill (Murnighan, 1990). Murnighan points out that, “Although people commonly think of negotiations as having well-defined boundaries... many other interpersonal interactions can be easily defined as negotiations” (1990). Consider an accountant trying to introduce a new measure in the shipping department to make sure everything is above board and account for shrinkage. The shipping department is over-worked as it is; complying with a new, even more complex accounting and inventory system will require work, money and time, stressing them even more. An accountant would need to negotiate and compromise as to elements that could be phased in quickly, elements that could be phased in more slowly, and elements that might need to be scuttled or scrapped. Similarly, accountants might need to negotiate, this time more formally, with a third party, say a business partner. During a merger, for example, accountants on both sides are going to have to reconcile different accounting systems, different informations, and corporate structures and cultures. Doing so would require finesse and negotiation, with all parties discussing exactly how to proceed. The study of organizational behavior leads one to conclude that the accountants' role, far from being bereft of negotiation, is filled with micro-transactional negotiations. Accountants therefore need to be adept at negotiation skills, including “soft” and communication skills. 4. Stress at work is a major problem in Western countries. Some estimates put the loss in productivity, manhours and so on to the US economy alone as $300 billion annually (Eagle Tribune)! Further, given that stress tends to hit projects exactly as they near important milestones, stress can have disproportionate impacts beyond the mere manhours lost due to poor timing of those manhours lost or made less efficient. Clearly, accountants needs to account for and accommodate stress. Stress at work can be caused by a nearly infinite number of factors. Tough deadlines can cause stress, even if the deadlines are totally reasonable. Projects slow down for any number of reasons: Illness, new people being hired and having to be brought up to speed, changes in the market prompted by new technology or competitors, etc. But all of these things can cause bumps in the road and lead to stress. Poor management can lead to stress, with managers loading people with too many tasks at a time, underestimating some workers' performance and overestimating others. And then there's the simple stress of a company not doing as well as it should be. An accountant should accommodate for stress through a) smart timing, b) clear communication and c) good interpersonal skills, the latter two of which can be taught by proper management and training. Putting a new accounting regime into place during rush periods may be better for the accountant, but it is worse for the workplace. Since such a system would be likely to fail anyways as stress caused the whole project to slow down, the accountant would be unlikely to get what they wanted anyways. Accounting is the art of the possible. Similarly, unclear communication and poorly defined mandates are likely to lead to worry and stress throughout the organization. Conversely, clear mandates with good organization and deadlines save time amd money. Works Cited Eagle Tribune. 2008, 'Stress costs millions for American businesses'. Judge, T. A., Klinger, R., Simon, L.S. and Yang, I. W. F. 2008, 'The Contributions of Personality to Organizational Behavior and Psychology: Findings, Criticisms, and Future Research Directions'. Department of Management, University of Florida Institute of Business and Management, National Chiao-Tung University. Robbins. 'Organizational Behavior'. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2282509/CHAPTER-1-WHAT-IS- ORGANIZATIONAL-BEHAVIOR Murnighan, J. K. and Bazerman, M. H. 1990, 'A Perspective on Negotiation Research in Accounting and Auditing'. The Accounting Review, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 642-657. Read More