Managing People and Organization - Literature review Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Managing people and organization Introduction Personality is useful aspect in management studies since it determines job performance (Ozer 404). However, the personality traits of the top management have the overall effect on how people behave in the whole organization. Therefore, the managers have to bear the responsibility of upholding good personalities. Negative personality is bad for an organization and such leaders will always lead institutions to down fall (Hogan 136). There are theories that have been in the use to explain organizational behaviors which form the basis of most assumptions that academicians make when explaining this area of study. In that case, this report seeks to find out certain traits that can improve the performance of an organization after considering effects of manager’s personality on the individual behaviors as well as work performance in form of a brief literature review. In addition, the report analyses a personal results from the Big Five Test and recommends a trait that will help the individual at work place. Finally, the report discusses a situation that should prevail in an organization with reference to HRM and recommends traits that will help in achieving such a situation. Literature review According to Patrick, Amber and Hulett (149) Manager’s personality has a big effect on the organizational behavior because it influences a person’s way of thinking, feelings and behaviors at the work place. Personalities influence people’s behaviors in the group context, their decision making and their attitudes. In an organization, interpersonal skills of a manager influences the way he or she react to certain situations at work. On the other hand, manager’s personality may also affect such aspects like leadership, performance, motivation and conflicts. Ozer (407) postulates that A manager who is in a position to understand the effects of their personality on the organization is better equipped to accomplish his or her own goals and is most effective to the organization. Managers, who are normal human beings, have different ways of viewing the world which have a great impact on their personalities. For instance, when a situation occurs in the workplace, the manager will handle it according to his personality that beliefs and personal values. Hogan (135) infers that personal traits develop throughout a person’s lifetime and managers cannot change them easily. Therefore, the managers should understand that personal traits are unchangeable and should not try to fight them. Thus, they have an organization in one way or another. For instance, traits like emotional stability, openness and agreeableness are signs that a manager will have less work conflicts with better team performance and the result is positive attitudes towards work. Eventually, this positive trait is a benefit to the organization since it spreads to every individual worker in the business premise. Lee and Yongduk (15) Argues that Managers should have positive traits that enable them to be reputable leaders who show the way to their followers. However, Managers who have negative personal traits have the least work motivation and may result in poor work performance. Ozer (409) further claims that Individuals with positive personal traits have a great influence on the work place. Those who show this personality are capable of tolerating other team members. Moreover, positive personality affects the behavior of manager in that it enables him or her to develop sensitivity and empathy that are useful in getting along with others in the workplace. A person with this type of trait is suitable for working with the customers, managing employees and mediating problems. Therefore, a manager’s personality may affect the normal operation of activities at the organization; it may lead to either good or bad performance. In this case, it is always vital to place people with personality traits that fit their jobs since it leads to their motivations. When a person gets a job that fits his or her personality, the result is happiness on a daily basis that raises the overall performance of an organization. In return, the workplace productivity increases because employees are able to accomplish more due happiness and better attitudes. Conversely, personality also affects decision making as well as independence skills of the managers (Erdheim, Wang and Zickar 965). For instance, traits like conscientiousness, self-efficacy and pro-activity lead to better decision making. People with these traits are able to make best decisions while under pressure and they can also do so independently. However, some personality traits are rather liabilities to the organization. For instance, lack of openness and neuroticism are traits that managers should portray. They are characteristics that will lead to most conflicts in the organization. Zabid, Sambasivan, and Juliana (710) state that personality trait may influence the organization culture. The managers have the responsibility of setting out a corporate culture that states codes of behavior among the employees. If a manager is a person of character that employees can emulate, then he or she will develop an organization culture that will enable best interactions and relationships among the employees. As a point to note from (Ozer 402) organizational and personality outcomes have attracted attention of many researchers in the field of organizational behavior. Latest studies indicate that personality influences environments where individuals stay. According to Patrick, Amber and Anna (155) an individual’s preference to certain work environments are rather an influence of their personalities. When a personality enables a manager to enjoy the work place, the result will be a better work performance. This confirms the assumptions of Ozer (408) that personalities influence environments that individuals interact. For instance, when a manager has personal traits that enable good interactions at the work place, the result will be boosted morale in the organization leading to improved overall performance of the organization. Analyzing personality using the Big Five personality test The test results for Big Five Personality Test Your Results   Closed-Minded Open to New Experiences Disorganized Conscientious Introverted Extraverted Disagreeable Agreeable Calm / Relaxed Nervous / High-Strung Openness to Experience/Intellect                   You typically don't seek out new experiences.     (Your percentile: 47)   Conscientiousness                   You are very well-organized, and can be relied upon.     (Your percentile: 86)   Extraversion                   You are neither particularly social nor reserved.     (Your percentile: 53)   Agreeableness                   You are good-natured, courteous, and supportive.     (Your percentile: 93)   Neuroticism                   You probably remain calm, even in tense situations.     (Your percentile: 7)   The test analysis Openness to experience or intellect receives a below average score denoting less seeking of new experiences. People with high scores are creative, original and complex while low scorers are rather conventional, have narrow interests, uncreative and down to earth (John 1). 47 points in this scores means that an individual does devote his or her time in seeking new experiences or innovations. In the test score above, the results show 86 points for conscientiousness that means a person with such a trait can be reliable, self-disciplined and well organized. However, a lower score will mean that an individual is negligent. Extraversion measures if an individual is extravert. Individuals with high scores are sociable, fun loving, friendly and talkative while introverts are quiet in nature (John 1). A percentile of 53 in the above test result means that an individual is neither sociable nor reserved. The other trait that Big Five Test measures is Agreeableness and high scores shows that an individual is of good nature, forgiving, sympathetic as well as courteous while low scores depict rudeness and harshness (John 1). A test score of 93 percentile is a clear indication that such an individual can be extremely supportive courteous on certain issues and is good-natured. Lastly, the test also measures neuroticism which is the ability of an individual to experience suffering like getting irritated. Individuals with high scores are emotionally insecure, have worrying problems, experience nervousness and are also high-strung. However, low scorers are rather calm, secure, relaxed and are also hardy or exhibit endurance (John 1). An outstanding lowest score of 7 percentile in the Big Five test shows that an individual has the ability to endure tough situations and can remain calm very tense situations. A trait that will help in work place As the test above shows, agreeableness is the trait that will help me in a work place (John 1). With a score of 93, it shows my best personal trait that will enable me interact well with colleagues and handle certain situations. This personality trait entails such aspects like self-sacrifice, nurturance, helpful and emotional support. The other traits that go in hand with agreeableness include supportive, merciful, flexible, open-minded and kind (Lee and Yongduk 15). On the other hand, this trait will help me in the work place to be generous, trusting, calm, sincere and truthful. For instance, agreeableness will enable me to provide the much needed support by developing empathy towards their critical or tough situations. Nonetheless, being open-minded is a character that would be helpful in handling certain situations. When a person tackles a situation with an open mind, he or she tends to make the best decision. Furthermore, it is also vital to be merciful to others since it is a reputation that stays in the hearts of work mates for a life time. Being merciful is a trait that will enable me handle work related conflicts in the best and appropriate way. Nevertheless, agreeableness is a trait that will make me a trust worthy and a sincere employee to my work mates (Ozer 414). As the resource manager, agreeableness as a personal trait has been the pillar to my success of handling both new and established employees in the organization. When working as a resource manager, one has to learn to endure certain situations that employees may be putting themselves in. for instance, the employees once trusted me as their representative who would voice their concerns to the executive management. This earned me a good reputation and helped in achieving the goal of being a resource manager who would effectively manage people or the human resource. As a resource manager, it is important to be sincere and open on certain issues or matters. The human resource department is an organizational branch that deals with recruiting people into the organization. Thus, the management had to trust me with the staffing since I was able to recruit the best employees for their specific job positions. In a nut shell, my goal as an individual was to be able to co-ordinate and manage human resource so that the organization could get best performance out of investing in the employees. Thus, with such a trait as agreeableness, I have been able to develop a working environment where employees are best motivated, receive emotional support and also trust the human resource manager with their needs. Sub-task 3: the situation to create in the work place I want a work place where employees are free and happy with the top management. As a resource manager, the best thing to do is to create an organizational culture that favors both employees and employers (Zabid, Murali and Johari 723). I want to create an organization culture that motivates the employees. Employee motivation is finds its basis from the behavioral traits that top management builds among them. A good organizational culture will ensure that employees develop good attitudes towards the jobs that they are performing. For instance, I am striving to build a work environment that would best reward employees for the jobs well done. On the other hand, the organization culture should be able address conflicts in a modest manner. Conflicts at work place are the sounding alarms for trouble in an organization. The way the management handles it will determine if the situation goes out of hand or is under control. In such situations, the leader or leaders must have certain traits that will enable them overcome such situations. A mediator should be able to be calm even in tough situations. I want to build a culture in the organization where openness prevails since transparency and honesty leads to fewer conflicts in an organization (Ozer 412). Most importantly, the work place must build a culture of emotional stability such that employers and employees must be able to control themselves in tough situations. How to achieve the organizational culture or environment A good organizational culture is best achieved by leaders of admirable personal traits (Zabid, Murali and Johari 723). In this case, my best trait, as the Big Five test shows, will enable me build the best organizational culture. The first trait that will help me build a good work environment is conscientiousness which means I can be relied upon to build a design the best organizational culture. As a reputable manager, the organization has faith in me and it trusts that I can be able to transform behaviors in both employers and employees. In this case, it means that I am self-disciplined and I will stick to my word or goal of creating the best organization culture for the organization. Besides, the trait brands me a reliable person who is able to execute tasks like designing a new code of behavior or organizational culture for the organization (John 1). However, I have a zero tolerance to neuroticism as a trait which means that I will be able to remain calm in difficult situations. As a human resource manager, I have the duty and responsibility of overseeing employee behavior at work. When workers breach their contracts, it is the HRM who is responsible. This trait will enable me to keep calm and make a decision that is right after finding out the root cause of the problem (John 1). Besides, I will utilize my trait of agreeableness to achieve my goal. As a person of good nature and forgiveness, it is important to impact the organization with my charisma. Personally, I will make sure that my organizational culture embraces agreeableness as trait. As mentioned before, people influence the environments that they live in hence it is my duty to impact the organization with my desirable trait of agreeableness. Outcome to achieve and how to achieve it Good organizational culture will eventually lead to positive attitudes among the employees (Zabid, Murali and Johari 723). However, as the human resource manager, I also wish to develop my personality traits and behaviors. By helping the organization to design a new culture, it will also have an influence on my leadership abilities. In this case, I strive to be a leader whom the organization will not do without but still a darling amongst all the employees. With a good reputation among the employees, I hope to develop into a leader who supports everyone regardless of where they come from or the positions they hold in the organization. A person with good reputation as a leader will definitely have an easy time at work place leading to higher motivation. If eventually I feel successful in what I have been aspiring to achieve, the result is better performance at work place. In this case, I will be able to handle my employees with utmost respect, treat them with kindness and be able to listen to their problems whenever it calls for (Hogan 134). Besides, my performance with regard to employer-employee relationship will improve since I will be able to build good human relations in the organization using my positive personality. Conclusion In summary, various studies have found out that personality has notable effects on the organizational behaviors. It is worth noting from the report that manager’s behaviors influence the overall performance in an organization by impacting on the attitudes of the employees. However, managers may also improve their personalities by measuring their traits using the big five test that gives scores per trait. From this test, the report agrees that agreeableness is the best trait that can help a manager improve work performance since it entails many aspects like truthfulness, mercifulness, trust and sincerity. In addition, the report also suggests that a manager should create a work environment that ensures happiness among employees and an organizational culture that embrace good personalities. The report summarizes on the best way to achieve the best work environment as well as the outcome to achieve and the means to realize such results. Works cited Erdheim.,Wang and Zickar, M.J. "Linking the big five personality constructs to organizational commitment", Personality and Individual Differences, 41. 5 (2006): 959-70. Print. Hogan, Shelton. “A socio-analytic perspective on job performance”. Human Performance 11.3 (2006): 129-144. Print. John, Oliver, the big five personality test, 2009. Web. 17 Feb. 2014 http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ Lee and Yongduk. “Psychological capital, big five traits and employee outcomes” journal of management 29.2 (2014): 10-23,.Print Ozer, Benet-Martinez.“Personality and the Prediction of Consequential Outcomes”. Annual Review of Psychology 5.7 (2006): 401-421.Print. Patrick, Rosopa., Amber, Schroeder., and Anna Hulett. "Helping yourself by helping others: examining personality perceptions", Journal of Managerial Psychology 28. 2 (2013): 147 – 163. Print. Zabid Rashid, Murali Sambasivan, and Juliana Johari. "The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance", Journal of Management Development 22. 8 (2003): 708 – 728. Print. Read More