Description of the Big Five Model of Personality, Personality Test - Coursework Example

Table of Contents Introduction 3 Description of the Big Five Model of Personality 3 Relative Strengths and Weaknesses in My Personality Profile 4 Advantages on My Personality Profile 4 Weaknesses on My Personality Profile 5 How Personality Affects my Management Practice 6 Influence of Personality on Organizational commitment 7 Influence of personality on leadership style applied 7 Ways of improving leadership style in the future 8 The Big Five Project; Personality Test Name Institution Introduction Personality refers to the obscure traits that define a constant form of conduct in reaction to objects, people, and concepts in their surroundings. In this consideration, personality is an important predictor of performance in various tasks in the workplace. A certain personality predisposition may thus advantage or disadvantage an individual in fulfilling the demands of a given role. Management is a significant contributor to employee turnover in many workplaces. A positive working relationship between the leadership and an employee is a key predictor of whether an employee will remain in a company or not. It is, therefore, critical to understanding the association between the personality of a manager and their leadership designs. Analysis of the Big Five Model of personality in relation to management practice is crucial in determining job performance. High job performance would be the exemplary executions of job tasks, as well as a high level of resourcefulness in solving problems. Description of the Big Five Model of Personality The Big Five Model of personality uses the five traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism as its dimensions in determining personality. The dimensions are taken to cover the foundation for all other personalities, having been defined by research over multiple periods of examination [Rid15]. This tool on occasion applies in testing employees to determine their suitability to function in a group dynamic, in addition to revealing the qualities such employees bring to the group. Openness to experience refers to an individual’s level of intellect, indicated by interest, innovation and a taste for ingenuity and choice. Conscientiousness, on the other hand, relates to organization, dependability sense of discipline as well as the need for achievement. Energy, positive emotions, assertiveness, sociability, and talkativeness all relate to the dimension of extraversion, where an extroverted person constantly seeks incentive in association with others. Agreeableness assesses capacity for compassion and cooperation towards other people, avoiding and solving the conflict. The final dimension, neuroticism, describes the inclination to negative feelings such as anxiety and depression. Neuroticism also refers to an individual’s impulse control and is at times known as emotional stability. Relative Strengths and Weaknesses in My Personality Profile The Big Five Model of personality test revealed differing scores on the various dimensions of personality tested. The test ascribes a percentile on each dimension, in addition to explaining the merits and demerits of scoring either high or low in each dimension. The personality profile derived from responding to Big Five Project Personality Test indicates advantages in two dimensions, while the other three dimensions score around the median, indicating a likelihood to react in either of the ways describing the dimension. Advantages on My Personality Profile i. Openness to Experience A high score in this dimension reflects advantageous personality traits to management, where open persons have an active imagination, visual taste, keenness on innermost feelings as well as free judgment. Being open to experience is crucial in management function, where such an employee has an interest in learning new and efficient ways of executing their responsibility. Further, such leaders have a high capacity for innovation, where they have the capacity to develop new means of solving problems. Innovation is the direct result of interest shown by an individual in executing their responsibility[Pon16]. Research findings indicate that openness to experience positively correlates with success in consultancy, as well as flexibility to change. Possessing a personality that is open to experience is thus advantageous, and is suitable in the current world of management, where change is rapid. Timely adaptation to market condition is at times the difference between profitability and obsolesces. ii. Neuroticism This dimension also singles itself out as an advantage to my personality profile, with a percentile of 18. This dimension assesses a person’s susceptibility to negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, or a sense of vulnerability. A high score in this dimension would suggest that the person is emotionally unstable, outwardly exhibited by nervousness and insecurity. A low score in this dimension, on the other hand, indicates that the person is able to remain calm even in the edgiest situations. A capacity to remain calm in most situations serves as an advantage in management, where one is able to make decisions rationally, without the influence of negative emotions. Weaknesses on My Personality Profile i. Conscientiousness This dimension is crucial in predicting performance since it encompasses traits such as hard work, carefulness, organization skills, as well as capacity to assume responsibility. It is critical for a person in leadership to score high in this dimension since it predicts dependability, methodical execution of tasks, as well as a demonstration of risk avoidance for the sustainability of the project they are tasked. While I do not score low in this dimension, neither do I score high, thus indicating a high likelihood of exhibiting traits of low scoring individuals, which include disorganization, undependability, as far as being negligent. These traits are damaging, especially for an individual in a leadership position. ii. Extraversion Effective leadership is aided to a large part by extraversion on the part of the manager. This dimension is crucial since it affects the capacity of the manager to communicate with their employees. Further, extraversion predicates a manager with a desire for recognition, thus leading them to expend efforts on their position to achieve positive results. Similar to the conscientiousness dimension, I also score on the median in extraversion, indicating neither sociability nor reservation. Less than sufficient extraversion may disadvantage a person in a leadership position, where workers may feel shut out from the organization due to inaccessibility of the management. iii. Agreeableness On this measure, I fall around the median on the personality profile test, intimating a tendency to harbor grudges, while at the same time not being irritable. The indecisiveness exhibited on this measure might prove a hindrance in management practice, where teamwork is required. Nonetheless, it is not a strong predictor of job performance and reports lowest true score in comparison to the other criteria. How Personality Affects my Management Practice Personality impacts CEOs decision making, and as such are key indicators for the success of innovation in the firms they run. Indeed, personality is identified as the adjustments and behaviors exhibited by a person in response to their environment. Thus, personality can be seen as the unique way a person thinks, feels, perceives, and reacts to the world [Sal13]. Additionally, the personality of an individual influences their organizational commitment, where studies have established that personality is a precursor to organizational commitment while performance is resultant from organizational commitment. In this relation, organizational commitment interacts with various dimensions of personality, affecting differing functions of management [IMP14]. Influence of Personality on Organizational commitment The commitment displayed by an employee to the organization is a major predictor of the relationship between personality and output of the employee. Commitment differentiates into factions being affective, continuance and normative commitment. Affective commitment refers to active involvement in organizational goals and activities while continuance commitment refers to employs committed only as much as to avoid costs of leaving the job. Normative commitment, on the other hand, is in reference to commitment only as much as the worker feels obliged to continue in their position. Affective commitment positively correlates to extraversion as well as job performance, where the manager utilizes their social prowess in building a productive relationship between him and the organization, as well as with the employees. Affective commitment also influences conscientiousness and job performance, where conscientious people use their planning and organization skills to the benefit of the organization they work. Commitment to the organization is governed by continuance, as well as normative continuance, where performance is hindered while the person in question doubts leaving their position for fear of experiencing more negative emotions in their new position [Pon16]. Influence of personality on leadership style applied Extraversion and conscientiousness emerge as major factors predicting leadership. The score in the personality profile concerning the two dimensions is, therefore, pertinent in determining leadership style. While it is difficult to classify leaders into rigid categories based on their leadership styles, all leaders have to exhibit a selection of traits described among the styles. Additionally, each leadership method has its proven record of accomplishment, dependent on the people under the leadership, the leader, as well as the nature of the activity. My personal traits are predicting leadership style suit me for democratic leadership, participative leadership, as well as laissez-faire leadership styles. While my extraversion is not strong, and would be insufficient in gaining social power, it is sufficient to create and maintain strong relationships with colleagues when the situation demands. Further, I am tolerating of others, relating to my ability to be trusting and flexible in my dealings with others. Such a disposition is critical in democratic and participative leadership since the performance of the employees is dependent upon their ability to trust the leader [Sar12]. However, some factors such as agreeableness and extraversion suit me to the Laissez-faire leadership utilizes an approach that maintains space between the employee and their leader. In this style, the employee is highly qualified and motivated and is expected to deliver to certain standards. A personality that is neither extroverted, nor reserved, not particularly forgiving, nor irritable, is suitable in managing high profile employees with high expectations on their role. Such employees should be handled in a most professional way, according to all pertinent assistance, while at the same time maintaining a sense of expectation. Ways of improving leadership style in the future The personality profile test has been instrumental in highlighting areas of my personality wanting in the performance of effective leadership. A median score in the conscientiousness variable is damaging for chances of performing highly effective leadership. Improvements in this dimension would concentrate on the traits defining conscientiousness such as dependability and being achievement driven. A conscientious person fits definition by adjectives such as hardworking, thorough, careful, organized, responsible, and organized. Developing these traits into my personality improves the quality of leadership offered. A study found that conscientious people become task competent, a state that results in leadership attempts. Further, these attempts are susceptible to achieve success both for the leader as well as for the employees working under him. Additionally, a diligent leader tends to develop reinforcing tendencies among the group they are managing, since conscientiousness relates to overall job performance, thus predicting leadership success [Ali11]. Selflessness, sensitivity, and diplomacy all are traits defining agreeableness. While there is no direct relation between agreeableness and leadership, possession of traits such as sensitivity and diplomacy is crucial in developing relationships with others. Improvement on the agreeableness dimension would thus necessitate increased awareness of the experiences of others in order to empathize with their situation. Research findings indicate that an agreeable person is less likely to drive a hard bargain or, influence others for personal benefit. In this light, an agreeable person thrives at initiating cooperation in the workplace[Pon16]. Developing of agreeableness dimension would entail developing of open and accommodating outlooks while also displaying devotion to cooperation. This dimension relates to trust, communication, as well as team dynamics. In democratic and cooperative leadership, working in teams is pertinent, and agreeableness positively correlates to team building and morale [Aja10]. Conclusion While personality might not be the greatest predictor of performance in a management role, it nonetheless plays a critical role in the leadership style adopted by leaders. Measures of personality are important in determining choices made in reaction specific situations, which in turn extends to their job performance and leadership. Specific traits in the five dimensions are supportive of different management styles, implying that leaders with certain personalities are suited to specific styles of management. Totalitarian leadership does not require leader agreeableness; instead, disagreeableness may prove beneficial to totalitarian leaders, since it improves efficiency of execution of the orders given. References Rid15: , (Arora & Rangnekar, 2015), Pon16: , (Ramana, Sambasivanb, & Kumar, 2016), Sal13: , (Yesil & Sozbilir, 2013), IMP14: , (Ahmad, Ather, & Hussain, 2014), Pon16: , (Ramana, Sambasivanb, & Kumar, 2016), Sar12: , (Khan, Amin, & Tahir, 2012), Ali11: , (Alkahtani, Abu-Jarad, Sulaiman, & Nikbin, 2011), Aja10: , (Singh & Pathardikar, 2010), Appendix 1 4/25/2016 Your Big Five Results Change language: English Deutsch Español Nederlands Your Results Closed­MindedOpen to New Experiences DisorganizedConscientious IntrovertedExtraverted DisagreeableAgreeable Calm / RelaxedNervous / High­Strung Link to your results! Email your results to a friend! What aspects of personality does this tell me about? There has been much research on how people describe others, and five major dimensions of human personality have been found. They are often referred to as the OCEAN model of personality, because of the acronym from the names of the five dimensions. Openness to Experience/Intellect High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative. You are relatively open to new experiences. (Your percentile: 70) Conscientiousness High scorers tend to be reliable, well­organized, self­disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent. You are neither organized or disorganized. (Your percentile: 52) Extraversion High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet. You are neither particularly social or reserved. (Your percentile: 42) Agreeableness High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous. You are neither extremely forgiving nor irritable. (Your percentile: 44) Neuroticism High scorers tend to be nervous, high­strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy. You probably remain calm, even in tense situations. (Your percentile: 18) http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.8&cR=0.611&eR=0.531&aR=0.639&nR=0.344&y=1990&g=m 1/2 4/25/2016 Your Big Five Results Results Feedback How useful did you find your results? Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 Very Useful What do the scores tell me? In order to provide you with a meaningful comparison, the scores you received have been converted to "percentile scores." This means that your personality score can be directly compared to another group of people who have also taken this personality test. The percentile scores show you where you score on the five personality dimensions relative to the comparison sample of other people who have taken this test on­line. In other words, your percentile scores indicate the percentage of people who score less than you on each dimension. For example, your Extraversion percentile score is 42, which means that about 42 percent of the people in our comparison sample are less extraverted than you ­­ in other words, you are neither introverted or extroverted. Keep in mind that these percentile scores are relative to our particular sample of people. Thus, your percentile scores may differ if you were compared to another sample (e.g., elderly British people). Where can I learn more? If you'd like to learn more about personality psychology, take a look at these links to other personality sites on the web. Take a look at our homepage for more tests! How do I save my results? How can I share them? It's easy to bookmark your results, or even link to your results on web pages and blogs. You can also email your results to friends! All you need to do is copy the URL from this results page, which has the result scores but none of your private responses. You can copy and paste the following HTML code into almost any website. I'm a O70­C52­E42­A44­N18 Big Five!! I'm a O70‐C52‐E42‐A44‐N18 Big Five!! For classroom use: raw scores, normalized 0 to 1: o: 0.8, c: 0.611, e: 0.531, a: 0.639, n: 0.344 http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.8&cR=0.611&eR=0.531&aR=0.639&nR=0.344&y=1990&g=m 2/2 Read More