Big Five Model of Personality, How Leadership Style Is Influenced by Personality - Coursework Example

Organisational Behaviour Name Institution Course Date Organisational Behaviour Personality can be defined as the way a person reacts to external factors and interacts with other people (Cheung et al., 2011). Our personality is highly affected by the day-to-day activities happening around us, either in the organisational environment or social environment. The process of perceiving as well as learning happens in both environments and thus influences our personality in a way that is reflected in our behaviours. Everyone has distinctive motives, expectations, values and norms, which, when combined, result in behaviour (Cheung et al., 2011). Many research studies have concluded that leaders’ personalities tend to affect the style they use when performing their tasks. A number of personality dimensions are said to be related to leadership effectiveness, including extroversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness and agreeableness (Judge et al., 2002). This paper will describe the Big Five Model of Personality and analyse how leadership style is influenced by personality. In addition, the paper will examine the strengths and weaknesses of my personality profile as derived from the Big Five Model. Overall, behaviour emerges from the interaction of an individual’s principal personality and situational variables. The social environment in which an individual finds himself plays a fundamental role in his reactions (Judge and Bono, 2000). Nevertheless, sometimes individuals respond in ways that reflect their underlying personality traits. Organisational behaviour refers to how individuals and groups affect human behaviour in an organisational setting (Judge and Bono, 2000). Many factors intermingle when individuals interact in such a setting. Organisational behaviour is important for organisational development, improving individual and team performance and enhancing organisational performance. As seen earlier, personality affects behaviour not only in a social setting but also in an organisation. Therefore, it is recommended that managers assess their personalities (Mishra, 2001). Personality tests aid managers in predicting the perfect fit for a particular job and are useful in employment decisions. One of the methods most commonly used to measure one’s personality is the self-report survey (Bono and Judge, 2004). There are two dominant frameworks used in personality measurement: the Big Five Model of Personality and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. The Big Five Model assists a person to understand why he acts the way he does and how his personality is structured. This model has research support, is considered statistically stable and has been tested on the basis of cross-culture context. The Big Five Model is often preferred to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator because it represents almost all traits and predicts not only persona outcomes but also work outcomes, taking into consideration important predictors such as past experiences and universal intelligence (Poropat, 2009). The personality traits covered in the Big Five Model include conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and openness to experience (Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann, 2003). Openness to experience is a personality trait that leads an individual to seek new experiences as well as intellectual abilities. People with a high score in openness to experience are imaginative, creative and subtle risk-takers while those with low scores tend to be down to earth (Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann, 2003). Extroversion causes an individual to seek fulfilment from external sources. Those with higher scorers for this trait are considered outgoing, confident, glib and sociable. Low scorers often prefer working alone on their projects at work. Agreeableness indicates how people adjust their traits and behaviours in order to fit into other people’s environments (Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann, 2003). High scorers are often courteous, caring and good-natured while low scorers tend to follow their own inner voices without considering other people’s feelings. Conscientiousness is a trait related to being honest and hardworking (Shao and Webber, 2006). A high score in this personality trait generally indicates an individual is careful, achievement-oriented, self-disciplined and dependable. People with a high conscientiousness score focus intensely to achieve their goals (Shao and Webber, 2006). Neuroticism refers to a vulnerability to negative emotions and apprehension. High scorers are typically anxious, insecure and highly depressed, and they are prone to being affected by negative reactions. Conversely, low scorers are not emotionally affected by negative emotions or anxiety (Shao and Webber, 2006). Based on my Big Five Project Personality Test result, I score low score in terms of openness to experience. This means that I prefer traditional and familiar experiences, and I do not react well to new experiences. In my experience, this has been my weakness, as I tend to be comfortable with familiarity and fear exploring new possibilities in my endeavours. It is clear that being a low scorer in openness to experience is a weakness since I am generally not very original, a risk-taker or creative. Openness to experience is an important trait that is positively correlated to a leader’s performance (Shao and Webber, 2006). Such openness encourages learning and adaptability. High scorers are better able to receive feedback and can form good relationships with employees in the organisation (Shao and Webber, 2006). My low score is a challenge since it indicates that I would be less approachable in a leadership context and would not make a good leader in the long run. My score indicates that I am neither organised nor disorganised, whereas leaders with a high conscientiousness score are well organised, dedicated to their work, goal oriented and self-disciplined. Such leaders are more confident, capable and able to earn the trust of their followers. Thus, attaining an average score is a weakness that could cause me to fail as a leader. I also scored low on the extraversion dimension of personality. This means that I have a tendency to shy away from social situations. I fear failure and tend to alienate myself from situations that will require me to address social events. Research has shown that extroversion, which is related to gregariousness, assertiveness and sociability, is positively linked to effective leadership performance (Shao and Webber, 2006). Extroversion is a valuable trait for leaders since group tasks and responsibilities and social interaction are frequent. A low score on extraversion leads to poor leadership effectiveness (Shao and Webber, 2006). Based on my low score on extraversion, it is evident that I lack some important leadership qualities, and this is a weakness I must address. In terms of agreeableness, my score was average, meaning that I am neither very forgiving nor extremely irritable. Highly agreeable leaders are considered to be very trusting, honest and always concerned with the well-being of others. Such qualities are appreciated by employees in the workplace environment. Leaders with low agreeableness, on the other hand, are viewed as uncaring; they are not courteous or empathetic (Shao and Webber, 2006). Having an average agreeableness score is a strength for a leader. It means that I can be forgiving but am not easily irritated. High agreeableness is weakly related to leadership effectiveness. My neuroticism score was 66, which illustrates that I become anxious and nervous easily. Neuroticism is closely related to leadership effectiveness, and personality traits such as anxiety, low self-esteem, hostility and depression negatively affect leadership performance. Individuals with such traits are advised to avoid leadership roles since they often perform poorly when acting as leaders (Shao and Webber, 2006). This is due to their lack of social skills, which prevent them from interacting effectively with employees and serving as role models. From an organisational behaviour perspective, in order for a leader to be effective in his role, he must possess a number of characteristics such as empathy, active listening and the ability to inspire others (Robbins and Judge, 2015). Some leadership styles include charismatic and transformational leadership. A charismatic leader is one who has a vision, takes significant personal risks, is sensitive to his followers’ needs and engages in novel behaviours (Parikh and Gupta, 2010). From the Big Five Model results, it can be seen that I am not open to experience and have an average agreeableness trait, so I am not inclined to be a charismatic leader. Transformational leaders are characterised by individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealised influence. Based on the results from the Big Five Model, my high score for neuroticism, low score for extraversion and low score for openness to experience suggest that I may be lacking in transformational leadership qualities (Bono and Judge, 2004). Leaders are expected to be able to delegate tasks in the organisation, organise resources, motivate efficiency and analyse behaviour in order for management to be successful (Lim and Ployhart, 2004). Thus, there are some personality traits managers are expected to possess. For instance, for organisational leaders to make rational decisions, they should analyse the situation while avoiding biases, combining rationality and intuition and enhancing creativity. In order to do this, leaders are expected to show extraversion, conscientiousness and openness personality traits. To become a great leader, there are a number of adjustments that I should make with regard to my personality. First, I can cultivate emotional intelligence, which would enable me to become self-aware and detect the emotions of other people (Prati et al., 2003). In doing so, I will be better able to manage emotional cues. Some characteristics of self-awareness include the ability to manage emotions, empathy for others and good interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence is important when hiring and making important leadership decisions in a working environment (Prati et al., 2003). Leadership is crucial in the organisation setting. Emotional intelligence has the potential to enhance leadership effectiveness since it enables an individual to interact with, motivate and inspire others (Prati et al., 2003). In addition, to improve my leadership style, I need to be more willing to take risks and interact effectively with others. I should prioritise sociability, assertiveness and dominance in my personal and professional life (Saiyadain, 2003). This will cause me to be more approachable and thus enable me to form good relationships in the workplace. Further, I should enhance my sociability and be friendly not only with people I know but also with strangers. This will boost my confident and that of my followers, enabling me to organise work effectively and accomplish the organisational goals (Shao and Webber, 2006). In the past, I have been challenged by a fear of failure, which has inhibited my creativity and insightfulness. To enhance my curiosity, ability to take risks and openness to new experiences, I must therefore expose myself to more training and development (Zach, Raviv and Inbar, 2007). This will give me confidence in my work and widen my interests and creativity. In conclusion, there are certain personality traits that affect my leadership effectiveness. Personality has been shown to have an effect on behaviour. The Big Five Model has enabled me to measure my personality in terms of five traits: agreeableness, openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism. These personality dimensions may affect the effectiveness of leadership style. I attained a low score for openness to experience, an average score for conscientiousness, a low score for extraversion, a high score for agreeableness and a high score for neuroticism. This suggests that I become anxious easily, I am neither very forgiving nor short-tempered, I shy away from social situations, I am neither organised nor disorganised and I prefer familiar experiences. Thus, I am not creative, I have narrow interests, I fear taking risks and I am introverted and insecure. These traits could negatively affect my leadership capabilities. Therefore, in order to improve my leadership style, I need to cultivate emotional intelligence, increase my willingness to take risks and become more approachable. References Bono, J. E and Judge, T. A. 2004, “Personality and transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analysis”, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 89, no. 5, pp. 901–910. Cheung, F. M., Vijver, F. J. R. van de and Leong, F. T. L. 2011, “Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture”, American Psychologist, vol. 66, no. 7, pp. 593–603. Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J. and Swann, W. 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Appendix The Big Five Project – Personality Test Read More