Measurement of Personality - Essay Example

Running head: How essential is the measurement of personality for organizations? How essential is the measurement of personality for organizations? [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] How essential is the measurement of personality for organizations? If we take it in a philosophic sense, personality is who you are; it is the systemized, incorporated and regimented part of you. But its not as simple as that, the human personality consists of three important traits, whose perfect development ensures a balanced personality, the three aspects are physical, mental and ethical traits. If these are well developed and well balanced in a person, he is said to have a strong personality (Aiken, L. R. (2006). When we talk about personal ethics, we keep in mind three main aspects, Development, dedication and discipline. Development is the growth of the body and the mind; it is the enhancement of the personality in its most fine sense, to its highest degree. Dedication is the blessing of the well disciplined and properly developed personality traits, for a dignified and noble cause. (Aiken, L. R. (2006) Discipline on the other hand, is a negative aspect of the ethics trait, and it sought to control desires, fervor and craving. Sometimes, when describing a famous person or a well-known person, we hear the words “he has a ‘beautiful personality” Or “she is the owner of a very ‘impressive’ personality” These phrases refer, not to the internal, mental personality, but the physical aspects of the “outward” traits of personality. (Furnham, A. (2008) When a person is a possessor of such great virtues such as will power, good self confidence, earnestness, integrity, power of discrimination and pleasing manners, he is known to have a good personality. And when that is the case, then no doubt a good personality is attractive to others and that in itself, leads to external beauty. Following the famous saying “do not judge a book by its cover” we must not take good looks as a sign of a good personality. A good looking face is always deceiving. If we go by the dictionary meaning of personality, it is the incorporated compilation of a person’s psychological, emotional, intellectual, and physical characteristic, as they are shown to other people.(Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2010) So it is important for places such as organizations and before hiring people, to check for disturbing personality traits and traits which can cause trouble for an organization. Many workplace psychologists believe that personality tests are important and valuable tools for selecting the right employees and at least good and competitive employees. Large organizations, before hiring employees, put them through tests which are specially designed to measure the different dimensions of a personality and its related characteristics.( Grout, J., & Perrin, S. (2002).  These tests are not conducted to predict the behavior of the employees but to single out individuals, who may have a tendency for troublemaking, or may be frauds or engage in theft. Employers use personality tests to understand the traits of their employee and whether the employee is the best fit for the organizational setting. The importance of these tests for career placement has been accepted and personality tests have been deemed compulsory for all organizations. Unlike normal tests, a personality test require the applicant to answer questions which are both pleasant and unpleasant, and in turn reveal information about the persons character and personality whether he wants to divulge this information or not. (Cook, M. (2004). These are deemed useful because this way, employers can find the right candidate for the right spot. For example, a test has revealed that an applicant isn’t very social but is intelligent and quick at solving problems. The employer wants a person for a job, which requires him to be intelligent and a good problem solver, and can work in customer’s services. So the employer will hire the man who took the same test but with the result of being more social. In this way, the right man will be chosen for the right job, enhancing the performance of the workplace and make people more efficient as they will fit well in with their jobs and in turn, help the company function better and more successfully.( Smith, M., & Smith, P. (2005). The main role of personality tests is to fish out individual differences. These individual differences help in predicting the behavior of employees and why they do what they do. These help in explaining behaviors from work place accidents, to absenteeism, to job satisfaction, and sabotage at the work place. Individual differences in the work place have an effect on the behavior of the person and it is important for the employers to know how different his employees are from one another. (Cronbach, L. J. (1990) It is common knowledge that people who perceive things in a different manner, behave differently. Those who have a different attitude towards tings behave in a different way to people and directives. Personalities are different in everyone and in accordance with their personalities they will interact with their bosses, co workers, customers and subordinates. (Edenborough, R. (2005). Not only does it help in predicting their behavior, but it also helps in enriching their work performance, and give the boss and the employer a heads up as to how the particular employee can be motivated. These individual differences help the employer know who of his employees will embrace change and why, and which of them wont and why, which will help in building a healthy work relationship between employer and employee.( Murphy, K. R. (2005).  Another use of personality tests and knowledge of individual differences is that it helps the employer know which of his employees will work creatively and productively when they are closely supervised and which of them will excel when they are left alone and given privacy. It will also help them understand why some workers are more efficient and learn to do tasks more easily and effectively than others, and help them help those employees come up to the mark.( Lee, G., & Beard, D. (1994) The invisible college of psychologists who research and study the measure of normal personality agree on the structure of the personality and that properly developed measurement tests are good predictors of people in the real world. However, outside of college, there is some skepticism regarding these measures and their validity. As a result, a study was conducted, regarding the efficiency of these measures. It was concluded that well structured measures of normal personality are applicable predictors of performance of people in almost all occupations. They don’t result in unpleasant impacts on job applications and if well-developed personality measures are used, pre employment measures are a good way to promote social justice and increase the productivity of organizations.( Roberts, G. (2005). Companies that use personality tests as a form of pre employment filter, refer to these tests as personality “questionnaires” rather than tests. So as not to give the impression that there’s a right or wrong answer and the applicant can pass or fail. However the employee must know that the he is doing the questionnaire for a reason and must be as truthful as possible. The main principle behind these personality questionnaires is that it enumerates the intrinsic personality characteristics, which is ideal to evaluate for a work place. (Thornton, G. C., & Rupp, D. E. (2006) The main goal of a psychologist is to understand the cause of individual differences. In order for that to happen, one must first identify personality characteristics or personality traits and determine the variables that produce them and control them A person’s “personality trait” is an enduring characteristic and part of his personality which is constant and stays fixed as a part of his personality. Trait theories explain the more permanent personality characteristics that are basically what differentiate one person from the other and shapes a person. There are three groups which consist of all personality traits that shape the entire personality of a person. And it is important that all these traits be evaluated in a competitive measurement test. (Toplis, J., Dulewicz, V., & Fletcher, C. (2005). Gordon Allport(1897-1967) indentified a thousand personality traits and compiled them into three categories. Cardinal traits are traits that dominate the personality across time and situations. It is known to be the most important component of our personality. Ambition, self sacrifice are some of the examples of cardinal traits. These are very rare and often developed late in life. Central traits are about 10 that are consistent and stable in a person. These are basically the building blocks of our personality. The main traits are friendliness, meanness, happiness, etc. Secondary traits consist of traits which are evident only in certain situations and aren’t as important. These are aspects of a personality which aren’t so clear cut or obvious. In the twentieth century, many of the psychologists came to the conclusion that the tree factor model was way too simple and Hans Eysenck’s 16 factors were way too many. So in 1990 two psychologists by the name of Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, presented a new theory, “the five factor theory” This model, after some research of its usefulness, is now widely accepted among psychologists. These five factors are also being used in the assessment of employees. However, as the questionnaires they make is the sole property of their own company. They use different terminologies to describe the aspects of personality and personality traits they sought out to measure.( Wood, R., & Payne, T. (1998). The five personality traits are Extraversion, Agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. Each one of these personality traits describes a person’s frequency or degree of intensity of a person’s feelings, behavior and thoughts. Every person posses all five of these traits to some extent. Some of them being more than others. Extraversion means being extremely social with the outside world. The people, who have this trait as a dominant one, are called extroverts. They are enthusiastic, action-oriented, hyper and creative individuals. They are always on the go and eager to be involved in as much action as possible. They say “yes!” And “let’s go” to every opportunity of excitement. And when in a work place they like to talk as much, assert them and draw maximum attention to themselves. Such people would excel in organizations which work in advertisements and event organizing and such. (Woodruffe, C. (2007). Introverts on the other hand, are people more or less drawn into themselves and basically lack the energy and enthusiasm of extroverts. They are the complete opposites of extroverts and their lack of social involvement isn’t due to shyness or depression; an introvert needs less stimulation than an extrovert and likes to be left alone than be centre of the crowd. Their behavior is sometimes mistaken for arrogance or unfriendliness, but in reality, an introvert who, when tested, scores high on the agreeableness factor, will not go to others for company but will be very pleasant when approached. Agreeableness is a trait in which people are cooperative and like social harmony. They value getting along with others and are considerate and friendly. They have an optimistic view of other people and human nature and trust people to be honest and decent. (Woodruffe, C. (2007). Disagreeable individuals are opposites of agreeable people and place themselves and their self interest above everything else. They aren’t concerned about other people and the well-being of others so are unlikely to help others when in need. Sometimes they are skeptic about other people and cause them to be suspicious and unfriendly and most often uncooperative. Agreeableness is a very important personality trait when hiring employees, so as to help the organization function well. People who have a disagreeable personality often bring about sourness into the organization. But sometimes, some situations require tough people to handle them and that’s where disagreeable personality comes into use. Conscientiousness is the personality trait that keeps a check on our personality and makes sure it follows ethics. It controls and regulates our impulses. Impulses aren’t necessarily bad, in times of fun and play, making snap decisions can be the right choice and individuals who live their life that way are seen as colorful people. But even so, impulsive acts may lead to trouble and it is at these times our trait kicks in and holds us back. Some of these impulses are antisocial, which can harm people as well as society.( Cronbach, L. J. (1990) Examples are being too nosy about a co-worker and getting fired from a job, hurling an insult to your boss when you are told you don’t do a good job, talking back to your parents and getting grounded for a month. The mark of an intelligent person is to act calmly in a situation and think rationally, think about his goals and how to achieve them without restoring to acts of impulse. Intelligence means the ability to think rationally, and it involves thinking about and reflect over long-term goals, planning and organizing and mapping out routes to achieve these goals. People who achieve high score on the “conscientiousness” scale are called intelligent by others. These individuals achieve high levels of success through purposeful and persistent planning. They are sought out in times of trouble and are considered as reliable by their coworkers. The term ‘Neurotic’ or neurosis was used by Freud to describe a mental illness, emotional distress or suffering and an inability to cope with normal life. Neuroticism means the tendency to have negative feelings towards everyone. (Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2010) People who score high with relation to this trait, may feel negative feelings such as anxiety, anger or depression, along with other emotions. In a nutshell, people who are neurotic are extremely emotional and are very reactive. They respond differently to situations than most people And their reactions are more extreme than normal. They interpret normal situations as life threatening and minor problems as epic problems that cant be solved. They take a lot of stress and diminishes the persons ability to think rationally. People who are “open” means people who are “imaginative”, “creative” and are “open” to new ideas and situations. They are different from people who are down-to-earth and conventional. These people, as compare to “closed” people, are more aware of their feelings. They appreciate art, are curious, and sensitive to emotions of others and to beauty. People, who score high on this trait, are mostly people who have years and years of refined education and high score on standard intelligence tests. People who are open to experience and cognitive thinking, are skillful in thinking in symbols and abstracts, which are far removed from the concrete and the normal. This cognition for symbols take form of mathematical and geometric thinking, metaphorical use of language and composition of music and performance.( Lee, G., & Beard, D. (1994) People who score low, tend to be narrow minded and have very common interests and have no tolerance for arts or sciences and regard them with suspicion. Openness is healthy and mature, as regarded by psychologists, and the scholarly style of an open person serves well, but researches have shown that a person who has closed thinking, is superior to job performance when in police work, sales and other service occupations. To conclude, all these personality types are present in a person and it is important for the organization to know which personality trait is highest in the person they are about to hire and whether it is what the job demands. Personality tests are an important screening process which gives the organization what they want and what kind of person they want. . Work Cited Aiken, L. R. (2006). Psychological Testing and Assessment. London: Allyn and Bacon. Furnham, A. (2008). Personality and Intelligence at Work: Exploring and explaining individual differences at work. London, New York: Routledge. Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2010). Essentials of Testing and Assessment. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. 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Recruitment and Selection. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Thornton, G. C., & Rupp, D. E. (2006). Assessment centers in human resource management: strategies for prediction, diagnosis, and development. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Toplis, J., Dulewicz, V., & Fletcher, C. (2005). Psychological Testing: A Managers Guide. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Wood, R., & Payne, T. (1998). Competency-based recruitment and selection. Chichester: Wiley. Woodruffe, C. (2007). Development and Assessment Centres: Identifying and Developing Competence. London: Human Assets. Read More