Personality of an Individual - Coursework Example

PERSONALITY 1. Introduction Organisations are often concern with personality because they want to match applicants to certain jobs and existing values of the organisation. In the case study, Alice is worried about how an extrovert like Jana can work closely with an introvert like Mark. As a manager and someone baldly in need of an employee with full knowledge of Medicare regulations, Alice is so concern how Jana would feel while working in an environment unsuitable for her personality. Alice needs Jana’s expertise but she is afraid that while working with Mark, Jana would quit. The following section discusses this case study and personality issues in the workplace. These included a literature review of people’s behaviour and personality, a self-assessment of a case study, extreme personalities working together in one working environment, advice to Alice, and view of personality testing in the workplace. 2. Literature Review There are a number of ways people behave and in the theory developed by Jung in the 1920’s, the variations in people’s behaviour is determined by the way an individual use his or mind (Howson, 2003). According to Roth (2005) & Cohen et al (1999), personality is flexible and can change virtually at will (p.51; 370). Moreover, personalities are being influenced by various factors such heredity, culture, family background, experiences in life, and the type of people the individual intermingled (Shajahan, 2007). Considering Howson, Roth, and Shajahan suggestions, it is thus possible that an introvert today may be an extrovert tomorrow due to changes in individual’s circumstances and environment. Personality of an individual has organisational implications thus it is important to understand the role and effect of personality in the workplace (Jain, 2005). Alice’s problem in the case study is accommodating to extreme personality in one workplace and this is definitely not easy since extroverts seek excitement while introverts avoid it (Furnham, 2005). Moreover, as suggested by Jain (2005), managers should not try to control these personalities since it’s unethical aside from being nearly impossible (p.96). An individual’s behaviour is more often aimed at integrating a personality as a whole (Rajamanickan, 1999) thus controlling such behaviour is suppressing one’s individuality. In addition, being extrovert or introvert is not counted as counterproductive behaviour as suggested by Barrick & Ryan (2003); (Robbins 2009). the only reason why an organisation such as those where Alice belongs, is concern about personality is to match individual to specific jobs and values of the organisation (p.150, 107). According to Goldstein & Lanyon (1999) and Kamdar & Dyne (2007), the use of personality assessment is for predicting job performance rather effective workplace relationship (p. 291; 1287). Similarly, Rout & Omiko (2007) suggest that working people regardless of their personality is flexible and they can work together in the same environment (p.255). For instance, there are many cases that people work well with other people they have little in common with. According to Thomas & Hersen (2004), although personality determines the quality of interpersonal dynamics in the workplace, the most common problem are those with personality disorder or those with personalities that differ significantly in emotion and interpersonal functioning (p.147). These are individuals with paranoidal tendencies who are distrustful and often interpret other behaviour as malicious and intimidating. In addition, there is more problem associated with deep-level dissimilarity such as spiritual affiliation than an extreme personality (Moore, 2008). An introvert and an extrovert are two extremes but they are not necessarily should work apart. A workplace is generally filled with different personalities but they work together harmoniously. In fact, according to Stevenson (2007), they can be good team players and productive. The problem he added is not actually these personalities but those workers who love controversies and dissatisfied with their work (p.27). A careful analysis of extroverts and introverts will reveal that they can indeed work together. An extrovert loves to talk and more often take the initiative to lead while an introvert, although somewhat restrained, love to observe and participate (Zeiss, 2005). Apparently, these personalities can more of an advantage rather than a disadvantage to an organisation. 3. Self-Assessment Alice’s predicament in my view seems an over-reaction to a personality conflict in the workplace. Some literature about different personalities in the workplace such as those written by Goldstein & Lanyon (1999), Barrick & Ryan (2003), and others suggest that such personality or combination of these personalities have little effect on job performance. Reflecting on some experiences, the workplace is an environment generally filled with different personalities but work still goes on and productivity is still being attained as expected. Besides, it is dangerous to assume since according Kruger and Dunning (1999), “perception of ability differ from actual ability” (p.34). Personally, there is no logical explanation why these certain type of extreme personality affects productivity. For instance, Stevenson (2007) and Furnham (2005) suggest that they can be good teammates. In most organisations, there are people who lead and people who follow but they are not necessarily belonging to one personality type. In other words, there is a strong possibility that those people chosen to lead are extroverts and those that are assigned to follow are people who likes to work in the background like an introvert. Alice is apparently considering Jana and Mark’s personality a workplace dilemma and predicting that Jana will hate her job later and resign. This kind of perception as Thomas & Hersen (2004) and Goldstein & Lanyon (1999) suggest is entirely misinformed of the type of personality that need to be concerned about. For instance, Jana is an extrovert and expected to pull Mark out of his isolation into an active work environment. Similarly, there is also as strong possibility that Mark can make Jana realize that working in isolation is a good thing. If Alice is worried that Jana will be bored due to lack of social involvement then she might as well consider the possibility that for the sake of job performance, Jana and Mark can be flexible like Roth (2005) suggest. Personally, working with other people, for as long as they are not the paranoidal type or people with emotionally under threat (Bauman & DeSteno, 2010) can be very rewarding. For instance, working with people of different type of personalities can be educational and challenging in the sense that it makes you strive to please them or improve your work if that person is your boss or someone closely related to your work. Since Jana is new to the company, it can be expected that Jana as Alice predicted will be bored but nobody can say that she will actually resign. Remember that an extrovert, as mentioned in the previous section is a leader and in this case study; the leader will have a follower in the person of Mark. Actually, if there is something to be worried about is Mark whose introversion may find Jana irritating. Nevertheless, the personality they have is clearly not work performance related and Jana will surely find her way into her new working environment. 4. Answer to Case Study Questions 4.1 Advice to Alice As mentioned in the self-assessment section, I will advice Alice to reconsider her view of the situation since it may not that problematic as it appears. Moreover, I will tell her to let Jana work regardless of her personality since only Jana can tell if she can adjust or not. If Alice is worried that possession of such certain extreme personality can make Jana’s working environment uninteresting then let her work for a while and see if Alice assumption is correct. If given the opportunity to be in the same position as Alice, I would certainly allow Jana and Mark to work together as a team without worrying about their opposing personality. This is because if one would look closely, these two extremes as mentioned earlier can actually complement each other. I will not advice a personality test to any company unless the applicant is suspiciously paranaoid or with borderline personality disorder as suggested by Stanley & Wilson (2006). The purpose of personality testing as suggested by Jain (2005) and Robbins (2009), is to hire people with personality matching those of the company which is personally discriminating. Moreover, as mentioned by Goldstein & Lanyon (1999) and Kamdar & Dyne (2007), personality testing is for predicting job performance which is a little strange considering the most personal test validation are based on current employees behaviour instead of potential candidates. According to Scott & Douglass (2010), the results of these tests are often misleading because they are not professional developed, worthless, and often detrimental in selecting the right people for the organisation (p.60). 4.2 Personality Test Personality test can be very useful in preventing people that loves gossip and controversies. It can also help thwart unproductive lazy workers who are mostly just trying to get a job with no intention of performing well. However, it is not recommended for extroverts or introverts because these personalities although extreme will not affect productivity and job performance. Personality test as some literature suggests are suitable for screening unproductive personalities that is detrimental to an already established culture of an organisation. For instance, if a sales organisation is thriving because it is mostly comprised of conscientious and extraverts, then it is only logical to hire the same personalities. 5. Conclusion A person’s personality is something to consider in the workplace particularly those that can affect productivity. The case study suggests that a workplace manager like Alice can be affected by misperception of personality. Alice is clearly fascinated by personality testing and in the course of her work, she is actually pre-empting what Jana would feel later at work. People have varying personality and in the workplace these different personalities are working together side by side. Apparently, as the literature review suggest an extrovert and an introvert in the workplace is never a problem. Personality testing is not recommended as it has no sound foundation and discriminating. 6. 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(2005), The Key to Your Personality, US: Kessinger Publishing Rajamanickam M., (1999), Contemporary Fields of Psychology and Experiments, New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company Robbins S., (2009), Organisation Behaviour and Southern African Perspectives, South Africa: Pearson South Africa Rout E. & Omiko N., (2007), Corporate Conflict Management: Concept and Skills, Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Scott J. & Reynolds D., (2010), Handbook of Workplace Assessment, US: John Wiley and Sons Shajahan S., (2007), Organisational Behaviour, New Delhi: New Age International Stanley B. & Wilson S. 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