Individual Differences in Teamwork - Essay Example

Running Head: Individual differences in team work Individual differences in team work Name Institution Instructor’s name Subject Date Individual Differences Introduction Jung saw the human personality difference being universal “types” with these types being present in all of us. He however saw that there is one predominant type which can be applied to be the normal mode of organizing the whole experience. The Jungian typology suggest that one can gain insight into oneself as well as into other people by having an understanding of the structure of individual difference while not interpreting the structure too narrowly or literally. Jung begins with noting that there are two approaches to evolutionary success these being in the attitude types, introversion and extroversion, these being the way we as human beings react to the outer and inner experiences (Budnik). Introversion and Extroversion As typical attitude, Introversion and Extroversion means an essential bias which happen to condition the whole psychic process. It also establishes the habitual mode of reaction thus determining the quality of subjective experience as well as the style of behavior (Johnson, 2008). In Jung’s’ definition of attitude, he defines it as a predisposition to react in a certain way. He continued to say that human beings can primarily be introverted or Extroverted and that these two attitudes are possible within a person. Introversion type of attitude is for one who orients himself mainly on the outward, collective norm of his time (Johnson, 2008). This attitude is an abstracting one where the individuals involved are often intent on withdrawing their energy as though they are preventing something from happening. It is also turning a turning inward of psychic energy. Having greater interest in the subjective than the objective world is what introversion is all about. They are quiet, observant, have an inward focus, intimate, reserved, thoughtful, and cautious. The attitudes of an introvert are mainly determined by subjective factors (Jacobi, 1962). Extroversion on the other hand is the attitude which shows more outward expressions of the psychic energy. The extroverts are often seen as pragmatic as well as realistic. Their attitude is have a positive reaction to the object and they are not merely reactive the stimuli of the environment but very adaptive to actual circumstances finding sufficient play within the objective situations. They are energetic, involved, they have an outward focus, quick, action oriented, outspoken, and bold. Moreover, it determines the kind of compensation the unconscious will produce (Johnson, 2008). Impact of Individual differences Individuals have the tendency of seeing things differently and this can be used to achieve success within a team. Leaders have always placed a high value to being able to see things through different lenses. Individual differences are made to be of great value in a workplace by successful problem solving teams as well as project teams. They do this by having a way of arriving at innovative ways through which they meet their goals. With skills and knowledge being the minimum that would be expected in a team, attitude which includes the construct of the team member’s emotional intelligence may prove to be very difficult to be measured (Thompson, 2006). It has over the time been said that people are often hired for their skills and knowledge and on the other hand fired for their poor attitude or behavior. Every individual based on their personal set of experiences, values, and other factors happen to develop a unique way of viewing whatever they come into contact with. This means that all individuals differ in one way or another more so in the way that they view things. In those individual differences lies a great deal of value to oneself as well as to others. This value in the individual difference can be turned to great strength which may result into great team work strength. For instance, interpersonal styles come with differences on every individual may be in the rate of their speech, use of gestures in the talking on a member of a team or even in the manner in which they converse information with others in a team (Thompson, 2006). Personal work styles difference is often evident in the organizational skills of a member of a team or an individual such as priority setting. This difference also refers to the way people take action or even handle a given task at hand. Experience and the individual background are evident in the differences in the approach between the members of a group. Members that can be referred to as tenured members and the newcomers are different and one expects that there may be reluctance from the veteran members towards the suggestions and ideas of the new members (Thompson, 2006). Communication styles of every individual is different from the other, every individual has his/her own way of acquiring information as well as a different way of communication with others in a team. There is need to cultivate good communication style for there to be effective teamwork, good communication styles involve the combination of honesty, friendliness, thoroughness, and quality in getting results. This combination will mean effective teamwork as well as using the individual differences for workability in teamwork (Thompson, 2006). Individual differences can be made to work well with the team to shape their skills, conflict and their way of decision making. Team members with their individual values as well as their personal differences can identify their differences as a team and adjust to the differences making the team effective. For teamwork to yield key success, the team can work on a unified team values from their individual values which they deem beneficial to the team to the team as a whole. There are various forms of individual differences which a team needs to understand in order to develop a positive relationship am the team members (Thompson, 2006). As a team, there is need to recognize the commonality if any in those values that will help a team in meeting the team needs. Elements of the individual difference and how they work The Individual difference are of different types these being; interpersonal styles, personal work style, experience and background and communication. Considering that we all have these capabilities; we have the strengths as well as the weaknesses, we need to develop and create a difference of them in various degrees to orient ourselves and also our experience in different ways. Jung’s Typology defines function-types that refer to the predominant mode that individuals apply in the processing of information and also the orientation the modes. The typology states that the rational types process information more less like a computer. They also organize their experience to a conceptual framework in which the internal coherence and consistency are primary (Gibbons, 2008). Thinking and Feeling Thinking uses the rational process and its model to bring about internal and external experience elements into being into a conceptual connection. On the other hand, feeling uses the rational process to recognize the value of a situation or an experience. People who have thinking as their preference make objective decisions and are at most times able to lay aside their personal feelings and have a logical and an analytical conclusion. They often examine how they feel and they avoid having their feelings come in the way to making a decision. While thinking relates an experience to a conceptual framework where internal and external coherence and consistence are primary, feelings on the other hand relates experience to a framework of what is of more importance or value. Individuals strives for coherence of their results rather than a conceptual coherence, they say contradictory statements in various situations which may be a good way of achieving coherency of results (Gibbons, 2008). This will make the two functions be in accord. For instance, there being a physical threat to the team, the need to understanding how to maybe avoid the threat is what is of great importance. When dealing with people (individual difference) these two functions often are in conflict. This is because the statements that would enhance the feeling situation are often not in accord with the individual conceptual framework. This may result to one getting in trouble when they say what they objectively believe is correct. To a degree that we develop bias on one of the attitudes as well as the functions in our inner self, a compensating effect from our conscious will be resultant. Sensation is opposed to intuition while thinking is opposed to feeling considering that as individuals we think about both the value of a given action and the objective meaning that it has. Considering that every of these functions can be applied as a dominant approach to deal with various situations that we come across. As individuals’ develop an experience they are better able to integrate all the functions as stated in the Jung’s Typology to conscious decision making (Budnik). Bibliography Beukman, T. L. (2005). Culture, Values, and Work related values. Retrieved December 09, 2010, from http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11082005-083347/unrestricted/03chapter3.pdf Budnik, P. Jung's Typology. In what is and what will be. Mountain Maths Software. Cox, A. (2008, Aug 28). Valuing Individual Differences - Key to Team Success. Retrieved December 09, 2010, from http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/valuing-individual-differences-key-to-team-success-539957.html DURHAM, C. F. (2009). Preference for Instructional Methods and MBTI Personality in a Workplace. Retrieved December 10, 2010, from http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/5335/1/etd.pdf Gibbons, J. (2008, February 15). Carl Jung’s theory. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from PeopleMaps: http://www.peoplemaps.com/2008/02/15/carl-jung%E2%80%99s-theory/ Johnson, R. L. (2008). Attitude and Function Types. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from Jungian.info: http://jungian.info/Library.cfm?idsLibrary=16 Kingma, M. (2007). Utilising a personality typology to resolve subliminal conflict in the workplace. Retrieved December 10, 2010, from http://dk.cput.ac.za/td_cput/230 Thompson, H. L. (2006). Jung’s Function-Attitudes Explained. Retrieved December 11, 2010, from High Performance Systems: http://www.hpsys.com/Personality_JungsFunction.htm Read More