Organizations and Employees with High Levels of Agreeableness - Essay Example

? Organisations Should Always Try to Hire Employees with High Levels of Agreeableness Organisations Should Always Try to Hire Employees with High Levels of Agreeableness Agreeableness is a personality trait among the five main personality traits, agreeable individuals are warm, kind, sympathetic and considerate, agreeable individuals tend to trust other people, believe that most people are honest and decent. The people who are not considered as agreeable or score lowly on their levels of agreeableness, are self centred and are in most cases not willing to help, these individuals usually question the motives of other people actions and usually use their social relationships in manipulative ways to meet their own self centred desired (Moutafi, Furnham & Crump, 2007). This paper will look at why organisations should take into consideration the levels of agreeableness of an individual before employing the individual. Agreeableness as a personality trait has other traits in it that are considered as important in determining how agreeable an individual is, these are altruism, modest, straightforwardness, compliance and tender mindedness. This paper shall dwell on each of these traits to show why organisations should employ people with high levels of agreeableness (Neal, Yeo, Koy & Xiao 2012). Straightforwardness is the characteristic of an individual to be honest and frank, individuals with this trait tend not to hide anything or use ambiguity to cover any actions or information. For an organisation, hiring these individuals would mean that all transactions would be honest and information that is passed to the clients is honest, accurate and free from ambiguity. This in return would mean that customers would learn be able to trust information passed to them and the ability of the organisation to deliver on its responsibilities. For instance, in a manufacturing industry that processes milk, a straightforward employee would give the accurate shelf life of the product thereby consumer would be assured that the milk is not bad when they are purchasing, this would in return increase the respect for the brand among its customers therefore increasing its revenues. A straightforward employee in an organisation would provide honest feedback to the management regarding issues within and out of the organisation; the organisations would therefore be able to make sound and informed decisions to implement in order to improve the operations of the organisation. The information that the straightforward employee would have passed would be either positive or negative, in cases of some information being perceived as negative or degrading to the organisation, the employee may be sacked or disciplinary action taken against him Trust as part of the agreeable personality trait is where an individual happens to believe that others always have the best intentions for a certain activity or an individual. Employees who possess this in the work place tend to believe that their colleagues will always do what is best for the organisation. Individuals with this trait in the work place are easy to delegate responsibilities to other employees, which is advantageous to an organisation since it ensures more work is done in a little time. Employees in the management positions who trust in their subordinates to make some of decisions regarding the organisation make these subordinate employees feel appreciated and part of the company therefore they are more motivated to achieve the objectives of the company. An issue that comes up is when that trust is bestowed upon an individual who does not have the best intentions of the company at heart, this is would be handled by creating a framework in which individuals would operate with and with certain set objectives for them to achieve. In addition, trust among the employees of an organisation help to strengthen the interpersonal relationships between the employees making the working environment conducive for performance. Altruism is defined by an individual traits to be selfless, generous courteous and always willing to help other, such individuals always do all they can to help the society. Employing individuals with altruistic characteristics in an organisation ensures that they want to give their best in order for the organisation to excel, individuals with an altruistic tendency would always support their employees in order for them to do better in their careers, this would in return mean increased productivity of employees in an organisation (Hammond, Keeney & Raiffa, 1998). Management personnel with altruistic tendencies would tend to care for the welfare of their employees, this would not only increase the loyalty and productivity of other employees, but it would also lead to less disruptions of the organisation’s activities due to events such as riots or go-slows by workers demanding better working conditions. When an organisation is dominated by workers with altruism, its main focus would be to give the best to the people it is serving, this would ensure that the products or services that the organisation offers are the best quality. Tender mindedness is defined as a trait where an individual judges situations using emotions and sympathy. Employees with this personality trait tend to be sensitive to their fellow employees needs, this creates good working conditions in the office as the employees support each other emotionally which in turn leads to higher productivity from the employees (Kuvaas & Kaufmann, 2004). In addition, tender minded management handles their employees with respect and sympathy, which increases the employees’ loyalty to the organisation and the desire to give the best to the organisation. Compliance as part of traits embedded in agreeableness is the trait that defines how an individual respond to conflict, a person who is considered compliant is mild and prefers to cooperate in order to dissolve the conflict. The benefit of an organisation having employees who have this trait is that it reduces tensions in the work place especially when conflicts arise this is because the employees will prefer to dissolve the conflict in contrast to being antagonistic or quarrelsome. This ensures respect, which is a necessity for performance of one’s’ duty, is maintained in the organisation. Modesty is the characteristic of an individual to be humble and giving priority to others (Rothstein & Goffin, 2006). In an organisation, modesty among the employees goes to prevent conflicts since they would first give priority to others, therefore creating a stable environment in an organisation for the employees to perform. When the modesty in employees is directed to the customers, it ensures customers satisfaction comes first, which in return also boosts the loyalty of the customers. Agreeable employees in an organisation always work to improve the performance of the organisation that they work in, their traits that include altruism, compliance, trust, modesty, tender mindedness and straightforwardness help them in wanting the best for the organisation and the clients that the organisation serves, therefore it is recommendable for organisations to hire employees with high levels of agreeableness. References Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R.L., & Raiffa, H. (1998). The hidden traps in decision-making. Harvard Business Review, September. Kuvaas, B., & Kaufmann, G. (2004). Impact of mood, framing and need for cognition on decision makers' recall and confidence. Journal of Behavioural Decision Making, 17(1) 59-74. Moutafi, J., Furnham, A.,& Crump, J. (2007). Is managerial level related to personality? British Journal of Management, 18(3),272-280 Neal, A., Yeo, G., Koy, A., & Xiao, T. (2012). Predicting the form and direction of work role performance from Big 5 model of personality traits. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 33(2), 175-192 Rothstein, M. G., & Goffin, R. D. (2006). The use of personality measures in personnel selection: What does current research support? Human Resource Management Review, 16, 155 – 180 Read More