Personality and work productivity

Vikramaditya singh dev 1220740 MBA V

PERSONALITY AND WORK PRODUCTIVITY

If you agree with the old proverb The people make the place," then youll understand why the use of personality assessments in business and industry continues to grow in todays dynamic environment. There is a connection between how well a person fits his or her job, his or her productivity and ultimately the company. Personality affects various other variables such as job satisfaction, organizational behavior and other dependent variables. Personality can be defined as a dynamic, organized and generally enduring set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. An individuals personality traits and variables are now being recognized as an important and integral part in understanding and assessing individual, team and organizational performance and effectiveness. But evaluating a persons personality is not an easy task. There is great complexity in predicting behavior and job performance. The nature as well as criterion measures are complex. One method of assessing a persons personality is by way of The Big Five Model of Personality given by Goldberg. According to this trait theory, there are five factors, namely:

Conscientiousness Sense of capability and responsibility, self-discipline Emotional Stability Ability to cope with stress Extraversion Assertiveness, warmth, sociability Agreeableness Modesty, willingness to forgive and forget Openness to experience Wanting to try out new things, vivid imagination

All these traits help classify a persons personality so that accordingly he or she may be put to the right job and for other requirements.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS Conscientiousness appears to be the trait-oriented motivation variable that industrialorganizational psychologists have long searched for, and it should occupy a central role in theories seeking to explain job performance (Barrick, Mount & Judge, 2001) Such people are

self-disciplined, logical, determined, cautious, reliable and focused. They are task performers. Conscientious people are the best to lead significant job performance and it is because of this, they are rewarded with formal as well as informal awards thereby, improving their job satisfaction and motivating them to push themselves all the more. EMOTIONAL STABILITY / NEUROTISISM Neurotics possess traits like stressed, annoyed, nervous and insecure. They have no faith or belief. They have no social experience to handle situations. What they believe is they have no control over their lives. Its all destiny and they fear taking things in their own hand. Such people are negatively related to work performance. EXTRAVERSION They are spontaneous, expressive, outgoing, enthusiastic, positive and welcoming. They want social acknowledgement, admiration and control. Such people are emotionally committed. Their personality has a very positive impact on their job performance and work satisfaction. They are effective and suitable for jobs linked with sales, marketing, social and public relations etc. AGREEBLENESS This personality type is self-sacrificing, gentle, helpful and warm and welcoming on one hand whereas, indifferent on the other hand. They are open-minded, trusting, calm and generous. Such type of personality is the utmost divisive personality trait of The Big Five. They are humble, flexible and supportive. However, there is a negative relationship between work performance and agreeableness. OPENESS TO EXPERIENCE People who have extraordinary openness to new experiences have a better chance of satisfaction at workplace which leads to great performance. Such people may help the organization tremendously in reaching great heights or may act in a very contradictory manner. Their affect on job performance is skeptic. But mostly, it works in the interest of the company.

Thus, from the above analysis we can evaluate a persons personality trait and how it affects the work performance. However, the link between personality and productivity depends upon the situation in which he is, the way in which he is acting and the place in which he is. A personality type may have a positive impact on a situation in company A but may have a negative impact in company B. There are situations wherein a person with an extrovert personality is suitable but there are also situations where a neurotic personality also comes in handy. For example, pessimists are also productive. They are the reason the parachute was invented.

Emotions play an important role in the everyday work life. Different people have different emotions and they vary in their ability to perceive, understand, use and manage emotions. These differences affect their ability to adapt to the situation, environment and variety of contexts, including the workplace. Main factors that affect productivity are Leadership, Ambition and Affability. Personality traits can affect an individuals ability to perform tasks. Matching employees, both current and potential, with the appropriate job is the key factor in increasing productivity at work place. Understanding personality factors can help determine tasks and projects in a better manner. This greatly helps in the attainment of organizational goals and avoiding ambiguity. There is no good personality or bad personality. There is no right or wrong. The main thing is awareness. One should be aware of ones trait so that he or she can work on it. The management should also be aware of the employees personality type so that he or she can be dealt with in accordance with their personality. It is this assessment that contributes to the productivity at work. At the work place, there is diversity in terms of knowledge, personality, background, ethnicity and thinking. There are people coming from various different backgrounds and cultures. It is this diversified mix that helps the organization attain goals and objectives. A careful integration of all this is required to achieve the mission and the vision. Personalities have a very strong effect on the attitude towards work. Some may help person overcome hurdles, some may motivate but ultimately they affect the productivity of the individual and also the organization. For example, an athlete is cocky and arrogant and thinks he is too good for the team. If he believes the team isnt good enough for him, he will probably not perform well as he would want to get out of the team. However, if he is a go-getter and even if he was a mediocre performer, he would work hard and give his best and maybe even be productive in his output. There is a growing interest in the role of personality in health and other more general areas of interest. Personality assessment is now widely used in practice. Most companies use personality assessment test, psycho-metric tests to analyze an individuals personality before his or her joining the company. This is a very useful tool that facilitates recruitment and after the individuals entry into the firm, helps in orientation and training and development. Because of this assessment the company is in a position to evaluate the kind of person that employee is, how to deal with him and interact with him. No two people are the same. There are different ways to deal with different individuals. Some people are open (extrovert). Some are introverts. You cannot interact with them in the same manner. If you talk openly and over enthusiastically with

an introvert, he or she may not be okay with it. You may be intruding their personal space and that persons comfort zone may not allow that. Similarly, putting the right person to the right job is very essential. If you put an introvert in a public relations job, he or she may not be productive in terms of their performance. So clearly, understanding an individuals personality is not essential only for the company but also for the individual himself. Only if a person knows what kind of a person he or she actually is, can they analyze themselves, figure out their key resultant areas, their strengths and weaknesses and then work on it. Assessment of traits helps in working on the limitations of a person so that he or she can pool their efforts in improving their existing plus points and also trying to turn their weaknesses into their strengths. This tremendously adds to a persons work efficiency and productivity. Positive effect, negative effect, life satisfaction and job satisfaction are not simply attitudes towards ones life and ones job. These play a functional role in the choices made by them and their behavior. Happy individuals are more sociable, healthier, more confident, active, enthusiastic and more likely to use quick and efficient strategies for processing information than less happy individuals. They have more advantages over other personality types. Although personality is an internal part of a person, the company can make efforts to improve upon a persons personality and in turn gain from their productivity. Creation of a positive environment within the office is important to motivate an employee and boost up their productivity. External environment also affects a persons attitude. A welcoming, open environment will enable an employee to perform better. A persons characteristic, his personality plays a very important role in his life. It is a strong determinant of his performance, behavior and reaction. Knowing ones personality trait is the first step towards better outcome. The rest is achieved by improving on the present characteristics. Performance and productivity can be enhanced if a person readily accepts the kind of person he or she is and is willing to adapt, work and put in required efforts to grow and develop.

CONCLUSION

In business, our personality affects everything, personal relationships in office, professional associations and social interactions. It is who we are. It is the way people see us, they way we interact with us and the way we interact with them. There is a direct relation between personality and work productivity. Assessment of an individuals personality is an important predictor of their performance at work. The organization as well as the individual should put in great amount of efforts to improve upon the personality traits and try and make the best come out of them. Respecting individual differences is also essential to improve the productivity. The secret to working with everyone is knowing your personality style and adapting it to those around you for better communication and cooperation. Our personality will ultimately define how effectively we work with people, at the workplace or outside.

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