RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 1

How Personality and Attitude Affect the Workplace

Magali N. Garza

ORGL 4341-V01

South Texas College

Ruben G Flores, Ph. D., MBA, MPA.

RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 2

Abstract

In this paper, the relationship between the effects of attitude and personality in the

workplace will be explored. There has been a rise in research about whether having positive and

negative attitudes can affect the efficacy of job performance and the environment in the

workplace. Through the administration of experiments, analysts have found that there is a

correlation between having a happy mindset and an efficient work surrounding. It was also

discovered that employees with negative attitudes tend to struggle more than their coworkers

with a more confident personality. Through the use of scholarly articles, the effects of positive

and negative characters were found and discussed in this paper. Data from various scholarly

articles have supported the idea that being a positive person leads to more productivity and better

mental health for employees.

RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 3

Every employer seeks people that will produce the most in the least amount of time. This

is something that is common knowledge and is also human nature. Employees seek jobs where

they will feel at ease and can be productive in order to get paid. The thing that no one ever talks

about is how an employer’s and an employee’s character and attitude towards the job can greatly

affect the productivity in the office. In order to have a successful work environment, it is

important to understand how people act and what they are like. This way the work dynamic can

be better understood and adapted. The theory is that there is a strong relationship between

personality, attitude, and work efficiency. The stronger the person’s positive mindset, the higher

the employee’s job performance and work efficiency. Establishing a happy and safe work

environment encourages employees to perform expertly.

In the book Management Principles, Chapter 2 goes in depth about the consequences of

attitudes and personalities in the workplace. One thing that it touches on is that it can be hard for

employers to find out who they are hiring since people seeking a job tend to lie about their

characteristics to appeal to the employer. The first article, The Joint Effects of Personality and

Workplace Social Exchange Relationships in Predicting Task Performance and Citizenship

Performance, talks about how increased social interaction affected the relationship between

personality and efficiency negatively. There were many hypotheses in this experiment regarding

interactions between team members and team leaders. The second peer-reviewed journal,

Evaluating the Influence of Work Attitudes on Work Stress and Turnover Intention in Ecology

Industry: Empirical Study, is about how pressuring employees and impacting their attitudes

negatively makes them want to quit their job which ultimately leads to company loss. The third

article, Attitudes about work engagement of different generations—A cross‐sectional study with

nurses and supervisors, explores how difference in ages can affect the attitude of nurses (the
RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 4

employees) and how it can enhance the environment in the workplace positively or negatively

depending on the age group and experience. The fourth scholarly journal, Workplace mental

health: developing an integrated intervention approach, is about how integrating the workplace

makes employees more efficient. This is relevant because it shows that different personalities in

the workplace can provoke positive efficiency in a company. The fifth article, Positivity at the

workplace: Conceptualising the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological

capital, organisational virtuousness, thriving and job performance, explores the theory that

having positive reinforcements in the workplace allows employees to thrive in their jobs and to

increase their desire to make more products. The sixth and last article, Negativity in the

Workplace, discusses the impact that negative attitudes from employees, such as the ones that

gossip and constantly lie, can negatively affect the work environment. Negativity leads to lack of

professionalism and decreased sense of security. These articles are the foundation of this paper

and will defend or debunk the hypothesis.

The book for this class offers the foundation of how exactly attitude and personality is

linked to the efficacy at work. It outlines characteristics needed to be a great or terrible employee

such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. It says that

those who have openness have a better time adapting to new jobs and forming meaningful

relationships. It also explains that those who have a big part of neuroticism tend to have a lot of

problems at work. This is because they tend to be more anxious and quite depressed. This

decreases productivity and ultimately leads to a terrible employee. The book successfully

addresses the impact of personality and how it affects the work environment.

Article one explores two traits out of the OCEAN characteristic theory. It talks about

agreeableness and conscientiousness and how it improves employee and citizen performance.
RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 5

Their hypothesis is that both traits will positively help supervisors and coworkers perform better

at work. Their experiment was to create a social exchange of quid pro quo favors at the

discretion of participants. This was mainly focused among team member exchange and leader

member exchange to see how they performed at work and in daily life outside of work. The

study found that socializing and offering favors in the office negatively impacted the effects of

personality. This is important because it proves that those who have very giving and kind

personalities will often be taken advantage of in the workplace and will ultimately decrease their

productivity. This is because they could be so entertained by completing favors that they stop

focusing on their very own tasks. This article debunks the hypothesis that a positive personality

enhances productivity since it ultimately says that being nice will make you slack off.

The second article discusses that the attitude of an employee can make a job good or bad.

Its experiment researches the correlation between attitudes in the ecology workplace and

employee turnover. The experiment itself consists of creating regression lines to test if the first

hypothesis- that attitudes at work are negatively correlated with turnover- is correct. The

experiment found that this hypothesis was supported by the data obtained by the regression line.

This ultimately shows that attitude in the workplace does not make a person quit but rather other

factors such as stress, pay, and pressure (Ekoloji, pg. 891). This article technically supports the

hypothesis of this essay since it claims that although attitude is not as important, it will make

people quit their jobs since it will make them more stressed.

The third article explores two different generations: X and Y. Generation Y are nurses

from 1981-1995 and generation X are caregivers from 1966-1980. It asks the question about

whether attitudes in different people affect competitiveness and conflicts at work. Through a

quantitative and detailed survey, the experimenters found that generation Y were not as open in
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the workplace and did not make work a priority as much as generation X. Yet, generation Y was

more ambitious than generation X. It concluded that, “transformational leadership behavior

represents an approach to guide employees of different generations individually and to

harmonize different attitudes” (Huber, 2019). This is important since it explains that different

generations have many differences, but they will mold their attitudes to each other to guide

themselves towards being more efficient if it brings them something positive. This ultimately

approves the hypothesis that a positive attitude will affect the workplace positively.

The fourth article explains that mental health has taken a toll on worker productivity. A

negative attitude is not just being upset but it also includes being stressed and depressed.

Bringing that attitude into the workplace, as this article claims, has risks for employers to work

efficiently or feel motivated to finish tasks. It is important to address the problems of workers

and get them medical help in order to increase efficiency. This article relates back to the

hypothesis since it proves that it is better to keep a happy environment to max out productivity in

the workplace. This is usually not something that employers worry about, but it may cause an

increase in employer turnover if it is not dealt with through the help of therapists and medicine

provided by companies. This proves that the hypothesis is correct, and that attitude has a great

impact on the way that employers perform in the workplace.

The fifth article explores the effect of having positive reinforcements in the workplace.

The experiment goes over how acknowledging the positivity in the workplace makes employees

more efficient. It summarizes the many articles and experiments that have proved that the

workplace will thrive and do better than other companies when there is psychological help,

positive reinforcements, and a safe environment. It offers ways to incorporate positive attitudes

in the workplace and how companies that have tried it have succeeded. It enhances the need for
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leaders to be optimistic so that employees will feel at ease and enjoy what they do. The article

“highlights potential benefits from effective leaders’ commitment to enhancing psychological

capital and organizational virtuousness and engendering thriving behavior and job performance”

(Shahid; Muchiri, pg. 494-523). This article once again succeeds to prove the hypothesis, and

even offers ways on how to create a better workplace.

The last article talks about the impact that negativity has on the efficiency of a company.

It explains that complaining, gossiping, health challenges, etc. brings such a grand cloud of

negativity that it makes employees want to quit or feel extremely uncomfortable in the

workplace. It discusses that managers are at the center of what is allowed in the workplace and

what is not. It encourages supervisors to compensate employees that deserve to be rewarded for

their constant competence and to reprimand employees that take part in bringing down the

wonderful atmosphere of the work environment. It provides do’s and don’ts for employers and

managers such as do stay focused on your own work and don't get ‘hooked’ by what everyone

else is saying. This article is effective in saying that negative personalities can make work seem

dreadful but that there are many ways in which one can work effectively despite being

surrounded by such negativity.

There are many jobs in this world that are quite different and, in some aspects, the same.

Yet, what they all have in common is that jobs see many people come and go for a number of a

million reasons. Some reasons are low pay, prejudice, lack of life qualities- such as medical

insurance-, or even lack of vacation. Yet, a very strong factor for employee’s turnover is the

missing positive work environment offered by coworkers and supervisors. The articles in this

research paper proved that it is important to have a positive attitude in the workplace in order to

enhance positivity. Although, it is important to mention that positive personalities have a list of
RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 8

cons, one of the main ones being that it is easy for coworkers to take advantage of it.

Nonetheless, it is an overall statement that having a positive mindset definitely increases

productivity and it elicits happiness towards everyone around you.

RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 9

References

Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogar, B. (n.d.). Management Principles (1st ed., Vol. 1).

Huber, P., & Schubert, H. (2019). Attitudes about work engagement of different generations—A

cross‐sectional study with nurses and supervisors. Journal of Nursing Management (John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 27(7), 1341–1350. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1111/jonm.12805

Kamdar, D., & Van Dyne, L. (2007). The joint effects of personality and workplace social

exchange relationships in predicting task performance and citizenship performance. The

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LaMontagne, A. D., Martin, A., Page, K. M., Reavley, N. J., Noblet, A. J., Milner, A. J., Keegel,

T., & Smith, P. M. (2014). Workplace mental health: developing an integrated

intervention approach. BMC Psychiatry, 14, 131. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1186/1471-244X-14-131

Reynolds, J. J. (2007). Negativity in the Workplace. AJN American Journal of Nursing, 107(3),

72D–72H. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1097/00000446-200703000-

00034

Sehrish Shahid, & Michael K. Muchiri. (2019). Positivity at the workplace: Conceptualising the

relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, organisational

RUNNING HEAD: HOW PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE AFFECT THE WORKPLACE 10

virtuousness, thriving and job performance. International Journal of Organizational

Analysis, 27(3), 494–523. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1108/IJOA-

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Shunteng Jiang, Xue Jiang, & Changsheng Huang. (2018). Evaluating the Influence of Work

Attitudes on Work Stress and Turnover Intention in Ecology Industry: Empirical Study.

Ekoloji Dergisi, 106, 887–892.