Department of International Business

University of Dhaka

Course Title and Code

Organizational Behavior (IB-204)

Submitted To
Pallabi Biswas
Course Instructor
Submitted By
A.B.M. Nahin Alam - (SS-030-125)

12th Batch, 2nd Semester

Date of Submission: 10 November, 2019
 Assignment on Case Studies of
Personality & Values
Case-1: Ethical Dilemma- Freedom or Lack of Commitment.

Question 1: In your experience do younger individuals differ from older individuals in their
plans to remain with one employer for a long time? Do you think these differences, if you
believe they exist, are due to shifting economies reality or to changing work values?

Answer: In my experience I can say that younger individuals do differ with their plans to remain
with one employer for a long period of time from older individuals. Young people tend to seek
more opportunities in life. They like more risks than older people. Younger individuals are
looking for higher pay with excellent benefits. They always try to improve themselves for more
challenges. These individuals will continue to move jobs until they reach their most desired level
of success. On the other hand many older individuals want to stay at their current job for the rest
of their life. Because they find it easy to stay at one place rather than move around in uncertainty.

I think these differences are due to the shifting economic realities. The entire workforce is trying
to achieve higher salaries due to the economy. Everyone wants to make more money in order to
obtain financial security and young individuals have higher goals and desires than the old
individuals. The young individuals want more from life so they need more pay to make their
desires come true. Younger generations do not want to work more for less pay so when they feel
that it is too much work they tend to find another job. Many of the younger individuals still live
with their parents and do not have the responsibilities of the older individuals that risk more from
leaving job.

Question 2: Do you think you should feel free to “Job Surf”- purposely moving from job to job as
soon as the desire strikes? Do you think employers have a right to ask about “Job Surfing” plans
when they interview you?

Answer: I think I should feel free to be able to “job surf” whenever I feel like to do it. Whenever
I will feel that my job isn’t interesting anymore I should find a new more interesting job.
Changing jobs will help me to avoid preconceived assumptions about what my career should
look like. It will also be beneficial for the employer too. If I am not motivated at my work then it
wouldn’t be beneficial for me and my employer. However, I must also be prepared for the
consequences of “job surfing”. Moving from job to job frequently if I do it often then employers
might hesitate to hire me. Training takes an investment of time and money, and an employer
might not want to hire me if he thinks I'll just leave in a year or two. Employers might also worry
about my judgment and personality.
I also think that employers should have the right to ask about “Job Surfing” plans when they
interview me. This will give both parties an opportunity to see the interests for them. Employer
might why I left my current job or what benefits I am looking for in a job. Mostly millennia’s
like me would stay at a job longer if their values and beliefs match with company’s even if it’s
not a high paying job.

Question 3: If you had an interview with Foster or someone with his views of Millennial, how
might you combat his preconceptions?

Answer: If I truly wanted the job and knew I would stay if I got it then I would basically have to
explain to Foster that he has to see my commitment while performing my job. Explaining my age
and what’s known about my generation does not reflect my own personal views on my job or
career at hand. I completely get where he is coming from but not everyone is the same. Most of
the millennial do job surf a lot but when their values and beliefs match with the company’s they
tend stay longer there even if they don’t get a higher pay. What a millennial expects from a
company is goals, missions and expectations. That’s how I will combat his preconceptions.

Case-2: Is There a Price for Being Too Nice?

Question 1: Do you think there is a contradiction between what employers want in employees
(agreeable employees) and what employees actually do best (disagreeable employees)? Why or
why not?

Answer: Yes, I think there is a tremendous contradiction between what employers want in
employees and what employees actually do best. Most of the employers want employees who are
agreeable, people who are easily liked by others and people who are willing or are ready to agree
consent very easily. Agreeable employees are more flexible, tolerant, pleasant and warm. On the
other hand disagreeable employees may have far better ideas and have the nerves to push and
insist them. Disagreeable employees tend to be more focus and engage with their work but they
are reserved, aggressive and cold.

The main reason why I believe that someone goes for a job because he/she has knowledge about
it and they would know how to apply their knowledge and they will like that knowledge to grow.
Even if someone is not an agreeable person, they are really capable of performing their job with
excellence. This contradiction is a bad thing because employers look for employees who are
agreeable but they can also be less successful at their work. And it could cost the company a lot
of money and create any problems too. It has been proven that employees like to have a decent
relationship with their co-worker, it is quite necessary to have a balance of personality and traits
in the work place for the organization to become more successful and improve.
Question 2: Often, the effects of personality depend on the situation. Can you think of some job
situation in which agreeableness is an important virtue? And in which it is harmful?

Answer: Agreeableness helps most in the stressful moments and situations. When things are not
going the way they should be, agreeableness becomes a virtue. In jobs like nurses, customer
service representatives, educators, social worker, bank job agreeableness is really important.
Suppose a rude customer came in and insulted the customer service representative, here the
employee must not show her anger or frustration because in this job customer satisfaction is what
matters the most. So for doing this kind of job one is required to have agreeableness. One has to
agree with the customer and ensure him full satisfaction. People who are agreeable are also
pleasant people to be around. They help to keep the work environment more calm and happier
for other employees.

But agreeable employees tend to not be good at their job and become less successful in their
careers. So some jobs are really harmful for them. For example, in a sales job where the
salesman has to sell his product by any means. In this kind of job agreeableness is harmful for
the salesman. For these type of jobs employees needs to be aggressive and convincing. Here
coworkers are rivals because they also want to sell their share of the product. Coworker can
manipulate them and take away their clients too. This trait could harm the company a lot because
the employee would lose customers and it would make the company loose profit. So when
situation needs one to be aggressive and straight to perform their job, being agreeable could be
very harmful for them and the employer.

Question 3: In some research we’ve conducted, we’ve found that the negative effects of
agreeableness in earnings are stronger for men than for women (that is being agreeable hurt
men’s earnings more than women’s). Why do you think this might be the case?

Answer: In terms of aggressiveness, men are by nature more aggressive than women. They are
more forceful in average. Men have less agreeableness in them than women. Men tend to attack
their clients whereas women try to deal with the situation by being more sensitive and
persuasive.

So I think if men become more agreeable then they lose their hostility and it becomes harder for
them to pursue their clients and sell their products. I believe men are characterized to be
aggressive and passionate for the things they do, so when they become agreeable and passive,
they are misunderstood and that leads them to loosing opportunities. On the other hand women
are more sensitive and caring. They are also passionate but in a more sensitive and emotional
way. Women make the customer feel safe and not pressured for doing something they don’t want
to. It’s good for the customer but it also leads to loosing customers and profit. As many people
said that Agreeableness is a feminine attribute. So men being agreeable make them look
feminine in the society.
But these terms are not applicable for all the men and women. There are men who are sensitive
and agreeable, who have soothing approach. There are women who are aggressive and use
straight methods to pursue their clients for the benefit of their company. As I have said earlier in
case 1, it all depends on the person. On average, men have the advantage over women because of
their aggressiveness and can work out problematic situations more easily than women. So men
are viewed like this and most employers want men to be less agreeable. So for this view of men,
being agreeable as a man will cause less pay than a woman with agreeableness. Cause women
are viewed as agreeable beings.

Case-3: Leadership from an Introvert’s Perspective.

Question 1: Are you more of an introverted or extroverted leader? What can you do to leverage
your personality to be a more effective leader?

Answer: I am more of an extroverted leader. I like big group discussions. I am better able to take
risk and adapt to change. I can keep connection with a broad number of people and I have quite
good public speaking skills. So these are all the hallmarks of an extroverted leader so I am an
extroverted leader.

There are things that I can do to leverage my personality to be a more effective leader. Like I
should build trust with all my followers by contributing to the discussions. I have to listen to my
subordinates ideas more carefully and give them proper feedback and appreciate their hard work.
I should create space for my subordinates, give them time to think and generate ideas. I can take
help from my team members gladly to be more effective in our task.

Question 2: Under what conditions do you think extraverts make more effective leaders than
introverts? What unique abilities of introverts could make them more effective in some
situations?

Answer: Extraverts are more effective four categories: emotional, interpersonal, motivational
and performance-related. These are the four aspects that capture the strongest positive effects of
extroversion at work. So extraverts can be very effective in situations where these four aspects
are visible. As an example extraverts will do really well in sales job. Because to sell something
the salesman has to talk with the customer, convince the customer to buy the product. Here the
salesperson is dominating the customer which is a extraverted quality. Extraverts are very
effective under pressure. They can cope up with the situation and can adapt to change faster than
introverts. Extraverts can be more enthusiastic in a large group of people and they can give
public presentations very smoothly which introverts needs help to do. So extroverts can be the
figurehead of an organization. These are situations where introverts will be really ineffective and
become harmful for the organization.
But there are situations where introverts are more effective than extraverts. As a matter of fact a
Harvard study proved that introverts are more effective leaders in complex and unpredictable
settings. In fact, introverts are uniquely suited to navigate situations that extroverts can't, and that
quiet leadership is often critical to a company's long-term success. Introverts are more motivated
by productivity than ambition. That makes them more profitable leader for the company because
they will do what’s best for the company. Introverts aren’t open to large groups but they can
build quite a good connection with a smaller group and they are really good with client in one-
on-one settings. Most importantly introverts don’t get much distracted by others. They can focus
on their work very diligently which makes them very effective in quite work environments. So in
these kinds of situations introverts are more effective than extraverts.

Question 3: The case describes some problems introverts might have in leadership situations.
What techniques might they employ to help them overcome these?

Answer: In the case it has been said that introverts are better leaders too but they face some
problems. They have problem to communicate with a large audience, they keep their thoughts
inside their head which leads to a communication gap. To overcome this problem they have to
get out of their head, talk with their team members more frequently. Introverts are great listeners
but if they also talked about their thoughts more often then they overcome the communication
gap. Introverts have to push their selves to learn and grow. Because of their shyness they often
stay in dark. They have to be braver to come forward and push their selves to conversations and
situations where they might be vulnerable.

There’s an old saying between introverts “If you want it done right, do it by yourself!”. Introverts
have to get out of this cycle. Doing things by oneself sometimes can backfire, others can think
that the leader is arrogant and not transparent. So introvert leader should share his works, idea
with his teammates/subordinates to get help from them. Introverts are less adaptable to change
and they often don’t let anyone in. It’s not a good practice either. They have to meet new people,
adapt with change of the work environment that’s how they can be more effective.

To be able do all the things above, introverts have to get out of their shells more often. They
have to communicate with others and go to public gatherings and try public speaking more often.
Arrange personal gatherings and hang outs with team members, subordinates and colleagues.
This will definitely help overcome the entire problem they face in the case.

Question 4: What types of developmental experiences do you think would be especially

valuable for introverted leaders?

Answer: Many types of developmental experiences can be helpful for introverted leaders like
having a mentor. Introverts are really good at one-on-one conversations. When someone helps
introverts in their problems, coaches them, it helps them to develop more. Also introverted
people learn by talking to other introverts like them too.

One of the most important things about development of introverted leaders is feedback. They use
the feedback from about their work and use it to develop themselves more accordingly with the
feedback. Asking introverts for their input on something also helps them to develop they feel
needed and important. Introverted people tend to over think. They have to stop this to get a
positive mindset. A positive mindset always helps to experience positive growth. And most
importantly they have to have self confidence. They have to be confident about their ideas and
plans. This will boost their development and make them a better leader than before.