ORGANISATIONAL RELATIONS, TEMPERAMENT AND WORK

SITUATION
By

Charles O. Okoroafor (B.Sc psychology)

Abstract

In every organisation a lot of factors play vital roles in increasing or decreasing

productivity or output. This article focused on the effect or role of individual
temperaments on work situation. Also the proper understanding and
application of this knowledge by the employer was seen to help in proper job
placement. Another factor that seemed to work well with this temperament is
passion, and its effects. In the end it is stated that these factors be looked into
from different levels and stages of human development. Also the proper
consideration of these factors in job selection stage and job analysis will go a
long way in job satisfaction both on the side of the employer and employee.
 Introduction

This work is to look into the role individual temperaments play in work situations. Today many do
not love their job partly because of factors such as this (temperament). The four different
temperaments which were stated out by Lahaye (2002) in his book “Why you act the way you do”,
which are sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic have a way of affecting people’s attitudes
to working conditions. Therefore this research is to delve into work situations and find out why most
organisations do not have good output and to ensure that at the end of the day the worker or
employee goes home happy and is enthusiastic to resume work the next day. The temperament in
question should be considered while the choice of occupation is being made, thus getting to solve
the problem from the root or even before it ever occurs. This work therefore will look into the
individual as well as group effects of temperaments.

Temperament as we know is said to be as old as man’s existence. It is also said to be inherited.

Therefore every human being is born with a primary or dominating temperament embedded in
his/her genetic code (otherwise known as the DNA). Right from when man existed he possessed
some patterns of behaviour which makes him distinct from his fellow existing men despite the fact
that they worked together to achieve their common goals. From prehistoric times man expressed
different treats which he never understood and never knew what to call it. But with each passing
time (looking at the evolution point of view) he got to understand himself better internally,
externally and psychologically. This awareness led him to identify the four different temperaments
which are today well known to man. These temperaments are innate, psychologically speaking but
are expressed through behaviour which can either be active or passive and verbal or non-verbal.

Temperament has been seen as many things and have been mistaken for character or attitude. Since
it is genetically induced it cannot be changed but rather modified to suit situations at hand. Every
human being at one time or the other expresses or exhibits the characteristics of the four different
temperaments despite the fact that in every human being there is the primary and secondary
temperament. The primary temperament is dominant while the secondary temperament is
recessive. It is important to note that at one time or another one with a passive temperament can be
seen to be so active (meaning that a melancholy or phlegmatic may out of excitement exhibit
sanguine characteristics). The four temperaments which are sanguine, choleric, melancholy and
phlegmatic are said to exhibit different characteristics that fit into various situations. According to
Esynck(who was one of the pioneers of temperament evaluation in organisational placement or
vocational placement and business orientation programs) in his simple analysis, he explained the
characteristics of the four temperaments as: expressive for sanguine, driver for choleric, analytical
for melancholy and amiable for phlegmatic.
As human beings develop they tend to realize their potentials and aspirations in life right from a
tender age. Though some do not realize there’s until they have reached a particular level in life. Also
there is a striking thing here which is the fact that most of these potentials are well placed or are in
line with the temperamental characteristics of these individuals and thus makes for successful
achievements for those in line with their aspirations. But for those that are in a confused state or are
not in control of their aspirations, there is less success or achievement or fulfilment in the goals in
which they are put into by others who might not understand or know them better. When they end
up in such vocations they tend to either work for the sake of the money they earn or they tend to
leave the job as a result of frustration and lack of fulfilment.

For one to experience happiness in his/her job or aspirations one has to fit into vocations that fit
his/her temperament for example: a sanguine who graduated from the university after studying
advertising, is employed in a bank as a marketing agent. At the end of that year, he is awarded a
promotion for the great work he has been doing by getting a lot of customers for the bank. Now he
was so exited while doing the job because despite the fact that he studied advertising in the
university, it is part of his nature to attract people to himself. So it is seen here that everything goes
in line with his personality or temperamental characteristics. Also in another case where a
phlegmatic is made to study medicine and after which is working in a hospital and from time to time
he is exposed to conducting operations/surgeries were he sees blood and other sights that are not
pleasant to him and in most cases, because of his emotional weakness loses a lot of patients and at
the same time suffers emotional trauma which he does not like thus by this he is working for the
sake of work and not for the love of it.

Therefore, it is very advisable to always know your personality as it relates to your temperament and
find out which vocation and line of work that fits into your characteristics in other to make for love
for ones job or vocation(ie, having a passion for ones job) despite the difficulties experienced at one
time or another.

In other to enlighten the people in the society on this, there has to be different methods or modes of
relating or making them aware of this. Here are a few suggestions:

i) Including it into the curriculum of both primary and secondary schools. This may not be
a subject but it will be included under any of the subjects relating to it thus making it a
sub-subject.

ii) Conducting seminars for students in the universities as well as for those out there that
might have already made the wrong choices. And try to find solutions to their problems
as it relates to unemployment.

iii) Creating media awareness, this is done in form of programs or documentaries or talk
shows on the television, radio, magazines, newspapers e.t.c.

iv) Also parents should be advised to watch their children during their developing years as
well as when they are getting mature, in other to find out the passion or particular field
or specialization that will suit them and not forcing them to be what they are not meant
to be, but rather to guide them well.
Also any other possible way of reaching the society at large, can be adopted in other to stop people
from making mistakes that will ruin their lives.

These different temperaments when put to test in a work situation explains a lot and also makes for
the understanding of the roles as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.

In organisational/industrial psychology there are laid down patterns of accepting job applicants into
an organisation and these are called techniques for job selection which includes interview which
involves both oral and written, questionnaire, psychological test, reference checks, work sample
tests, assessment centre, historical/biographical information and peer evaluation method as well as
others. While these series of methods are applied, the individual is being assessed on every grounds
of capability. The psychological tests as well as other tests are used to evaluate the applicant
psychologically to enable the employer consider the right way of placing the prospective employee.
These whole processes are taken to ensure proper placement to avoid disaster which may occur as a
result of improper evaluation and job analysis. For an applicant to become a prospective employee
his/her resume must be in line with the characteristic report as well as the evaluation of other job
selection methods. When this is done the applicant is either rejected or accepted based on the
failure or success of the whole process. In some cases, were due to an urgent need for an applicant
with some specific qualifications that may not have passed all the tests are considered, it sometimes
results in the organisations instability. This is what most organisations do not see as the cause of
their problems. The technique of job or personnel selection is a universal one and when they are not
adhered to like rules, things are bound to go wrong. It might be surprising to know that the smallest
most seen-to-be insignificant job in an organisation might if not handled well lead to the great down
fall of an organisation.

When the personnel selection is done, the employee is assigned to his/her duty post to commence
work. Seeing that this is a new situation in which the employee has found himself/herself and so it
will take a while before there is a full adaption to the working conditions. The working condition of
an organisation is meant to be aligned with the temperamental disposition of the employees. These
conditions might involve the salary/allowances, environmental conditions, the level or amount of
pressure exerted on the employees to increase output or productivity as well as other necessities.

Now one thing with the human temperament is that it sometimes affects the mood of an individual
either positively or negatively, is why it is important for every individual to know himself/herself and
also learns to have full control of one. This is were I will recommend that in other to make for better
and more efficient job analysis/selection process, there is the need to include BEHAVIOURAL
TRAINING/APPRIASAL at the end of the selection process. This would include temperament training
as well as all round behavioural training or awareness thereby making the individuals understands
themselves as well as having control of their behavioural disposition. This is necessary because, for
one to have full ability and capability to do or perform a task he/she has to know of a fact that
he/she can actually perform the task and just as the Del phi oracle said to Socrates “man know
yourself”. When this is understood, then there will be better effectiveness and efficiency. This
training is also meant to teach the employees how to handle and manage situations or issues that
face them. It will also help the employee to distinguish between work situation and social or family
situation in other to avoid having problems from other aspects or points infringing into the attitude
of the employee at work or vice versa as the case may be. Needless to say that these cases are seen
everyday and cannot be stressed enough. In actual sense, what am trying to say is that these
employees should keep their worries or troubles that concern the family at home and not let it
affect there activities at work. This also applies to other parts or aspects of life in other to avoid what
I call TRANSFERED EMOTIONAL STRESS. Let me explain using an exemplary situation were an
effective and efficient employee(triple E) has marital problems or economic problems and due to the
fact that the situation was not well managed a crisis is created and what do you think is going to
happen? The answer is simple; transferred emotional stress will occur thereby reducing
effectiveness and efficiency. When over time an employee gets used to the work environment there
is more effectiveness and efficiency on his/her part.

Another point of call is the employee-employer relationship which will affect the order of decision-
making involvement in problem solving as well as others. When an applicant is to become an
employee in an organisation, the employer at that point is to establish a relationship between him
and the employee. Depending on the kind of leadership which is running in the organisation (ie,
either dictatorial or democratic). In a situation of a dictatorial leadership system, the employee is
meant to strictly adhere to the rules of the system no matter how inconducive it might be. In this
kind of case or situation the employee has no right to question the authority of the organisation and
neither can the employee contribute to the well being or good of the organisation asides the work
output. This kind of situation reduces effectiveness of the employees.

Looking at the democratic system of leadership, the employee has a better more cordial or friendly
relationship with the boss. In this kind of relationship the employee is allowed to make contributions
to enhance the smooth running of the organisation as well as being involved in decision-making
process. Observing a typical scenario was in an organisation in which the leader or the boss runs a
dictatorial system, it will be seen that there will be a tendency of the boss pushing the employee
harder than they can actually bear without being concerned about their well being or welfare. This
kind of leader is seen as what I will call production or output oriented leader. But if it be in another
situation were the leader cares about the well-being of the employee as well as that of the
organisation thereby seeing that the leader or boss attends to the needs of the employees. As an
incentive, it will always lead to better effectiveness and efficiency on the part of the employee seeing
that for example: an employee comes to work in the morning and is looking dull owing to the fact
that a member of his family is ill. If the employee has a caring boss who gets to take time to observe
his employees. When he or she goes to the boss to be permitted to attend to the problem in his or
her house the leader should rightly accept or grant the request. Though there should be an
established level of respect rendered to the employer. There should also be good, cordial and
approachable relationship between the two parties. When this is established, the two parties stand
to gain a great deal of co-operative symbiosis were the employer gain and the employee gain also.

In an organisational setting, asides the fact that the employee is recruited to perform a particular
function, there should also be a good relationship between him and other employees (both old and
new) because as it is said “no man is an island”. Despite the fact that at some level there should be
work independence, when it comes to performing a professional duty, there should also be work
interdependence meaning that despite the fact that there is division of labour, the employees
should be united in diversity, thereby working together to make for a better and more efficient
synergistic running of the organisation. Therefore employees should maintain a good cordial
relationship as is should be with the boss. Just as the boss is expected to tend to the needs of his
employees, so it should be with employees and their fellows. Without this synergy, the production
output will definitely be poor.

Let me tell this story of a true life experience witnessed in a certain organisation. A young lady who
was employed into this organisation as a typist which involved a lot of paper work, came to work
very sick and could not perform her duties but just sat on her desk with her head on the table
without being able to do anything. When her fellow employees saw her in the condition she was in,
they showed no concern and thus went about their own duties. But when the time came for them to
bring papers for her to type, they simply dropped it on her desk and walked away and when after
some hours, they requested for their work and could not get it, they began to abuse her not minding
her condition. As was observed, the whole place was in disarray and their clients complained a lot.
At this point it showed how important one employee, who may be looked down on, can affect the
efficiency of a whole organisation. For there to be a good synergistic relationship among employees
there should be an established fact, which is that every employee is as important as the other
regardless of the position and should be treated equally. With this understanding and cordial
relationship in the mist of other things, the organisation would be unstoppable.

The relationship in an organisation does not only involve the personnel (ie, the human beings in the
organisation) but also involves the tools (or what the industrial/organisational psychologist would
call ergonomics; which is man-machine relationship). This aspect is involved or included because for
one to perform effectively well in an organisation he/she has to have a mastery of his/her tools
because it is the key to good productivity. When an employee is recruited into an organisation,
he/she is taken through a series of training that would help acquaint the employee with his/her
work environment. As mentioned earlier, no man is an island and so for one to do a job effectively
he/she needs the aid of a machine to quicken his/her job in this age of information super-high-flow.
Seeing that in virtually everything man does he involves the services of a machine, man has to get
conversant with his working machine no matter how simple or complex it might be. Just as the
employee relates with other employees, so should it be with the machine even though it is seen as
inanimate. This term ergonomics is what would be called becoming at one with your tool.

These different relationships mentioned in the last few paragraphs cannot be quite possible with a
good understanding of the temperamental basis on which they should grow. For a start, if in the
case of the employer-employee relationship, there is no good understanding of the temperamental
characteristics of the employer by the employee and vice versa, then there will be no free flow of
communication either upward or downwards as well as horizontally in an organisational setting. It is
with this good understanding that employees working with an employer of rash character, cope and
still maintain a good working relationship in an organisation. Also this understanding works with
fellow employees who though are different but work together to achieve a common goal(unity in
diversity).this cannot be possible if you do not know and understand the other person you are to
work with. Now for the case of employee-tool relationship a different scenario is in place seeing that
it is the temperament of the employee using the machine that should be considered. And so this
consideration is to be done by the personnel or human resources department who evaluate the
temperamental disposition of the employee to be placed on any sort of machine as well as the
employee’s reaction to adverse situations.
These factors or issues that may not bee seen to be important (like temperament) help in the
development, efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. When all these are spoken of, they
are practically seen in the output or production of the organisation which is why all these factors
stated and explained earlier should be looked into to ensure a good level of output or productivity.
This is not just for organisations that produce goods that are tangible but also for organisations that
provide services to the public as well.

In a well managed organisational setting were the employer as well as the employee play their roles
quite well; putting all the necessary details into proper consideration and thus attains the desired
output, there should then be a high level of job satisfaction both on the part of the employer and
that of the employee. It is quite unfortunate that this aspect of organisational behaviour has not
welcomed much views or ideas but nevertheless, it will in due time receive more recognition.

In conclusion, as a part of organisational behaviour, temperament in relation to work situation has

been seen on the basis of different aspects or levels of relationships as well as other aspects of an
organisational system. Seeing that it (temperament) plays a vital role in understanding different
individual dispositions in an organisation setting, it therefore should be seen or considered while
aligning organisational procedures and process which will thus lead to better performance on the
grounds of development, effectiveness and efficiency in general.
 Reference
Ugwu I.L. & Onyeneje E.C. (2002) Foundations of industrial and consumer psychology. Enugu: Our

Saviour press limited.

Lahaye T. (2002) Why you act the way you do. Illinois: Tyndate house publishers, Inc.

Offor N.C. (2006) Issues in personnel psychology. Enugu: Lano Publishers.