Salac, Ramon Kristian A-112

I believe that it is openness is the most important personality trait in a managerial

type of job, since it is the manager’s job to lead the whole team under his care, it is also
his job to create good chemistry and connection among the team in order for them to
work towards one common goal. It is important to establish good working relationship
with co-workers so that conflicts and issues may be avoided, because these can cause
counterproductivity and awkwardness in the workplace. For a manager to accomplish
this, he must first understand his subordinates, their skills, knowledge, feelings, and
point of views. After which, he must use his knowledge and understanding of his
subordinates to manage them accordingly. Managers must also be able to see and
understand changes and adapt to these situations as soon as possible, this can be
done not only by just being alert, but also listening to others and being open for possible
suggestions and changes in the primary course of action. As Griffin (2016) stated in the
266th page of his book entitled Fundamentals of Management, “Openness is defined as
the rigidity if beliefs and range of interests of a person”, it was also mentioned that the
willingness to listen to new ideas and changing their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes
accordingly due to the new information received are traits of individuals with high levels
of openness. It is also said that these kinds of individuals tend to be curious and have
broad interests, imaginative, and creative. Griffin (2016) added that openness also
encompasses the willingness to accept change.

The famous saying “No man is an island” can be related to openness, since
managers cannot manage by their own understanding alone, they must immerse
themselves with others, such as their own staffs, or even their customers for them to be
able to generate significant changes in their workflow and operations that will improve
their service or products. Openness plays a big role to this since managers are required
to listen to their co-workers and even customers to see a bigger picture of the situation.
Having access to such amount of information enables them to make the most
appropriate decision and action for the current situation. Of course, a manager acquiring
these types of information cannot yet be called an open individual, he must understand
them first and react to them with proper reasoning and logic. A change in opinion or
plan must be a hunch to an open manager, since he does not let his pride or ego get in
the way because he recognizes the situation and acknowledges his mistakes. One
great example of managers practicing openness that I’ve personally experienced is how
our university handles our current learning method. Faculty members have given
multiple surveys to students to give feedback regarding the new LMS or learning
management system, they also ask students from time to time in synchronous sessions
on how they could improve the overall experience of the new methods. After gathering
this information, there were significant improvements in our online classes, there were
lesser workloads, clearer instructions, consistent schedules for synchronous and
asynchronous sessions. This is an example of managers gathering feedbacks from their
customers to improve their service. To further strengthen my claim that openness is the
most important trait of a manager, I will cite one great company that collapsed due to
the lack of openness. It was mentioned by Griffin (2016) in page 113 of his book, the
company I’m talking about is Pan American World Airways, Pan am was ruling the skies
and diversified by using its profits to invest in real estate and other businesses.
However, they began to struggle and lose market share to competitors, upon knowing
this, managers recognized how ineffective the airline operations had become. The very
reason Pan Am went down was because company utilized the method called
“escalation of commitment” which means that they would stick to a course of action
even if it seems to be a mistake. The decision I’m referring to was the management’s
decision to sell its more profitable holdings for its airline to keep operating. Even if there
were signs that the airline’s performance was deteriorating, they sticked to the course of
action and in the end of the day, they were left with an ineffective and inefficient airline.
This is why openness is a critical trait for managers, because being caught up with your
own ideas, views, and knowledge won’t be sufficient and could mean failure. Just like
the Pan Am managers who weren’t open to new ideas and decisions.

Sources:
Griffin, R. (2016). Fundamentals of Management [Ebook] (8th ed., p. 266). Cengage
Learning. Retrieved 2 October 2020, from
https://www.statisticiansforhire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Fundamentals-
of-Management-8th-Edition-Ricky-Griffin-978- 1285849041.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR2vKwNqpGO_n0u5S5JUe8tf37kRpdst9gMRZv5ejb
SOk02gc_0mrJMewzA.
Griffin, R. (2016). Fundamentals of Management [Ebook] (8th ed., p. 113). Cengage
Learning. Retrieved 2 October 2020, from
https://www.statisticiansforhire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Fundamentals-
of-Management-8th-Edition-Ricky-Griffin-978- 1285849041.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR2vKwNqpGO_n0u5S5JUe8tf37kRpdst9gMRZv5ejb
SOk02gc_0mrJMewzA.