The unique thought patterns, behaviors and feelings that make an individual different from

the other can be termed as Personality. The personality of every individual originates out of
genetic heritage as well as his immediate surroundings, and remains constant all through their
lives. This results in individual differences. Due to complexity in human nature arising out of
the wide variety of experiences in life, the different personality types affect individual
relation ships in an organization, and affect the organizational climate. There are various
theories explaining the growth of individual personalities, such as – the Psychodynamic
theory, Type theory, Behavioral theory, Biological theory, Trait theory , and the theory of the
‘Big five'( Mike Battista,2008). However, though it is assumed that the personality of an
individual is more or less constant, it does not happen so. It has been observed that though
individual differences occur as a result of various styles of parenting and the amount of
attention that one received in childhood grooming, individual successes and failures
experienced in life, changes in individual personality do occur in the long run. Individuals are
likely to become more stable emotionally through 20 to 40 years, where usually they do not
need to face any more new experience with age, as greater confidence in self develops.
(Webbooks/e-library)

Impact of Individual Personality at Work

The child hood personality of an individual affects the future career and job satisfaction of
individuals. It has been found out that, behaviors of individuals in the organizational climate
are the result of their individual personalities. There are certain traits of personality that are
essential for employee behavior, which may be desirable for an organization to run its
operations successfully. Some individuals may be more sociable and carry an outgoing
personality and prefer work environment that is more social and friendly. This personality
trait does not immediately affect their behavior at work, but might harm their work
psychology in the long run. In an organizational environment, everyone is assigned some
particular job responsibility, and certain expectations arise out of the definite roles that each
are assigned to play. Hence, here the individual behavior is influenced more by the job
expectations rather than individual behavioral preferences. In jobs that call for autonomy and
freedom, it has been observed that the individual personality exercises a tremendous
influence on that. This often leads to difficult management situations in an organization.
Employees often tend to become too much egocentric, autonomous, possess too much of
differential opinion, and sometimes casual and easy going. Hence these are important issues
that need to be focused on when an organization is creating its business plan and designing
individual job responsibilities. (Webbooks/e-library)

People are not a means to an end, but are as important to an organization as the wheel is to a
chariot. Every organization requires a definite workforce comprising a unique employee
personality, so as to avoid too much collision of ideas. Again, individual differences give rise
to dynamism in the team, which is very healthy and essential for the successful growth of a
team, as it unleashes new ideas, provided it is managed efficiently. Thus it is important that
every team leader has a proper knowledge about the Big Five Theory of personality
development.

The Big Five

The discovery of the Big Five was the result of an empirical research, and psychologists
observed that of the long list of traits prepared by them, many of them occurred together. Five
big factors were identified as general dimensions that were essentially considered for
differentiating one person from the other. These are – Openness, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Putting the initials of the character traits
together, the acronym OCEAN is derived.

Openness: People who are high on openness, are imaginative as well as conservative, and
possess a down-to-earth kind of nature. They like emotions, adventure, art, unusual ideas,
possess curiosity and imagination, and like variety. They perform well in settings involving
training, and usually are capable of blooming in situations that require acquiring new skills
and flexibility. Their personality trait gets them quickly adjusted to a new job setting.
Conscientiousness: This personality trait refers to how much organized, achievement-driven,
dependable, punctual, and systematic a person is. It is this trait of an individual that sets
him/her apart and gives out the prediction about his /her level of performance in a wide
assortment of occupation that he or she gets involved into.

Extraversion: This refers to a person’s outgoing, sociable and talkative nature, and ability to
build up quick and strong interactions. They are found to be successful at jobs involving
sales, as well as jobs involving managerial responsibilities. They display inspirational
behaviors in leadership roles. They usually are happy in work environment as they enjoy the
relationships that they build up there.

Agreeableness: This refers to the personality traits of compassion, cooperation in a person on

one hand while suspicion and antagonism on the other. They are friendly, helpful, optimistic,
and possess the willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of others. People with a high degree of
agreeableness, are liked by others and create a strong bonding with others. They do not
retaliate much when treated unfairly by others, and have the potential of being an effective
leader as well as a valuable asset for a team as they are able to create a fair environment in a
team.

Neuroticism or Emotional Stability: This personality trait refers to a person’s emotionality,

temperaments, irritability, anxiousness, moodiness. It points towards the individual’s ability
to remain calm and stable, and ability to handle stress. They generally get angry quickly, and
succumb to anxiety and depression, resulting in their inability to think clearly and handle a
complicated situation. People that are high on Neuroticism are usually low in achievements
as this trait acts negatively against a successful career. They repeatedly get unsatisfied with
their job and depict intentions of leaving, though they actually do not leave. (Webbooks/e-
library)

My Personal Profile
1. Openness to experience: Imaginative, innovative, curious, practical, have wide interest,
low focus.

2. Conscientiousness: Planful, organized, achievement oriented, reliable, stronger work ethic,

efficient, orderly, practical, careful, prudent

3. Extraversion: Sociable, active, energetic, more assertive, verbally dominant, energized by

people, more accessible, reserved rather than unfriendly after a difficult phase
4. Agreeableness: Warm, affiliation seeking, kind, likeable, more sympathetic, tolerant, co-
operative, consensual, trusting, collaborative, direct, tough minded, objective.

5. Emotional Stability: Calm, more secure, cool, less emotional, but sometimes become
vulnerable to stress

My conscientiousness level is high, and so is the level of openness, which often crosses each
others path. Using my openness to experience while being achievement oriented, a little more
focus, practical sense and careful prudence is necessary, as it is not possible to achieve a set
target without that. To be successful, high extraversion is necessary, as the high end facets
point towards the effective leadership qualities in me, but add a lot of stress as well by
creating lot of expectations. Hence a little management of agreeableness in terms of seeking
affiliation and warmth and a little on tolerance would be good, to enhance my emotional
stability in terms of vulnerability to stress.

To be achievement oriented, I need to be more assertive, as without assertion of one’s

objective, it is not possible to drive a team’s focus towards a goal. As a team leader I have
responsibilities towards my team as well as towards the organization. Hence I need to be very
specific and target oriented regarding alignment of individual goals of my team members as
well as of the organization. Assertiveness as a successful personality trait has helped me
successfully retain a direct communication between my operational team and the client’s of
the organization to run the business successfully. This trait has effectively retained the
client’s trust and faith in the organization’s capacity to perform even in difficult situations,
and helped retain the team’s confidence in me. An organization benefits in innumerable ways
from the commitment of an employee towards an organization. Employees having a high
degree of organizational commitment identify themselves closely with the goals and values of
the organization, are proud to work for the organization and work for the benefit of the
organization. Organizational reform frequently destroys that commitment of the employee to
the organization. Therefore, it is very important that proper action plans during such a reform
is made so as to retain and enhance that existing level of organizational commitment as it is
invaluable for that organization (Shu-Jen Lin, J. She-Cheng Lin and Ben-Yuan Lin, 2010)

Action Plan for Changing Behaviors

Hackman and Oldham, (1975) opinionate that based on the work characteristics model,
change in work characteristics involves five core dimensions related to work, including skill
diversity, task integrity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. Changes in work
characteristics effectively raise the internal quality of the content of employee jobs and, as a
result, improves employee work attitude. (Shu-Jen Lin,J. She-Cheng Lin and Ben-Yuan
Lin,2010:3682)

The following action plan is prepared with the aim of changing behaviors within the
organization with that personality trait that is my strength.

Theme: Changing behaviors within Organization

Positive /Strong Personality Trait
Present Team Attitude
Desirable Changes
Actions to be Performed
Assertiveness

Achievement Drive

High on extraversion, poor performance due to high sociability amongst members, lack of
team accountability and supportive attitude towards the other members

Developing team accountability, developing performance and achievement drive, building an

interactive and supportive organizational environment

Organizing a brain storming session on performance and achievement on a preset

organizational goal aiming to arrive at the necessary actions to be taken. Through this session
itself team accountability and supportive environment can be developed by setting up
objectives to be achieved on a timeline.

Conclusion: For running organizational management effectively, it is very important for team
leaders to have a very clear understanding of the personality traits that essentially comprise
the overall employee psychology of an organization, as well as specific teams dealing with
specific job responsibilities. Every organization does not require every kind of individual
personality in its organizational climate, as it often adversely affects the organizational
behavior and performance. Hence, it is important for team leaders as well as the HR
department of an organization to understand the job design of the organization, and the
requisite employee personality type that would best fit into it. A precise knowledge of the
personality and individual differences would also enhance effective management of the
organization, particularly during a reform.