Importance Of Personality And Individual Differences In The Workspace

“Diversity in people, experience and culture aligned to the value system of firm are the quarks of any organization”

As per my experience I am of a view that it is essential for managers to pay attention to personality and individual differences in the workplace. Going below you will find an in-depth relation to the personality and individual behavior and its effect on the workplace.

Introduction

Individuals’ conduct in the work environment is influenced by the quality of the business or organization for which they work. For instance, a freshman will rapidly get familiar with the methods for carrying on that are viewed as typical from their subordinates. Laborers and work bunches additionally react to the messages and prompts they get from their superiors and bosses, however not generally in the way planned. Every one of these things mirror the way of life of the organization.

Perceptual process is of most extreme centrality in understanding individual conduct. It is an exceptional clarification rather than an exact record of the circumstance. A freshman, while seeing the world, sees an image which communicates his own individual perspective on the real world. This image is very exceptional and may to a great extent contrast from the reality. Individuals’ conduct depends on their view of what the reality is, not simply the reality. This may draw a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic which might result in Halo effect. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

Perception of managers towards employees play a vital role in workplace. The study of divergence between the perceptual world and this present reality is of great value for human relations and organizations. As it is often observed, supervisors expect that subordinates are constantly keen for rewards despite the fact that precisely subordinates may truly feel mentally constrained to acknowledge their rewards. The perceptual worlds of the supervisors and of the subordinates may contrast especially from one another just as both may divert considerably from the real world. To get the ideal outcomes from rewards, the organization ought to have the best possible evaluation of the perceptual world of its subordinates.

Individual evaluation is another zone where discrimination is notable. Rewards of an individual’s presentation relies upon the perception of the individual who assesses. While assessment can be objective as in sales job activity where reward is quantifiable. Many professions are assessed in subjective terms. Subjective measures are simpler to execute, they provide supervisors with more discretion and many professions do not promptly loan themselves to objective measures. Subjective measures are critical, to the degree the evaluator relies upon subjective measures for evaluating an individual’s presentation. Presentation of who is a ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’ individual, significantly impacts the review outcome.

There are many ways of interpreting Human dimensions at workplace, but this assignment focuses on two key themes – Personality and Individual differences.

Personality

“Personality encompasses a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts and behavioral patterns”. (Commons, 2012)

People carry various contrasts to work. They have a mixture of characters, qualities and frames of mind. At the point when they join an organization, their steady or transient qualities influence how they act and perform. Also, organizations employ individuals with the desire that they have certain skills, aptitudes, capacities, characters and qualities.

When we recall about the principles of management through the planning-organizing-leading-controlling (P-O-L-C) framework, individuals’ personalities, attitudes and work behaviors affect how managers approach each P-O-L-C dimension. For instance,

• Being truthful and accountable for actions are admirable qualities.

• Flexibility and compatibility can help one get along with others.

• Taking initiative and determination towards assigned task will guide one to pass through hurdles.

Probably the best driver of misconception and struggle between people is personality. One of the key purposes behind this is we frequently link personality for intent. In other words, we tend to accept an individual is deliberately acting unique in relation to us, when in certainty she is really not the same as us. For instance, a few people are progressively outgoing and self-assured though others are increasingly introvert and reserved. In conferences, this can be a test when the outgoing person feels the introvert is not contributing as forcefully as wanted, when in fact, the introvert is simply waiting for the right moment.

Therefore, it is important for managers to understand the individual personalities that matter for employee and manager behaviors.

The way into a fruitful office – one that rouses remarkably collective representatives – lies with how one deals with the individuals (and characters) who work inside it.

Each individual is well, person. Different personalities in the work environment are the greatest test to organization. An individual may respond to specific circumstances, certain activity jobs and even certain others, in totally different ways. (Woodward, 2014)

Personality in the work environment, contingent upon the way one handles them, have the ability to represent the deciding moment a group or even a business.

The Big Five Personality characteristics are a settled model in brain research (Jinks, 2018)

They do not really nail down the kaleidoscope of factors that make up individuals’ personality in the working environment, yet they do give a valuable system for understanding the propensities, qualities and shortcomings of every individual.

By interacting in a group or as well as conversing with them one-on-one about how they see themselves, one can recognize certain attributes and even more effectively sustain a domain where those qualities can flourish.

Openness to experience

Do individuals normally look for assortment in their everyday work? Do they work most adequately when they are in an all the more unbendingly planned daily practice?

Open trait

Just as showing openness to new assignments, individuals with this attribute likewise will in general be more mentally inquisitive and inventively disapproved.

This sounds great, yet there is a drawback. Individuals with high transparency can be less engaged, may think that it’s difficult to take a shot at tedious assignments and may even be too inclined to face unsatisfactory challenges in your business.

Closed trait

Individuals who are too close minded can need innovativeness and can be ineffective when compelled to continue evolving errands.

Individuals with this character characteristic will in general flourish in organized work that requires cautious attention and a rehashed arrangement of complex assignments and are a genuine resource.

Conscientiousness

How organized are individuals at workplace?

Efficient

Individuals with this attribute will in general be all the more dependable restrained, arranging their own work, yet additionally satisfying those plans.

They may recoil from a more free-streaming job and tend towards increasingly difficult conduct. However, with the chance to arrange their work they are probably going to accomplish an elevated level of productivity.

Flexible

Adaptable individuals regularly follow a less inflexibly sorted out structure and thus, chance of getting scattered. This very certainty, be that as it may, implies they are better ready to adapt when their desires for a job do not coordinate the truth, they can adjust rapidly to their evolving every day without stress.

Extraversion

Are individuals talkative and outgoing or more solitary and reserved?

Extroverts

Since individuals with high extraversion tend towards all the more friendly, agreeable exercises. They are very appropriate to group ventures.

These individuals are the ones who will give vitality and drive correspondence during coordinated effort. They can likewise tend towards consideration looking for conduct, which can overpower people around them.

Introverts

On the other hand, progressively contemplative individuals will be considerably more saved, thoroughly considering things inside and less inclined to participate in huge gathering discussions. This enables them to exceed expectations at work which includes working alone without upsetting everyone around them.

Agreeableness

To what extent do individuals work together with other individuals?

Compassionate

These individuals are bound to work agreeably with their individuals, encourage more trust and present a supportive frame of mind.

Taken to an outrageous, in any case, these individuals can turn out to be excessively accommodating to everyone around them. Making an irregularity in the group that managers need to look for.

Analytical

The more analytical individuals in a team will likely tend towards clashes with other team members. Importantly however, they are also more likely to challenge those around them and their competitive nature can drive positive results in their colleagues.

Neuroticism

How emotionally stable do individual’s in a team seem?

Sensitive

Sensitive individuals in general experience the more outrageous ranges of human feeling and are probably going to be progressively responsive and on top of those of a comparable demeanor.

These individuals will likewise show greater energy about undertakings they appreciate, motivating a similar response in other individuals.

Secure

Individuals who display a high level of emotional stability can be a very reassuring presence in workplace, maintaining consistent, predictable reactions.

This can make individuals in team harder to read and can even make them seem uninspired by their role, but it simply means they can keep a level head when faced with something new or unexpected.

To summarise how personality influence workplace and managers, I am of a view that Personality comprises the stable feelings, thoughts and behavioral patterns people have. The Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) are important traits that seem to be stable and can be generalized to other cultures. Other important traits for work behavior also include self-efficacy, self-esteem, social monitoring, proactive personality, positive and negative affectivity and locus of control. It is important to remember that an individual behavior depends on the match between the individual and the situation. While personality is a strong influence on job attitudes, its relation to job performance is weaker. Some companies use personality testing to screen out candidates. This method has certain limitations and companies using personality tests are advised to validate their tests and use them as a supplement to other techniques that have greater validity.

Individualism

In my tenure of working in MNC and in different geographies (United Kingdom & India), I myself have encountered plethora of individuals and their individuality and unique traits. Today after 3 years, if I sit down and connect the dots of my working experience, Individualism is the sole thing that has made all the difference. The traction of growth and development of core fundamentals that I have experienced in my wide span of working was all possible due to numerous individuals that I had met and worked with, each contributing in their own ways to my endeavor.

Independence alludes to the possibility that the rights, convictions and duties of every individual ought to be more conspicuous than the rights, convictions and obligations of a gathering. In organization, this is a basic idea on the grounds that the activity that independence permits makes a reason for industrialist enterprise. The complexity to independence is community, or the idea that relational connections and therefore gatherings are a higher priority than every person.

Individual differences stand for the variation or deviations among individuals regarding a single characteristic or number of characteristics.

It represents those distinctions which in their totality recognize one individual from another. Along these lines, we can say that individual contrasts are the distinctions among people that recognize or separate them from each other and makes one as a solitary one of a kind people.

Organizations comprise of individuals who work together. Contrasts between individuals dependent on personality attributes, might be a motivating force for the advancement of imagination and a source of conflicts and different issues existing in the organizations. Supervisors should be able to quantify personality to make on useful hiring decisions and they can do this by giving personality test and assessing the outcomes.

Studying individual differences is particularly significant skill for managers. It allows them to recognize, relate well to others and to understand themselves. It helps them to promote functions and prosperity among employees.

Going ahead, various types of individual differences below will help us in understanding the varied aspects of the same and how should managers deal with it.

Individual differences can be categorized into 6 types – (StudyLectureNotes, 2020)

1. Differences in Interest: Refers to as a motivating force that drives us to attend to a person, a thing or an activity.
2. Difference in Attitude: Difference in attitude is psyche related to something. Some individuals have positive attitude towards a specific topic, subject and profession than other.
3. Difference in Values: Values are the things that are given importance by an individual. Some individuals value materialist lifestyle other moral or religious lifestyle etc.
4. Difference in Habits: Some individuals are quick leaners and perform assigned tasks individually with limited instructions, but others may not. Some are good at performing tasks in isolation and some in team.
5. Difference in Psychomotor Skills: Psychomotor Skill is related to some skill acquisition. It refers to response to stimuli, which means, individual ability to react to different circumstances
6. Difference in Self Concept: Difference in self-concept is the totality of attitudes, judgment and values of an individual relating to his behavior, abilities and qualities.

Personality and Individual Differences for Managers

Going forward with the context of personality and individual differences for managers, I can reference with the initial days on my career when my way of working and handling situations was totally different with that of my manager. To me it could have been a hard time struggling with finding a common pedestal to go ahead with the work, if my manager would not have paid close attention to my individual being and personality traits. Going through such phases in my career I can really understand the importance of Individualism for managers and in the workplace.

The present workforce is an exercise in careful control. It is imperative to advance differing thinking while additionally adjusting all representatives to the organisation strategic objectives. It is essential to streamline forms inside an organization while additionally permitting space for inventiveness and out-of-the-container thinking. So, in what capacity can an organization effectively balance these desires?

One advantage to advancing independence in the working environment is that representatives have an elevated level of moral duty – that is, individuals cannot freeload on one another, accepting that others will get a move on. Independence additionally makes some level of sound challenge, as every individual can exhibit his very own abilities and aptitudes plainly and, in this manner, ascend in the positions as fitting. As a component of this challenge, individuals may display incredible measures of advancement and imagination as they endeavor to sparkle. Individuals additionally may discover one of a kind answers for clashes that emerge.

In a business that wants to promote individualism, managers allow employees to look after their own work to a high degree. They also give workers freedom to explore new ways of completing basic procedures or projects. Unless a worker presents a threat or otherwise is not performing up to the company’s standards, she enjoys a high privacy level. Everyone gets a chance to voice individual opinions, and management does not necessarily discourage open debate. Management also responds to requests for personal time.

Although individualism can promote innovation, it can hinder cooperation. In the long run, this sometimes means productivity suffers and conflicts increase. Lack of productivity can decrease overall revenue, and conflicts may cost money to resolve. Individualism also can create a tense work environment if people are too rigid in their ideals.

Conclusion

Based on my analysis and research in the above context, I would like to conclude that both Personality and Individual differences should be the focus areas of managers in the workplaces to demonstrate and derive a healthy and flourishing work environment.

Manager paying attention to Personality and Individuality of employees helps them by climbing the stages in Maslow’s Need hierarchy theory which result in greater employee satisfaction and a sense of compassion among the workforce. (Willmott, 2017)

One approach to break down individual practices and use them to illuminate your techniques for overseeing them, is through personality testing.

This strategy, be that as it may, is disputable and one must take the outcomes with a spot of salt. Also, since they give just an unpleasant sketch of an individual at the time (and not their potential for advancement and development) one must never base critical choices about individual’s fates exclusively on such tests.

The best way to realize how an individual is making the most of their job and condition is to inquire. That is the reason, more than any quality in organization, one ought to energize and compensate trustworthiness. Without it, employees or individuals will stay puzzled.

As mentioned earlier, working for 3 years I have encountered various colleagues coming from different regions, background and different level of expertise. The combination of their personalities and individual differences along with the experience that I had gained, play a vital role in overall team performance and achieving planned goals which in turn is desired outcome by managers.

Hence, Managers must strive to know employees at a personal and professional level, allowing them to understand, accept, and manage individual differences. This, then, can pave to way for performance excellence and high employee engagement. Managers not paying attention to personality and individual differences at workplace are not doing any good to the organization well as for employees. As a result of this, it will demotivate, create untrustworthiness and ineffective workforce with long pending incomplete goals.