Personality Impact

Very rarely so we take stock in our own well-being in the workplace and even less time is spent on determining if our personalities fit within the expected model of behavior that is expected at the organization for which we are part of. Occasionally it is good to sit back and look at oneself and determine what your personality traits are and if they coincide with your goals. According to Wan Ismail and Awadh (2011), personality can be a determining factor in one’s job performance. Further research has shown that personality differentiates one person from another (Beer & Brooks, 2011) and that personality traits remain steady and stable through ones work life (Myers, 1998). Being able to understand your own personality traits is important to unlocking your own job satisfaction needs and leadership and management abilities. My Own Findings

There always seems to be some difficulty in taking personality questionnaires. I have taken several in my years. From the Myers-Briggs to simple in-text assessments like the ones we were tasked with in preparation for this summary, I personally have a difficult time feeling as if I am answering the questions honestly. I have also found that my mood and emotions at the time greatly affect my answers. All in all I wasn’t completely surprised by my results in this assessment. This assessment measured extraversion or positive affectivity, neuroticism or negative affectivity, and levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and ones openness to experience. According to the assessment, I scored high in extraversion and low in neuroticism, which is in line with the way I traditionally feel about life and work in general. I am usually of relatively happy demeanor and attitude and attempt to exude that feelings to others in an attempt to bring peace and cooperation into the workplace.

This is not to say that I can’t get frustrated or disappointed with the situation and “lose it” a bit. But that is not my traditional modus operandi. Continuing onto the agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness portion of the assessments, I found that I am considered to be an agreeable person. Which is true. I try very hard to make peace and do what is asked of me. I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a “yes” man or a suck up, but I do attempt to do what is needed or expected with little complaint, in public at least. This assessment did show that I need to work on my conscientiousness and openness, but at 40 years old, I’m not sure that this is something that I am going to be able to dramatically change. Furthermore, I don’t feel as if my lower level of conscientiousness would affect my job performance in a negative way. Being aware of what the assessments stated of my shortcomings is the first step in mitigating these shortcomings. Being able to adjust my attitudes depending on the work situation is something that I have had to do as a member of the military. Most of our missions dictate no room for personalities, for the most part. Not to say that they don’t creep in from time to time. Conclusion

As we continue down the road to learning how personality traits affect our ability to manage personnel, we will also shed light onto what it takes for us as employees to be better and to reach a higher sense of job satisfaction. Many time there are employees that are perceived as difficult or confrontational. This needs not be the case. If we as managers can learn to identify the personality traits in ourselves that makes us valuable employees, we should be able to effectively read the personalities and attitudes of those that we are supervising and exploit those strengths to benefit the company as a whole.

References
Awadh, A.M., & Wan Ismail, W.K. (2011). The impact of personality traits and employee work-related attitudes on employee performance with the moderating effect of organizational culture: The case of Saudi Arabia. Asian Journal of
Business and Management Sciences, 1(10), 108-127. http://www.academia.edu/2390152/The_Impact_of_Personality_Traits_and_Employee_Work-Related_Attitudes_on_Employee_Performance_with_the_Moderating_Effect_of_Organizational_Culture_The_Case_of_Saudi_Arabia Beer, A., & Brooks, C. (2011). Information quality in personality judgment: The value of personal disclosure. Journal of Research in Personality, 45 (2), 175-185. http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/science/article/pii/S0092656611000043 Myers, D.G. (1998). Psychology, 5th Ed. New York: Worth Publishers