Miss

Personality

2006：What is individual personality and how can information about an individual’s personality trait profile be used in work organisations? What would be an inappropriate use of personality information?

2008：Compare and contrast the practical usefulness of what we can predict about a person’s work behaviour from profiles of his or her personality traits and personal values.

2009： Critically evaluate the extent to which an understanding of individual differences can help managers to predict employee behaviour.

2011： What does research evidence tell us about the relationship between a) personality and behaviour at work; b) cognitive ability and job performance?

1. What is personality?
2. Relationship between personality and behavior at work; cognitive ability and job performance
3. The potential impact of personal value on work attitudes and behavior
4. What would be an inappropriate use of personality information?

[Introduction & definition]
Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual. According to Landy and Conte (2010), “personality can be defined in simplest terms as the typical way an individual has of responding.” This essay will discuss the factors of………..

[Approaches]
There are a number of different theories about how personality develops. Different schools of thought in psychology influence many of these theories. Some of these major perspectives on personality include: behavioral theory, psychodynamic theory, humanistic theory and Trait theory. Trait theory viewed personality as the result of internal characteristics that are genetically based, and it perhaps come closest to describing the structure of personality in a way that matches our everyday use of the term personality. Trait theories use words such as shy, outgoing, tense and extraverted to describe the basic factors of human personality. Unlike many other theories of personality, such as psychoanalytic or humanistic theories, the trait approach is focused on differences between individuals. The combination and interaction of various traits forms a personality that is unique to each individual. Trait theory is focused on identifying and measuring these individual personality characteristics.

[Theories related to personality]
There are quite a few theories and concepts related to personality. Five-Factor Model or FFM is also called the big five traits (Costa&McCrae, 1987), is one of the most well-known teory of personality. Agreement has arisen by investigators that the “Big Five” can be used to characterise the most outstanding parts of personality over the last two decades (Heller, et al 2002). Contemporary, according to the results of large appraisal, which has been tested by Eysenck and Cattell, consensus that most of what can be said about personality is supplied by FFM (Wiggins, 1996). FFM of personality are five expansive fields or aspects of personality scientifically ascertain to delimit human personality. These five categories are usually described as follows: OCEAN

In the openness category of the Big Five Model, curiosity, creativity, and imagination are sometimes determined. This trait is also called intellect, and measures a person's willingness to try new things and experiment. Often, those with high scores in this area are quite imaginative and interested in novel ideas. They may be artistic and able to envision new ways to accomplish a routine task.

Consciousness tests a person's organizational skills and self-discipline. People with these traits are usually able to set goals and follow a task to its completion. They normally take responsibility seriously and are often good leaders

Extraversion refers to how a person deals with others. Sometimes called a "people person," someone who ranks high in this trait may be energetic, talkative, and fun loving. He or she may also be assertive in social situations. Low scorers commonly are quiet, and might shun social events in favor of solitary time.

Another category tested in the Big Five Model is agreeableness. It measures how trusting and forgiving a person might be. People labeled as agreeable commonly are kind, cooperative, and helpful. They may be described as "warm," and usually are quick to lend a hand where it is needed.

Those who rank high in emotional stability, or neuroticism, commonly deal well with stress and remain calm in a crisis. They may feel secure about their life and deal well with change. People who score low in this trait are often high strung, nervous, or moody. They may be judgmental of others and critical.

【Application of Personality and Big five】

Employee performance sets goals for the employees and encourages involvement with the company, which would lead to higher motivation and increased job performance (Walden University, 2010). Many studies have been carried out to find the relationship between personality and employee performance. These studies show that there is a correlation between these two factors. Recently there has been an increase in the use of personality assessments in order to manipulate and increase employee performance.

Barrick, Mount and Tett et al (1991) gave evidence that the Big Five can be a useful tool for the selection of employees and were the main personality framework. Out of the Big Five, conscientiousness is seen as the most valid predictor for assessing performance for most jobs as all the factors included in conscientiousness lead to good job performance and are needed by the company. The Big Five has a large impact on contextual and task performance (Hurtz, Donovan, (2000). pp. 869). Neuroticism relates negatively to job performance as employees are prone to negativity which leads to low job performance and satisfaction. Extraversion links positively to job performance as employees are positive and mingle around with people quickly which leads to high task performance and job satisfaction. Agreeableness also proved to be a valid predictor for training (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, Barrick, (1999). and will lead to high performance as employees with these traits get along with people quickly. The openness and the agreeableness traits also have some drawbacks such as open people may skip jobs often and good natured people might give up their success in pleasing other people.

There are three motivational variables that affect the Big Five which in turn affects job performance. They are striving for communion (getting along with people in the company), accomplishment (being task oriented) and status (being ahead of people in the company). Although, research shows that status striving is strongly linked to performance. These three variables motivate an employee to work harder which increases employee performance (Barrick, Stewart, (2002). pp. 2-3).

[Criticism]

1. There are other techniques as well which are used to predict employee performance such as personality assessments, such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) based on Jung’s theory. Due to this test the company is given a hint of the individual’s personality through their story. But personality assessments are not good predictors of employee performance as the candidate can provide false answers to get the job (Buchanan, Huczynski, (2010). pp. 173-189). Personality assessments should be used along with other reliable assessments and only helps to an extent in selecting employees for the job. General mental ability test is an additional way of predicting performance and is the most positive predictor but there is not much evidence that these two factors link (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, Barrick, (1999). pp. 628-629).

2. Personality and job performance do relate, but this depends on the person’s cognitive ability to some extent. If the person has high need for achievement and high cognitive ability, then he/she will perform better in their job (Lowery, Beadles, Krilowicz, Thomas, (2004). pp.1-3). Personality does predict employee performance but only to a certain extent and is not a very good tool for predicting performance. Research shows that these methods have drawbacks as well and there are many other suitable ways of predicting employee performance. The benefits a company can gain by using personality to predict employee performance is that it helps to choose the right candidate for the job which will result in profits for the company and the employee will be motivated to work hard and enjoy their job as it will match their personality; resulting in positive behaviour which is beneficial to the company (Buchanan, Huczynski, (2010). Pp. 189).

[Conclusion]

1. To conclude, personality does predict employee performance but only to a certain extent – other valid assessments should be used when selecting employees for a job. These assessments can be helpful both for the employee and the organisation to understand what kind of a personality one has and how it can aid in their careers， which can lead to high job satisfaction and performance and success of the organisation.

2. Personality traits are stable predispositions to behave in certain ways; traits are hierarchically structured with the Big 5 at the broadest level of description
3. Personality traits are practically significant predictors of work performance and behaviour, but the nature of the relationship is different to that for cognitive ability, it can be bi-directional and it depends on the trait and the outcome in question
4. The complexity of personality-behaviour links and the limitations of personality traits as predictors means that the measurement and interpretation of individual’s personality in the workplace must be undertaken with great care

[范本]In summary, although there was still have controversy between researchers about the dimensions of Big Five Factor and whether it can predict the job performance , the present meta-analytic studies of Five-Factor Model provide a validity predictor to job performance in accordance with these studies, particularly, the dimension of conscientiousness was found to be consistently as a predictor for worker occupations and criterion types. Similarly, other dimensions have an extent influence on certain occupations and criteria. Consequently, I concluded that personality traits are more important for certain occupations and criteria than Conscientiousness, in spit of they are less generalizable. Personality traits are extremely significant in personnel selection and employee management for organizations. What kind of candidates employers selected should be in line with the organization strategy, at the same time, personality measure should be considered as a useful technique to assess employees.