Personality in the Workplace

The Big Five personality test is currently the most accepted personality model within the scientific community. In the 1950s, it emerged from the work of multiple different researchers who all obtained similar results when studying personality through each of their own methods. My results, which are based on the personality traits highlighted within the Big Five personality test, are as follows: my extroversion results were moderately high. This results suggests that, at times, I tend to be overly talkative, outgoing, sociable. My orderliness results showed to be moderately high as well. This suggests that I tend to be an organized, neat, and structured person throughout my daily life. My emotional stability results were low. This suggests that I tend to worry too often. According to my results, I tend to be overly insecure, emotional and anxious. My accommodation results were moderately low. This suggests that, at times, I can be overly selfish, uncooperative and difficult to work with, especially in groups.

The first section of this paper details the elements that a personality type assessment typically measures. The second section contains discussion on the personality type assessment of the author of this paper. In the third and last section, the author shares how his personal assessment outcomes could affect his work relationships with his colleagues.

The extraversion trait was asked in a lot of these tests and it would seem in each one I got a high score. For example in the NEO test I got a high score on extraversion indicating that I like to be around people and I like to start up conversations. I have never really been afraid to put myself out there and get to know others. If I am not being social it is very much my decision and has nothing to do with me feeling that I cannot be social. Furthermore, on the Anxiousness scale it showed that I did not have a lot of social anxiety which is consistent with the statements mentioned above. If anything when I am not social it means that I am probably just tired and drained of energy. The other test that indicated I was high in extraversion was Eysenck's personality test. In this scale the questions seemed to center around what kind of activities you like to engage in and how assertive you are. In this category I am very into doing active activities and jumping into new things. I always feel a need to be doing something and cannot stay still really. I like to have my day packed with things back to back so I don't really have a lot of down time. Additionally, I have always been assertive and open about my opinion with people. This stems from the family I come from where it is very common to say what is on your mind and to not really filter. Our family would probably be categorized as thick-skinned. Meaning I had to get over any sense of shyness that I felt very quickly. My family jokes were unrelenting and almost conditioned you to be assertive and sharp

I took the big 5 personality test and scored over 50% in 4 traits. The trait that I scored the highest in was conscientiousness. I scored 97% in conscientiousness and can honestly say that I can relate to this trait. When it comes to a project I never give up no matter how difficult it may be. I am also very organized; I always keep my room clean and reorganize my purse daily. Punctuality is also important to me; I have never been late to work throughout my entire life. I usually plan accordingly so I can always make it to my appointments on time. Another trait that I scored high on was agreeableness. I scored 91% on agreeableness. Daily when I’m crossing paths with strangers I usually shoot them a smile and tell them hello. I am also very

Being in the middle section of introversion makes sense for me because I enjoy social interaction for a while but it can become tiring if I try to push myself too far.

A measure is a standard that leaders use as an indicator to test the consistency and stability of a worker under constant and stressful conditions (Eisend & Stokburger-Sauer, 2013). The success of an organization is contingent upon the employees’ performances. In Hassan, Akhtar, and Yilmaz (2016) article on measuring the personality trait of workers, they discovered that employees with the conscientiousness trait outperform their counterparts in overall job performance. Hassan et al. (2016) described conscientiousness as one that is orderly, neat, prompt, meticulous, and organized. Hassan and cohorts noted that workers with conscientiousness are high achievers that excel in academics

Other valuable uses include vetting of new partners, diagnosing sources of conflict, matching personality to particular tasks or initiatives while also taking the guesswork out of the hiring process (Neville, 2013). Current thinking in personality assessments converges on the idea that most personality characteristics reflect the five broad characteristics of the Five Factor Model – extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness (The Science of Personality, 2015). Personality tests are typically less likely to differ in results by gender and race than other tests, can be administered via paper and pencil or computerized methods to large groups easily, cost effectively and do not necessarily require skilled administrators (SIOP). In 2012 thirty-five percent of Human Resources around the world reported that they use “personality inventories” (Gray, 2015).

Some people are, of course, more extraverted than others, and to different degrees. We can understand extraversion as varying in extent on anintroversion-extraversion scale. A person witha lower level of extraversion may be described asanintrovert. Introverts feel more comfortable when socialising in small groups, and with peoplewho they are familiar with. They may find demanding social gatherings to be draining, and be reluctant to draw attention to themselves in

Extraversion is the degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys socializing. Extraverts do well in social situations, and, as a result, they tend to be effective in job interviews. Part of this success comes from preparation, as they are likely to use their social network to prepare for the interview. (Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W,2006). Extraverts have an easier time than introverts do when adjusting to a new job. Moreover, they are not necessarily model employees. For example, they tend to have higher levels of absenteeism at work, potentially because they may miss work to hang out with or attend to the needs of their friends.

Mark Mallinger, Ph.D. and Ileana Rizescu Application: Determine how compatible you are with your primary work group.

Factor I: Extraversion • Extraversion is characterized by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others.

Personality has been inherently defined as possession of a particular set of characteristics possessed by people which influences their behaviour and reactions in different situation along with their motivation level to react to difficulties at the workplace. However, understanding personality traits and their development has been a contentious matter. Nonetheless, various theories have been forwarded to rather contribute to this contentious debate. For example employers set goals and encourage involvement with the company to have a better employee performance, which would result in higher motivation level subsequently leading to increased efficiency. Studies regarding the relationship between personality traits of a particular employee

Many personality psychologists believe that there are five basic dimensions of personality often referred to as the “Big 5” personality. One of the personality traits is agreeableness and is used to describe the degree to which a person is kind, how dependable he/she is and can also describe how cooperative he/she is in certain situations. A person that has high levels of agreeableness has qualities such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection and other prosocial behaviours. The level of agreeableness in an individual can be beneficial to employers because it can be used to predict future behaviour, job performance and interactions with existing employees. The use of personality testing can be used to figure out levels of agreeableness in

Extraversion is our energy and enthusiasm along with our level and ability to socialize, especially with new people and crowds. Those who are extroverted get their energy from their interactions with others. In this category I had a fairly low score of 29 while my brother had his highest score of 44. Before he took the test, I easily could have guessed that this would be the case. While I enjoy being around my close friends and family, I have a difficult time being in large, unfamiliar settings by myself. My brother handles these settings with ease. For him, he hardly feels different around strangers as he does around those he’s known his whole life.

“Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviours and consistent internal states that explain a person’s behavioural tendencies.” (Mcshane, Travaglione, 2005) In the past the use of personality testing to select employees was looked down upon and thought to not be an accurate measure of employee job performance, however with increased confidence in how personality is defined (The Five Factor Model) experts are starting to recognize the usefulness of personality tests in predicting work performance (Hurtz, Donovan, 2000). Agreeableness, which is a part of the Five Factor Model, is an important trait in employees ability to interact with others and as such should be investigated into how much of an effect being agreeable is when working in jobs that have a high amount of interpersonal interactions. Being agreeable is a very important personality trait when it comes to working in jobs where employees have a lot of social interactions, be it with co-workers or customers. Being highly agreeable will lead to a better job performance in interpersonal settings such as a service business or team-orientated work setting however the correlation is more pronounced in the latter. I will be showing this by explaining what Agreeableness is and showing the evidence, which suggests that, this personality trait will lead to higher job performance. The implications on businesses of this will then be explored.