Organization behaviour is a scientific approach compound of various theories related to the interaction of people, teams and groups (Youssef and Luthans, 2007). These theories are applied to human resource so that to raise the final output and productivity. In this assignment, I have chosen the topic – “Personality and individual differences” and integrate with the various theories of the organization behaviour so as to gain various insights. In the completion of this assignment, I also research through various academics journals and other secondary resources relevant to the topic. In a multi-cultural environment of an organization, the management recognizes various types of behaviour having different personality and approach in the achievement of objectives and goals (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008). For managing these individuals, this approach will help the organization to achieve their vision in an effective way and work towards the future growth of the business enterprise.
Organization behaviour states the interaction of human behaviour with the organization itself. It is also a study of the individuals employed there for a particular job role. For a management, it is first important to learn about the various aspects and functions of the organization than before focusing on the individual. Contemporary organization behaviour also includes various fundamental characteristics that accept a set of concepts to explore the domain (Collings and Mellahi, 2009).
Human behaviour is different and every person has different characteristics from one another. Due to this, the organization and management also face challenges in making the managers, task and subordinate equivalent. In addition, the personality traits of individuals also relate to the job satisfaction of the employee. For example, introvert kind of people can easily fit with any job in any circumstances where as the extrovert people may raise their hand as if they did not like the nature of the work or task.
Laland, Kendal and Brown (2007) also argued that organization performance and personality theory belong to a broad domain. Each of the aspects has their own scientific research and models. The interaction of the personality and organization also differs as per the attrition cycle. If the organization hierarchy is unstructured, every individual personality will be less dominant as per their position. However, if it structured, even on the weak position individual will have more dominancy. The social and genetic aspects of an individual possess an important component of the character.
The capability of an individual personality also influences the effective organization behaviour. It is defined as the full-composed efforts and behaviour of an individual towards the achievement of any specific goal or objectives. The manger of an organization needs to acquire various branch of knowledge related to the psychological, emotional and cognitive aspects so as to understand the organization behaviour widely (Luhr, West and Venkatesh, 2007). One of the significant responsibility of manager is to employ structured behaviour and culture in an organization by exploring the individuals’ personality differences.
There are various theories in respect to personality and individual difference. These theories place a significant role in judging the individual differences and character of an individual. This all comes under the branch of psychology which aims to define that how people are individually different due to the psychological forces and personality traits. In a business enterprise, Personality can also be defined as the pattern of behaviour; thoughts and attitudes exhibited over time and have a significance influence over human nature and perceptions (Zhao, Seibert and Lumpkin, 2010).
One can distinguish personality type of an individual with the help of various traits of their character. In respect with this, psychological theory also contributes to classifying different kinds of individuals based on psychological aspects. This theory states that there are two types of people in society, which possess different types of traits. These two types of psychological characteristics are extraversion and introversion. Those individuals who are extroverts like to meet new people and want to be more social with others. On the other hand, introvert people do their task alone and did not like much interaction. Type A and Type B personality theory were also introduced by Meyer Friedman which contrasts on two personality types of an individual (Matzler et al, 2008).
These two aspects of personality theory are also called the two patterns of the individual difference and personality. The individuals who belong to Type A personality are always confidence towards their goals and thus do work with full potential. They are also high-risk takers. Type B personality categorised the individuals on the basis of different trait. The people belong to Type B personality are more relaxed, low-risk taker and also less competitive. According to this theory, some of the individuals also categorised in both personality types, as they possess the traits of both aspects.
In addition, one of the significant theory i.e. Myers-Briggs can also help in ascertaining the different character of the person. With help of this model, the manager can use the different factors of the models to enlighten several types of character of a person. They can also test the type of personality with the help of this model.
One of the psychological and significant models of personality i.e. Five Factor model is also important in perspective of an individual behaviour. With the help of this model, the management can understand the five unique factors of the personality, which is different in every individual. These factors can also help in exploring the future leaders of an organization by analysing various compelling elements. Five-factor model was formed based on a hypothesis that fundamental traits of human personality have become encoded in language overtime (Kendler and Myers, 2010). A group of personality psychologists argued that five-factor model represented the most successful outcome of these efforts.
Every business enterprise needs to consider these five elements while creating environment and culture for the organization. The management with the help of this model can foresee the future in respective with the popular trait model of human personality. This model also plays a significant role in revitalizing the discipline of personality psychology. The five aspects of this model are – Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness, Extraversion and Conscientiousness.
Therefore, it is ascertained that the leader needs to be of extrovert personality so as to guide their subordinates and employees effectively. It can also be said that a leader must have the extraversion and conscientiousness traits to mould the behaviour of the employees in the right direction.
De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) also stated that there is an integrated relation between organization behaviour and human behaviour. For gaining knowledge about the various aspects of organization behaviour, it is important to first analyse human behaviour, which is also a complex phenomenon. This creates a challenge for the organization to align employees and tasks in an economic manner so as to achieve the strategic goals. It is also important for the manager to give due important to the internal and external stimulus in relation to the unconscious mind of the human being.
There are various theories relating to the managing of groups in respect to the organization behaviour. They are also relevant in the decision making of the employees. For example, to increase the productivity with the output, Taylor has proposed the theory of scientific management. Moreover, Henry Fayol, who developed various general theories of business administration also proposed certain principles of management required to use by the managers to make the operation accomplish effectively (Rahman, 2012).
In addition, some modern theories of behaviour are also stated by the McGregor in respect to assumptions like – Theory X and Theory Y.
Employee motivation refers to factors or groups of factors that direct employee behaviour towards the accomplishment of work, tasks and goals. The major two factors are extrinsic factors and intrinsic factors. In any organization, Managing of employee motivation always creates a challenge for the manager. Their changing needs and requirements require managers to change various policies and rules in respect to individual behaviour.
In the present scenario, there are several different methods of motivation of employees strive on the encouragement as almost all companies work in the global business environment (Dewett, 2007). For increasing the longevity of employees with the company, many businesses are exploring to flexibility in the job designing and the respective reward systems.
In the motivation aspect of any business, Dysvik and Kuvaas, (2010), state various factors and these can help the organization in improving their overall productivity. These factors are mention below –
Many researchers agree on the existence of individual differences in motivational preference or traits. Moreover, different types of personality also define the level of personality. The performance and competence of the employees also create a vital role in perspectives of motivation. In addition, the managers need to mould the employee behaviour by motivation him in the direction of vision of the firm. Some of the barriers also come during the motivation course of an employee such as situations constraint, personality differences, etc. To achieve extraordinary level of motivation, one needs to involve with the intensity, direction and duration of the behaviour. Gong, Law, Chang and Xin (2009) also states that some of the managers treat their employees as the most valuable resources of the firm but some of them just use them for the objective of profit maximisation.
Personal behaviour and individual differences play an important role in motivating the employees of the business enterprise. The effectiveness of the manager can be evaluated on their roles and functions i.e. attainment of objectives, integrations, decision-making and group maintenance. Every individual has different self-concept, which is due to the individual differences. It is the responsibility of leader to integrate all aspects towards moulding the behaviour of employees and motive them to achieve the business objectives.
Various theories explain the aspects of motivation and human behaviour in an organization. This gives the employees a glimpse about the personality and individual differences. Some of the theories are – Vroom Expectancy theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Hertzberg theory.
This theory suggests two aspects of human behaviour and motivation at work or it can also be said that organization gets two different views of individuals – one positive (theory Y) and one negative (theory X). This also forms various assumptions according to the nature of the individuals. As per the theory X assumptions, an average employee of individual is not interested in work and always tries to escape whenever possible. On the other hand, theory Y assumption states that employees do their job in a natural and relax manner (Wong, Gardiner, Lang and Coulon, 2008).
Managers play an important role in guiding individuals, as they need proper security and constant communication. As per theory X, the average number of people dislikes the work or sometimes they do the work unwillingly as due to the threat of the punishment in the organization. On the other hand, all those individuals who belong to theory Y category are active towards any task. They also put reasonable and active query towards the management and thus get many rewards from the management of the organization.
This theory is also related to the psychological factor of doing job and gives various assumptions related to any psychological factor of doing job. With the help of this theory, the organization can also give respective recognition to the individual.
This theory is developed by Frederick Herzberg in 1959. It is also called as a motivator-hygiene theory. This theory states that there are two aspects, which is certainly divided among job factors. One is “Satisfaction” and the other is “Dissatisfaction”.
Same as the McGregor theory, both the aspects of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are different on different individuals and personality. Due to this, the individual traits of an employee can also be determined. For an individual behaviour, there can be any factors of the job dissatisfaction such as peers relation, wages and salary, employer behaviour, organization structure (rule and policies such as centralization), etc. In addition, there can be positive factor too such as rewards and recognition, growth, increment in salary and so on (Park and Ryoo, 2013). The employees can be highly motivated in the course of high hygiene factors whereas they can be demotivated in the combination of low hygiene and low motivation and this is also called as worst situation of the management as the total productivity goes down. However, in the course of low hygiene and high motivation phase, the employees can be motivated with the help of management.
However, personality and individual differences matter for the overall management approach of a business enterprise.
Enduring motivation in employees is very important for the organization to raise productivity and influence the behaviour of the individual. However, the level of motivation can differ according individual to individual. This is why a skilled manager is required in the organization to decrease the individual differences and guide individual behaviour in the direction of organizational vision and mission. They need to value the most important resource i.e. employees to take down the respective work.
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