Personality And Job Performance: Relationship, Best Practices And Implications

Discussion

Describe about the Personality and Job Performance for Volatile and Agile Nature.

Human mind has remained one of the most interesting areas of research in behavioral science. It is because of its volatile and agile nature. An individual is influenced by any simple, short-time incident positively or negatively. Our mind is linked with the mood and mood enables logical decision-making process. Such decisions are taken after deep thinking taking long-term impact into account. In other words, mind is the fountain of thoughts. Thoughts influence the actions. The actions define the personality type of an individual. The willingness of an individual affect on the job performance at workplace in terms of comfort, satisfaction, dedication, formation of attitude followed by behaviour. Organization is made of people and run for the people. The collective behavior of various teams reflects in overall picture of an organization by and large. It means the stakeholders are human beings i.e. employees, employers, customers etc. Their perceptions, attitude, approach, thinking pattern, involvement, and level of satisfaction will define the success ratio of business for the organization (Patra, 2013). Therefore, relationship between personality and job performance is always on high priority for the corporate firms and taken care of. Nobody can afford to turn a deaf ear to this concern. 

Personality can be considered as a bucket of various skills, values, habits, beliefs which makes an individual a unique character. Repetitive actions compel the individuals to behave in certain way, style. The repetitive behavior observed, experiences by others are part of the nature of a personality. Nature determined the level of motivation, reinforcement. After all, motivation is the driving factor of job performance. Sometimes, it is internal or external motivation. However, it can establish relationship between personality and performance. There are various best practices followed by the firms. Five-Factor Model i.e. Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism’ EAS (Emotionality, activity, and sociality) Model are some of the notable practices to mention few.

Organizational behavior plays pivotal role in change management. (Example, Merger and Acquisition).  Major changes are expected during the process of merger and acquisition or takeover between two companies or enterprises. The organization goes through critical and complex phase of change management. In such delicate situation, some of the employees are waiting to take undue advantage in terms of spreading rumours like wildfire which may cause huge loss in terms of brand management. The leader has great scope to apply the various models of personality and identify the trouble-makers and control the situation (Schein, 2004). In addition, policy framework and revision, review is possible from a third person point of view. Integrity could prove like a litmus test in this context (Katzenbach, 2014).   

Best Practices for Measuring Personality and Job Performance

The relationship between personality and performance is more visible in dealing with diverse workforce. These days, many firms have extended their geographical boundaries and become multi-national companies (MNCs). They have ready and ambitious to ride on the wave of ‘glocalization’ i.e. being global and maintaining local simultaneously. It makes them unique and they stood away from rest of the world. However, managing multi-national, multi-linguistic, multi-cultural employees and achieving common organizational goals is possible only when communal harmony takes place in the team. Healthy relationship with each other certainly create good rapport and has positive impact on job performance in terms of achieving target and completing assigned tasks effectively with confidence. Organizational behavior empowers to identify the team members based on their personality traits and trigger the behavioral issues, if any. Here, preventive action is recommended than corrective one. 

The various research studies have revealed that ‘self-knowledge’, ‘self-control’ and ‘self-respect’ have contributed a lot while developing work-related attitude which is crucial and highly important for any organization. First of all, self-knowledge indicates willingness to learn new things and keeping updated, up-graded all the time to tackle new challenges. Secondly, ‘self-control’ is to deal with internal and external conflicts. Here, internal conflicts means dilemma (to be or not to be!). It is essential to test our decisions on ‘win-win situation’ side in spite of ‘win-lose’ or ‘lose-lose’ sides. Maturity and independent working with less or no supervision certainly leads to great performance. Naturally, you have inner satisfaction and you can ‘feel’ it rather than ‘think’ it. Self-respect empowers the employees to remove inferiority complex and boost their confidence. It increases the risk appetite. The team would be of ‘fire-fighters!’ It is equally important to ‘give and take respect’ without hurting anybody.

One can find some controversial facts as to ‘measure the job performance’ at workplace. Performance is measured both in subjective and objective manners. It cannot be denied that performance measurement by immediate supervisors is a part of subjective while statistics of sales could be treated as objective measurement of a job performance. Fair and impartial measurement of performance reinforces the employees to contribute more while judging the staff based on prejudice, premature evaluation will prevent them from doing so. Here, standardization or benchmarking is very much essential factor which will ensure transparency in everything we do.

Another important aspect which affects the relationship between personality and performance is ‘self-discipline’. It should be noted that it is not merely discipline. Discipline can be maintained through various rules and regulations. Again, it is an external factor. Hence, it cannot guarantee 100% and effective execution in terms of adherence. Employees fail to comply when it comes to integrity. They think ‘What is in it for me?’ However, self-discipline is opposite to aforementioned. It is voluntary act which is not forced but accepted based on willingness. Hence, there are greater chances of involvement, acceptance. An individual haunted by self-discipline is not bothered about the fruits of his work or contribution. An employee keeps working and also sure that it will pay long-term benefits. It enables to maintain consistency, regularity. The principle of ‘Each one counts’ is religiously followed in this context.  Self-discipline leads to dedication, meeting deadlines and determination to achieve the goals. Hence, it has great value to job performance.

The Role of Organizational Behavior in Managing Behavioral Issues

Many times, behavioral issues, concerns cause damage to the team performance. It becomes complex and critical due to its hidden nature. ‘Cold war’ between two groups of a team will lead nowhere in terms achieving team goals. Both the groups will waste their energy, time to play ‘blame game’ in spite of real contribution. They will not be able to focus on the work. In this situation, a leader should notice the behavioral changes and fix the problem. Otherwise, it would be high time and may be all have to pay the price for the same (Armstrong, 2014).

Flexibility could be another way to bridge the widening gap between personality and performance. It is expected by both the employers and the employees. Sometimes, employers expect it in terms of work rotation, extra-work, dealing with natural or man-made challenges etc. Employees too demand flexibility which consists of working hours, leaves etc. However, it has certain limits. Both of them should understand mutually. Negotiation skills will find out the golden mean to address the issues if any. In addition, trust factor can be developed. In this way, it will strengthen the employee-employer relationship and improve performance on regular basis.

Employee Engagement has great significant contribution when it comes to performance. It is observed that 40-50% members in a team are looking for challenging job roles and responsibilities. Cognitive engagement proves to be a sort of value-addition to the job performance (Ongore, 2013).  Especially, those who have worked for 3 to 5 years and have been doing same tasks find routine work monotonous. They tend to be casual and influence likewise to their colleagues. It is a job of a leader to explore their potential and appeal them to come up with initiative.  It creates a new platform for them to exhibit their talent, skills for the team and company too. It is said that empty mind is devil’s workshop. Hence, to keep the team engaged all the time is essential and gives good results. It prevents blame game, dirty politics at workplace also.

The various traits of personalities determine the scope of innovation and creativity. Every organization is striving for continuous improvement. It could be for various reasons. Some of them could be cost effectiveness, waste management, and quality standards. This can be an internal or within the company whereas increasing marketing strategy, business expansion, competition management, brand management, launching new products / services are considered as external reasons. The company is interested to work on both types of reasons. This is because only sharp minds can generate new ideas and develop third person point of views which is crucially important for the top management. Hence, it is the need of time to foster the culture of creativity and innovation at workplace so that people are actively involved in research and development activities for sustainable business growth.

The Importance of Self-Knowledge, Self-Control, and Self-Respect in Job Performance

You’ll be surprised to notice that human resource department is exclusively working on getting the right talent for right job in timely manner. It is interesting to study their policies of ‘recruitment and selection procedures’. This is observed mainly in multi-national companies. Now-a-days a lot of focus is given on hiring young professionals with 2-3 years relevant working experience. It is because these employees have become familiar with the corporate world but still have fire in the belly to prove and stand away from the crowd. They have developed lateral thinking approach and ready to face the challenges. In addition, they have limited liabilities and family concerns. Hence, they can work concentrate and maintain zeal, enthusiasm for long time. They can go for an extra mile to work extensively without any reason. As a result, the management can see their efforts turning into realities with good churning numbers in terms of targets. Hence, around 10-20% newly settled young horses are a must in a team. Their young proportion will give cutting-edge advantage to your team.

Personality can be associated with the problem-solving skills. Generally, one can observe that people look at problems as dangers. They are bogged down and confused enough. Sometimes, there is a series of problems one after another. Naturally, the team tends to deviate from the organizational goals. Social, extrovert, dynamic, sporty and determined personalities are problem-solvers than problem-creators to the organization. They have great sense of belongingness. They are never afraid to take initiative and don’t wait for somebody to give suggestions, orders or recommendations. In addition, those people who face the problems can give better and practical solutions. It is simply because they have understood the ground realities of the situation. Passion-driven team members enjoy working on problems. Tenacity is in their blood. They can analyse the problems critically, allocate the responsibilities amongst themselves and work in groups. Certainly, winning spirit and persistence is developed which take them to the top level.

Leadership development is the one of the key aspects that could lay the foundation of employee-employer relationship. The search of excellence ends up with an effective and able leadership. Actually, leadership is an action. It generates the series of actions. A leader should be able to read the faces and minds. It empowers the team to act than to keep thinking. It provides mental support. He follows the principle of ‘caring and sharing’. He/she is approachable to all. His role is like a coach or a mentor. Democratic leadership nurtures assertiveness to the optimum level at workplace. People acceptance is possible in this context. In short, a leader can influence the team positively and boost their confidence to create wonders which they don’t perceive probably. Steve jobs could be given as the best example.  

The Significance of Employee Engagement, Flexibility, and Self-Discipline in Driving Job Performance

Rewards & Recognition system plays important role in job performance. Most of the employees are keenly interested for appreciation. It is not always in the form of money. Small changes make a big difference. It is recommended that one should recognize and give certain credit to the concerned employee. It promotes winning spirit and expects repetitive actions on this ground. Others start following him/her. It is treated as best practice. Employees are sure that they will be rewarded and do more for the organization day-by-day. They create such paths which last for long time. It is beyond average performance and has large impact on the company.

Allocation of tasks is sometimes challenging. However, if the tasks are allocated, assigned based on the core interest, skill-sets and potential of the team members, greater response is guaranteed with minimum supervision. It is natural that person can put his mind, heart and soul to complete the task in stipulated time. Here, the team leader has to have regular interactions with the team to know their nature, likes and dislikes, areas of interest etc. It would be easy for allocation.

Conclusion (Recommendations):

The above discussion shows that no business is left uncovered from the challenges, issues or concerns. However, it is possible to overcome them if one could succeed to establish the relationship between personality and performance.  The company can start applying psychometric test during recruitments of new employees. SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis is another practical and working solution during one-to-one interactions on monthly basis. It is essential to set standard benchmarks to measure performances mostly through objective means. Open Door Policy should be adopted at workplace. Employee welfare activities like Family Day / Birthday celebrations, team outings, and get-together motivate them to perform better and increase their level of satisfaction. Synergy is reflected through team-work. Cross-training programs could be another way. In short, personality and performance works hand-in-hand and they are two different sides of the same coin. There exists a strong relationship between the two and balance of them is win-win situation for all.

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