Personality, Learning, Motivation and Communication - Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

1. What is personality? And what relevance has this concept to understanding behavior at workplace?

1.1 PERSONALITY DEFINED

Personality can be defined as "unique set of traits and characteristic, which are relative stable over time" (MCC, 2012). Clearly, personality is unique because we all have different personalities in comparison with other people. It is also suggested from the definition that personality is not a dynamic trait, but remains unchanged from day to day. While our personality remains the same over a period of short time, the definition doesn't suggest that personality is rigid, rather it agrees to the fact that personality can be changed in a long term frame.

Over the years, researchers have identified five factors of personality normally referred to as the big five. These factors are:

1.1.1 Extraversion – it elaborates one's comfort level with relationships (MCC, 2012). Extraverts are normally gregarious, assertive, and sociable while Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.

1.1.2 Agreeableness – this illustrated the tendency of people to differ from others (MCC, 2012). Highly agreeable people are cooperative, affectionate, and trusting, while agreeable people tend to be cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

1.1.3 Conscientiousness – this areas measure our level of reliability (MCC, 2012). Highly conscientious people are responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent, while those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

1.1.4 Emotional stability – it measures our ability to tackle stress (MCC, 2012). People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure, while those with highly negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, Depressed, and insecure.

1.1.5 Openness to experience – this dimension discusses people's range of interest with novelty (MCC, 2012). Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive, while people who are not so open tend to be conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

Basically, they are four types of personalities that exits within the workplace and these personalities are as described below

Figure (1): 4 type of personalities within a workforce

Source as adapted from: Robert (2010)

The Dominant "D" type – they are outgoing, task-oriented individuals and focused on getting things done, accomplishing tasks, getting to the bottom line as quickly as possible and making it happen. The key insight in developing a relationship with this type person is RESPECT and RESULTS (Robert, 2010).

The Inspiring "I" type - An outgoing, people-oriented individual that loves to interact, socialize and have fun. This person is focused on what others may think of him or her. The key insight in developing a relationship with this type person is ADMIRATION and RECOGNITION (Robert, 2010).

The Supportive "S" type - A reserved, people-oriented individual who enjoy relationships,

helping or supporting other people and working together as a team. The key insight in developing a relationship with this person is FRIENDLINESS and SINCERE APPRECIATION (Robert, 2010).

The Cautious "C" type - A reserved, task-oriented individual will seek value, consistency and quality information. This person focuses on being correct and accurate. The key insight in developing a relationship with this individual is TRUST and INTEGRITY (Robert, 2010).

1.2 REASONS WHY PERSONALITY CONCEPT IS IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

As discussed earlier, the personality concept entails understanding the fact that people are different in their behavioral patterns and these behavioral patterns are built into these people. Therefore, the concept is important in understanding organizational behavior because:

1.2.1 It explains why people act the way they do – since different people have different personalities, it is not surprising to know that their behaviors will be different as well. Therefore, understanding personalities is important because it elaborates on why people behave the way they do in an organization. For instance, an extravert is likely to utilize his working time in socializing within the organization, asking so much questions and interrupting productivity by disturbing his or her colleagues. Therefore, understanding his or her personality will be essential in designing a program to change his workplace behavior.

1.2.2 It helps in conflict resolution - conflict in the workplace is common, and the most challenging aspect is that employees don't usually report conflicts with fellow employees to the management. However, whenever a conflict is identified within the organization, understanding the people's personalities will help in determining their behavioral pattern and thus find the best way to resolve conflict within the organization. For instance, people who are highly emotionally stable are more likely to forgive shortcomings of their fellow colleague and move back to work.

1.2.3 It helps to determine the productivity of employees – while some people are highly committed to the organization they work for, other people tend to be more of self-insight. Therefore, the personality concept helps to understand why people are more productive than the others. For instance, highly conscientious people will be more productive because they are responsible, reliable, persistent and committed to their works than lowly conscientious people.

2.0 "Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge through experience which leads to an enduring change in behavior" (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2010, p. 732). Explain this statement, showing how it related to a learning theory that you have studied on this module and to your own approach to learning.

Just like Carl Gustav Jung (1971) stated, the concept of individuation is an inherent aspect of our life that is not acquired, rather developed from time to time with each single experience we go through. In that case, above definition can be explained to mean that the process of learning is based on acquiring knowledge from our personal experience and this acquired knowledge gives us the edge to ensure changes in our life. This implies that, learning is not automated, but a procedural acquisition of new things when we experience situations we have never experience before. For instance, if we have never been to a golf course before, we will tend to learn terms such as golf ball, cradle boy, golf swing etc. on the first day we experience a golf course.

2.1 THEORETICAL APPLICATION – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY

The classical conditioning theory which was discovered by Pavlov (1927) illustrates how an already acquired behavior can influence our reaction to a new stimulus.  It is based on the ideology that a physical event teemed a stimulus that doesn't initially exhibit particular response, but gradually acquires the capacity to exhibit that response as a result of repeated paring within the stimulus that exhibits the reaction. However, many theorists agree that notwithstanding the theoretical possibility of the famous applicability of classical conditioning, the theory represents only a very small amount of human learning. Skinner (1953), argued that classical conditioning explains only reflexive behaviors. But, the theory can still be linked to the above definition in the sense that it entails acquired knowledge through experience, which then results to a change in our behavior.

Continuing from the golf course experience, if we were allowed the opportunity to take a free golf course, then we will learn that the golf swing is used to shot the golf ball to the hole in order to score. In that case, if we ever go to a golf course again (even if it was not the same place we attended the first course), we are likely to use our swing to shot the golf ball in order to score as we already know that the whole process of playing the golf revolves around swing the golf ball into the hole to make a score.  The cognitive aspects involves understanding what is being done and memorizing it, while the conditioning aspect involves doing it at a repetitive approach when the scenario of the past is recalled into the present.

2.2 PERSONAL APPLICATION – MY OWN APPROACH OF LEARNING

The definition is also applicable to me, in the sense that my learning approach also involves experience acquired from the past which are utilize to gain edge and adjust to changes in the present. I go to class everyday with the main objective of learning new things, and my lecturers present me with new things such as how to deal with failure in life. Taking the case of failure in life, I will get advices such as "never give up" and "keep believing in what you know" from the lecturer. Therefore, once this knowledge has been acquired through the experience of going to classes, I will utilize them in the future when I am face with difficulties by not giving up in my undertaking and being persistent with things solutions that have worked for me or people I know in the past.

Thus, it can be seen that both personally and theoretically, learning process is forged by experiencing new things and applying these experience into our daily undertakings. This is because when we experience new things, we tend to compare it with what we already know, and if it is deemed more important and reliable than what we already know, then we are likely to stores this experience into our stimulus and use it to react to changes in our life and environment.

Relating it to my future organizational roles, it can be stated that if I am undertaking the same task for a long period of time, this task will be internationalized into my system and it will eventually become an automated process instead of task resulting approach. This implies that, it will become a part of me and I will be doing it without much directions or guidelines as compared to the initial stage when I first started to undertake such tasks.

3.0 One way to understand different motivation theories is to interview your peers on what is important to them when choosing a job. Form a diverse study group, and discuss the following     How important is pay in choosing a job when you graduate

Is personal autonomy important in your work motivation

Explain your findings and discuss them in relation to appropriate motivation theory.  

3.1 MY FINDINGS:

1. Most of the people interview stressed that pay is very important for them to choose a job after graduation – this is because they are of the view that it is necessary to be paid a value that reflects an employee's academic qualification and experience.
2. Personal autonomy is also very important as most of the people interview prefer working with little supervision – the main reason behind this believe is that they would prefer to take blames only for failure in decisions they made, and in so doing, autonomous power will ensure that the employee is motivated enough to avoid any shortcoming.

3.2 MY FINDINGS IN RELATION TO MOTIVATION THEORY – EXPECTANCY THEORY

Motivation can be defined as the process determined thee extent at which someone is commitment towards undertaking a particular task (Pritchard and Payne 2003). It includes direction, intensity, and persistence as a means of allocating resource and energy to undertake an array of tasks. After his review of the available literature Ambrose & Kulik (1999) concluded that there are little or no literatures on the expectancy theory within the past decades. However, set goals have been illustrated to mediate the result of expectancy theory elements on performance (Klein 1991). Expectancy theory is of the notion that individuals have different set goals and can be motivated if they have certain expectation by achieving their set goals.

The theory is all about choice; it elaborates the process an individual undergoes before finalizing his choice of action. In organizational behavior, what people expect to the outcomes of a task can greatly influence the way they perform these task. This implies that, the great the outcome is positive and favorable, the more the individual will be motivated towards achieving set goals. For instance, an employee will be more motivated when they are offered commissions and bonuses on products sold than when they are offered nothing.

Relating this to the finding, it is not surprising to see that most of the people said that pay is important in choosing a job after graduation. This is because, they expect that with a university degree, they should earn more than people with lower qualifications and they should also be paid values that reflect their qualifications (Nelson, 1999). Recurring one of the interviews, Ms. Brenda my peer said that although she is a business administration student, she will be willing to take up other difficult positions such as accounting if the pay is higher than that of business administration positions.

On the other hand, the people interviewed also revealed that autonomy is important to keep them motivated. The main reason behind this concept is that they believe that it would be fair to bear the risk associated with a decision if only they made the decision at the first places, and in order to be motivated, they need an autonomous decision making process as this will allow them to do things the way they know better (Nelson, 1999).

Therefore, it can be seen from the finding in relation to motivation theory that pay package as well as autonomous decision making power is expected to influence the choice of job. This implies that the higher the pay package and autonomy, the higher an employees is willing to take the job position after graduation (Nelson, 1999). In that case, employees will need to understand each employee and their expectations in order to help them develop the perfect motivational framework for its workforce. The ability to do so will ensure increased productivity and the inability will yield negative results in relation to productivity.

4.0 Choice four barriers to communication and suggest, as a manager, how you might overcome such barriers

Numerous researchers have discussed the problems associated with communication barriers in organization (Chang and Fortier 1998; Torres 1998; Woloshin et al. 1995), and all of the researchers are of the notion that understanding the barriers to communication is essential in developing a culture of sharing as means of enhancing organizational workforce. Therefore, some of the barriers to communication highlighted in researchers are as discussed below.

4.1 Language barrier – this is the most common barrier to communication, as the basic aspect of communication involves understanding the language being used. Thus, when an employee is not able to understand the language spoken within the workforce, then the employee will not be able to understand information passed through the workforce or communication with people in the organization.

As a manager, this issue can be resolved through training and development. The employee should be enrolled into a language course and trained on the language being used in the company. Through this means, the employee will lean new vocabularies, gain communication confidence and be able to interact more properly with people in the organization. However, there is no guarantee training will be able to make the person acquitted as languages are difficult to learn and needs time to be fully incorporate into the person.  

4.2 Feeling of personal insecurity - most public corporations are associate with unpredictable political environment were employees can either consciously or unconsciously conspire to backstab their fellow employee. Therefore, this raises the level of insecurity and people starts to deter themselves away from communicating within the organization as they are worried that what they say might be used against them or interpreted in a different way.

As a manager, I will create an organizations culture that is built upon clarification as the base of judgment rather than gut feeling. Through this means, I will investigate all reports against an employee and take serious actions if those reports were only meant to terminate an employee's image. Through this means, the workforce will be motivated to share knowledge within the system as they are aware that the company values their ideas and will not support any threat on them within the workforce. However, since this is based on individual believe and choice, it is very difficult to change and some people might fell more insecure when you try to push them to change their ways of life.

4.3 Conflict of interest – this occurs when two people within an organization has difficulties in finding an agreeable base for communication. This can be a result of one of the people involved seeing himself as superior or not willing to share information that are valued at the same extent to that given unto him. This is a serious issue and barrier to communication because it can lead to division within the organization and eventually decrease productivity in cases were more than two people are involves

As a manger, I will resolve this by developed a common standard for resolving conflicts within the organization, and people who are found to violate this standard will be punishable. Through this means, people won't be able to take advantage of their fellow employee and they will eventually resolve conflicts faster as a result of common acceptable standard. Even when this are resolved by the manager, there is still a possibility of the employees holding grudges against each other, and it makes it difficult to understand whether or not the situation has completely being resolved.

4.4 Emphasis on status – this is also an area that hinders communication within an organization. Emphasis on status relates to the extent at which power is distributed within an organization. If there is a high power difference, employees are unlikely to communicate much with their senior / supervisors and/or manager, while a lower level of power difference will promote an organization culture were communication is seen as a process of delivering a message rather than a way of showcasing status.

The discussion above have already highlighted the best possible solution to this problem and it is, to build a flexible work environment where everybody is considered to be equal and there is no much emphasis of the status of people during communication. Therefore, people can communicate whenever and with whomever they deem necessary. Individuals from different cultures such as the U.S and Japan see status as a sort of personal achievement, and asking them to bring their personality in line with other lower paid and lower positioned executive can also demotivate them as they can view it as being denied of their rights.

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