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Big Five Personality Trait relevant to Organization/personality attribute

Psychologists have identified literally thousands of personality traits and dimensions that

differentiate one person from another. But in recent years, researchers have identified five

fundamental personality traits that are especially relevant to organizations. Because these five

traits are so important and because they are currently the subject of so much attention, they

are commonly referred to now as the big five personality traits:

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Negative Emotionality

Extraversion

Openness

Agreeablenessrefers to a persons ability to get along with others. Agreeableness causes some

people to be gentle, cooperative, forgiving, understanding,and good-natured in their dealings

with others. But it results in others being irritable, short-tempered, uncooperative, and

generally antagonistic toward other people. While research has not yet fully investigated the

effects of agreeableness, it would seem likely that highly agreeable people will be better able to

develop good working relationships with coworkers, subordinates, and higher-level managers,

whereas less agreeable people will not have particularly good working relationships. This same

pattern might also extend to relationships with customers, suppliers, and other key

organizational constituents.

Conscientiousness refers to the number of goals on which a person focuses. People who focus

on relatively few goals at one time are likely to be organized, systematic, careful, thorough,

responsible, and self-disciplined as they work to pursue those goals. Others, however, tend to

take on a wider array of goals and, as a result, to be more disorganized, careless, and

irresponsible, as well as less thorough and self-disciplined. Research has found that more

conscientious people tend to be higher performers than less conscientious people across a

variety of different jobs. This pattern seems logical, of course, because more conscientious

people will take their jobs seriously and will approach the performance of their jobs in a highly

responsible fashion.

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The third of the big five personality dimensions is Negative Emotionality. People with less

negative emotionality will be relatively poised, calm, resilient, and secure. But people with

more negative emotionality might be expected to handle job stress, pressure, and tension

better. Their stability might also lead them to be seen as more reliable than their less stable

counterparts.

Extraversionrefers to a persons comfort level with relationships. People who are called

extraverts are sociable, talkative, assertive, and open to establishing new relationships. But

introverts are much less sociable, talkative, and assertive, and not as open to establishing new

relationships. Research suggests that extraverts tend to be higher overall job performers than

introverts, and that they are also more likely to be attracted to jobs based on personal

relationships like sales and making positions.

Finally, Openness refers to a persons rigidity of beliefs and range of interests. People with high

levels of openness are willing to listen to new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs, andattitudes as a result of new information. They also tend to have broad interests and to be

curious, imaginative, and creative. On the other hand, people with low levels of openness tend

to be less receptive to new ideas and less willing to change their minds. They also tend to have

fewer and narrower interests and to be less curious and creative. People with more openness

might be expected to be better performers, owing to their flexibility and the likelihood that

they will be better accepted by others in the organization. Openness may also encompass an

individuals willingness to accept change. For example, people with high levels of openness may

be more receptive to change, whereas people with low levels of openness may be more likely

to resist change

Scope of organizational behavior

Organizational behaviour is an applied behavioral science that is built on contributions from

a number of behavioral disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social psychology,

anthropology and economics.

So now students lets see how these disciplines are related to organisational behaviour,

Psychology. Psychology is the study of human behavior which tries to identify the

characteristics of individuals and provides an understanding why an individual behaves in a

particular way. This thus provides us with useful insight into areas such as human

motivation, perceptual processes or personality characteristics. Sociology. Sociology is the study of social behavior, relationships among social groups and

societies, and the maintenance of social order. The main focus of attention is on the social

system. This helps us to appreciate the functioning of individuals within the organization

which is essentially a socio-technical entity.

Social psychology. Social psychology is the study of human behaviour in the context of

social situations. This essentially addresses the problem of understanding the typical

behavioral patterns to be expected from an individual when he takes part in a group.

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Anthropology. Anthropology is the science of mankind and the study of human behaviour

as a whole. The main focus of attention is on the cultural system, beliefs, customs, ideas

and values within a group or society and the comparison of behaviour among different

cultures. In the context of today's organizational scenario. It is very important to appreciate

the differences that

exist among people coming from different cultural backgrounds as people are often found towork with others from the other side of the globe.

Economics. Any organization to survive and sustain must be aware of the economic

viability of their effort. This applies even to the non-profit and voluntary organizations as

well.

Political Science Although frequently overlooked, the contributions of political scientists are

significant to the understand arrangement in organizations. It studies individuals and groups

within specific conditions concerning the power dynamics. Important topics under here

include structuring Of Conflict, allocation of power and how people manipulate power for

individual self-interest etc.

Importance of ob

. Organisational behaviour provides means to understand and achieve co-operative group

relationships through interaction, rotation of members among groups, avoidance of win-lose

situation and focussing on total group objectives.

Controlling and Directing Behaviour:After understanding the mechanism of humanbehaviour, managers are required to control and direct the behaviour so that it conforms to

the standards required for achieving the organisational objectives. Thus, managers are

required to control and direct the behaviour at all levels of individual interaction. Therefore,

organisational behaviour helps managers in controlling and directing in different areas suchas use of power and sanction, leadership, communication and building organisational climate

favourable for better interaction.

Use of Power and Sanction:The behaviours can be controlled and directed by the use ofpower and sanction, which are formally defined by the organisation. Power is referred to as

the capacity of an individual to take certain action and may be utilised in many ways.

Organisational behaviour explains how various means of power and sanction can ,be utilised

so that both organisational and individual objectives are achieved simultaneously.

Leadership:Organisational behaviour brings new insights and understanding to the practiceand theory of leadership. It identifies various leadership styles available to a manager and

analyses which style is more appropriate in a given situation. Thus, managers can adopt

styles keeping in view the various dimensions of organisations, individuals and situations.

Communication:Communication helps people to come in contact with each other. Toachieve organisational objectives, the communication must be effective. The communication

process and its work in inter-personal dynamics have been evaluated by organisational

behaviour.

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Organisational Climate:Organisational climate refers to the total organisational situationsaffecting human behaviour. Organisational climate takes a system perspective that affect

human behaviour. Besides improving the satisfactory working conditions and adequate

compensation, organisational climate includes creation of an atmosphere of effective

supervision; the opportunity for the realisation of personal goals, congenial relations withothers at the work place and a sense of accomplishment.

Organisational Adaptation:Organisations, as dynamic entities are characterised bypervasive changes. Organisations have to adapt themselves to the environmental changes by

making suitable, internal arrangements such as convincing employees who normally have the

tendency of resisting any changes.