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Personality As A Determinant Of Innovative Behaviour In The Workplace
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NEUROTICISM
This can
be defined as traits characterized by anxiety, fear, mood-swings, worry,
envy, frustration, jealousy, and loneliness. The score obtained by the
individual on neuroticism subscale of personality, is measured by the
BIG FIVE personality scale.
1.8 LITERATURE REVIEW
The personality
traits that this study sets out to test has been correlated with other
dependent variables in several researches, in a study carried out by
Hlatywayo, Mhlanga &Zingwe (2013), where they investigated if
neuroticism was a determinant of job satisfaction among bank employees.
They used 126 members of staff of a bank comprising of male and female,
permanent and contract staff. Using SAS 9.1, Pearson’s correlation
coefficient, ANOVA and Waller-Duncan K-ratio T test and T test. They
found that employees with low level of neuroticism experience higher
level of job satisfaction. Hlatywayo et al concluded that the banking
environment requires employees with low levels of neuroticism due to the
nature of services they offer. The submission of this study cannot be
generalized, since the study does not consider other traits in the
employees that may be responsible for their satisfaction on the job. For
instance gender and age could be additional variables that make an
individual with low neuroticism to have higher job satisfaction. Because
Hodson (1989) in her analysis of gender difference in the determination
of job satisfaction found that minor difference occur in men and women
job satisfaction especially in a job that is peculiar to a particular
gender. At least some women do not like complex work as men. Women also
express slightly greater job dissatisfaction than men they have children
under six years of age (Hodson 1989).
In the review of research
conducted by Anderson et al. (2004), the main organisational, team, job
and individual level factors, were found to influence employee
innovativeness. These factors play a central role in influencing both
individual innovativeness and that they are borne through interaction
among employees. All these factors need to be considered when
encouraging and supporting innovativeness in contemporary organisations.
It has to be acknowledged that person, job and team-related factors
such as personality characteristics, autonomy, goals and relationships
with colleagues and line managers may play a more direct role in
influencing the initiation phase of the innovation process characterised
by creativity, than organisational level factors such as the structure
or culture of the organisation.
Patterson et al., (2009) argued that
although individuals are the source of innovations, innovations rarely
occur in isolation. In order to innovate, employees often need to relate
and interact with other individuals - inside or outside the
organisation-hence the importance of communication, articulation, and
social networking skills. They further looked at the previous empirical
studies and noted that there are inconsistent results regarding whether
extraversion or intraversion affect innovation. They concluded that
introversion is related to real life artistic endeavour, while
extraversion is good predictor of creativity and innovation (Patterson,
2002).
The intelligence and curiosity are the traits associated with
openness to experience (Bakker et al., 2002). Referring to Watson &
Hubbard (1996), Bakker et al., (2002) noted that people with high on
openness to experience reflect a more flexible, imaginative, and
intellectually curious approach in situations characterized with stress.
Blickle (1996) found that openness to experience is related academic
performance. Based on the previous studies, Patterson et al., (2009)
asserted that openness to experience is the most salient personality
dimension to predict the propensity for innovation (Batey&Furnham,
2006) and noted that there is a great deal of empirical studies with
evidence of positive relationship between openness to experience and
innovation. Patterson et al., (2009) further noted that some studies
reflected that this relationship might be moderated by the contextual
factors (Burke & Witt, 2004).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This dissertation explores Personality traits as a determinant of Innovative behaviour in the workplace. The relationship between Personality traits and Innovative behaviour in the workplace were examined.A convenience sample of 200 participants was drawn for the study. The data was gathered with the aid of a standardized structured questionnaire, comprising of an innovative scale and a big five personality scale.The results were correlated using Pearson product moment correlation. The results g ... Continue reading---
