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Relationship Between Personality Traits, Work Environment And Interpersonal Relationship At Work
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The Big Five Personality Theory
Srivastava
(2008) had reinstated that the term “Big Five†was coined by Lewis
Goldberg in 1976 and was originally associated with studies of
personality traits used in natural language. While, the term
“Five-Factor Model†has been more commonly associated with studies of
traits using personality questionnaires. The two research traditions
yielded largely consonant models (in fact, this is one of the strengths
of the Big Five/Five-Factor Model as a common taxonomy of personality
traits), and in current practice the terms are often used
interchangeably. Roccas, Sagiv, Schwartz, and Knafo (2002) stated in
their introduction that this five factor personality model is a dominant
approach for representing the human trait structure today. Similarly,
empirical evidences by Digman (1990), Goldberg (1993), Mc Crae and Costa
(1996), and O’Connor (2002) have all supported that the Big Five
Personality Dimensions represents the taxonomy to describe human
personality in a very orderly manner.
The Big Five Personality
Dimensions implies that personality consists of five separate dimensions
that altogether provide a comprehensive taxonomy for the study of human
behavior. According to this emerging consensus, the Big Five
Personality Dimensions consists of extroversion, emotional
stability/neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to
experience (Costa & Mc Crae, 1985; Mount & Barrick, 1995).
According to Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson (2008), each of these
five dimensions are described as follows:
Extroversion:a broad
dimension which encompasses traits such as being active, gregarious,
sociable, assertive, talkative and energetic. People who are high in
extroversion are usually very jovial, vocal and interactive people. They
naturally seem to have a good deal of social interaction. The research
by Judge, Heller and Mount (2002) indicates that individuals who are
extroverted seem to perform well in sale, customer service and
managerial jobs; tend to do better in training programs; and usually
have higher levels of interpersonal relationship.
Neuroticism(sometimes
it’s reversed and known as Emotional Stability) is the tendency to
experience positive emotional states. People who are high in emotional
stability/neuroticism would feel secure, relaxed, calm and confident. In
contrary, people who are low in emotional stability/neuroticism would
feel worried, insecure, depressed, overly anxious and angry. These low
emotional people are more likely to experience stress and emotional
break downs as and when they encounter a new or challenging job.
Agreeablenessrefers
to the characteristics of being courteous, tolerant, forgiving,
soft-hearted and caring. Being high in agreeableness would mean that
they are the kind of people who can get along easily with others on any
occasion. It is a dimension that can help make someone an effective team
player and can pay off in jobs where developing and maintaining good
interpersonal relationships is of utmost importance (Neuman &
Wright, 1999). Here again, it looks like this dimension would be crucial
for jobs related to sales, customer service, teaching, social work and
many others in which a person has to interact with people in general.
Conscientiousnessincludes
the characteristics of being persevering, organized, responsible,
dependable, thorough and industrious. Individuals with this dimension
are naturally hard working, result oriented, and ambitious. No doubt
this dimension is highly valued by all organizations. In contrast to
this dimension, are people who are lazy, inefficient and disorganized in
anything that they do. Judge and Ilies’s (2002) research indicates that
conscientious individuals exhibit a higher level of motivation and job
satisfaction.
Openness to experience (sometimes called Intellect or
Imagination) reflects the extent to which a person has broad interest
and the urge to take risks in dealings. Some of its traits include
broad-mindedness, being imaginative, intelligent, curious and flexible.
People who exhibit this dimension are always able to work in an
environment where change is continuous and innovation is ongoing.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Studies have shown that in as much as there are more than one person who work in an Organisation, interpersonal relationship is about the most important factor in the productivity and success of such Organisation. The objective of this study therefore is to examine the influence of Personality factors and work environment on interpersonal relationship at work.A survey research design was adopted using a total sample of one hundred and eighty-one employees, across different industries in Lagos. T ... Continue reading---
