Personalities in the Workplace

Understanding that not everyone has the same values or personalities in the work place is very important when in a manager’s position. There are some people in the world that can differentiate away from work personalities and at work personalities. Personality traits are particular tendencies to feel, think, and act in certain ways that can be used to describe the personality of every individual. Understanding the personalities of managers helps to understand their behavior and approach on managing their employees.

There are some managers that can be very easy to get along with, with great people skills, and there are managers who are hard to get along with. These particular managers can make employees feel uncomfortable and hard to communicate with. When it comes to individual personalities, it can be looked at as five traits or characteristics: extraversion, negative affectivity, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. These are often considered to be the Big Five personality traits. Each of these traits can be considered as perpetuity to each individual. A more uncomplicated way to grasp how these traits can affect a person’s approach to management is to characterize what people are like at the high and low ends of each traits perpetuity. No trait is right or wrong in becoming an effective manager.

Extraversion is the tendency to experience positive emotions and moods and feel good about oneself and the rest of the world. Managers who are big on extraversion tend to be more sociable, affectionate, outgoing and friendly. The managers who are not vulnerable to this trait tend to be less prone toward social interactions and have a more negative outlook on situations. Negative affectivity is the tendency to experience negative emotions and moods, feel distressed, and are critical on themselves and others. Managers who are high in this trait can often feel angry and dissatisfied. They tend to often complain about their work and others lack of progress. Managers who are not so high on this trait tend to be less pessimistic about themselves and others. Agreeableness is the tendency to get along with others or pleasing to ones’ liking. People who lean more on this trait are prone to be affectionate and care about other people. Managers who are low on this trait tend to be distrustful to others and even sometimes aggressive. Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful, scrupulous and preserving. Managers whom possess a high tendency of this trait are organized and self-disciplined and those whom possess a low tendency of this trait might sometimes appear to lack direction or self-discipline.