Managing Individual Differences & Behavior

DQ #1: What are the challenges of only seeing the behaviors?

Contemporarily organizations assess intensively their relationship and interactions with the employees as one of the sources of their competitive advantage. An individual working for an organization usually has some concept regarding what s/he will contribute to the organization, and also a set of expectations that the organization will provide in return. Some patterns of individual behavior, as a combination of responses to internal and external stimuli, are easily defined and measured, whereas others are diverse, and therefore more complex to assess.

An individual behavior results from a person’s observable actions, responses, as well as from one’s past experience emotional effects. People also have motives & feelings that are unconscious. To discern the roots of individual behavior managers have to be able to assess people’s individual motives, needs, and self-regulatory processes (Tasa, Sears, & Schat, 2011, p. 66).

Personal attributes giving people their identity are sometimes deeply ingrained and it is hardly possible to change them significantly. Studies of nature-nurture controversy indicate that heredity accounts for about 50% of the variance in personality, whereas another 50% are formed by culture, family, group membership, and life experiences (Ünsar, & Karalar, 2013). Activities exhibited by humans are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport and generic factors (Doina, Mirela, & Constantin, 2008).

Managers should strive to understand basic personality attributes and the ways they can affect people’s behavior in organizational situations, as well as their perceptions of and attitudes toward the organization. Attitude...

... middle of paper ...

...xpression. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 33(7), 925-945. Retrieved on May 09, 2014 from EBSCOHost. doi:10.1002/job.781

Tasa, K., Sears, G. J., & Schat, A. H. (2011). Personality and teamwork behavior in context: The cross-level moderating role of collective efficacy. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 32(1), 65-85. Retrieved on May 09, 2014 from EBSCOHost. doi:10.1002/job.680

Ünsar, A., & Karalar, S. (2013). THE EFFECT OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS: A RESEARCH ON THE STUDENTS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT. Economic Review: Journal Of Economics & Business / Ekonomska Revija: Casopis Za Ekonomiju I Biznis, 11(2), 45-56. Retrieved on May 06, 2014 from EBSCOHost http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=94624665&site=ehost-live

White, C. (2004). Strategic Management. Retrieved on April 10, 2014 from http://www.eblib.com