Personality in the Workplace

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An individual’s personality is the basis of who they are and generates how they react to and behave in different situations. Personality testing is used in workplaces to identify whom to hire, promote and even put into teams. Personality testing is efficient in being able to determine which employees will perform best in certain roles, and this can remove some stress from employers. Personal testing has been shown to help improve the quality of employees who are in the workplace. The method of assessing personalities that will be examined in this essay is the Big Five taxonomy method. The two main questionnaires, which are used to determine these traits, are the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire and the NEO personality test. A participant’s results from a personality survey will be analysed to determine what their results mean for current and future workplace behaviour. Finally, this essay will review a case study and it will be explained why personality testing should be used in the workplace and what other work contexts these tests can take place in. In the workplace it is essential individuals understand both their own personalities and also how to interact with other people based on their personalities. “Understanding others and how they function is a first step towards having good interpersonal relationships in the work environment and thereby enhancing personal effectiveness” (Chauhan & Chauhan, 2006, p. 357-358). Individual personalities can vary greatly and it is highly possible for different personalities to clash when working together, particularly in team situations. Different personalities within work groups help to influence the team performance in two distinct ways. Firstly, as an input factor, which... ... middle of paper ... ...Five Personality, and the Prediction of Advanced Academic and Workplace Performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(2), 298-319. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.93.2.298 Huang, J., Palmer, A., Ryan, A., & Zabel, K. (2013). Personality and Adaptive Performance at Work: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 162-179. doi: 10.1037/a0034285 Mak, S., & Vearing, A. (2007). Big Five Personality and Effort-Reward Imbalance Factors in Employees’ Depressive Symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(7), 1744-1755. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/10.1016/j.paid.2007.05.011 Risavy, S., & Hausdorf, P. (2011). Personality Testing in Personnel Selection: Adverse Impact and Differential Hiring Rates. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 19(1), 18-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2389.2011.00531.x

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