Management and the Personality Issue
LetÆs review some of the ways in which personalities can affect
work-relations and performance, and, subsequently, why it is important for
every manager or leader to know at least the basics of the characters of the
people that work directly with them.
First of all it may be good to stress that in every organization you will
find 2 basic types of behavior: the organizationÆs behavior, and the
personal behaviors of the workers. And for each of them it is important to
mention that they are mainly based on 2 main points: values (the ingrained
way things are perceived), and attitudes (the way things are dealt with).
The reason why it is so important to know workersÆ values and attitudes is
because it can help you a lot in determining how to increase their levels of
job satisfaction. And keeping workersÆ job satisfaction up to par is
ultimately a cost-, time- and reputation-saver for the company. After all,
no organization will want to continue investing in hiring new people all the
time. It is not only an expensive and time-consuming activity, but it paints
a bad picture of the organizational climate: If people keep leaving your
company or department, it usually indicates that something is wrong there.
As a manager you should be able to pick up on that and correct it.
Oftentimes you will already get an idea when people start staying away from
work very often (high absenteeism). Usually that is a primary sign of
dissatisfaction, and if they are not involved in severe personal of family
problems, it can only mean one thing: they are looking for another job. In
those cases you, as the manager should not hesitate to have a good talk with
your worker(s) in order to find out what is wrong and how it can be changed.
You should also know that people differ from one another: you have
self-initiators who hardly need direction, and you have those who need
constant handholding. Your management style should be adapted toward these
personality types: You cannot micro-manage a person who perfectly performs
independently, and you cannot be negligent toward a person who needs
constant supervision.
Other significant issues with regards to management and personality issues
are stereotyping and attributing. As a manager you want to be cautious with
these issues: although you, too, are a human being with human flaws, you
should try avoiding to paint one general picture for a group of people based
on one negative experience with a member of that group, just as well as you
should try avoiding to label one person based on the general ideas about the
group he or she comes out of. Furthermore, you should be cautious of
instantly attributing peopleÆs behaviors to their characters: everybody has
downtimes in which they perform less. Try to detect patterns before jumping
to conclusions: if someone is displaying a certain behavior under similar
circumstances all the time, you can go ahead and assign that to his or her
character. In any other case: remain observant.
The last important point I would like to stress here is that you should
attempt, as a manager, to maintain an appropriate stress-level in your
workplace. What I mean by this is, that stress is not necessarily a bad
thing. Only when itÆs driven to a point where people get disheartened by the
pressure should you intervene. You can do this in various ways: if there are
temporary peak times in your business you could hire temps, and if the
production increases on a lasting bases, you could consider upgrading the
skills of your current workers through additional training, hiring
additional employees, or outsourcing some activities. It all depends.
The main point made here is that, as a manager, you have to engage in the
art of humaneness. Managing entail much more than just ensuring that
production targets are met. It means even more: keeping people content in
the work environment, so that progresses can be made by each and everyone
involved, and, ultimately, by the entire organization.
Dr. Joan Marques,
Burbank, CA, 07/21/04
About the Author:
Joan Marques emigrated from Suriname, South America, to California, U.S., in
1998. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, a Master's in
Business Administration, and is currently a university instructor in
Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web sites
at
http://www.joanmarques.com <
http://www.joanmarques.com/> and
http://www.spiritcounts.com <
http://www.spiritcounts.com/>
It is better to live in serene poverty than in hectic affluence. Everything
has a price. The price for nurturing your soul is turning away from
excessive stress, destruction of self-respect, and the constant strive in
lifestyle with the Joneses. But itÆs worth it.
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