Individual Behavior Assignment

Introduction

It is disparagingly important for companies to recruit high performing individuals in this competitive world today. One big task that any organizations find it difficult is, how to find candidates who will perform job well from those who will perform lesser in comparison or not. The answer to this question to some degree is related to the type of personality that the candidates exhibit. Many researches have shown that individual’s job performance can be predicted by his/her personality. To date, the five factor model is the most accepted and used classification of personality. in their book, mentioned that the big five primary factors contained in this model are the following.

1. Extraversion – Someone who is sociable, talkative, and assertive
2. Agreeable – Someone who is good-natured, cooperative and trusting
3. Conscientiousness – Someone who is responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement oriented
4. Emotional Stability – Someone who is Calm, enthusiastic, secure or tensed, nervous, depressed, and insecure
5. Openness – Someone who is imaginative, artistically sensitive and intellectual

Despite the wide acceptance of Big Five model, many researchers have said that this model could be very broad for prediction of his/her job performance  and should consider the value in narrowing down the traits essential for the Big Five

Research have shown that global measures (Big Five Factors) have higher criterion-related validity in predicting in specific criteria like conscientiousness versus job performance than do narrow trait personality measures. The relations between personality traits and general behaviors across jobs and settings can be understood better with broader traits than narrow ones.

What is my Personality?

Using the “Analysis and Interpretation” section of the text book, I found my dominant personality type to be Conscientiousness. Hence, in the following sections I am going to narrow down my discussions towards Conscientiousness and how it fits well with my current job.

Conscientiousness and Job Performance

On reading several papers, I would say it is honestly difficult to exactly point out the main features or individualities behind job performance. This is mainly because some authors or researchers conclude that job performance is a multi-factor concept and not just a single one . In such a concept, some factors can point out how well the employees or individuals perform at their work tasks and other factors can point out how well the employees or individuals utilize their resources towards finishing any given tasks.  in their paper mentioned that job performance is an eight factor model which consists of all sub-factors in relation to the job performance in various types of occupations. in their paper mentioned that how individuals take actions and contribute with their various behaviors that are in alignment with the objective of the firm is the indicator of job performance.