Introduction
Individual perception refers to the process in which a person detects and interprets environmental stimuli. Individual perceptions are unique to a person in that what catches the attention of one person is quite different to another person. Perception is influenced by what one an individual value, needs, fears, emotions and personality traits. In this paper I will look on personality characteristics, how they affect work attitudes, and how work attitudes affect job performance and behavior.
Personality characteristics
Personality is characterized by a pattern of thoughts, behaviors and feelings that make a person unique. Personality characteristics are developed by traits, emotions and the pattern of thoughts. Consistency, behavior needs and actions, psychological and physiological needs and multiple expression plays a great role in personality characteristics (Cherry, 2020). Personality characteristics determines an employee’s behavior and performance.
There are big five personality traits that are described by the acronym OCEAN. These are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Individuals in each group differ with other groups because of the traits they exhibit that make them unique in a workplace (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2017). After completing personality tests on Psych Central and on the big five project personality test, I got almost similar results (See attached screenshots at the end of this paper). Psych Central describes me as a loyal friend and gives traits such as sensible, cautious, careful, practical and trust. The big five project I likely fall on Conscientiousness, but, I am calm, likely to agree with others and reserved.
Attitude at Work
My personality traits influence the opinions, beliefs and feelings I have with my workplace positively. I am satisfied with my job and I am committed to the organization I work for. But, in the future I hope I will be an entrepreneur. In my daily duties I am a person who is keen on safety, I do not miss to report to work without valid reasons and I work for the best of my organization. Conscientiousness personality is robust in job performance. But this depends on acceptance, predictability and status. Though, this personality works well across occupations it is not the best for managerial positions (Travers, 2019).
Individuals with conscientiousness personality in leadership roles need to cultivate some values in order to be effective. One, telling the truth and being assertive. This personality is defined by being easy to agree with others. This makes individuals in this group to agree with others in issues they have differing opinions so as to avoid conflict. This may hinder organizations from getting ideas that are of great benefit. Two, learn to listen to others views. This personality is not sociable and does not form networks easily (Guedez, 2021). They take a lot of time. To enhance their leadership, they have to work on this aspect.
Job performance and behaviors
Work attitudes can build or break an employee. An employee with positive work attitudes is committed to his organization and is motivated to work for the best of it. But, an employee with negative work attitudes is rarely satisfied with his or her job, does not have a long term goal of working with that organization. If the management notes an employee with negative work attitude such an employee is not given a pay rise, promotion, end year bonuses among other benefits (Gray, 2011).
Work behaviors entails job performance, absenteeism, organizational citizenship behaviors and turnover. Job performance involves meeting job description in terms of work quality and quantity, speed and accuracy among other factors. Only employees with positive work attitudes are likely to achieve high level of job performance. Organizational citizenship behaviors are duties that are not included in job descriptions but works for the benefit of an organization. For example, helping new hires to understand the organization and providing ideas to the management that can improve work processes. Employees with positive work attitudes are the ones likely to carry out these discretionary duties since they are interested with the organization success (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2017).
Absenteeism refers to being out of work without proper planning. Although, abstentism on grounds of medical reasons is justifiable, they are cases of abstentism that is brought by poor work attitudes. There are employees who avoid being in a work environment because that are not satisfied with their jobs, have conflicts with colleagues and supervisors, among other reasons. Absenteeism makes organizations to incur huge amount of dollars in finding replacements or demanding employees to work for extra hours (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2017). Employee turnover entails employees leaving an organization. Though, both the best and worst employees leave an organization, work attitudes contribute a lot in the movement of employees. When an employee with poor attitude leaves an organization, the firm is in a better position to recruit an employee who will help improve performance. But, in both cases, the firm do lose because it spends huge amount in recruiting, hiring and training the new employee.
In conclusion, personality traits define work attitudes which also define job performance and employee behaviors. It is the responsibility of recruitment team to hire employees with personality that matches the job description and organization values. If the hiring team fail to on board the right employees the firm may spend a lot of funds due to absenteeism and staff turnover.
