Personality. In my opinion, because personality can be understood from behaviour, managers in the majority of organisations feel that there is a necessity to understand their employees individual characteristics.

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        Name:                 Shereen Bte Mustafar

Student No.:         3178965

Course:                 Business Management (BBMFT – 39th Intake)

Assessment:        Individual Paper (Essay)

Topic:                 C.) Personality

Word Count:        933 (excluding quotations)


“Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviours and consistent internal states that explains a person’s behavioural tendencies” (McShane & Glinow 2001). An individual’s personality is rather stable, but if it does change at all, it is only after a long period of time or as a result of traumatic events. “Personality has both internal and external elements” (Wilson 2004). The external traits are the apparent behaviours that we rely on to identify someone’s personality while the internal qualities represent the thoughts, values and genetic characteristics that we gather from the observable behaviours. An individual’s personality is both inherited and shaped from the environment. “Our personality is partly inherited genetically from our parents” (Holbeche 2005). However, these genetic personality characteristics are altered somewhat by life experiences. Recent studies have shown that “certain personality traits predict certain work-related behaviours, stress reactions and emotions fairly well under certain conditions” (Middleton 2002).

In my opinion, because personality can be understood from behaviour, managers in the majority of organisations feel that there is a necessity to understand their employees’ individual characteristics. “There is a predictable interaction between personality and a tendency to behave in certain ways” (Middleton 2002). In an article published recently, regarding how employers and managers should pick the right people during interviews, it points out that it is important to, “Get to know them, and take time to mull over the final decision, paying attention to the applicant’s personality rather than qualifications or experience. Find out how well they get along with others and how enthusiastic they are. And be sure the job suits them” (Fairweather 2007). When recruiting new employees, Miss Theresa Tan, Lee Hwa Jewellery’s senior human resource manager states what she looks out for in applicants is, “A pleasant disposition, positive mindset, someone who is a goal-setter with energy and perseverance, and who is willing to work long hours” (Hahn 2007). These two employers make it evident that it is vital that they understand their employees’ personality which in turn allows their behaviour at work to be rather predictable.

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MARS Model of Individual Behaviour and Competency-Based Approach

According to the MARS Model of Individual Behaviour as shown in Appendix A, there are four factors which develop individual behaviour. The four influences on individual behaviour and performance are motivation, ability, role perceptions and situational factors.

Besides using the MARS model to analyse employees’ personalities in order to achieve organisational objectives, “organisations are quickly moving toward a competency-based approach to employee performance” (McShane and Glinow 2001). Competencies are the characteristics of employees that lead to superior performance, along with natural talent and learned abilities; it also includes a ...

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