Antonios Voulgarakis

ID:
MG 3034 Managing People and Organizations
Proffesor:
Date: 3/3/2016

MG 3034
Voulgarakis

Managing People and Organizations

Contents
Introduction........................................................................................2
Literature review................................................................................2
Five Factor Model............................................................................3
Case study.........................................................................................5

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MG 3034
Voulgarakis

Managing People and Organizations

Introduction
Since the birth of capitalism and the creation of large
companies, different types of people are asked to work harmonically
daily side by side. This different blend of workers creates an
observable diversity to the manpower of the company. As a result,
one of the most critical case study in the sector of organizational
behavior management is the effects that are created by the
diversity of coworkers personality. Despite the fact that different
personalities create a large level of complexity, it is believed that in
todays

competitive

environment,

companies

that

invest

on

manpower diversity generally perform better as it reinforces the

relations between coworkers and subsequently the teamwork spirit

(Kreitner & Kinicki, 2007). On the other hand, some researches

indicated that homogenous workforce leads to better results. As a
result, the aim of this project is to focus on the manner that
personalities influence the effectiveness of teamwork. In order to
comprehend the role that the personality of each one of a
companys workers plays to the overall performance of the firm, a
contemporary theory of personality dimensions is going to be
presented. Additionally, the characteristics of these dimensions and
the influences that have on teamwork are going to be analyzed.
Finally, all the above conclusions of the theoretical part of the
project are going to be tested by a case study.

Literature review
Personality as a term is difficult to be defined, despite the fact
that even from the ancient times Greek philosophers have tried to
describe it. The first attempt was from the Greek physician
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MG 3034
Voulgarakis

Managing People and Organizations

Hippocrates (c. 460 c. 370 BC) suggested that there are four types
of personality: choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic. A
more detailed and scientific attempt was through the work of Freud,
the theory of unconscious. However, in recent years many analysts
have

provided

many

theories

about

personality

and

they

constructed a theoretical framework of tools that help in the

categorization of personality types. For example, according to
Kinicki, (2008), personality consists of a stable set of features that
define a persons identity. Moreover, as Kinicki citied in his work,
even though we may not realize the dimensions of our personality,
they influence our expectations and assumptions of others, thus
affecting our behavior towards them. Additionally, Colquitt (2009)
describes personality features as the tendencies inside a person
that help us understand his or her characteristic way of thought,
emotion and behavior. As a result, personality could describe what
people truly are in contrast to the skills which inform us what people
are able to do.
However, almost every person has unique features that define
his or her personality and as a result his or her behavior towards
others. As a result, in the work field it is essential to take under
consideration that every employee has a different personality based
on his or her values that are determined by the cultural framework
that he or she is raised in. Hence, over the years many theories
have been constructed in the attempt to explain the general
dimensions of personality. However, in this project, the five factor
model of Colquitt (2009) is used as it is the most researched model
of personality.

Five Factor Model

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MG 3034
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Managing People and Organizations

The model, also known as the Big Five, is a like an empirical

survey of everydays personality and how this is related to the
workplace. In contrast to other models this empirical support is the
key factor that explains the consensus that this theory has among
academic researchers. According to this theory, there are five pillars
that

describe

agreeableness,

our

personality.

neuroticism,

These

openness

are:
to

conscientiousness,
experience

and

extraversion.
First of all, conscientiousness is used to describe people that
are more or less dependable, organized, hard working and reliable.
So, according to the amount of conscientiousness that someone
has tends to be diligent or dutiful (higher in the scale) or big picture
thinkers and less interested in the details (lower in the scale). On
the other hand agreeableness describes people that are kind,
cooperative, helpful and sympathetic. Thus, those who have plenty
amount of agreeableness, are more trusting and modest whereas
those who have less, are more suspicious and oppositional.
Furthermore, neurotism deals with people that are unstable,
moody, insecure and nervous. So, on the one hand people that are
highly neurotic have the tendency to demonstrate negative
emotions, but on the other hand people less neurotic are more
pleasant and are able to deal high amounts on stress which is
critical to business. Continuing, openness is used to describe people
that on the one hand are open to experience new things and on the
opposite those who are closed minded. Finally, the last personality
trait deals with extroversion. People who are highly extravert are
very talkative and sociable in contrast to those who are introvert
and want to work alone or in small groups.

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MG 3034
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Managing People and Organizations

Figure 1 : Five Factor Theory

Case study

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