Personality Types and their Influence on Human Behavior

personality is a stable, organized collection of psychological traits and mechanisms in the human being that influences his or her interactions with and modifications to the psychological, social and physical environment surrounding them ( by the American psychologists Randy Larsen and David Buss).Personality has been studied for hundreds of years and several models are commonly used to help us ‘predict’ the likelihood of certain behaviors occurring.Our personalities interact with our environment so at any moment in time, we are a product of our personalities and our perceptions.A commonly used personality model that is useful for personal trainers is known as the ‘DISC’ personality model.  

DISC is a personality model based on the work of psychologist William Marston.  Marston found that observable behavioral characteristics can be grouped into four major personality types.  Each behavioral type tends to exhibit specific characteristics.

DISC itself is purely an acronym for the four personality types which are:

• Dominance  – which relates to control, power and assertiveness
• Influence – which relates to social situations and communication
• Steadiness – which relates to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness
• Compliance – which relates to structure and organisation

Characteristics of the four Personality types

Dominance

People who score high on the ‘D’ type factors enjoy dealing with problems and challenges.  These people will often be described as demanding, forceful, egocentric, strong willed, determined, aggressive, ambitious and pioneering. High ‘D’ people are often found in leadership positions, this doesn’t mean they are ‘good’ leaders as their weaknesses often include being poor listeners, and being impatient and insensitive to others. ‘D’ type people are bottom-line people who hate to waste time. They want straight talk and direct answers to their "WHAT" questions 

Influence

People who score high on the ‘I’ type factors influence others through talking and activity and tend to be emotional.  They are commonly described as enthusiastic, magnetic, persuasive, warm, trusting, demonstrative and optimistic.They like people and thrive in a social scene.  It’s important that others have a favourable impression of them.  Indeed high ‘I’ people are more interested in people than in accomplishing tasks. Time does tend to get away from them and everything takes a lower priority when they're discussing ideas. They believe everything will be all right and everyone is ‘such a nice person’.They need freedom of expression; they can become easily distracted as they have trouble staying focused.  They tend to think in the future. They want answers to their "WHO" questions.

Steadiness

High ‘S’ people do not like sudden change, they like a steady pace and security.  These people are calm, relaxed, patient, predictable, deliberate, stable, consistent and can tend to be unemotional and poker faced. Steady people get along well with others because they are flexible in their attitude. They may not say anything if they disagree because they like to keep the peace.  They like to help others and make good counsellors as they are great listeners. Steady people like to maintain familiar and predictable patterns. If they receive appreciation, they maintain a high level of performance. They like to feel comfortable with anything new before actually starting it.Steady people will want answers to their "HOW" and "WHEN" questions.

Compliance

(This category is also known as ‘Cautious’ or ‘Conscientious’) People who score high on the ‘C’ type adhere to rules, regulations and structure.  They like to do things well and do them well first time.  They are slow paced and task oriented.High ‘C’ people are commonly described as careful, cautious, neat, systematic, accurate, and diplomatic.  Perfection is very important to ‘C’ people, and they tend to be critical of themselves.  They will study privately to learn about a subject before discussing it in public.People can find it difficult to read high ‘C’s as they don't show their feelings. They tend to protect their privacy.  They make to-do lists. Compliant people want answers to their "WHY" and "HOW" questions.

Adapting your behavior to suit personality types

With Dominant people ·         Build respect to avoid conflict ·         Focus on facts and ideas rather than people ·         Have evidence to support your ideas and advice ·         Be quick, focused and get to the point ·         Ask 'what' not 'how' ·         Talk about how problems will hinder accomplishments ·         Show them how they can succeed	With Influential people ·         Be social and friendly with them ·         Listen to them talk about their ideas ·         Help them find ways to translate the talk into useful action ·         Don’t spend too much time on the details ·         Motivate them to follow through to complete tasks ·         Recognize their accomplishments
With Steady people ·         Be genuinely interested in them ·         Create a human working environment for them ·         Give them time to adjust to change ·         Clearly define goals for them and provide ongoing support ·         Recognise and appreciate their achievements ·         Avoid hurry and pressure ·         Present new ideas carefully	With Compliant people ·         Warn them before and generally avoid surprises ·         Be well prepared. Don't ad-lib with them if you can help it ·         Be logical, accurate and use clear data ·         Show how things fit into the bigger picture ·         Be specific in disagreement and focus on the facts ·         Be patient, persistent and diplomatic

References

HJ Eysenck - 2013 -  The structure of human personality

DM MacKay - Bulletin of the British Society for the History of Science, 1951 - cambridge.org - 

1. Hosam Al-Samarraie, 
2. Atef Eldenfria, 
3. Husameddin Dawoud  2017 - 
The impact of personality traits on users’ information-seeking behavior

Critical Review of Maslow’s needs of Hierarchy Theory with human Behavior

Psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced the concept of a Hierarchy of Needs. His hierarchy proposes that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to meet higher level growth needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is most often displayed as a hierarchical pyramid with five levels. However, the most recent depictions of the hierarchical pyramid have seven or eight levels. But, no matter which pyramid you review, the lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid. The four lower levels of all the pyramids are considered physiological or deficiency needs, while the top level(s) are considered growth needs.  Maslow’s believes that the lower level needs have to be satisfied before higher needs can influence behavior.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation

The basis of Maslow’s theory of motivation is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, air, water, and sleep. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, he or she may be able to reach the next level, and eventually after all the lower needs are met, they can reach the highest level called self-actualization. Maslow’s believed that all people are motivated to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization.  Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by the in ability to meet lower level needs. He believed a person cannot become self-actualized if he or she is starving for food or if they are still seeking love and affection from others.

Physiological Needs

Physiological needs deal with the maintenance of the human body. This lowest category includes the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most instinctive needs because all needs become secondary until these needs are met. If we need water, then little else matters until we have something to drink.

Safety and Security Needs

Safety and security needs are about keeping us safe from harm. These needs include shelter, job security, health, and safe environments. If a person does not feel safe in an environment, they will seek to find safety before they attempt to meet any higher level needs. These security needs are important for survival, but they are not as important as the basic physiological needs. 

Social Needs/ Love and Belongings

Social needs advance our tribal nature. These are the needs for belonging, love, affection as well as for relationships with family and friends and companionship. These needs are met through pleasing and fulfilling relationships with others. A pleasing and fulfilling relationship would imply acceptance by others. Having satisfied their basic physiological and security needs, people can seek relationships from which their need for love and belonging can be met.

Self-Esteem

Humans chase individualized goals in life but the need for fulfillment is rooted in us all. Without the confidence, self-love, and meaning, it is difficult to reach our desires. This sector of the pyramid relies on the steps below it and is crucial to the top of the pyramid.

 Self-Actualization

Final step as the top of Mount Everest. Everyone climbs through the steps of life and ultimately looks to maximize on their potential. Without the four steps below, self-actualization is unreachable and potential can’t be reached.

Conclusion

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains that people have certain needs that have to be met, and their needs are ranked.  Lower needs include survival needs like air, food, and water, and higher needs include self-esteem.  The highest need is self-actualization, which means that a person feels he has met his potential.  The needs in order are: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

References

Ø  Wageman, R. (1997) ‘Critical success factors for creating superb self-managing teams.’

Organizational Dynamics, 26 (1): 49-62.

Ø  A.H. Maslow, "Critique of self-actualization theory", in: E. Hoffman (Ed.), Future visions: The unpublished papers of Abraham Maslow (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996), pp. 26–32

Ø  Wahba, M. A.; Bridwell, L. G. (1976). "Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory". Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. 15 (2): 212–240

Ø  Tay, L.; Diener, E. (2011). "Needs and subjective well-being around the world". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 101 (2): 354–365.

Ø  Goebel, B. L.; Brown, D. R. (1981). "Age differences in motivation related to Maslow's need hierarchy". Developmental Psychology. 17: 809–815.

Ø  A Theory of Human Motivation, original 1943 article by Maslow

KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Most of the organizations seek ways to survive in today's competitive environment. Employees need to be informed about their organisations and motivated to be able to show creative behaviors. Sharing needed information with employees empowers them and that allows them to show voluntary behaviors in favor of their organizations.

Compared with other organizational factors, knowledge becomes gradually the most important factor of them. Knowledge is valuable when it is shared with other employees. In today's dynamic global business environment, knowledge is seen as a source of strategic competitive advantage of the organizations.  There are many definitions for knowledge. Overall Tiwana defined Knowledge as "Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, cotextual information, expert insight and grounded intuition that provides an enviroment and framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information". It would be wrong to think of creativity without knowledge. Organizational success and the basic requirement of being a leader in the market, is through the creation of consistent innovation. To be creative and innovative the employees need to work together and share voluntarily the needed knowledge.

 Knowledge has been commonly known as the major source for creating an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage. Collins and Hitt (2006:148) illustrated in their study that knowledge sharing is an accumulation of social capital for an organization as if there is an adequate social capital is available then the knowledge possessed by an individual can be shared efficiently and effectively in the organization. Nevertheless the willingness of the members to share their knowledge with other members based on the organizational structure and social relations in the organization. The importance of organizational knowledge has supported several knowledge management activities that are intended to realize knowledge creation, retention and distribution. In fact, the knowledge of human resources, customers, innovations and processes consist of managerial intellectual capital that will be incorporated into decisions. However, the transition of knowledge across individuals and organizational boundaries, and into organizational practices relies heavily on individual employees’ knowledge sharing behavior. When individuals are psychologically attached and identified with an organization, they trust and interact with other organizational members and make it easy and comfortable to share knowledge with them. Social factors are more deterministic than extrinsic benefits in knowledge -sharing behaviors. Knowledge sharing potentially carries the meaning, to share sensitive knowledge about costs, productivity, financial and performance with employees of the organizations. With knowledge sharing, managers strengthen teams that can take their own decisions. This dimension creates a situation for workers to understand the meaning of their work, to feel being of competence in fulfilling the business and have an impact in the direction of the organization where they feel themselves better. In other words, knowledge sharing constitutes the basis of empowerment.

References

0'neill B. S. ve Monica A. (2007),"Knowledge Sharing and the Psychological Contract

Amabile, T. M. ,(1997), “Motivating Creativity in Organizations

Bock, G.W., Zmud, R.W., Kim, Y.G., and Lee, J.N. (2005). “Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing

Bolino, M.C., W.H. Turnley and J.M. Bloodgood, (2002). “Citizenship behavior and the creation of social capital in organizations”

People and Organizations: Principles and Practice in Global Context (Human Resource Management

People and Organizations: Principles and Practice in Global Context (Human Resource Management)

Definition of HRM

Human resource management (HRM) is the governance of an organization’s employees. HRM is sometimes referred to simply as human resources (HR). A company’s human resources department is responsible for creating, implementing and or overseeing policies governing employee behavior and the behavior of the company toward its employees.

Human resources are the people who work for the organization; human resource management is really employee management with an emphasis on those employees as assets of the business.  In this context, employees are sometimes referred to as human capital. As with other business assets, the goal is to make effective use of employees, reducing risk and maximizing return on investment (ROI).

Difference between HRM and Personal Management

According to some consultants, there is no difference between the two. The terms can be used interchangeably. Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. personnel management typically seeks to motivate employees with such things as compensation, bonuses, rewards, and the simplification of work responsibilities. Human resources is responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organization. Human resources incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, while seeking to create and develop teams of workers for the benefit of the organization. The goal of human resources is to enable employees to work to a maximum level of efficiency. Human resource management holds that improved performance leads to employee satisfaction.

Few main rolls of HRM

People in an organization carry out many important work activities. The role of human resource management in organizations is to organize people so that they can effectively perform these activities.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of captivating, screening, and selecting potential and qualified candidates based on objective criteria for a particular job. The goal of this process is to attract the qualified applicants and to encourage the unqualified applicants to opt themselves out.

Before starting the process of recruitment, the companies must execute proper staffing plans and should grade the number of employees they are going to need. Forecasting of the employees should depend upon the annual budget of the organization and short-term and long-term goals of the organization.

Human Resource Development (training & development)

HR is responsible for ensuring that employees receive the appropriate training (whether in-house or off-site) to adequately perform their jobs.  Thus, employees will be equipped to help achieve desired departmental and company goals and objectives.  HR Specialist also assists with change management and performance management needs of the organization.

Total Rewards (compensation & benefits)

The HR benefits team is responsible for acquiring and administering an attractive compensation and benefits package for new hires. This might include: a competitive salary range, medical and dental insurance, choice of life insurance, tuition reimbursement, and more. The HR recruiter should promote and offer an attractive rewards package to those candidates who meet the selection criteria at some point during the interview process.

Policy Formulation

Human Resources keep new hires and current employees abreast of the policies and procedures of the organization. This might include the distribution of employee handbook, code of conduct manual, and performance appraisals guidelines.

Employee and Labor Relations

The employee relations team seeks to align the employees’ needs and rights with the needs of the organization.  Things such as: union and non-union issues, discrimination issues, and sexual harassment claims are matters that should be handled by the labor relations department.

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Reference

Ø  http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-hrm-and-personnel-management/

Ø  http://www.whatishumanresource.com/human-resource-management

Ø  http://open.lib.umn.edu/humanresourcemanagement/chapter/1-1-what-is-human-resources/

TALENT MANAGEMENT

TALENT MANAGEMENT

‘Talent Management’ means having systems and plans in place that ensure that we plan for, attract, recruit and select, retain and develop our employees to meet present and future needs. We need to plan ahead, make sure we recruit people with the skills and behaviors we need and then retain them and help them grow. Importance of talent management is building a high performance workplace, to encouraging a learning organization, adding value to the ‘employer of choice’ and branding agenda and finally contributing to diversity management.

Comprehensive Learning and Development programme for Talent Pool

Employees are the greatest strength in the organization and wants to  be invest on them for empower them to stay ahead of competition by providing regular exposure to learning and knowledge enhancement. As continue to grow as an organization, it is vital that employees keep pace and develop as professionals and as teams. Learning and Development programme aims to instill a culture of continuous learning and excellence .The Learning and Development programme's goal is to enhance every employee's competencies at the individual, team and organisational levels, and to equip her/him with the right knowledge, skills and attitude, so that each person can contribute significantly to ensuring the organisation's success. In the process, each employee is personally and professionally enriched and motivated to sustain excellence in performance. The competitive edge created through a knowledgeable, skilled and motivated workforce ultimately results in achieving its strategic business goals. Learning and Development programme creates a pool of exceptional talent that can be tapped by it grows globally in the future.

1. Identify key talent.

The executive team must identify specific high-potential employees who have the skills and aptitudes required to advance over time. The talent belongs to the whole organization, not to a particular department.

2. Assess readiness.

The executive team as a whole provides its perspectives on the readiness of emerging leaders to advance or take on new roles. For example, emerging leaders are evaluated as ready now, in 1 to 3 years, or in 3 to 5 years. All department heads also identify development areas for each of the high potentials.

3. Offer an array of development opportunities.

Organizations must offer, by themselves or with other local governments or educational partners, an array of special assignments, interim management, project leadership, training workshops, certificate programs, and professional development opportunities.

4. Create development plans.

Based on the development needs of the specific high-potential employees, managers create development plans with the individual employees, focusing on their targeted areas of development, such as people or leadership skills, community engagement skills, budgeting, or public speaking skills. The plans include specific development assignments, measurable objectives, and timelines.

5. Communicate

Keep leadership up to speed, so that they, in turn, can keep their teams up to speed. Communication is “an ongoing step that parallels the other implementation steps and the  leadership so that they can share the process with their teams and assist their local managers.

6. Measure progress.

The executive team meets three to four times per year to further identify high- potential employees, assess readiness, and measure progress toward their development goals.

Conclusion

The skilled people who staff in organization bring the greatest competitive advantage. But finding the right fit talent is just the first step. To succeed in today’s ever-changing marketplace, optimizing the potential people is priority. That’s why after attracting and hiring the best people for organization.

References

Armstrong, M and Taylor, S (2014) A Hand Book of Human resource Management Practice, Kogan

Forbes Magazine (2015 July) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/07/20/8-key-tactics-for-developing-employees/#79d535d06373) accessed on 20thNov 2017 at 8.17 pm

https://int.search.tb.ask.com/search/AJimage.jhtm

See R.E. Lewis and R.J. Heckman, “Talent Management: A Critical Review,” Human Resource Management Review 16 (2006): 139-154.

E.G. Chambers, M. Foulon, H. Handfield-Jones, S.M. Hankin and E.G. Michaels, “The War for Talent,” McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1998): 44-57.

E.E. Lawler III, “The Folly of Forced Ranking,” Strategy & Business 28 (2002): 28-32; and J. Pfeffer and R.I. Sutton, “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management” (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2006).