Page 2 Transforming lives Inspiring Change

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Transforming lives Inspiring Change
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
...............................................................................................
................................. 3
2. Personality Differences
...............................................................................................
............... 4
2.1. Internal and External Factors which are Influencing
Individual Employee’s Personality
Differences
...............................................................................................
.............................................. 5
2.1.1. Internal Factors
...............................................................................................
............................ 5
2.1.1.1. Ability Skills Set
...............................................................................................

.................. 6
2.1.1.2. Attitude and
Perception...............................................................................
........................ 6
2.1.1.3. Personality
...............................................................................................
........................... 6
2.1.1.4. Value and Ethics
...............................................................................................
.................. 6
2.1.2. External Factors
...............................................................................................
........................... 7
2.1.2.1. Role of Leader and Team Departments
.............................................................................. 7
2.1.2.2. Job Scope
...............................................................................................
............................. 7
2.2. Five Main Employee Personality Traits at The Workplace
....................................................... 8
2.2.1. Extraversion
...............................................................................................
................................. 9
2.2.2. Agreeableness
...............................................................................................
.............................. 9

2.2.3. Conscientiousness
...............................................................................................
........................ 9
2.2.4. Emotional Stability
...............................................................................................
...................... 9
2.2.5. Openness to Experience
...............................................................................................
............ 10
3. Individual Differences at The Workplace
................................................................................ 11
3.1. Factors Affecting Individual Differences at The Workplace
................................................... 11
4. Impact of Personality and Individual Differences on
Motivation at Work .............................. 12
Organizational Behavior....................... 14
6. Conclusion
...............................................................................................
................................. 15
References
...............................................................................................
............................................. 16
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1. Introduction
This essay will discuss the role of a personality and individual
differences at the workplace and
will also investigate its impacts over employee motivation and
organization behavior. Personality
is a dynamic blend of the mental and physical qualities which
defines how one individual reacts
towards the surroundings and what makes him/her different
from the others (Kazdin, 2000).
Hence, this shows that it is totality of a human behavior which
comprises overt and covert
behavior. Having said this, in relation to HR professionals it is
essential to assess the interviewee
personality into totality by doing Thematic Apperception Test
as this will lead them to have better
talent and less conflicts at the workplace.
Apart from this, it is vital for every company to understand its
organizational behavior as it
primarily addresses the key factors which are affecting the

employee’s motivation and secondly it
also enables the company to determine the needs and wants of
their subordinates. Besides, it also
defines whether organization communication is effective or not,
are conflicts been solved at earlier
or not, what is the behavior of a senior manager (Sinding et al.,
2014).
Hence, this analysis shows that organizational behaviour is to
monitor the company environment
and apply the change to make the organization effective.
However, it is critically mentioned it
should be done in a non-prediction style as it would prevent the
company from becoming unethical.
Page | 4
2. Personality Differences
In referring to the above-mentioned study personality

differences are referred to as the
characteristics of one individual determining how he/she feels,
thinks and behaves. Furthermore,
in the relation to the workplace it's been mentioned that every
employee comes with uniqueness
depending on attitude, values, work ethics and ability of doing
work.
In addition, it is truly said that environment plays an important
role in shaping an individual
personality (Schuett et al., 2013).
For example, if there are two identical twins who have the same
IQ level, but later down the line
they are raised in different environments/atmosphere (enriched
and impoverished respectively).
Therefore, when they will join the workplace it will be seen that
their IQ level is not as similar as
before as one is more towards the improvement than the other.
Moreover, it is mentioned by (Loehlin and Nichols, 2012) that
heredity sets the blueprint for the
individual personality, however, environment modifies it.
For example, there lies a behavioural difference at the
workplace between the employees who are
brought up in rural places and who enjoy urban lifestyle

respectively.
Page | 5
2.1. Internal and External Factors which are Influencing
Individual
Employee’s Personality Differences
The employee’s personality differences are highly influenced by
some internal and external factors
which are:
2.1.1. Internal Factors
There are four internal factors as shown in Figure 1. influences
the personality differences of an
employee.
Fig. 1: The Four main Internal Factors which are affecting
Employee Personality Differences

Source: Prepared by the author
Page | 6
2.1.1.1. Ability Skills Set
This is a vital element for an employee to show hiring managers
in what field they are capable of.
It comprises two categories namely soft and hard skills, where
soft skill is a determination of how
effective communication they have, are they creative and able
to do teamwork with an open
mindset etc. Besides, the hard skills which are technical skills.
2.1.1.2. Attitude and Perception
It represents how the employee responds to several workplace
settings and whether they can
understand their actions or not.
2.1.1.3. Personality
It is referred to as the characteristics of an individual

employee's behaviour, that is how he responds
to workplace duties.
2.1.1.4. Value and Ethics
Value is said to be a fundamental belief which guides the
employees towards the determination of
which action is important for them, where it should be aligned
with their ethics. As Ethics responds
towards the right choice of an action.
For instance, at Y Corporation recruitment day there came two
candidates namely John and Sam
who were totally different from one another. As John is more at
a beginner level of technical skills
with a strong proactive attitude and is less multi-culture values
originated whereas Sam was having
the advanced knowledge of technical skills with a great
knowledge of how multinational
companies work. Hence, it is recommendable for HR to recruit
both as each of them has a unique
identity which could be good for organization in enriching
productivity and innovation.

Page | 7
2.1.2. External Factors
The two external factors which affect employee personality
differences is shown in Figure 2.
2.1.2.1. Role of Leader and Team Departments
This is a crucial element for employee behaviour as it addresses
that the employees have been
motivated by a leader to achieve the company task and do
his/her team behaviour influence its
working conduct.
2.1.2.2. Job Scope
It defines the job duties or responsibilities which are assigned
to an employee for its given position.

Fig. 2: The Two main External Factors which are affecting
Employee Personality Differences
Page | 8
2.2. Five Main Employee Personality Traits at The Workplace
There are five basic dimensions as shown in Figure 3. which
defines human behaviour. According
to (O’neill & Hastings, 2011) these traits are more towards the
getting result of how employees
will react in an unstructured work environment.
Fig. 3: The Big Five Model

Page | 9
2.2.1. Extraversion
It reflects the employees who are proactive, outgoing, and open
towards new friendships
(Hussenoeder, 2020). Additionally, Baumert & Schmitt (2012)
mentioned that they are always
correlated in producing positive information. However, it is
critically mentioned by (Clarke and
Robertson, 2005) that such behavioural employee’s is more
impulsive than introverts and may lie
at the workplace.
2.2.2. Agreeableness
Employees with Agreeableness personality are said to be
friendly in nature and much cooperative
to the greater extent with the aim of building trust with other
subordinates (Barrick et al., 2013)
(Peters et al., 2003). Furthermore, these characteristics enable
them to see negative situations in a

positive way so there will be less disturbance among the
workplace (Taylor & Kluemper, 2012).
However, the downside which they carry is a lower level of job
success (Arora and Rangnekar,
2016).
2.2.3. Conscientiousness
It reflects how much an individual is reliable and dependable.
Likely, those who will have high
test-scores are said to be as ambitious and target oriented
whereas lower-scores one is said to be
impulsive and indecisive (Dudley et al., 2006).
2.2.4. Emotional Stability
The employees who are having low emotional stability do create
negative responses to
organizational incidents as their high level of sympathy
contributes to having negative
circumstances (Jia et al., 2013). Therefore, this shows the
importance for high emotional stability
within the employees as that would lead them achieve higher
job satisfaction with better
engagement within the workforce.

Page | 10
2.2.5. Openness to Experience
It highlights the characteristics of employee who are creative
and like to do new things. In other
words, these employees are said to be an artistic and curious
(Park et al., 2015).
Hence, it is recommendable for leaders to identify their
subordinate’s strengths and weaknesses
through the Big Five Personality Test as they could use that in
helping them and keeping
motivated.
Apart from this, here mentions (see Figure 4) the ways which
leaders can adopt to have the best
use of earlier mentioned Employee Personality Traits (see
section 2.2.) within the organization to
gain advantage.

Fig. 4: How to have best use of Employee Personality Traits
Page | 11
3. Individual Differences at The Workplace
Individual Differences are said to be a part of an organizational
behaviour which depends on the
psychological attribute (Furnham, 2008). Based on this it helps
to identify the employee’s
uniqueness at the workplace which comprises what they think,
how they feel and lastly how they
react (Randel et al., 2018).
For example, at Star Corporation there were two employees
working namely Nicola and
Christopher. They both were data entry executives and have
daily night shifts. After 6 months,
they both requested their manager a change to the day-shift job,
but it was refused. On seeing this,

Nicola quitted the job whereas Christopher was still doing it.
Hence, this reflects that Nicola was
having low emotional stability whereas Christopher was more
towards Agreeableness.
3.1. Factors Affecting Individual Differences at The Workplace
The major factors of Individual Differences apart from
Personality Traits is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Factors Affecting Individual Differences at The
Workplace
Page | 12
Motivation at Work

In an organization, as motivation fulcrum is always the need
therefore its intensity, direction and
persistence are vital. The primary focus of its elements is to
identify how hard the employee tries
to achieve their desire because it’s not necessarily right that in
the first attempt they will be
successful, secondly is that effort in the right direction and
finally how long he/she had perceived
that to fulfil it (Ganta, 2014).
For example, this is seen in the case of Sundar Pichai (Google
& Alphabet CEO) who had
translated his vision of innovative computing systems into
reality through means of great intensity,
direction and persistence.
Having said this, the author had conducted an analysis of how
Personality and Individual
Differences affects the workplace motivation. For its
discussion, Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and
McClelland’s Theory of Needs models respectively were
chosen.
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs is defined as the pyramid for an
employee's needs (Robbins and Judge,
2013) (see Figure 5).

Fig. 5: Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
Source: (Robbins and Judge, 2013)
Page | 13
Likely at first, employees start with a psychological need where
once they get a job, they look for
a better salary. After this once it is full, they look for safety-
security needs, thinking when their
probation will be confirmed. Once it is done and they have a
better understanding with
subordinates they look for social-belonging needs. Then after
they look for promotion, which is
called self-esteem and finally self-actualization, which means
that they utilize their potential and
look for faster growth.

For example, Jack Welch of General Electric who started as the
management trainee and moved
up to be the CEO of the organization.
In addition, this can be affected by personality individuality as
every employee carries the set of
unique attributes (Barnes and Pressey, 2011).
For instance, this was seen between Marble Company employees
namely Jack and Harry who
joined at the same time as the marketing executive. But after the
year Jack got promoted earlier by
having a trait of openness to experience rather than having low
emotional stability like Harry.
Apart from this McClelland’s Theory of Needs talks about three
needs namely need for
achievement, power and affiliation needs (Robbins and Judge,
2013), which are highly influenced
by personality and individual differences (Royle and Hall,
2012).
For example, it was asked by two business leaders namely Bill
Gates and Jeff Bezos for Forbes
magazine: What are your plans for your enormous amount of
money? On this Bill Gates said that
he will use this for charity whereas Jeff Bezos mentioned that

he will use it for building its space
tourism company (Blue Origin).
Hence, this shows the difference in both personality characters
as Bill Gates wants to need for
affiliation whereas Jeff Bezos is dominant for need for
achievement. In addition, it also reflects
that if the mindset of a person is different it would lead him to
take different directions and pursue
towards different needs.
Page | 14
Organizational
Behavior
In an organization behavior employee play a vital role because
of their key uniqueness, where

personality differences traits are responsible for their working
behavior. As it determines whether
the organization will have enriched productivity with great
efficiency or not (Furnham, 2002).
For example, at Z company there are two employees namely
Brian and Stewart. At the company
Brian likes relaxed working style with lower emotional stability
in contrast to Stewart working
attitude who is more efficient and cooperative. As a result,this
shows that the company may have
less productivity in the longer run from Brian working attitude
as he is more easy-go towards the
job responsibilities in comparison to Stewart.
Prior to this, it’s been seen that companies nowadays are having
strict regulations for their
workforce and demand high output from it. As a result, this
obstructs the working style of an
employee as he/she is not able to show their uniqueness towards
the company objective. Hence, it
is recommendable for companies to mold their employee
responsibilities according to the
capability of their workforce as this would lead them to have
better mutual understanding and
efficient results.

For example, at X company an employee named Robert is high
on extraversion and has an
outgoing nature. In seeing this, the company should allow him
freedom to work anywhere as this
would lead him to feel better and have better understanding
with the organization. Hence, this
would lead him to have high job satisfaction and be able to
deliver best performance which finally
leads to company success.
Page | 15
6. Conclusion
In summary, from the study personality and individual
differences play a vital role in a firm's
success as it carries a high influence over employee’s
motivation and organizational behavior. In

Psychology, personality differences at the workplace are
referred to as the characteristics of an
employee’s which makes them unique. In addition, it is highly
affected by internal and external
factors and Big Five Personality Traits.
Having said this in relation to the workplace, motivation
determines the need where it is influenced
by personality and individual differences as different individual
employees carry different mindset
and work style actions. As discussed earlier, employees who
have openness to experience behavior
style will get promotion easier as compared to others.
Moreover, as every employee has a different
mindset it progressively influences its dominance of need as
somewhat to achieve need for power
whereas others want need for achievement.
Apart from this, in terms of organization behavior, personality
and individual differences, phrases
that do the organization will have improved at great planning or
not. As different employees have
different ways of working, as mentioned earlier, those
employees who have moderate working
style will affect the company in the long term. Along with this,
it's also seen that the personality

of an employee is highly affected when the organization is
having set regulations of doing work,
as this prevents individuals to display their uniqueness in order
to achieve company success.
To conclude, it is recommended for companies to modify their
job responsibilities according to
the employee’s capability and behavior as this would lead them
to achieve high productivity which
also allows them to have high turnover at a better employee’s
job satisfaction level. Moreover,
they should give vital understanding towards the Big Five
terminology as this would allow them
to fit the right person at the right position according to his/her
capability. As a result, this will
enable their workforce in staying motivated and efficient
towards the task given.
Page | 16

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