Framework for Interpersonal Skill Development

Chapter 1 A Framework for Interpersonal Skill Development

 

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Learning Objectives

After reading and studying this chapter and completing the exercises, you should be able to

Explain how interpersonal skills are learned.

Explain the model for interpersonal skills improvement, including how to set goals effectively.

Pinpoint your needs for improvement in interpersonal relations.

Describe potential opportunities for developing interpersonal skills on the job.

When Marissa Mayer was 24 years old, she joined Google as employee number 20. While at Google, she ran the company’s search group and worked on successful products such as Gmail. Her last position with the company was vice president, local, maps, and location services, placing her just below Google’s top-executives suite. At age 37, Mayer joined Yahoo! as chief executive and president, the company’s seventh CEO. Her mission was to turn around a company that had lost ground as perhaps the best-known search and content company on the Internet.

At once, the vivacious, glamorous, and super-intelligent Mayer became a celebrity CEO, receiving worldwide publicity. At Stanford University, Mayer majored in symbolic systems, a course of studies that includes psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer science. The aim of the program is to understand how people learn and reason, and to endow computers with human-like behavior. A dorm-mate of Mayer’s who later became an information technology executive said that although Mayer was shy, she was not a loner. He claims that Mayer stood out because she had unusual balance along with a deep understanding of people and how to relate to them effectively.

Mayer was a standout at high school, too being captain of the debate club and the pom-pom team. She was known for scheduling long pom-pom practices to make sure that everyone was synchronized. She was also recognized for her exceptional talent in choreography as well as her fairness; she made sure the best dancers made the team.

At Google, Mayer was obsessively driven, working 90 hours per week when necessary to complete a key project. She developed a reputation for being brusque with people and quick to criticize team members when she disagreed with their ideas. Yet at the same time, Mayer respected others‘ talents and had many positive personal qualities that helped her attain popularity. At Google, Mayer became a leader who motivated individuals because she nurtured talent.

Part of Mayer’s leadership style is to empower employees and urge them to make constructive changes. In her first few months at Yahoo!, she personally approved every new hire to help assure that talented and well-motivated people were joining the company. One of her first moves at the company to please employees was to provide free food in the company cafeteria and free smartphones for all employees.

Mayer’s interest in employees also includes establishing a connection with Yahoo!’s programmers by engaging them in regular e-mail exchanges with software engineers who report to other managers in the company. She also initiated weekly “FYI” meetings every Friday in which employees are able to ask her questions, and new hires are announced.[1]

One of the several themes in this story about the famous Internet executive is that even at the highest level in an organization, skill in human relations facilitates success. Mayer may be work-obsessed and technology-obsessed, but at the same time she relates well to many people and has a deep concern for the welfare and development of others. The Dale Carnegie organization explains that because the workplace today emphasizes collaboration, motivation, and leadership, outstanding interpersonal skills are quite important.[2]

Effective interpersonal relations must be combined with technical knowledge and good work habits to achieve success in any job involving interaction with people. Workers at all levels are expected not only to solve problems and improve processes (how work is performed), but also to interact effectively with other employees.[3] Two employment specialists found that being enjoyable to work with is the most important indicator of employability. Joyce Hogan and Kimberly Brinkmeyer analyzed the content of employment ads across the United States. Of the total positions advertised, 47 percent required strong interpersonal skills. The same skills were identified as essential for 71 percent of the positions involving client contact and 78 percent of the positions requiring coworker interaction.[4]

The viewpoint of Bob McJury, the vice president for sales of a graphics company, places the importance of interpersonal skills on a more personal and less statistical basis. He observes that the basics of being courteous to people are very important for the success of his company.[5]

Furthermore, the lack of good interpersonal skills can adversely affect a person’s career. A study found that 90 percent of firings result from poor attitudes, inappropriate behavior, and problems in interpersonal relationships, rather than substandard technical skills.[6] An example of poor interpersonal relations that led to job loss was a receptionist at a boat dealer who told several potential customers something to this effect: “Are you just here to look? You don’t look like you could afford one of our speedboats.”

Another way of looking at the importance of interpersonal skills is that they enable you to connect with others, thereby being more successful in business. Author Susan Scott observes that the next frontier for growth in business lies in the area of human connectivity.[7]

This chapter explains how people develop interpersonal skills and presents a model that can serve as a foundation for improving your interpersonal skills. In addition, the chapter explains how the workplace can be a natural setting for developing interpersonal skills.

Plan of The Book

Learning Objective 1

This entire book is devoted to many different ways of improving interpersonal relations in organizations. A three-part strategy is presented for achieving the high level of effectiveness in interpersonal relations required in today’s workplace.

First, each chapter presents key concepts required for understanding a particular aspect of interpersonal relations, such as resolving conflict. Second, the chapter provides specific suggestions or behavioral guidelines for improvement in the aspect of interpersonal relations under consideration. Third, a variety of exercises give you the opportunity to work on and improve your skills. Among these exercises are self-assessment quizzes, skill-building exercises, and cases for analysis. In addition, the questions at the end of each chapter give you an opportunity to think through and apply the key ideas in the chapter. Figure 1-1 illustrates the plan of the book.

Much of this book is concerned with interpersonal skills training, the teaching of skills for dealing with others so they can be put into practice.

interpersonal skills training

The teaching of skills for dealing with others so that they can be put into practice.

Interpersonal skills training is referred to as soft-skills training to differentiate it from technical training. (Technical skill training is referred to as hard-skills training.) Soft-skills training builds interpersonal skills, including communication, listening, group problem solving, cross-cultural relations, and customer service. In recent years, business schools have pushed the teaching of soft skills such as accepting feedback with grace and speaking

 

Figure 1-1 Plan for Achieving Effectiveness in Interpersonal Relations

with respect to subordinates. The reason is that many corporate executives think that these skills are essential for future business leaders.[8] Several other specific competencies related to soft skills are as follows:

Effectively translating and conveying information

Being able to accurately interpret other people’s emotions

Being sensitive to other people’s feelings

Calmly arriving at resolutions to conflicts

Avoiding negative gossip

Being polite [9]

Being able to cooperate with others to meet objectives (teamwork)

Providing leadership to others in terms of the relationship aspects of leadership

Soft-skills training is more important than ever as organizations realize that a combination of human effort and technology is needed to produce results. Multiple studies have shown that soft skills can compensate somewhat for not having superior cognitive (or analytical) intelligence. For example, a supervisor with good interpersonal skills might perform well even if he or she is not outstandingly intelligent.

Soft skills are often the differentiating factor between adequate and outstanding performance because dealing with people is part of so many jobs.[10] Assume that a company establishes an elaborate social networking site to enable employees to exchange work-related information with each other. The system will not achieve its potential unless employees are motivated to use it properly and develop a spirit of cooperation. The employees must also be willing to share some of their best ideas with each other. Consider this example:

Sonya, a newly hired intake receptionist in a cardiac clinic, notices that too often the patients present incomplete or inaccurate information, such as omitting data about their next of kin. Sonya spends considerable amounts of time reworking forms with the patients, until she begins using soft skills more effectively. With coaching from her supervisor, Sonya learns that if she attempts to calm down a patient first, the patient is more likely to complete the intake form accurately.

Well-known executive coach Marshall Goldsmith reminds us that building relationships with people is important for workers at every level in the organization, including the CEO. An example of an interpersonal skill that can help build relationships is demanding good results from others and showing them respect at the same time.[11]

The following Job-Oriented Interpersonal Skills in Action box can jumpstart a person’s career.

A Model for Improving Interpersonal Skills

Learning Objective 2

Acquiring and improving interpersonal skills is facilitated by following a basic model of learning as it applies to changing your behavior. Learning is a complex subject, yet its fundamentals follow a five-part sequence, as shown in Figure 1-2. To change your behavior,

 

Figure 1-2 A Model for Improving Interpersonal Skills

Job-Oriented Interpersonal Skills in Action Jeremy Gets Rewarded for His Interpersonal Skills

Jeremy works as an electronics technician for Event Planners, a company that specializes in setting up exhibits for companies and trade associations at business meetings and conventions. Jeremy’s work is highly specialized and requires installing and uninstalling electronics in compressed periods of time. All of the electronics have to work well, including panel displays, television sets, and computers. The planned events usually take place over a three-day to one-week time period, leaving little time to make repairs if the displays are set up incorrectly.

While returning home from a convention in Chicago, Jeremy received a text message from Katie, his manager: “Can you make a Monday 9 a.m. meeting in my cubicle? Have good news for you.” Jeremy thought, “If Pamela wants to meet with me in person rather than virtually, this must be big.” Jeremy sent back a text message immediately that he would make the meeting.

At the meeting, Pamela offered Jeremy a promotion to the position of team leader. The present team leader was moving to another position in the company, creating the vacancy. Jeremy would still have some responsibility for installing the electronic parts of exhibit booths, but his primary role would be as a team leader (also known as a crew supervisor). Jeremy’s salary would be immediately increased by 10 percent.

With a big smile on his face, Jeremy said, “Wow, Pamela, that’s a great offer, and I accept immediately. I love Event Planners, and I really want more responsibility. But why did you choose me? A few of the other members of the team have more experience than me, and they are very good workers.”

Pamela replied, “My boss and I both chose you for the same reason. In addition to your good technical qualifications, you work great with people. You are polite and friendly, and from what I hear, you give your coworkers encouragement when they need it the most. When the pressure is enormous, you help others stay calm.”

“Thank you for your encouragement, Pamela,” said Jeremy. “I can’t wait for our next exhibit installation.”

Questions

To what extent is Pamela justified in promoting Jeremy to team leader over other, more experienced workers just because he has good people skills?

From the few statements made by Jeremy above, which good interpersonal skills are you able to detect?

and therefore improve, you need a goal and a way to measure your current reality against this goal. You also need a way to assess that reality and a way to obtain feedback on the impact of your new actions.[12]

Goal or Desired State of Affairs

Changing your behavior, including enhancing your interpersonal relations, requires a clear goal or desired state of affairs. Your goal can also be regarded as what you want to accomplish as a result of your effort. A major reason having a specific goal is important is that it improves performance and increases personal satisfaction. With a goal in mind, you keep plugging away until you attain it, thereby increasing personal satisfaction and improving your performance. Goals are also important because if people perceive that they have not attained their goal, they typically increase their effort or modify their strategy for reaching the goal.[13]

Having a goal helps provide motivation and makes it possible to exercise the self-discipline necessary to follow through on your plans. In short, the goal focuses your effort on acquiring the improvements in behavior you seek.

Here we turn to Sean, a credit analyst who is being blocked from promotion because his manager perceives him as having poor interpersonal skills. After a discussion with his manager, Sean recognizes that he must improve his interpersonal relations if he wants to become a team leader.

Sean’s goal is to be considered worthy of promotion to a leadership position. To achieve his goal, he will have to achieve the general goal of improving his interpersonal relations. By conferring with the human resources director, Sean learns that his broad goal of “improving my interpersonal relations” will have to be supported by more specific goals. Having poor interpersonal relations or “rubbing people the wrong way” is reflected in many different behaviors. To begin, Sean selects one counterproductive behavior to improve: He is exceptionally intolerant of others and does not hide his intolerance. Sean’s goal is to become less intolerant and more patient in his dealings with others on the job.

State each goal as a positive statement.

Formulate specific goals.

Formulate concise goals.

Set realistic goals as well as stretch goals.

Set goals for different time periods.

Figure 1-3 Guidelines for Goal Setting

Fine Points about Goal Setting

So far, we have made goal setting seem easy. A truer description of goal setting is that it involves several fine points to increase the probability that the goal will be achieved. Key points about setting effective goals are outlined in Figure 1-3 and described next.

State Each Goal as a Positive Statement: To express your goals in positive statements is likely to be more energizing than focusing on the negative. [14]  An example of a positive statement would be, “During the next year when I am attending networking events, I will create a positive, professional impression with everybody I meet.” The negative counterpart would be, “During the next year, I will avoid making a fool of myself when I am attending networking events.” Despite this suggestion, there are times when a negative goal is useful, such as in reducing errors.

Formulate Specific Goals: A goal such as “attain success” is too vague to serve as a guide to daily action. A more useful goal would be to state specifically what you mean by success and when you expect to achieve it. For example, “I want to be the manager of patient services at a large medical clinic by January 1, 2018, and receive above-average performance reviews.”

Formulate Concise Goals: A useful goal can usually be expressed in a short, punchy statement; for example: “Decrease input errors in bank statements so that customer complaints are decreased by 25 percent by September 30 of this year.” People new to goal setting typically commit the error of formulating lengthy, rambling goal statements. These lengthy goals involve so many different activities that they fail to serve as specific guides to action.

Set Realistic as Well as Stretch Goals: A realistic goal is one that represents the right amount of challenge for the person pursuing the goal. On the one hand, easy goals are not very motivational; they may not spring you into action. On the other hand, goals that are too far beyond your capabilities may lead to frustration and despair because there is a good chance you will fail to reach them. The extent to which a goal is realistic depends on a person’s capabilities.

An easy goal for an experienced person might be a realistic goal for a beginner. Self-efficacy is also a factor in deciding whether a goal is realistic. (The term refers to the confidence in your ability to carry out a specific task.) The higher your self-efficacy, the more likely you are to think that a particular goal is realistic. A person with high self-efficacy for learning Chinese might say, “I think learning two new Chinese words a day is realistic.”

self-efficacy

The confidence in your ability to carry out a specific task.

Several goals that stretch your capability might be included in your list of goals. An extreme stretch goal might be for a store manager trainee to become the vice president of merchandising for Target within four years. Another type of stretch goal is striving for a noble cause. A Home Depot supervisor might not get excited about having the store associates load lumber onto the steel shelves, but she might get excited about the lumber being used to build homes, schools, and hospitals.

Set Goals for Different Time Periods: Goals are best set for different time periods, such as daily, short range, medium range, and long range. Daily goals are essentially a to-do list. Short-range goals cover the period from approximately one week to one year into the future. Finding a new job, for example, is typically a short-range goal. Medium-range goals relate to events that will take place within approximately two to five years. They concern such things as the type of education or training you plan to undertake and the next step in your career.

Long-range goals refer to events taking place five years into the future and beyond. As such, they relate to the overall lifestyle you wish to achieve, including the type of work and family situation you hope to have. Although every person should have a general idea of a desirable lifestyle, long-range goals should be flexible. You might, for example, plan to stay single until age 40. But while on vacation next summer, you might just happen to meet the right partner for you.

Short-range goals make an important contribution to attaining goals of longer duration. If a one-year career goal is to add 25 worthwhile contacts to your social network, a good way to motivate yourself is to search for two contacts per month for 11 months, and search for three in the remaining month. Progress toward a larger goal is self-rewarding.

Assessing Reality

The second major requirement for a method of changing behavior is to assess reality. Sean needs a way to assess how far he is from his goal of being eligible for promotion and how intolerant he is perceived to be. Sean has already heard from his manager, Alison, that he is not eligible for promotion right now. Sean might want to dig for more information by finding answers to the following questions:

“If I were more tolerant, would I be promoted now?”

“How bad are my interpersonal relations in the office?”

“How many people in the office think I rub them the wrong way?”

“How many deficiencies do my manager and coworkers perceive me to have?”

A starting point in answering these questions might be for Sean to confer with Alison about his behavior. To be more thorough, however, Sean might ask a friend in the office to help him answer the questions. A coworker is sometimes in an excellent position to provide feedback on how one is perceived by others in the office. Sean could also ask a confidant outside the office about his intolerance. Sean could ask a parent, a significant other, or both about the extent of his intolerance.

An Action Plan

The learning model needs some mechanism to change the relationship between the person and the environment. An action plan is a series of steps to achieve a goal. Without an action plan, a personal goal will be elusive. The person who sets the goal may not initiate steps to make his or her dream (a high-level goal) come true. If your goal is to someday become a self-employed business owner, your action plan should include saving money, establishing a good credit rating, and developing dozens of contacts.

action plan

A series of steps to achieve a goal.

Sean has to take some actions to improve his interpersonal relations, especially by reducing his intolerance. The change should ultimately lead to the promotion he desires. Sean’s action plan for becoming more tolerant includes the following:

Pausing to attempt to understand why a person is acting the way he or she does. An example is attempting to understand why a sales representative wants to extend credit to a customer with a poor credit rating.

Learning to control his own behavior so that he does not make intolerant statements just because he is experiencing pressure.

Taking a course in interpersonal skills or human relations.

Asking Alison to give him a quick reminder whenever she directly observes or hears of him being intolerant toward customers or workmates.

A fundamental reason that action plans often lead to constructive changes is the “do good, be good” method. It capitalizes on the well-established principle that our attitudes and beliefs often stem from our behaviors rather than precede them.[15] If Sean, or anybody else, starts being tolerant of and accepting toward people, he will soon believe that tolerance is important.

In addition to formulating these action plans, Sean must have the self-discipline to implement them. For example, he should keep a log of situations in which he was intolerant and those in which he was tolerant. He might also make a mental note to attempt to be cooperative and flexible in most of his dealings at work. When a customer does not provide all of the information that Sean needs to assess his or her creditworthiness, Sean should remind himself to say, “I want to process your credit application as quickly as possible. To do this, I need some important additional information.” Sean’s previous reflex in the same situation had been to snap, “I can’t read your mind. If you want to do business with us, you’ve got to stop hiding the truth.”

 

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Feedback on Actions

The fourth step in the learning model is to measure the effects of one’s actions against reality. You obtain feedback on the consequences of your actions. When your skill-improvement goal is complex, such as becoming more effective at resolving conflict, you will usually have to measure your progress in several ways. You will also need both short- and long-term measures of the effectiveness of your actions. Long-term measures are important because skill-development activities of major consequence have long-range implications.

To obtain short-range feedback, Sean can consult with Alison to see whether she has observed any changes in his tolerance. Alison can also collect any feedback she hears from others in the office. Furthermore, Sean will profit from feedback over a prolonged period of time, perhaps one or two years. He will be looking to see whether his image has changed from an intolerant person who rubs people the wrong way to a tolerant person who has cordial interactions with others.

You will often need to be persistent and encouraging to obtain useful feedback from others. Many people are hesitant to give negative feedback because of a conscious or preconsicious recognition that the recipient of the negative feedback might become hostile and retaliate.[16] The recipient of the negative feedback might appear hurt and respond with a statement such as, “I’m not perfect, and neither are you.”

Frequent Practice

The final step in the learning model makes true skill development possible. Implementing the new behavior and using feedback for fine-tuning is an excellent start in acquiring a new interpersonal skill. For the skill to be long lasting, however, it must be integrated into your usual way of conducting yourself.

In Sean’s case, he will have to practice being tolerant regularly until it becomes a positive habit. After a skill is programmed into your repertoire, it becomes a habit. This is important because a skill involves many habits. For example, good customer service skills include the habits of smiling and listening carefully. After you attempt the new interpersonal skills described in this book, you will need to practice them frequently to make a noticeable difference in your behavior. Changes may appear unnnatural at first, but with practice they become ingrained behavioral tendencies and a means of relating to other people.[17]

A sports analogy is appropriate here. Assume that Ashley, a tennis player, takes a lesson to learn how to hit the ball with greater force. The instructor points out that the reason she is not hitting with much force is that she is relying too much on her arm and not enough on her leg and body strength. To hit the ball with more force, Ashley is told that she must put one foot out in front of her when she strikes the ball (she must “step into” the ball).

Skill-Building Exercise 1-1

 

Applying the Model for Improving Interpersonal Skills

The model for improving interpersonal skills is aimed at developing skills. At the same time, becoming effective in applying the model is a valuable skill in itself. You will need to apply the model perhaps a few times before you can become effective at developing an interpersonal skill when you want to. To get started with the model, attempt to develop an important, yet basic, interpersonal skill. For illustrative purposes, begin with enhancing your ability to give recognition to others for actions and words you consider meritorious. If you are already good at giving recognition, you can enhance your skill even further. For additional information, you might want to refer to the discussion about giving recognition in Chapter 11. The exercise under discussion should take a few minutes here and there to spread out over several weeks.

Step 1.Goal or Desired State of Affairs

Your goal here is to learn how to give recognition or to enhance further your skill in giving recognition. You want to recognize others in such a way that they are encouraged to keep up the good work. (Or perhaps you have another related goal.)

Step 2.Assessing Reality

Ask a few confidants how good you already are in giving recognition. Ask questions such as, “How good have I been in saying thank you?” “When you have done something nice for me, how did I react to you?” “How many thank-you e-mails and text messages have I sent you since you’ve known me?” Also, reflect on your own behavior in such matters as giving a server a big tip for exceptional service or explaining to a tech specialist how much he or she has helped you. Ask yourself whether you have ever thanked a teacher for an outstanding course or explained to a coach how much his or her advice helped you.

Step 3.Action Plan

What are you going to do in the next few weeks to recognize the meritorious behavior of others? Will you be sending thank-you e-mails, text messages, and warmly worded postal cards; offering smiles and handshakes to people who help you; or giving larger-than-usual tips for excellent service with an explanation of why the tip is so large? Part of the action plan will be who are you going to recognize, where you are going to recognize them, when you will be giving recognition, and how (what form of recognition) you will be giving it.

Step 4.Feedback on Actions

Observe carefully how people react to your recognition. Do they smile? Do they shrug off your form of recognition? It is especially important to observe how the person reacts to you during your next interaction. For example, does the server who you tipped so generously give you a big welcome? Does the bank teller who you thanked so sincerely seem eager to cash your next check? If you do not get the intended result from your recognition efforts, you might need to fine-tune your sincerity. Maybe when you sent a recognition e-mail or text message, you did not mention the person’s name, and just wrote “Hey.” Maybe you did not combine a thank you with a smile. Analyze carefully the feedback you receive.

Step 5.Frequent Practice

For this exercise, perhaps you can only practice giving recognition in one or two settings. Yet if this exercise appears promising, you might continue to practice in the future. Should you continue to practice, you will be taking a personal step to make the world a better place.

Under the watchful eye of the coach, Ashley does put a foot out in front when she strikes the ball. Ashley is excited about the good results. But if Ashley fails to make the same maneuver with her feet during her tennis matches, she will persist in hitting weakly. If Ashley makes the effort to use her legs more effectively on almost every shot, she will soon integrate the new movement into her game.

In summary, the basics of a model for learning skills comprise five steps: goal or desired state of affairs → assessing reality → an action plan → feedback on actions → frequent practice. You must exercise self-discipline to complete each step. If you skip a step, you will be disappointed with the results of your interpersonal skill-development program.

Identification of Developmental Needs

Learning Objective 3

An important concept in skill development is that people are most likely to develop new skills when they feel the need for change. A person might reflect, “Hardly anybody ever takes my suggestions seriously, in either face-to-face or electronic meetings. I wonder what I’m doing wrong?” This person is probably ready to learn how to become a more persuasive communicator.

As you read this book and complete the experiential exercises, you will probably be more highly motivated to follow through with skill development in areas in which you think you need development. A specific area in which a person needs to change is referred to as a developmental need. For instance, some people may be too shy, too abrasive, or too intolerant, and some may not give others the encouragement they need.

developmental need

A specific area in which a person needs to change or improve.

To improve interpersonal skills, we must be aware of how we are perceived by people who interact with us. Developmental needs related to interpersonal skills can be identified in several ways. First, if you are candid with yourself you can probably point to areas in which you recognize that change is needed. You might reflect on your experiences and realize that you have had repeated difficulty in resolving conflict. Second, a related approach is to think of feedback you have received. If there has been consistency in asking you to improve in a particular area, you could hypothesize that the feedback has merit. Perhaps five different people have told you that you are not a good team player. “Becoming a better team player” might therefore be one of your developmental needs.

A third approach to assessing developmental needs is to solicit feedback. Ask the opinion of people who know you well to help you identify needs for improvement with respect to interpersonal skills. Present and previous managers are a valuable source of this type of feedback. (As mentioned earlier, you may have to be persistent to obtain feedback because many people are hesistant to provide negative feedback.)

A fourth approach to pinpointing developmental needs is closely related to the previous three: feedback from performance evaluations. If you have worked for a firm that uses performance evaluations to help people develop, you may have received constructive suggestions during the evaluation. For example, one manager told his assistant, “You need to project more self-confidence when you answer the phone. You sound so unsure and vague when you talk on the telephone. I have noticed this, and several customers have joked about it.” The recipient of this feedback was prompted to participate in assertiveness training in which she learned how to express herself more positively.

Self-Assessment Quiz 1-1 gives you the opportunity to identify your developmental needs. The same exercise is a first step in improving your interpersonal relations on the job because identification of a problem is the first–and most important–step toward change. For example, if you cite improving your relationships with people from cultures different from your own, you have planted the seeds for change. You are then more likely to seek out people from other cultures in the workplace or at school and cultivate their friendship.

Now that you (and perhaps another person) have identified specific behaviors that may require change, you need to draw up an action plan. Proceed with your action plan even though you have just begun studying this text, but peek ahead to relevant chapters if you wish. Describe briefly a plan of attack for bringing about the change you hope to achieve for each statement that is checked. Ideas for your action plan can come from information presented anywhere in this text, from outside reading, or from talking to a person experienced in dealing with people. A basic example would be to study materials about customer service and observe an effective model if you checked “I feel awkward dealing with a customer.”

Universal Needs for Improving Interpersonal Relations

We have just described how understanding your unique developmental needs facilitates improving your interpersonal skills. There are also areas for skill improvement in interpersonal relationships that are shared by most managerial, professional, technical, and sales personnel. These common areas for improvement are referred to as universal training needs. Almost any professional person, for example, could profit from enhancing his or her negotiation and listening skills.

universal training need

An area for improvement common to most people.

This book provides the opportunity for skill development in a number of universal training needs. In working through these universal training needs, be aware that many of them will also fit your specific developmental needs. A given universal training need can be an individual’s developmental need at the same time. It is reasonable to expect that you will be more strongly motivated to improve skills that relate closely to your developmental needs.

Self-Assessment Quiz 1-1

 

What Are Your Developmental Needs?

This exercise is designed to heighten your self-awareness of areas in which you could profit from personal improvement. It is not a test, and there is no score; yet your answers to the checklist may prove helpful to you in mapping out a program of improvement in your interpersonal relations.

Directions:

Following are many specific aspects of behavior that suggest a person needs improvement in interpersonal skills. Check each statement that is generally true for you. You can add to the validity of this exercise by having one or two other people who know you well answer this form as they think it describes you. Then compare your self-analyses with their analyses of you.

	Place check mark in this column.
1. I’m too shy.
2. I’m too overbearing and obnoxious.
3. I intimidate too many people.
4. I have trouble expressing my feelings.
5. I make negative comments about people too readily.
6. I have a difficult time solving problems when working in a group.
7. I’m a poor team player.
8. Very few people listen to me.
9. It is difficult for me to relate well to people from different cultures.
10. When I’m in conflict with another person, I usually lose.
11. I hog too much time in meetings or in class.
12. I’m very poor at office politics.
13. People find me boring.
14. It is difficult for me to criticize others.
15. I’m too serious most of the time.
16. My temper is too often out of control.
17. I avoid controversy in dealing with others.
18. It is difficult for me to find things to talk about with others.
19. I don’t get my point across well.
20. I feel awkward dealing with a customer.
21. I am a poor listener.
22. I don’t get the importance of ethics in business.
23. My attempts to lead others have failed.
24. I rarely smile when I am with other people.
25. I don’t get along well with people who are from a different ethnic or racial group than mine.
26. I multitask when people are talking to me.
27. I insult too many people on social networking sites.
28.                               (Fill in your own statement.)

 

The major universal training needs covered in this text are as follows:

Understanding individual differences: To deal effectively with others in the workplace, it is necessary to recognize that people have different capabilities, needs, and interests.

Self-esteem and self-confidence: To function effectively with people in most work and personal situations, people need to feel good about themselves and believe that they can accomplish important tasks. Although self-esteem and self-confidence are essentially attitudes about the self, they also involve skills such as attaining legitimate accomplishments and using positive self-talk.

Interpersonal communication: Effective communication with people is essential for carrying out more than 50 percent of the work conducted by most professional and managerial workers.

Behaving appropriately when using digital devices: Digital devices are integrated into most facets of our work and personal lives. Knowing how to use various electronic devices and systems, including e-mail, cell phones, and smartphones, in a positive and constructive way instead of being uncivil and unproductive can be a major contributor to building your interpersonal relationships.

Developing teamwork skills: The most sweeping change in the organization of work in the last 40 years has been a shift to teams and away from traditional departments. Knowing how to be an effective team player therefore enhances your chances for success in the modern organization.

Group problem solving and decision making: As part of the same movement that emphasizes work teams, organizations now rely heavily on group problem solving. As a consequence, being an above-average contributor to group problem solving is a key part of effective interpersonal relations on the job. In addition to solving the problem, a decision must be made.

Cross-cultural relations: The modern workplace has greater cultural diversity than ever before. Being able to deal effectively with people from different cultures, from within and outside your own country, is therefore an important requirement for success.

Resolving conflicts with others: Conflict in the workplace is almost inevitable as people compete for limited resources. Effective interpersonal relations are therefore dependent upon knowing how to resolve conflict successfully.

Becoming an effective leader: In today’s organizations, a large number of people have the opportunity to practice leadership, even if on temporary assignment. Enhancing one’s leadership skills is therefore almost a universal requirement.

Motivating others: Whether you have the title of manager or leader or are working alone, you have to know how to motivate the people who you depend on to get your work accomplished. Given that few people are gifted motivators, most people can profit from skill development in motivation.

Helping others develop and grow: As power is shared in organizations among managers and individual contributors (nonmanagers) alike, more people are required to help each other develop and grow. To carry out this role, most of us need skill development in coaching and mentoring.

Positive political skills: Whether you work in a small or large firm, part of having effective interpersonal relationships is being able to influence others in such a way that your interests are satisfied. Positive political skills help you satisfy your interests without being unethical or devious.

Customer service skills: The current emphasis on customer satisfaction dictates that every worker should know how to provide good service to customers. Most people can benefit from strengthening their skills in serving both external

 

Pressmaster/Shutterstock

and internal customers. (Internal customers are the people with whom you interact on the job.)

Enhancing ethical behavior: Although most workers know right from wrong in their hearts, we can all sharpen our ability to make ethical decisions. By consistently making highly ethical decisions, people can improve their interpersonal relations.

Stress management and personal productivity: Having your stress under control and having good work habits and time-management skills contributes to relating well to others, even though they are not interpersonal skills themselves. By having your stress under control and being efficient and productive, you are in a better position to relate comfortably to others. Coworkers enjoy relating to a person who is not visibly stressed and who does not procrastinate.

Job search and career-management skills: Finding an outstanding job for yourself, holding onto the job, and moving ahead are not specifically interpersonal skills. However, both finding the right job for yourself and managing your career rely heavily on good interpersonal skills. Two basic examples are conducting yourself well in an interview and developing a network of contacts that can help you advance.

Developing Interpersonal Skills on the Job

Learning Objective 4

The primary thrust of this book is to teach interpersonal skills that can be applied to the job. As part of enhancing your skills, it is essential to recognize that opportunities also exist in the workplace for developing interpersonal skills. This dual opportunity for learning soft skills is similar to the way hard skills are learned both inside and outside the classroom. Studying a text and doing laboratory exercises, for example, will help you learn useful information technology skills. On the job, one day you might be asked to optimize your company’s presence on the Internet. (“Optimize” in this sense means that your company’s Web site appears higher on Internet searches.) Having never performed this task before, you may search appropriate Web sites, ask questions of coworkers, telephone tech support, and use trial and error. Within a few days, you have acquired a valuable new skill. The information technology skills you learned in the course facilitated learning new computer tasks, yet the actual work of learning how to optimize your company’s URL in Web site searches was done on the job.

Here we look at two related aspects of learning interpersonal skills on the job: informal learning and specific developmental experiences.

Informal Learning

Business firms, as well as nonprofit organizations, invest an enormous amount of money and time into teaching interpersonal skills. Teaching methods include paying for employees to take outside courses, conducting training on company premises, using videoconferencing or Web-based courses, and reimbursing for distance learning courses on the Internet. Workers also develop interpersonal skills by interacting with work associates and observing how other people deal with interpersonal challenges.

Informal learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills that takes place naturally outside a structured learning environment. In the context of the workplace, informal learning takes place without being designed by the organization. Learning can take place informally in ways such as speaking to the person in the next cubicle, asking a question of a coworker while in the hall, or calling the tech support center.

informal learning

The acquisition of knowledge and skills that takes place naturally outside of a structured learning environment.

A study conducted by the American Society for Training Directors found that informal learning is part of how employees learn. Nearly one-half of the 1,104 respondents said that informal learning is occurring to a high or very high extent in their organizations. E-mail emerged as the top-ranked informal learning tool, with accessing information from an Intranet a close second.[18]

Learning interpersonal skills informally can take place through such means as observing a coworker, manager, or team leader deal with a situation. A newly hired assistant store manager couldn’t help seeing and overhearing a customer screaming at the store manager about a defective space heater. The manager said calmly, “It appears you are pretty upset about your heater that caused a short circuit in your house. What can I do to help you?” The customer calmed down as quickly as air is released from a balloon. The assistant store manager thought to herself, “Now I know how to handle a customer who has gone ballistic. I’ll state what the customer is probably feeling, and then offer to help.”

Informal learning can also occur when another person coaches you about how to handle a situation. The store manager might have said to the new assistant manager, “Let me tell you what to do in case you encounter a customer who goes ballistic. Summarize in a few words what he or she is probably feeling, and then offer to help. The effect can be remarkable.” (This incident is classified as informal learning because it takes place outside a classroom.)

Formal and informal learning of interpersonal skills are useful supplements to each other. If you are formally learning interpersonal skills, your level of awareness for enhancing your interpersonal skills will increase. By formally studying interpersonal skills, you are likely to develop the attitude, “What hints about dealing more effectively with people can I pick up on the job?” You may have noticed that if you are taking lessons in a sport, you become much more observant about watching the techniques of outstanding athletes in person or on television.

Specific Developmental Experiences

Another perspective on developing interpersonal skills in the workplace is that certain experiences are particularly suited to such development. Coping with a difficult customer, as previously suggested, would be one such scenario. Morgan W. McCall Jr. has for many years studied ways in which leaders develop on the job. Contending with certain challenges is at the heart of these key learning experiences. Several of the powerful learning experiences McCall has identified are particularly geared toward developing better interpersonal skills.[19]

Unfamiliar responsibilities: The person has to handle responsibilities that are new, very different, or much broader than previous ones. Dealing with these unfamiliar responsibilities necessitates asking others for help and gaining their cooperation. For example, being assigned to supervise a group doing work unfamiliar to you would put you in a position of gaining the cooperation of group members who knew more about the work than you.

Proving yourself: If you feel added pressure to show others that you can deal effectively with responsibilities, you are likely to develop skills in projecting self-confidence and persuading others.

Problems with employees: If you supervise employees or have coworkers who lack adequate experience, are incompetent, or are poorly motivated, you need to practice skills such as effective listening and conflict resolution in order to work smoothly with them.

Influencing without authority: An excellent opportunity for practicing influence skills is being forced to influence coworkers, higher management, company outsiders, and other key people over whom you have no formal control. Team leaders typically face the challenge of needing to influence workers over whom they lack the authority to discipline or grant raises. (The reason is that a team leader usually does not have as much formal authority as a traditional manager.)

Difficult manager: If you and your manager have different opinions on how to approach problems, or if your manager has serious shortcomings, you will have to use your best human relations skills to survive. You will need to develop subtle skills such as using diplomacy to explain to your manager that his or her suggestion is completely unworkable.

The general point to be derived from these scenarios is that certain on-the-job challenges require a high level of interpersonal skill. Faced with such challenges, you will be prompted to use the best interpersonal skills you have. Formal training can be a big help because you might remember a skill that should be effective in a particular situation. Assume that you are faced with an overbearing manager who belittles you in front of others. You might be prompted to try a conflict-resolution technique you acquired in class.

Concept Review and Reinforcement

Key Terms

interpersonal skill training   4

self-efficacy   7

action plan   8

developmental need   10

universal training need   11

informal learning   14

Summary

Effective interpersonal relations must be combined with technical knowledge to achieve success in any job involving interactions with people. This book presents a three-part strategy for achieving a high level of interpersonal skill. Each chapter presents concepts related to an area of interpersonal skill, behavioral guidelines, and experiential exercises. Interpersonal skill training is also referred to as soft-skills training to differentiate it from technical training.

A five-part model of learning can be applied to improving interpersonal skills. First, state a goal or desired state of affairs. Second, assess the reality of how far you are from your goal. Third, develop an action plan to change the relationship between the person and the environment. Self-discipline is required to implement the action plan. Fourth, solicit feedback on actions to measure the effects of your actions against reality. Fifth, continue to practice your newly learned skill.

To use the learning model effectively, it is useful to understand the goal-setting process. The guidelines offered here for goal setting are to (1) state each goal as a positive statement, (2) formulate specific goals, (3) formulate concise goals, (4) set realistic as well as stretch goals, and (5) set goals for different time periods.

People are most likely to develop new skills when they feel the need for change. A developmental need is the specific area in which a person needs to change. Identifying your developmental needs in relation to interpersonal relations can be achieved through self-analysis and feedback from others. You can also solicit feedback and make use of the feedback you have received in performance appraisals.

Universal training needs are those areas for improvement that are common to most people. The major topics in this text reflect universal training needs because they are necessary for success in most positions involving interaction with people.

Opportunities exist in the workplace to develop interpersonal skills. A general approach to developing these skills is informal learning, whereby you acquire skills naturally outside of a structured work environment. Informal learning of interpersonal skills often takes place through means such as observing a coworker, manager, or team leader cope with a situation. Certain workplace experiences are particularly well suited to developing interpersonal skills. These include unfamiliar responsibilities, proving yourself, having problems with employees, influencing without authority, and having a difficult manager.

Questions for Discussion and Review

Your friend says, “I’m such a great techie that I don’t have to worry about interpersonal skills.” What advice do you have for your techie friend?

In your opinion, do supervisors of entry-level workers rely more on soft skills or hard skills to accomplish their work?

Identify a developmental need related to interpersonal relations of the current president of the United States. How did you reach this conclusion about the president?

Why are interpersonal skills very important for job seekers when there is a shortage of good jobs open in their field?

How does a person know whether or not the feedback he or she receives from another person is accurate?

How could doing a thorough job on Self-Assessment Quiz 1-1 have a major impact on a person’s career?

A statement frequently made in business is, “If you are obnoxious, you need to be very talented to succeed.” How does this conclusion relate to the learning of interpersonal skills?

Based on what you have learned so far in this book, and your own intuition, how would you respond to the statement, “You can’t learn how to get along with people from reading a book”?

Give an example of a skill you might have learned informally at any point in your life.

Give an example of how a small-business owner needs good interpersonal skills to survive.

The Web Corner

www.interpersonalskillsonline.com/about

www.wikihow.com/Develop-interpersonal-skills

(Interpersonal skill development)

www.infed.org

(Informal learning)

Internet Skill Builder: The Importance of Interpersonal Skills

One of the themes of this chapter and the entire book is that interpersonal skills are important for success in business. But what do employers really think? To find out, visit the Web sites of five of your favorite companies, such as Starbucks.com or Apple.com. Go to the employment section, and search for a job that you might qualify for now or in the future. Investigate which interpersonal or human relations skills the employer mentions as a requirement, such as, “Must have superior spoken communication skills.” Make up a list of the interpersonal skills you find mentioned. What conclusion or conclusions do you reach from this exercise?

Developing Your Human Relations Skills

Interpersonal Relations Case 1.1

Tyler Likes Tyler

Tyler is an inventory control specialist at a company that manufactures fiber-optic cables for the telecommunications industry. Among the users of fiber-optic cables are telephone companies and cable television companies. Tyler enjoys his position within the company and believes that he has a promising future in an industry that will most likely continue to grow.

During his lunch break one day, Tyler sat down next to Isabella, another inventory specialist. “Wow, I have some very exciting news to tell you,” said Tyler. “I dented my SUV a week ago, and I thought I would have about a $700 repair bill not covered by insurance. Instead, I tried one of these paint-free dent specialists. The guy took out the dent for $150, and my SUV looks as good as new.”

Isabella replied, “Oh yes.” Tyler, then said, “Everything is good with you isn’t it?” Before Isabella responded, Tyler continued, “You will be very excited to know that this summer I am going on a four-day hike in the Colorado Rockies. Isn’t that really something?”

Isabella glanced up briefly at Tyler, and said, “See you later. I have an appointment.”

Later that day, Tyler sat down next to Noah, a sales representative during the afternoon break. Noah began the conversation by saying, “Hey, Tyler, you might be interested in knowing about a big sale I have pending with a regional telephone company.”

Tyler said in response, “I have even bigger news. My supervisor Mindy said that I am doing an outstanding job of controlling the inventory and that I might be eligible for an above-average salary increase.”

Noah said, “Tyler, I’ll see you later. I just remembered that I have a couple of important calls to make back at my cubicle.”

Tyler began to wonder what was going on with his coworkers. He thought, “That’s twice today that my coworkers have been acting a little bit uninterested in me. I wonder if they are under too much pressure.”

Case Questions

What developmental needs does Tyler appear to have?

To what extent do you think Isabella and Noah were being rude toward Tyler?

What would you recommend that Tyler do to obtain feedback on his needs for development?

Interpersonal Skills Role-Play

Tyler Wants to Improve His Interpersonal Skills

Tyler, in the case just presented, comes to recognize that perhaps he has some problems in the way he conducts conversations, and that if he focused more on his coworkers and less on himself, he might get along better with his coworkers. This role-play is divided into two parts. In the first part, one student plays the role of Tyler, who meets up with Isabella on another day to engage her in conversation. Isabella thinks that Tyler met with her again for the purpose of talking more about himself. In the second part, one student plays the role of Tyler, who meets up with Noah again. Noah is a little discouraged with Tyler because he thinks that Tyler is looking for another opportunity to brag about his own accomplishments.

Run the role-play for about six minutes, while other class members observe the interactions and later provide feedback about the interpersonal skills displayed by Tyler in relation to his interaction with both Isabella and Noah. Also, rate Isabella and Noah. Observers rate the role players on two dimensions, using a 1-to-5 scale from very poor (1) to very good (5). One dimension is “effective use of human relations techniques.” The second dimension is “acting ability.” A few observers might voluntarily provide feedback to the role players in terms of sharing their ratings and observations. The course instructor might also provide feedback.

Interpersonal Relations Case 1.2

Betty Lou Sets Some Goals

Betty Lou is a marketing specialist at Pasta Mucho, the biggest pasta maker in her region. Over two years in the position, she contributed to the success of the Pasta Mucho product line. Although Betty Lou admits that a recession has contributed to the upswing in pasta sales nationwide, she believes that more than luck is involved. “After all,” she says, “I contributed to the marketing campaign that showed that preparing pasta at home makes you cool.”

Betty Lou’s boss, Garth, is pleased with her job performance; but as part of the performance evaluation process, he has encouraged Betty Lou to prepare a goal sheet, mapping out her plans for the upcoming year. “Make it impressive,” said Garth, “because my boss will be reviewing your goals also.” Three days later, Betty Lou sent Garth an e-mail laying out her goals as follows:

Help make Pasta Mucho one of the great brands on the planet, much like Coca-Cola, Mercedes, and Microsoft.

Become the best marketing executive I can be.

Help the company develop some other wildly successful brands.

Get in good with more buyers at supermarket chains.

Get Pasta Mucho all over Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

After reading the set of goals, Garth thought to himself, “What can I tell Betty Lou without hurting her feelings?”

Case Questions

If you were Garth, what would you tell Betty Lou about her goals without hurting her feelings?

What suggestions can you offer Betty Lou to improve her goal statement?

How might interpersonal skills contribute to Betty Lou attaining her goals?

References

Original story created from facts and observations in the following sources: Amir Efrati and Jessica E. Vascellaro, “Yahoo’s Profit Lags: New CEO Faces Scores of Problems as Financial Woes Mount,” The Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2012, p. B7; Michelle V. Rafter, “Yahoo’s Recruiter-in-Chief,” Workforce Management, November 2012, pp. 20–22; Amir Efrati and Jon Letzing, “Google’s Mayer Takes Over as Yahoo Chief,” The Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2012, pp. B1, B2; Patricia Sellers, “Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo,” Fortune, October 29, 2012, pp. 118–128; Brad Stone, “Reading the Mind of Marissa Mayer,” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 23–July 29, 2012, pp. 30–31; Gianpiero Petrigilieri, “Marissa Mayer Is Not the Exception—She Is the Norm,”  http://www.forbes.com/sites/insead , July 20, 2012, pp. 1–3; Joann S. Lublin and Leslie Kwoh, “For Yahoo CEO, Two New Roles,” The Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2012, pp. B1, B6; Amir Efrati, “A Makeover Made in Google’s Image,” The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2012, pp. B1, B6.

Dale Carnegie Training Brochure, Spring–Summer 2005, p. 12.

Joanne Lozar Glenn, “Lessons in Human Relations,” Business Education Forum, October 2003, p. 10.

“Unleashing the Power of the New Workforce: Interpersonal Skills in the Modern Workplace,” Hogan Assessment Systems. (Printed in Workforce Management, November 2011, p. S3).

Cited in Diana Louise Carter, “A Picture of Success: Graphics Company Has Shown Steady Growth,” Democrat and Chronicle (Roc Business), July 9, 2012, p. 6B.

Cited in Donna Nebenzahl, “Turning the Page on Corporate Leadership,”  thestar.com  (The Toronto Star), September 19, 2009, p. 2,  http://www.thestar.com .

Based on Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & In Life, One Conversation at a Time (New York: Random House, 2009).

Melissa Korn and Joe Light, “On the Lesson Plan: Feelings,” The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2011, p. B6.

George B. Yancey, Chante P. Clarkson, Julie D. Baxa, and Rachel N. Clarkson, “Example of Good and Bad Interpersonal Skills at Work,” http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_368.asp, p. 2, accessed February 2, 2004.

Edward Muzio, Deborah J. Fisher, Err R. Thomas, and Valerie Peters, “Soft Skill Quantification (SSQ) for Project Manager Competencies,” Project Management Journal, June 2007, pp. 30–31.

Marshall Goldsmith, “How Not to Lose the Top Job,” Harvard Business Review, January 2009, p. 77.

The model presented here is an extension and modernization of the one presented in Thomas V. Bonoma and Gerald Zaltman, Psychology for Management (Boston: Kent, 1981), pp. 88–92.

Gary P. Latham, “The Motivational Benefits of Goal-Setting,” Academy of Management Executive, November 2004, pp. 126–127.

Susan B. Wilson and Michael S. Dobson, Goal Setting: How to Create an Action Plan and Achieve Your Goals, 2nd ed. (New York: American Management Association, 2008).

Kirsten Weir, “Revising Your Story,” Monitor on Psychology, March 2012, p. 28.

Karen Wright, “A Chic Critique,” Psychology Today, March/April 2011, p. 56.

“Unleashing the Power of the New Workforce,” p. S3.

Andrew Paradise, “Informal Learning Overlooked or Overhyped?” http://www.astdf.org/Publications, July 1, 2002, pp. 1–2.

Morgan W. McCall Jr., High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2 Understanding Individual Differences

 

wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

Learning Objectives

After reading and studying this chapter and completing the exercises, you should be able to

Make adjustments for the individual differences among people in dealing with them on the job.

Develop insight into how your personality, mental ability, emotional intelligence, and values differ from others.

Respond to personality differences among people.

Respond to mental ability differences among people.

Respond to differences in values among people.

US Airways Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, the hero of the January 2009 airline ditching in the Hudson River, told investigators that he determined in a matter of seconds that only the river was “long enough, wide enough, and smooth enough” to put down the crippled jetliner. Testifying before the National Transformation Safety Board, Sullenberger said that when both engines of his Airbus 320 lost power at about 2,700 feet after sucking in birds, he quickly decided that the plane was losing speed and altitude, and that returning to New York’s LaGuardia Airport was “problematic.” After spotting a flock of birds that were very large and filled the entire windscreen of the jet, Sullenberger noticed a dramatic drop in thrust. Disregarding air traffic controller suggestions to return to LaGuardia or try to swoop into another nearby airport, he set his sights on the surface of the Hudson. With the plane’s flaps out, speed dwindling fast, and splashdown barely seconds away, Sullenberger asked his first officer, “Got any ideas?” Copilot Jeff Skiles instantly replied, “Actually not.”

Once the plane settled in the water, and the crew realized the fuselage remained intact, Sullenberger turned to his first officer and both instinctively blurted out at the same instant, “That wasn’t as bad as I thought.” Responding to questions about the lessons to be learned from the landing, Capt. Sullenberger mentioned training to help pilots work together as a team and additional efforts to improve emergency evacuations. His comments repeatedly swung back to the notion of an airline culture that stresses safety and respects the judgment of experienced pilots. “The captain’s authority is a precious commodity that cannot be denigrated,” he said. The captain’s testimony also highlighted the importance of relying on experience and memory, rather than rigidly using checklists to deal with unexpected emergencies. With both pilots in the cockpit clocking an impressive 20,000 hours of total flight time, Captain Sullenberger said, “Teamwork and experience allowed us to focus on the high priorities without referring to written checklists.”[1]

The story about the hero pilot “Sully” illustrates several of the key topics about differences among people that will be described in this chapter. Native intelligence, including the capacity to memorize details, practical intelligence (wisdom and common sense), and emotional control all play an important role in job performance. The major theme of this chapter deals with how people vary in a wide range of personal factors. Individual differences exert a profound effect on job performance and behavior. Such differences refer to variations in how people respond to the same situation based on personal characteristics. One of hundreds of possible examples is that some people can concentrate longer and harder on their work, thereby producing more and higher quality work, than others.

individual differences

Variations in how people respond to the same situation based on personal characteristics. Mental processes used to perceive and make judgments from situations.

This chapter describes several of the major sources of individual differences on the job. It also gives you the chance to measure your standing on several key dimensions of behavior and helps you develop skills in responding to individual differences. Knowing how to respond to such differences is the cornerstone of effective interpersonal relations. To be effective in human relations, you cannot treat everybody the same.

Personality

Learning Objective 1

Learning Objective 2

“We’re not going to promote you to department head,” said the manager to the analyst. “Although you are a great troubleshooter, you’ve alienated too many people in the company. You’re too blunt and insensitive.” As just implied, most successes and failures in people-contact jobs are attributed largely to interpersonal skills. And personality traits are major contributors to interpersonal, or human relations, skills.

Personality refers to those persistent and enduring behavior patterns that tend to be expressed in a wide variety of situations. A person who is brash and insensitive in one situation is likely to behave similarly in many other situations. Your personality is what makes you unique. Your walk, your talk, your appearance, your speech, and your inner values and conflicts all contribute to your personality.

personality

Persistent and enduring behavior patterns that tend to be expressed in a wide variety of situations.

Here, we illustrate the importance of personality to interpersonal relations in organizations by describing eight key personality traits and personality types related to cognitive styles. In addition, you will be given guidelines for dealing effectively with different personality types.

Eight Major Personality Factors and Traits

Many psychologists believe that the basic structure of human personality is represented by five broad factors, known as the Big Five: neuroticism, extraversion (the scientific spelling of extroversion), openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Three more key personality factors—self-monitoring of behavior, risk taking and thrill seeking, and optimism—are also so important for human relations that they are considered here.

All eight factors have a substantial impact on interpersonal relations and job performance. The interpretations and meanings of these factors provide useful information because they help you pinpoint important areas for personal development. Although these

 

Figure 2-1 Eight Personality Factors Related to Interpersonal Skills

factors are partially inherited, most people can improve them provided they exert much conscious effort over a period of time. For example, it usually takes at least three months of effort before a person is perceived to be more agreeable. The eight factors, shown in Figure 2-1, are described in the following list.

Neuroticism reflects emotional instability and identifies people who are prone to psychological distress and to coping with problems in unproductive ways. Traits associated with this personality factor include being anxious, insecure, angry, embarrassed, emotional, and worried. A person of low neuroticism—or high emotional stability—is calm and confident, and usually in control.

Extraversion reflects the quantity or intensity of social interactions, the need for social stimulation, self-confidence, and competition. Traits associated with extraversion include being sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active. An outgoing person is often described as extraverted, whereas introverted persons are described as reserved, timid, and quiet. Introverts tend to prefer the inner world of their own mind, whereas extraverts tend to prefer the outer world of sociability. [2]  A study conducted with more than 4,700 people found a positive relationship between extraversion and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. [3]  This finding makes sense, because being an entrepreneur requires considerable reaching out to people to start the business, including fund raising.

Openness reflects the proactive seeking of experience for its own sake. Traits associated with openness include being creative, cultured, intellectually curious, broadminded, and artistically sensitive. People who score low on this personality factor are practical, with narrow interests.

Agreeableness reflects the quality of one’s interpersonal orientation. Traits associated with the agreeableness factor include being courteous, flexible, trusting, good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, softhearted, and tolerant. The other end of the continuum includes disagreeable, cold, and antagonistic people.

Conscientiousness reflects organization, self-restraint, persistence, and motivation toward attaining goals. Traits associated with conscientiousness include being hardworking, dependable, well organized, and thorough. The person low in conscientiousness is lazy, disorganized, and unreliable.

Self-monitoring of behavior refers to the process of observing and controlling how we are perceived by others. Self-monitoring involves three major and somewhat distinct tendencies: (1) the willingness to be the center of attention, (2) sensitivity to the reactions of others, and (3) ability and willingness to adjust behavior to induce positive reactions in others. High self-monitors are pragmatic and even chameleonlike actors in social groups. They often say what others want to hear. Low self-monitors avoid situations that require them to adapt to outer images. In this way, their outer behavior adheres to their inner values. Low self-monitoring can often lead to inflexibility. Take Self-Assessment Quiz 2-1 to measure your self-monitoring tendencies.

Risk taking and thrill seeking refers to the propensity to take risks and pursue thrills. Persons with high standing on this personality trait are sensation seekers who pursue novel, intense, and complex sensations. They are willing to take risks for the sake of such experiences. The search for giant payoffs and daily thrills motivates people with an intense need for risk taking and thrill seeking. [4]  Taking prudent risks can be important for the success of a business. Jim Donald, CEO of Extended Stay of America, encouraged employees to take risks, because the company had emerged from bankruptcy, and employees were still in the survival mode. They avoided decisions that might cost the company money, such as repairing the property or accommodating an angry guest with a free night’s stay. Donald’s solution was to hand out about 9,000 miniature “Get Out of Jail Free” cards to employees. When employees took a big risk for the company, they could use a card free, with no questions asked. [5]

Take Self-Assessment Quiz 2-2 to measure your propensity for risk taking and thrill seeking.

Optimism refers to a tendency to experience positive emotional states and to typically believe that positive outcomes will be forthcoming from most activities. The other end of the scale is pessimism—a tendency to experience negative emotional states and to typically believe that negative outcomes will be forthcoming from most activities. Optimism versus pessimism is also referred to in more technical terms as positive affectivity versus negative affectivity and is considered a major personality trait.

A person’s tendency toward having positive affectivity (optimism) versus negative affectivity (pessimism) also influences job satisfaction. Being optimistic, as you would suspect, tends to enhance job satisfaction.[6]

A potential downside of optimism is that it can lead a person to not fear risks, such as the possibility of being fired for poor performance. Also, being a little pessimistic about the future can sometimes help us reduce anxiety about potential worst-case scenarios.[7] For example, a job seeker might land a position with a start-up company that has earned hardly any revenue. Thinking about the problems of working for a company that never gets off the ground, such as not getting paid, may help that person be less anxious about the prospects of failure.

Martin Seligman, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, places the need for balance between optimism and pessimism in these words: “The idea that optimism is always good is a caricature. It misses realism, it misses appropriateness, it misses the importance of negative emotion.”[8]

A high standing on a given trait is not always an advantage, and a low standing is not always a disadvantage.[9] For example, a person who is highly extraverted might spend so much time interacting with coworkers that he or she does not spend enough time on analytical work. Also, a person who is a low self-monitor might give people such honest feedback—rather than telling them what they want to hear—that he or she helps others to grow and develop.

 

Stockbyte/Getty Images

Self-Assessment Quiz 2-1

 

The Self-Monitoring Scale

Directions:

The statements ahead concern your personal reactions to a number of different situations. No two statements are exactly alike, so consider each statement carefully before answering. If a statement is TRUE or MOSTLY TRUE as applied to you, circle the “T” next to the question. If a statement is FALSE or NOT USUALLY TRUE as applied to you, circle the “F” next to the question.

	True	False
1. I find it hard to imitate the behavior of other people.	□	□
2. My behavior is usually an expression of my true inner feelings, attitudes, and beliefs.	□	□
3. At parties and social gatherings, I do not attempt to do or say things that others will like.	□	□
4. I can only argue for ideas in which I already believe.	□	□
5. I can make impromptu speeches even on topics about which I have almost no information.	□	□
6. I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain people.	□	□
7. When I am uncertain how to act in a social situation, I look to the behavior of others for cues.	□	□
8. I would probably make a good actor.	□	□
9. I rarely seek the advice of my friends to choose movies, books, or music.	□	□
10. I sometimes appear to others to be experiencing deeper emotions than I actually am.	□	□
11. I laugh more when I watch a comedy with others than when alone.	□	□
12. In groups of people, I am rarely the center of attention.	□	□
13. In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons.	□	□
14. I am not particularly good at making other people like me.	□	□
15. Even if I am not enjoying myself, I often pretend to be having a good time.	□	□
16. I’m not always the person I appear to be.	□	□
17. I would not change my opinions (or the way I do things) in order to please someone else or win their favor.	□	□
18. I have considered being an entertainer.	□	□
19. In order to get along and be liked, I tend to be what people expect me to be rather than anything else.	□	□
20. I have never been good at games like charades or improvisational acting.	□	□
21. I have trouble changing my behavior to suit different people and different situations.	□	□
22. At a party, I let others keep the jokes and stories going.	□	□
23. I feel a bit awkward in company and do not show up quite as well as I should.	□	□
24. I can look anyone in the eye and tell a lie with a straight face (if for a good cause).	□	□
25. I may deceive people by being friendly when I really dislike them.	□	□

 

Scoring and Interpretation:

Give yourself one point each time your answer agrees with the key. A score that is between 0–12 would indicate that you are a relatively low self-monitor; a score that is between 13–25 would indicate that you are a relatively high self-monitor.

F

F

F

F

T

T

T

T

F

T

T

F

T

F

T

T

F

T

T

F

F

F

F

T

T

Source: Mark Snyder, “Self-Monitoring of Expressive Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 (October 1974): 528–537.

Self-Assessment Quiz 2-2

 

The Risk-Taking Scale

Directions:

Answer true or false to the following questions to obtain an approximate idea of your tendency to take risks, or your desire to do so:

	True	False
1. I occasionally eat fresh fruit or vegetables without first washing them.	□	□
2. I think that amusement park roller coasters should be abolished.	□	□
3. I don’t like trying foods from other cultures.	□	□
4. I would choose bonds over growth stocks.	□	□
5. I like to challenge people in positions of power.	□	□
6. I don’t always wear a seat belt while driving.	□	□
7. I sometimes talk on my cell phone or send and receive text messages while driving at highway speeds.	□	□
8. I would love to be an entrepreneur (or I love being one).	□	□
9. I would like helping out in a crisis such as a product recall.	□	□
10. I would like to go cave exploring (or already have done so).	□	□
11. I would be willing to have at least one-third of my compensation based on a bonus for good performance.	□	□
12. I would be willing to visit a maximum-security prison on a job assignment.	□	□

 

Scoring and Interpretation:

Give yourself one point each time your answer agrees with the key. If you score 10–12, you are probably a high risk taker; 6–9, you are a moderate risk taker; 3–5, you are cautious; 0–2, you are a very low risk taker.

T

F

F

F

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

Source: The idea of a test about risk-taking comfort, as well as several of the statements on the quiz, comes from psychologist Frank Farley.

The Eight Factors and Traits and Job Performance

Depending on the job, any one of the preceding personality factors can be important for success. The evidence of the contribution of the Big Five traits stems from the self-ratings of the people taking the test, as well as ratings by persons who know the test taker well. An analysis of a large number of studies found that ratings of the Big Five traits were more closely related to the job performance of the people rated than were self-ratings of personality.[10] One explanation for personality being tied to performance is that a particular personality trait gives us a bias or positive spin toward certain actions.[11] A person high in conscientiousness, for example, believes that if people are diligent they will accomplish more work and receive just rewards.

Conscientiousness relates to job performance for many different occupations, and has proven to be the personality factor most consistently related to success. As explained in the discussion above, each of the Big Five factors is composed of more narrow or specific traits. With respect to conscientiousness, the specific trait of dependability may be the most important contributor to job performance.[12]

Extraversion

Another important research finding is that extraversion is associated with success for managers and sales representatives. The explanation is that managers and salespeople are required to interact extensively with other people.[13] When referring to the association between extraversion and sales performance, it is helpful to consider which type of selling is involved. For example, particularly in selling complicated products and services, the sales representative is expected to be a problem solver who quietly reflects on the problem. Such behavior tends more toward introversion than extraversion, even though the sales representative still recognizes the importance of relationship building.

Self-Monitoring

For people who want to advance in their careers, being a high self-monitor is important. An analysis was made of the self-monitoring personality by combining 136 studies involving 23,101 people. A major finding was that high self-monitors tend to receive better performance ratings than low self-monitors. High self-monitors were also more likely to emerge as leaders and work their way into top management positions.[14] Another advantage to being a high self-monitor is that the individual is more likely to help out other workers, even when not required to do so. An example is helping a worker outside of your department with a currency exchange problem even though this is not your responsibility. Self-monitors are also much more likely to click with other workers and to succeed in the workplace. The “clicking” may lead to good relationships that facilitate performing well.[15]

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The willingness to go beyond one’s job description without a specific reward apparent is referred to as organizational citizenship behavior. We mention organizational citizenship behavior here because it is linked to other traits. Agreeableness and conscientiousness are frequently found to be associated with citizenship behavior. Recent evidence indicates that emotional stability, extraversion, and openness to experience are also linked to such behavior.[16]

organizational citizenship behavior

The willingness to go beyond one’s job description without a specific reward apparent.

Organizational citizenship behavior has many components or sub-behaviors. Two particularly important components for human relations are found in the distinction between affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented citizenship behaviors. Affiliation-oriented behaviors are are interpersonal and cooperative, and tend to solidify or preserve relationships with others.[17] How about going out of your way to calm down a coworker who has to make a presentation to management in a couple of hours? Challenge-oriented behaviors are change-oriented and come with the risk that that they could hurt relationships with others because they criticize the status quo. How about going out of your way to tell management that in-person meetings should be replaced by video conferences to save time and money?

Good organizational citizens are highly valued by employers. An analysis of studies based on a total of more than 50,000 employees highlights the importance of organizational citizenship behavior in understanding how a willingness to help others contributes to both individual and organizational success. Among the findings were that being a good organizational citizen leads to better performance ratings by supervisors, higher salary increases, and less turnover and absenteeism. Organizational citizenship behavior also contributes to higher productivity, reduced costs, and better customer satisfaction.[18]

Another perspective on organizational citizenship behavior is that an employee will make a short-term sacrifice that leads to long-term benefits to the organization.[19] An example is an employee voluntarily working from home to deal with customer confusion about a product recall, which can lead to more loyal and appreciative customers.

Self-Assessment Quiz 2-3 gives you an opportunity to think through some of your own tendencies toward organizational citizenship behavior.

Turnover and Personality

A synthesis of studies suggests that personality can be linked to turnover. Employees who are emotionally stable are less likely to plan to quit, or to actually quit. Employees who score higher on the traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness are less likely to leave voluntarily. Another finding of note is that workers who are low on agreeableness and high on openness to experience are likely to quit spontaneously.[20] (Maybe the grouchy, intellectually curious employee may jump on a sudden opportunity for another job.)

Optimism and Pessimism

Optimism and pessimism also can be linked to job performance. Optimism can be quite helpful when attempting such tasks as selling a product or service or motivating a group of people. Yet psychologist Julie Normen has gathered considerable evidence that pessimism can sometimes enhance job performance. Pessimists usually assume that something will go wrong, and will carefully prepare to prevent botches and bad luck. A pessimist, for example, will carefully back up computer files or plan for emergencies that might shut down operations.[21]

Self-Assessment Quiz 2-3

 

My Tendencies toward Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Describe whether each of the statements in the quiz ahead is mostly true or mostly false about you. If you have not experienced the situation, estimate whether it would be most likely true or most likely false about you.

No. Statement about Organizational Citizenship Behavior	Mostly True	Mostly False
1. I have helped a coworker with a work problem without being asked.
2. I pick up litter in the company parking lot or outside of the building, and then dispose of the litter properly.
3. Helping others is an important part of my job, even if I am not a manager.
4. I make a special effort to say thank you and smile when somebody helps me in any way on the job.
5. I volunteer to do a nonglamorous task when nobody in particular has responsibility for the task.
6. If I found an apparently intoxicated person sleeping on the ground outside my workplace, I would call for help rather than leaving him or her lying there.
7. I am pretty good at putting myself in another worker’s place and understanding his or her perspective.
8. I do my best to give effective comforting messages to other workers in distress.
9. I am able to initiate, maintain, and terminate casual conversations with coworkers.
10. During group meetings, I listen carefully to whomever is speaking to the group without performing another task such as looking at a smartphone placed on my lap.
11. If my company faced an emergency such as a flood or hurricane, I would tell my supervisor that I will be on call 24 hours per day to help out.
12. I have covered for workers who were absent or out on a break.
13. I check with others before doing something that would affect their work.
14. Even if I disliked a coworker, I would help him or her with a difficult problem.
15. I help people outside my work group when I have the right knowledge or skill.
16. I am willing to do work not in my job description, even if the effort means that I will have to work a couple of extra hours.
17. I am willing to point out things the work group might be doing wrong, even if others disagree with me.
18. I am willing to risk disapproval in order to do what is best for the company.
19. I challenge work procedures and rules that seem to be nonproductive.
20. I have tried to resolve person-to-person conflicts between workers in my department or unit.
21. I do what I can to raise the spirits of coworkers who are having problems on the job.
22. If I pick up some new job-related knowledge, I will share it with team members for whom the knowledge is useful.
23. When I think of something that will help the entire company, I will share that knowledge with my manager and/or company leadership.
24. I have politely voiced my concerns about something I think the company is doing wrong.
25. If I see a social media comment about our company that seems significant, I will forward that comment to the right person in my company.

 

Scoring and Interpretation:

Count the number of statements that you indicated are mostly true.

18-25 points: You have strong tendencies toward displaying positive organizational citizenship behavior. Your initiative and other proactive behavior will probably be an asset in your career.

7-17 points: You have about average tendencies with respect to engaging in positive organizational citizenship behavior. It would be helpful for you in your career to seek out ways to help coworkers and the company besides performing well in your own job.

0-7 points: You take very little initiative to work outside the limits of your job description. You run the risk of being perceived as not caring about the welfare of coworkers or the company. Such a negative perception could be a limiting factor in terms of you being regarded as eligible for promotion.

Source: Several of the statements in this quiz are based on Scott B. MacKenzie, Philip M. Podaskoff, and Nathan P. Podaskoff, “Challenge-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Organizational Effectiveness: Do Challenge-Oriented Behaviors Really Have an Impact on the Organization’s Bottom Line?” Personnel Psychology, Number 3, 2011, p. 574; Theresa M. Glomb, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Andrew G. Miner, and Melanie Wall, “Doing Good, Feeling Good: Examining the Role of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Changing Mood,” Personnel Psychology, 2011, Number 1, p. 204; Nicole M. Dudley and Jose M. Cortina, “Knowledge and Skills that Facilitate the Personal Support Dimension of Citizenship,” Journal of Applied Psychology, November 2008, p. 1253.

Combination of Standing on Several Personality Traits

A combination of personality factors will sometimes be more closely associated with job success than one factor alone. A study about personality and job performance ratings was conducted with diverse occupations, including clerical workers and wholesale appliance sales representatives. A key finding was that conscientious workers who also scored high on agreeableness performed better than conscientious workers who were less agreeable.[22] (Being agreeable toward your manager helps elevate performance evaluations!)

Personality Types and Cognitive Styles

People go about solving problems in various ways. You may have observed, for example, that some people are more analytical and systematic, while others are more intuitive. Modes of problem solving are referred to as cognitive styles. According to this method of understanding problem-solving styles, your personality traits influence strongly how you approach problems, such as being introverted pointing you toward dealing with ideas. Knowledge of these cognitive styles can help you relate better to people because you can better appreciate how they make decisions.

cognitive styles

Modes of problem solving.

One of the best-known methods of measuring personality types is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), a self-report questionnaire designed to make the theory of psychological types developed by psychoanalyst Carl Jung applicable to everyday life.[23] Another leading method of measuring types is the Golden Personality Type Profiler.[24] Jung developed the theory of psychological types, but did not develop the two measuring instruments just mentioned.

As measured by the Golden instrument, four separate dichotomies direct the typical use of perception and judgment by an individual. The four dichotomies can also be considered a person’s cognitive style.[25]

Energy flow: extraversion versus introversion. Extraverts direct their energy primarily toward the outer world of people and objects. In contrast, introverts direct their energy primarily toward the inner world of experiences and ideas.

Information gathering: sensing versus intuition. People who rely on sensing focus primarily on what can be perceived by the five primary senses of touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. People who rely on intuition focus primarily on perceiving patterns and interrelationships.

Decision making: thinking versus feeling. People who rely primarily on thinking base conclusions on logical analysis, and emphasize objectivity and detachment. People who rely on feelings base conclusions on personal or social values, and focus on understanding and harmony.

Lifestyle orientation: judging versus perceiving. Individuals high on judging tend to orient their lives in a deliberate and planned manner. Individuals high on perceiving tend to orient their lives in a spontaneous and open-ended manner.

Combining the four types with each other results in 16 personality types, such as the ESFP, or “The Entertainer.” ESFP refers to extraverted/sensing/feeling/perceiving. It is believed that approximately 13 percent of the population can be classified as the ESFP type. People of this type are optimistic and are skilled at living joyfully and entertaining others. ESFPs are effective at communicating their good-natured realism to others.

You might want to take the Golden Personality Type Profiler. Here our concern is with how your personality influences your cognitive style. Figure 2-2 presents 4 of the 16 personality types, along with the implications for each one with respect to cognitive style.

Far too many people perceive personality types as being definitive indicators of an individual’s personality, and they therefore think they know exactly how to classify that person in terms of personality. The developers of the Golden point out that the instrument is an accurate and dependable measure of the aspects of personality measured. However, it is up to the person taking the Golden to determine if the report’s description of him or her is accurate.[26] If the results are completely out of line with what you believe to be true about yourself, or what others have told you about your personality type, the results of the Golden (or another type indicator) should not be a cause for concern.

An interpersonal skills application of understanding the Golden personality types is to help people get along better within a work group. All the group or team members would

Personality Type	Highlights of Type
ENFP (The Proponent) Extraverted/ iNtuitive/Feeling/Perceiving	Lives continually in the realm of the possible. When absorbed in their latest project, they think of little else. Filled with energy, they are tireless in their pursuit of goals. Have an almost magnetic quality that enables them to have fun in almost any setting. The combination of Extraversion, Intuition, and Perceiving is well suited for leadership.
ENFJ (The Communicator) Extraverted/ iNtuitive/Feeling/Judging	Chief concern is fostering harmony and cooperation between self and others. Has strong ideals and a potent sense of loyalty, whether to a mate, a school, a hometown, or a favorite cause. Usually good at organizing people to get things done while keeping everyone happy. At work, well armed to deal with both variety and action. Typically patient and conscientious, make a concerted effort of sticking with a job until finished.
INFP (The Advocate) Introverted/iNtuitive/Feeling/Perceiving	Capable of immense sensitivity and has an enormous emotional capacity that is guarded closely. Has to know people well before displaying warmth, letting down the guard, and displaying warmth. Interpersonal relationships are a crucial focus. Has powerful sense of faithfulness, duty, and commitment to the people and causes he or she is attracted to. Able to express emotion and move people through his or her communication. A perfectionist on the job. Prefers a quiet working environment and, despite attraction for human companionship, will often work best alone. Will work at best only in job he or she truly believes in.
INFJ (The Foreseer) Introverted/ iNtuitive/Feeling/Judging	Imaginative, inspired, tenacious, creative, and inward looking. Also stubborn, easily bored by routine work, and often pays little attention to obstacles. Makes decisions easily. Lives in a world of ideas, and will have a unique vision. Pours all own energy into achieving his or her goal. Trusts own intuition. Can express emotion and move people through written communication. Although cherishes the companionship of people, prefers a quiet working environment, and working alone. Perfectionist about quality. Creativity is his or her hallmark.
Code: E = Extraverted, N = iNtuitive, F = Feeling, P = Perceiving, I = Introverted, J = Judging

 

Figure 2-2 Four Cognitive Styles of the Golden Personality Types

Source: Karen A. Deitz and John P. Golden, Boundless Diversity: An Introduction to the Golden Personality Type Profiler (San Antonio, Texas: Pearson TalentLens, 2004).

have their types assessed using the Golden instrument, and all members would be made aware of each other’s type or working style. Knowing your type among the 16 types and the type of the other group members would give you some clues for working together smoothly.

To illustrate, I will use a couple of the types shown in Figure 2-2. Visualize yourself as a member of a work group. You know that Nick is a forseer (INFJ). The group has an assignment that calls for creating something new, so you consult with Nick to capitalize on his imaginative thinking, determination to attain goals, and fine written communication skills. Yet you know that you and Margot are proponents (ENFP), so you two will play a heavy role in helping translate Nick’s plan into action. And you, Nick, and Margot know that Jason is an advocate (INFP), so you will have to work slowly with him to get him to believe in the new project so that he can make good use of his tendencies toward perfectionism. You will also not discourage Jason from spending some time working alone, so that he can be at his best.

Guidelines for Dealing with Different Personality Types

Learning Objective 3

A key purpose in presenting information about a sampling of various personality types is to provide guidelines for individualizing your approach to people. As a basic example, if you wanted to score points with an introvert, you would approach that person in a restrained, laid-back fashion. In contrast, a more gregarious, lighthearted approach might be more effective with an extravert. The purpose of individualizing your approach is to build a better working relationship or to establish rapport with the other person. To match your approach to dealing with a given personality type, you must first arrive at an approximate diagnosis of the individual’s personality. The following suggestions are therefore restricted to readily observable aspects of personality:

When relating to a person who appears to be emotionally unstable, based on symptoms of worry and tension, be laid back and reassuring. Attempt not to project your own anxiety and fears. Be a good listener. If possible, minimize the emphasis on deadlines and the dire consequences of a project’s failing. Show concern and interest in the person’s welfare.

When relating to an extraverted individual, emphasize friendliness, warmth, and a stream of chatter. Talk about people more than ideas, things, or data. Express an interest in a continuing working relationship.

When relating to an introverted individual, move slowly in forming a working relationship. Do not confuse quietness with a lack of interest. Tolerate moments of silence. Emphasize ideas, things, and data more heavily than people.

When relating to a person who is open to experience, emphasize information sharing, idea generation, and creative approaches to problems. Appeal to his or her intellect by discussing topics of substance rather than ordinary chatter and gossip.

When relating to a person who is closed to experience, stick closely to the facts of the situation at hand. Recognize that the person prefers to think small and deal with the here and now.

When relating to an agreeable person, just relax and be yourself. Reciprocate with kindness to sustain a potentially excellent working relationship.

When relating to a disagreeable person, be patient and tolerant. At the same time, set limits on how much mistreatment you will take. Disagreeable people sometimes secretly want others to put brakes on their antisocial behavior.

When relating to a conscientious person, give him or her freedom and do not nag. The person will probably honor commitments without prompting. Conscientious people are often taken for granted, so remember to acknowledge the person’s dependability.

When relating to a person of low conscientiousness, keep close tabs on him or her, especially if you need the person’s output to do your job. Do not assume that because the person has an honest face and a pleasing smile, he or she will deliver as promised. Frequently follow up on your requests, and impose deadlines if you have the authority. Express deep appreciation when the person does follow through.

Skill-Building Exercise 2-1

 

Personality Role-Plays

The Extravert:

One student assumes the role of a successful outside sales representative who has just signed a $3 million order for the company. The sales rep comes back to the office elated. The other student assumes the role of a member of the office support staff. He or she decides this is a splendid opportunity to build a good relationship with the triumphant sales rep. Run the role-play for about seven minutes. The people not involved in the role-play will observe and then provide feedback when the role-play is completed. (These directions regarding time, observation, and feedback also apply to the two other role-plays in this exercise and throughout the book.)

Openness:

One student plays the role of an experienced worker in the department who is told to spend some time orienting a new co-op student or intern. It appears that this new person is open to experience. Another student plays the role of the co-op student who is open to experience and eager to be successful in this new position.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior:

One student plays the role of a strong organizational citizen who wants to help other people, going beyond what is found in his or her job description. The strong organizational citizen is thinking, “What can I do today to help somebody?” As the student walks down the row of cubicles, he or she spots a person who is staring at the computer with an agonized, perplexed look. The good organizational citizen thinks, “Maybe I’ve just found a good opportunity to be useful today.” The other student plays the role of the perplexed worker who might need help with a specific problem facing him or her at the moment.

For the three scenarios, observers rate the role players on two dimensions, using a 1-to-5 scale from very poor (1) to very good (5). One dimension is “effective use of human relations techniques.” The second dimension is “acting ability.” A few observers might voluntarily provide feedback to the role players in terms of sharing their ratings and observations. The course instructor might also provide feedback.

When dealing with a person whom you suspect is a high self-monitor, be cautious in thinking that the person is truly in support of your position. The person could just be following his or her natural tendency to appear to please others, but not really feel that way.

When relating to a person with a high propensity for risk taking and thrill seeking, emphasize the risky and daring aspects of activities familiar to you. Talk about a new product introduction in a highly competitive market, stock options, investment in high-technology startup firms, skydiving, and race car driving.

When relating to a person with a low propensity for risk taking and thrill seeking, emphasize the safe and secure aspects of activities familiar to you. Talk about the success of an established product in a stable market (like pencils and paperclips), investment in US Treasury bonds, life insurance, camping, and gardening.

When dealing with a sensation type of information gatherer, emphasize facts, figures, and conventional thinking without sacrificing your own values. To convince the sensation type, emphasize logic more than emotional appeal. Focus on details more than on the big picture.

When dealing with an intuition type of information gatherer, emphasize feelings, judgments, playing with ideas, imagination, and creativity. Focus more on the big picture than details.

To start putting these guidelines into practice, do the role-plays in Skill-Building Exercise 2-1. Remember that a role player is an extemporaneous actor. Put yourself in the shoes of the character you play, and visualize how he or she would act. Because you are given only the general idea of a script, use your imagination to fill in the details.

Cognitive Ability

Cognitive ability (also referred to as mental ability or intelligence) is one of the major sources of individual differences that affects job performance and behavior. Cognitive Intelligence is the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, including solving problems. Intelligent workers can best solve abstract problems. In an exceedingly simple job, such as packing shoes into boxes, having below-average intelligence can be an advantage because the employee is not likely to become bored.

cognitive intelligence

The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, including solving problems.

Understanding the nature of intelligence contributes to effective interpersonal relations in the workplace. Your evaluation of a person’s intelligence can influence how you relate to that person. For example, if you think a person is intelligent, you will tend to seek his or her input on a difficult problem. If you realize that different types of intelligence exist, you are more likely to appreciate people’s strengths. You are thus less likely to judge others as being either good or poor problem solvers.

Four important aspects of cognitive ability include (1) the components of traditional intelligence, (2) practical intelligence, (3) multiple intelligences, and (4) emotional intelligence. (This fourth type of intelligence can also be regarded as personality, not cognitive ability.) Knowledge of the four aspects will enrich your understanding of other workers and yourself.

Components of Traditional Intelligence

Intelligence consists of more than one component. A component of intelligence is much like a separate mental aptitude. Evidence suggests that intelligence consists of a g (general) factor and s (special) factors that contribute to problem-solving ability. Scores of tests of almost any type (such as math, aptitude for spatial relations, or reading skill) are somewhat influenced by the g factor. The g factor helps explain why some people perform well in so many different mental tasks. Substantial evidence has accumulated over the years that workers with high intelligence tend to perform better. The relationship between g and job performance is likely to be strongest for those aspects of jobs involving thinking and knowledge, such as problem solving and technical expertise.[27]

g (general) factor

A factor in intelligence that contributes to the ability to perform well in many tasks.

s (special) factors

Specific components of intelligence that contribute to problem-solving ability.

Over the years, various investigators have arrived at different special factors contributing to overall mental aptitude. The following seven factors have been identified consistently:

Verbal comprehension. The ability to understand the meaning of words and their relationship to each other and to comprehend written and spoken information.

Word fluency. The ability to use words quickly and easily, without an emphasis on verbal comprehension.

Numerical acuity. The ability to handle numbers, engage in mathematical analysis, and perform arithmetic calculations.

Spatial perception. The ability to visualize forms in space and manipulate objects mentally, particularly in three dimensions.

Memory. Having a good rote memory for symbols, words, and lists of numbers, along with other associations.

Perceptual speed. The ability to perceive visual details, pick out similarities and differences, and perform tasks requiring visual perception.

Inductive reasoning. The ability to discover a rule or principle, apply it in solving a problem, and to make judgments and decisions that are logically sound.

Being strong in any of the preceding mental aptitudes often leads to an enjoyment of work associated with that aptitude. The reverse can also be true; enjoying a type of mental activity might lead to the development of an aptitude for the activity.

Attempts to improve cognitive skills, or intelligence, have become an entire industry, including both brain-stimulating exercises and food supplements. Common wisdom suggests that staying in shape mentally by such activities as doing crossword puzzles, surfing the Internet, or studying a foreign language can slow the decline of an aging brain. Brain-imaging studies support the idea that mental workouts help preserve cognitive fitness, a state of optimized ability to remember, learn, plan, and adapt to changing circumstances. Acquiring expertise in such diverse areas as playing a cello, juggling, speaking a foreign language, and playing video games and computer games expands your neural systems and helps them communicate with one another. This means that by learning new skills you can alter the physical makeup of the brain even in later life. Engaging in play also enhances brain functioning that helps explain the link between creativity and play.[28]

cognitive fitness

A state of optimized ability to remember, learn, plan, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Training people in memory skills (still an important part of intelligence) has been shown to be successful in many experiments. For example, research with seniors showed that training with a computer game that involved executive control skills improved performance in a variety of memory tasks.[29] Considerable evidence exists that aerobic exercise helps maintain cognitive intelligence, particularly for the elderly. It is possible that the exercise results in a better flow of oxygen to the brain, thereby boosting its capability, at least in the short term.[30]

The contribution of food supplements to enhancing or maintaining cognitive ability is debatable, yet at least promising. Nevertheless, a balanced, healthy diet contributes to the propering functioning of the brain, as well as any other organ of the body. In recent years, several energy drinks have appeared on the market that contain citicoline, an organic molecule that is said to boost the production of neurotransmitters that are necessary for brain functioning. A review of 14 experiments found that cicitcoline has a positive effect on memory and behavior, at least in the medium term.[31] So go ahead and purchase a medically approved brain booster at a pharmacy, knowing that it could help you conquer your next big cognitive challenge.

Practical Intelligence

Many people, including psychologists, are concerned that the traditional way of understanding intelligence inadequately describes mental ability. An unfortunate implication of intelligence testing is that intelligence as traditionally calculated is largely the ability to perform tasks related to scholastic work. Thus, a person who scored very high on an intelligence test could follow a complicated instruction manual, but might not be street smart.

The practical type of intelligence is required for adapting your environment to suit your needs. Practical intelligence is an accumulation of skills, dispositions, and knowledge, plus the ability to apply knowledge to solve every day problems.[32] The idea of practical intelligence helps explain why a person who has a difficult time getting through school can still be a successful businessperson, politician, or athlete. Practical intelligence incorporates the ideas of common sense, wisdom, and street smarts.

practical intelligence

An accumulation of skills, dispositions, and knowledge, plus the ability to apply knowledge to solve everyday problems.

A person with high practical intelligence would also have good intuition, an experience-based way of knowing or reasoning in which the weighing and balancing of evidence are done automatically. Examples of good intuition include a merchandiser who develops a hunch that a particular style will be hot next season, a basketball coach who sees the possibilities in a gangly youngster, and a supervisor who has a hunch that a neighbor would be a great fit for her department. Intuition is also required for creative intelligence.

intuition

An experience-based way of knowing or reasoning in which the weighing and balancing of evidence are done automatically.

An important implication of practical intelligence is that experience is helpful in developing intellectual skills and judgment. At younger ages, raw intellectual ability, such as that required for learning information technology skills, may be strongest. However, judgment and wisdom are likely to be stronger with accumulated experience. This is why people in their 40s and older are more likely to be chosen for positions such as the CEO of a large business or a commercial airline pilot. Poor judgment is sometimes associated with inexperience and youth, and the frequent impulsiveness of young people is often referred to as the teenage brain.

A study conducted with more than 300 printing industry CEOs and founders of early-stage printing and graphics businessess demonstrated that practical intelligence is associated with business success. Practial intelligence was measured by having the participants solve problems revealed in three printing-business scenarios. Among the many findings of the study was that practical intelligence is important for business success, measured in terms of new venture growth in an entrepreneurial setting.[33]

One major reservation some have about practical intelligence is the implication that people who are highly intelligent in the traditional sense are not practical thinkers. In truth, most executives and other high-level workers score quite well on tests of mental ability. These tests usually measure analytical intelligence.

Multiple Intelligences

Another approach to understanding the diverse nature of mental ability is the theory of multiple intelligences. According to Howard Gardner, people know and understand the world in distinctly different ways and learn in different ways. Individuals possess the following eight intelligences, or faculties, in varying degrees:

multiple intelligences

A theory of intelligence contending that people know and understand the world in distinctly different ways and learn in different ways.

Linguistic. Enables people to communicate through language, including reading, writing, and speaking.

Logical-mathematical. Enables individuals to see relationships between objects and solve problems, as in calculus and statistics.

Musical. Gives people the capacity to create and understand meanings made out of sounds and to enjoy different types of music.

Spatial. Enables people to perceive and manipulate images in the brain and to recreate them from memory, as is required in making graphic designs.

Bodily kinesthetic. Enables people to use their body and perceptual and motor systems in skilled ways, such as dancing, playing sports, and expressing emotion through facial expressions.

Intrapersonal. Enables people to distinguish among their own feelings and acquire accurate self-knowledge.

Interpersonal. Makes it possible for individuals to recognize and make distinctions among the feelings, motives, and intentions of others, as in managing or parenting.

Naturalist. Enables individuals to differentiate among, classify, and utilize various features of the physical external environment.

Your profile of intelligences influences how you best learn and to which types of jobs you are best suited. Gardner believes that it is possible to develop these separate intelligences through concentrated effort. However, any of these intelligences might fade if not put to use.[34] The components of multiple intelligences might also be perceived as different talents or abilities. Having high general problem-solving ability (g) would contribute to high standing on each of the eight intelligences.

Two books in recent years have emphasized that having natural abilities of the type just described is not as important as hard work in developing talent. According to the 10,000-hour rule proposed by Malcolm Gladwell, no one gets to the top without 10,000 hours of practice in a field.[35] Guided practice does indeed help, but a person still needs some basic talent to attain high-level success in such fields as finance, foreign languages, and sports. Recognize also that many teenagers achieve outstanding success in information technology, science, sports, and music without having practiced 1,000 hours per year for 10 years.

The three types of intelligence mentioned so far (cognitive, practical, and multiple) all contribute to but do not guarantee our ability to think critically. Critical thinking is the process of evaluating evidence and then, based on this evaluation, making judgments and decisions. Through critical thinking, we find reasons to support or reject an argument. Personality factors contribute heavily to whether we choose to use the various types of intelligence. For example, the personality factor of openness facilitates critical thinking because the individual enjoys gathering evidence to support or refute an idea. Conscientiousness also facilitates critical thinking because the individual feels compelled to gather more facts and think harder.[36]

Emotional Intelligence

How effectively people use their emotions has a major impact on their success. Emotional intelligence refers to qualities such as understanding one’s own feelings, having empathy for others, and regulating one’s emotions to enhance living. The intelligence aspect focuses on the ability to engage in complex information processing about your own emotions and those of others. At the same time, you use this information as a guide to thought and behavior.[37] A person with high emotional intelligence would be able to engage in such behaviors as sizing up people, pleasing others, and influencing them. Four key factors included in emotional intelligence are as follows:[38]

emotional intelligence

Qualities such as understanding one’s own feelings, empathy for others, and the regulation of emotion to enhance living.

Self-awareness. The ability to understand your moods, emotions, and needs as well as their impact on others. Self-awareness also includes using intuition to make decisions you can live with happily. A person with good self-awareness knows whether he or she is pushing other people too far. Imagine that Amanda is an assistant to the food service manager at a financial services company. Amanda believes strongly that the cafeteria should ensure that no food served on company premises contains trans fats. However, the food services manager seems lukewarm to the idea. Instead of badgering the manager, Amanda decides to fight her battle bit by bit by presenting facts and reminders in a friendly way. Eventually, the manager agrees to have a meeting on the subject, with a nutritionist invited. Amanda’s self-awareness has paid off.

Self-management. The ability to control one’s emotions and act with honesty and integrity in a consistent and acceptable manner. The right degree of self-management helps prevent a person from throwing temper tantrums when activities do not go as planned. Effective workers do not let their occasional bad moods ruin their day. If they cannot overcome the bad mood, they let coworkers know of their problem and how long it might last. A person with low self-management would suddenly decide to drop a project because the work was frustrating.

Imagine that Jack is an assistant to the export sales manager, and today is a big day because a company in Russia appears ready to make a giant purchase. The export sales manager says, “Today we need peak performance from everybody. If we nail down this sale, we will exceed our sales quota for the year.” Unfortunately, Jack is in a grim mood. His favorite sports team was eliminated from the playoffs the night before, and his dog has been diagnosed as having a torn abdominal muscle. Jack would like to lash out in anger against everybody he meets today, but instead he focuses his energy on getting the job done, and does not let his personal problems show through.

Social awareness. Includes having empathy for others and having intuition about work problems. A team leader with social awareness, or empathy, would be able to assess whether a team member has enough enthusiasm for a project to assign him to that project. Another facet of social skill is the ability to interpret nonverbal communication, such as frowns and types of smiles.[39] A supervisor with social awareness, or empathy, would take into account the most likely reaction of group members before making a decision that affects them.

 

Image Source/Corbis Images

Imagine that Cindy has been working as an assistant purchasing manager for six months. Company policy prohibits accepting “lavish” gifts from vendors or potential vendors attempting to sell the company goods or services. Cindy has been placed in charge of purchasing all paper toweling for the company. Although most of the purchasing is completed over the Internet, sales representatives still make the occasional call. The rep from the paper towel company asks Cindy if she would like an iPhone as a token gift for even considering his company. Cindy badly wants an iPhone, and it is not yet in her budget. After thinking through the potential gift for five minutes, Cindy decides to refuse. Perhaps an iPhone is not really a lavish gift, but her intuition tells her it would look like a conflict of interest if she accepted the iPhone.

Relationship management. Includes the interpersonal skills of being able to communicate clearly and convincingly, disarm conflicts, and build strong personal bonds. Effective workers use relationship management skills to spread their enthusiasm and solve disagreements, often with kindness and humor. A worker with relationship management skills would use a method of persuasion that is likely to work well with a particular group or individual.

The current interest in emotional intelligence in the workplace appears to be related to a growing acceptance of emotional expressiveness, including occasional crying on the job for both men and women. A national study conducted by crying expert Anne Kreamer found that 69 percent of respondents believed that when a person gets more emotional on the job, it makes that person seem more human. Also, 93 percent of women and 83 percent of men believed that being sensitive to others’ emotions at work is an asset.[40] Furthermore, a study of 212 professionals from a variety of industries found that emotional intelligence was associated with teamwork effectiveness and job performance. This finding was true mostly when the professional’s job had some managerial work demands because responding to the emotions of others requires emotional capabilities.[41]

Much of this book is about relationship management, but here is yet another example. Donte is an information technology specialist. His assignment for the first six months is to visit users at their workplace to help them with any IT problems they might be experiencing. In discussing his role with his supervisor, Donte begins to realize that helping with technical problems is not his only job. He is an ambassador of good will for the IT department. He and his manager want to build a network of support for the efforts of the department. So when Donte visits the various departments, he is courteous and friendly, and asks about how an IT rep could make work easier for the person in question.

Emotional intelligence thus incorporates many of the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve effective interpersonal relations in organizations. Most of the topics in this book, such as resolving conflict, helping others develop, and possessing positive political skills, would be included in emotional intelligence. It is therefore reasonable to regard emotional intelligence as being a mixture of cognitive skills and personality.

Guidelines for Relating to People of Different Levels and Types of Intelligence

Learning Objective 4

Certainly you cannot expect to administer mental ability and emotional intelligence tests to all your work associates, gather their scores, and then relate to associates differently based on their scores. Yet it is possible to intuitively develop a sense for the mental quickness of people and the types of mental tasks they perform best. For example, managers must make judgments about mental ability in selecting people for jobs and assigning them to tasks. The following are several guidelines worth considering for enhancing your working relationships with others.

If you perceive another worker (your manager included) to have high cognitive skill, present your ideas in technical depth. Incorporate difficult words into your conversation and reports. Ask the person challenging questions.

If you perceive another worker to have low cognitive skill, present your ideas with a minimum of technical depth. Use a basic vocabulary, without going so far as to be patronizing. Ask for frequent feedback about having been clear. If you have supervisory responsibility for a person who appears to be below average in intelligence, give the person the opportunity to repeat the same type of task rather than switching assignments frequently.

If you perceive a work associate to relish crunching numbers, use quantitative information when attempting to persuade that person. Instead of using phrases such as “most people,” say “about 65 percent of people.”

If you perceive a work associate to have high creative intelligence, solicit his or her input on problems requiring a creative solution. Use statements such as “Here’s a problem that requires a sharp, creative mind, so I’ve come to you.”

If you perceive a work associate to have low emotional intelligence, explain your feelings and attitudes clearly. Make an occasional statement such as “How I feel about his situation is quite important” to emphasize the emotional aspect. The person may not get the point of hints and indirect expressions.

To start putting these guidelines into practice, do the role-plays in Skill-Building Exercises 2-2 and 2-3.

Values as a Source of Individual Differences

Another group of factors influencing how a person behaves on the job is that person’s values and beliefs. A value refers to the importance a person attaches to something. Values are also tied to the enduring belief that one’s mode of conduct is better than another mode of conduct. If you believe that good interpersonal relations are the most important part of your life, your humanistic values are strong. Similarly, you may think that people who are not highly concerned about interpersonal relations have poor values.

value

The importance a person attaches to something.

Skill-Building Exercise 2-2

 

Adapting to People of Different Mental Ability

The Cognitively Skilled Coworker:

One student plays the role of a worker who needs to learn a complex software program in a hurry. You intend to approach a particular coworker who is known for having a sharp mind. You wonder whether this highly intelligent person will be interested in your problem. The other person plays the role of the computer whiz who ordinarily does not like to solve problems for people that they should be able to solve themselves. The first worker meets with the second to discuss loading the software.

The Cognitively Average Team Member:

One student plays the role of a supervisor who needs to explain to a team member how to calculate discounts for customers. To the supervisor’s knowledge, the team member does not know how to calculate discounts, although it will be an important part of the team member’s new job. The supervisor and the team member get together for a session on calculating discounts.

Values are closely tied in with ethics, or the moral choices a person makes. A person’s values influence which kinds of behaviors he or she believes are ethical. Ethics convert values into action. An executive who strongly values profits might not find it unethical to raise prices higher than needed to cover additional costs. Another executive who strongly values family life might suggest that the company invest money in an on-site childcare center. Ethics is such an important part of interpersonal relations in organizations that the topic receives separate mention in Chapter 15.

ethics

The moral choices a person makes. Also, what is good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, and what people should do.

Classification of Values

An almost automatic response to classifying values is that people have either good or bad values, with bad values meaning those that are quite different than yours. To the person with a strong work ethic, an individual who took a casual approach to work might have “bad values.” To the person with a weak work ethic, the person who was work obsessed might have “bad values.” Shalom H. Schwartz, a professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has developed a method of classifying values that is particularly useful because it points to how we establish goals to fit our values.[42] For example, as shown in Table 2-1, people who value power are likely to set the goals of attaining power, strength, and control. And those who value benevolence are likely to establish the goals of being kind, being charitable, and showing respect for others. The link between values and goals has extensive research support.

Generational Differences in Values

Differences in values among people often stem from age, or generational, differences. Workers above 50 years of age, in general, may have different values than people who are much younger. These age differences in values have often been seen as a clash between Baby Boomers and members of Generation X and Generation Y. The category of Baby Boomers is so broad that part of the Baby Boomer generation is said to include Generation Jones, the younger boomers born between 1954 and 1964. This group comprises one-fourth of the US population. Members of Generation Jones are typically entering the peak of their careers and are not yet thinking much about retirement.[43]

Skill-Building Exercise 2-3

 

Helping an Intellectually Challenged Worker Get Started

You are an order-fulfillment supervisor at the distribution center for a large online store. Your area of responsibility is the order fulfillment of games, toys, and sports. Part of top-level management’s human resource philosophy is “give a break to those who need a break.” One way of implementing this philosophy is to hire the occasional job applicant who is well below average in cognitive (traditional) intelligence. Under this program, you are assigned Jimmy, an amiable, physically able, and energetic 20-year-old who has substantially below-average problem-solving ability (such as is measured by I.Q.). Your manager instructs you to assign Jimmy to a job you think he can handle. You decide that packing orders for video games would be a starting point. It is day one on the job, and you want Jimmy to feel useful right away. Jimmy also wants to feel useful, yet he is apprehensive about the situation.

Demonstrate how you will reassure Jimmy, and show him how to get started packing the box and attaching the shipping label. Another student plays the role of Jimmy.

Table 2-1 A Classification of Values and Associated Goals

Source: Anat Bardi, Rachel M. Calogero, and Brian Mullen, “A New Archival Approach to the Study of Values and Value-Behavior Relations: Validation of the Value Lexicon,” Journal of Applied Psychology, May 2008, pp. 483–497. Based on Shalom. H. Schwartz, “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries,” in Advances in Experimental and Social Psychology, ed. Mark P. Zanna (New York: Academic Press, Vol. 25, 1992), 1–65.

Value	Goals Associated with Each Value
Power	power, strength, control
Achievement	achievement, ambition, success
Hedonism	luxury, pleasure, delight
Stimulation	excitement, novelty, thrill
Self-direction	independence, freedom, liberty
Universalism	unity, justice, equality
Benevolence	kindness, charity, mercy
Tradition	tradition, custom, respect
Conformity	restraint, regard, consideration
Security	security, safety, protection

 

According to the stereotype, Baby Boomers see Generation Xers and Yers as disrespectful of rules, not willing to pay their dues, and being disloyal to employers. Generation Xers and Yers see Baby Boomers as worshipping hierarchy (layers of authority), being overcautious, and wanting to preserve the status quo. Members of Generation X and Generation Y are likely to believe even more strongly than Baby Boomers in the imporance of sustainability, or preserving the physical environment. Sustainability also refers to the idea of meeting the needs of the present without creating environmental problems that will block future generations from satisfying their needs.[44]

Table 2-2 summarizes these stereotypes with the understanding that massive group stereotypes like this are only partially accurate because there are literally millions of exceptions. For example, many Baby Boomers are fascinated with technology, and many Generation Yers like hierarchy. When the Traditionalists (pre-Baby Boomers) are included, four different generations converge in today’s workplace—sometimes leading to conflict as described in Chapter 9 .

How Values Are Learned

People acquire values in the process of growing up, and many values are learned by the age of four. Many of our values are influenced by the cultural experiences of our childhood.[45] An example is that many people who grew up during the Internet generation believe that information should be freely exchanged and come without a fee. Whereas in the past the family was the most important environment for shaping values, attitudes, and beliefs, today children are exposed via television and the Internet to many more role models, values, ways of thinking, and choices than ever before.[46] Models can be teachers, friends, brothers, sisters, and even public figures. If we identify with a particular person, the probability is high that we will develop some of his or her major values. For example, if a parent valued helping less fortunate people, the child might place a high value on helping people in need later in life.

Another major way values are learned is through the communication of attitudes. The attitudes that we hear expressed directly or indirectly help shape our values. Assume that using credit to purchase goods and services was considered an evil practice among your family and friends. You might therefore hold negative values about installment purchases. Unstated but implied attitudes may also shape your values. If key people in your life showed no enthusiasm when you talked about work accomplishments, you might not

Table 2-2 Value Stereotypes for Several Generations of Workers

Sources: The majority of ideas in this table are from Adrienne Fox, “Mixing It Up,” HR Magazine, May 2011, pp. 22–27; Ron Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millenial Generation is Shaking Up the Workforce (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2008); Alsop, “Schools, Recruiters Try to Define Traits for Future Students,” The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2006, p. B6; Kathryn Tyler, “Generation Gaps: Millennials May Be Out of Touch with the Basics of Workplace Behavior,” HR Magazine, January 2008, pp. 69–72; Lindsay Holloway, “Stick Together,” Entrepreneur, March 2008, p. 30; Martha Irvine, “Recession Intensifies Gen X Discontent at Work,” The Detroit News (www.detnews.com), November 16, 2009; Chris Penttila, “Talking about My Generation,” Entrepreneur, March 2009, pp. 53–55; Cindy Krischer Goodman, “Meeting in the Middle: Generations X and Y,” The Miami Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com), August 18, 2010, pp. 1–3; and Susan Berfield, “Levi’s Has a New Color for Blue Jeans: Green,” Bloomberg Businessweek, October 26–October 28, pp. 26–28.

Baby Boomers (1946–1964) including Generation Jones (1954–1965)	Generation X (1961–1980)	Generation Y (1981–2002) Millenials
Uses technology as a necessary tool, but not obsessed with technology for its own sake	Tech-savvy	Tech-savvy, and even questions the value of standard IT techniques such as e-mail, with a preference for communications on a Web site
Appreciates hierarchy	Teamwork very important	Teamwork very important, highly team focused
Tolerates teams but values independent work	Dislikes hierarchy	Dislikes hierarchy, prefers participation
Strong career orientation	Strives for work–life balance, but will work long hours for now; prefers flexible work schedule	Strives for work–life balance, and may object to work interfering with personal life; expects flexible work schedule
More loyalty to organization	Loyalty to own career and profession	Loyalty to own career and profession, and feels entitled to career goals
Favors diplomacy and tact	Candid in conversation	Quite direct in conversation
Seeks long-term employment	Will accept long-term employment if situation is right	Looks toward each company as a stepping stone to a better job in another company
Believes that issues should be formally discussed	Believes that feedback can be administered informally, and welcomes feedback	Believes that feedback can be given informally, even on the fly, and craves feedback
Somewhat willing to accept orders and suggestions	Often questions why things should be done in certain way	Frequently asks why things should be done in a certain way, and asks loads of questions
Willing to take initiative to establish starting and completion dates for projects	Slight preference for a manager to provide structure about project dates	Prefers structure on dates and other activities based on childhood of structured activities
Regards rewards as a positive consequence of good performance and seniority	Expects frequent rewards	Feels strong sense of entitlement to rewards, including promotions
Will multitask in front of work associates when it seems necessary	Feels comfortable in multitasking while interacting with work associates	Assumes that multitasking, including listening to music on earphones while dealing with work associates, is acceptable behavior
Prefers working at desk in company office	Eager to have the option of working from anywhere at any time.	Prefers working from anywhere at any time; feels constrained when having to work in company office full time
Believes that sustainability (protecting the environment) should be balanced with its economic costs, including job generation	Wants employers to take a positive stand in terms of protecting the environment	Thinks that sustainability is as important as profitability, and only wants to work for a “green” employer
Note: Disagreement exists about which age bracket fits Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y, with both professional publications and dictionaries showing slight differences.

 

place such a high value on achieving outstanding results. If, however, your family and friends centered their lives on their careers, you might develop similar values. (Or you might rebel against such a value because it interfered with a more relaxed lifestyle.) Many key values are also learned through religion and thus become the basis for society’s morals. For example, most religions emphasize treating other people fairly and kindly. To “knife somebody in the back” is considered immoral both on and off the job.

Although many core values are learned early in life, our values continue to be shaped by events later in life. The media, including the dissemination of information about popular culture, influence the values of many people throughout their lives. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina intensified a belief in the value of helping less fortunate people. Volunteers from throughout the United States and several other countries invested time, money, and energy into helping rebuild New Orleans and several other Gulf Coast cities. Influential people, such as NBA players, were seen on television building houses for Katrina victims. Such publicity sent a message that helping people in need is a value worth considering.

The media, particularly through advertisements, can also encourage the development of values that are harmful to a person intent on developing a professional career. People featured in advertisements for consumer products, including snack food, beer, and vehicles, often flaunt rudeness and flagrantly incorrect grammar. The message comes across to many people that such behavior is associated with success.

Changes in technology can also change our values. As the world has become increasingly digitized, more and more people come to value a digital lifestyle as the normal way of life. Many people would not think of spending time away from the house without their electronic gadgets, even while participating in or watching sports. Being part of the digital lifestyle is therefore an important value for many people of all ages.

Company values can also influence or shape individual values, such as an organization emphasizing total respect for the rights of customers. Several business firms also strongly emphasize the value of spirituality, which could awaken such values with many employees. A strong example is Tyson Foods, Inc. which employs 120 chaplains. The head chaplain, Richard McKinnie, explains the value in these terms: “It’s not about Chistianity or Islam. It’s the spiritual side of what people are.”[47]

Clarifying Your Values

The values that you develop early in life are directly related to the kind of person you are and to the quality of the relationships you form.[48] Recognition of this fact has led to exercises designed to help people clarify and understand some of their own values. Self-Assessment Quiz 2-3 gives you an opportunity to clarify your values.

The Mesh between Individual and Job Values

Under the best of circumstances, the values of employees mesh with those required by the job. When this state of congruence exists, job performance is likely to be higher. Suppose that Jacquelyn strongly values giving people with limited formal education an opportunity to work and avoid being placed on welfare. So she takes a job as a manager of a dollar store that employs many people who would ordinarily have limited opportunity for employment. Jacquelyn is satisfied because her employer and she share a similar value.

A group of researchers attempted to discover why congruence between individual and organizational values leads to positive outcomes such as low turnover and high performance. The major factor creating positive outcomes appears to be employees trusting managers based on the congruence. Communication also plays a role because when communication is regular, open, and consistent, trust is enhanced. For example, trust is enhanced when management explains the reasons behind major decisions. Good communication also enhances interpersonal attraction between managers and employees. Goal congruence also came about to a lesser extent because employees liked the managers. Liking, in turn, was enhanced by managers communicating well with employees.[49]

When the demands made by the organization or a superior clash with the basic values of the individual, he or she suffers from person–role conflict. The individual wants to obey orders, but does not want to perform an act that seems inconsistent with his or her

person–role conflict

The situation that occurs when the demands made by the organization clash with the basic values of the individual.

Self-Assessment Quiz 2-4

 

Clarifying Your Values

Directions:

Rank from 1 to 20 the importance of the following values to you as a person. The most important value on the list receives a rank of 1; the least important a rank of 20. Use the space next to “Other” if the list has left out an important value in your life.

        Having my own place to live

        Having one or more children

        Having an interesting job and career

        Owning a car

        Having a good relationship with coworkers

        Having good health

        Spending considerable time on social networking Web sites

        Being able to stay in frequent contact with friends by cell phone and text messaging

        Watching my favorite television shows

        Participating in sports or other pastimes

        Following a sports team, athlete, music group, or other entertainer

        Being a religious person

        Helping people less fortunate than myself

        Loving and being loved by another person

        Having physical intimacy with another person

        Making an above-average income

        Being in good physical condition

        Being a knowledgeable, informed person

        Completing my formal education

        Other

Discuss and compare your ranking of these values with the person next to you.

Perhaps your class, assisted by your instructor, can arrive at a class average on each of these values. How does your ranking compare to the class ranking?

Look back at your own ranking. Does it surprise you?

Are there any surprises in the class ranking? Which values did you think would be highest and lowest?

values. A situation such as this might occur when an employee is asked to produce a product that he or she feels is unsafe or of no value to society.

Guidelines for Using Values to Enhance Interpersonal Relations

Learning Objective 5

Values are intangible and abstract, and thus not easy to manipulate to help improve your interpersonal relations on the job. Despite their vagueness, values are an important driver of interpersonal effectiveness. Ponder the following guidelines:

Establish the values you will use in your relationships with others on the job, and then use those values as firm guidelines in working with others. For example, following the Golden Rule, you might establish the value of treating other people as you want to be treated. You would then not lie to others to gain personal advantage, and you would not backstab your rivals.

Establish the values that will guide you as an employee. When you believe that your values are being compromised, express your concern to your manager in a tactful and constructive manner. You might say to your manager, “Sorry, I choose not to tell our customers that our competitor’s product is inferior just to make a sale. I choose not to say this because our competitor makes a fine product. But what I will say is that our service is exceptional.”

Skill-Building Exercise 2-4

 

The Value-Conflict Role-Play

One student plays the role of a CEO who makes an announcement to the group that the company must soon lay off 10 percent of the workforce in order to remain profitable. The CEO also points out that the company has a policy against laying off good performers. He or she then asks four of the company managers to purposely give below-average performance ratings to 10 percent of employees. In this way, laying them off will fit company policy.

Four other students play the role of the company managers who receive this directive. If such manipulation of performance evaluations clashes with your values, engage in a dialogue with your manager expressing your conflict. Remember, however, that you may not want to jeopardize your job.

Conduct this role-play for about seven minutes. Observers rate the role players on two dimensions, using a 1-to-5 scale from very poor (1) to very good (5). One dimension is “effective use of human relations techniques.” The second dimension is “acting ability.” A few observers might voluntarily provide feedback to the role players in terms of sharing their ratings and observations. The course instructor might also provide feedback.

Remember that many values are a question of opinion, not a statement of right versus wrong. If you believe that your values are right, and anybody who disagrees is wrong, you will have frequent conflict. For example, you may believe that the most important value top managers should have is to bring shareholders a high return on their investment. Another worker believes that profits are important, but providing jobs for as many people as possible is an equally important value. Both of you have a good point, but neither is right or wrong. So it is better to discuss these differences rather than hold grudges because of them.

Respect differences in values and make appropriate adjustment when the value clash is reasonable. If you are an older person, recognize that you may have to win the respect of a younger coworker rather than assume that because you are more experienced, or a manager, that respect will come automatically.[50] If you are a younger person, recognize that an older person might be looking for respect, so search for something you can respect right away, such as his or her many valuable contacts in the company.

Recognize that many people today are idealistic about their jobs, and want to have an impact on the lives of others.[51] In the meantime, you might feel that you need that person’s cooperation to get an important task done right now, such as fulfilling a larger order. Invest a couple of minutes into helping that person understand how an ordinary task might be having an impact on the lives of others—such as earning money to feed a hungry baby at home!

To help you put these guidelines into practice, do Skill-Building Exercise 2-4. Remember, however, that being skilled at using your values requires day-by-day monitoring.

Concept Review and Reinforcement

Key Terms

individual differences   23

personality   23

organizational citizenship behavior   28

cognitive styles   30

cognitive intelligence   33

g  (general) factor   34

s  (special) factors   34

practical intelligence   35

intuition   35

multiple intelligences   35

emotional intelligence   36

value   38

ethics   39

person–role conflict   42

Summary

Individual differences are among the most important factors influencing the behavior of people in the workplace. Knowing how to respond to such differences is the cornerstone of effective interpersonal relations.

Personality is one of the major sources of individual differences. The eight major personality factors described in this chapter are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-monitoring of behavior, risk taking and thrill seeking, and optimism. Depending on the job, any one of these personality factors can be important for success, and they also affect interpersonal relations. Conscientiousness relates to job performance for many different occupations, and has proven to be the personality factor most consistently related to success.

Personality also influences a person’s cognitive style, or modes of problem solving. According to the Golden Personality Profiler, four separate dichotomies direct the typical use of perception and judgment by the individual as follows: (a) energy flow: extraversion vs. introversion, (b) information gathering: sensing vs. intuition, (c) decision making: thinking vs. feeling, and (d) lifestyle orientation: judging vs. perceiving. Combining the four types with each other results in 16 personality types, such as being a proponent, communicator, advocate, or enforcer. For example, the proponent (ENFP) scores high on extraversion, intuition, feeling, and perceiving.