Employee Communication

Business communication is the interaction amongst the people in the organisation for the intention of operating the business actions. It can be oral, verbal, written etc.

A business can thrive when all the objectives of the organization are attained successfully. For proficiency in an organisation all the individuals (contained by and external) of the organization should be capable to express their implication suitably. The interchange of thoughts, interpretation, in the interior and outside the organisation to accomplish the business aims is identified as business communication.

Employee involvement is when employees are incorporated in all matters of their interest. It is as a result both distinctive, and straightforward, thus far it comprises every other associate creating the involvement composition. It is then, supported by, and managed by supervision with discrete employees, getting involved and counted to attain some precise aim. It accordingly presumes collective interest amid employees and management. Its key functions are to stimulate and to develop employee recognition and obligation.
There are no exact guidelines to develop involvement. Employee involvement therefore suggests the worthiness of an individual in including them in a particular activity.

Contrariwise, employee participation contrasting involvement is shared. It is an action of dividing in something. It is therefore linking with others in every commotion that is of importance. It includes participating in something, and is more or less often backed by some rule and or, legislation. Where employment rights make a difference for instance, participation is implemented. In the past, trade unions supported this act however now, and in future this trend is coming to a finale in a conjunction with employees performing the central roles in forming their own lives and way of life, with each employee turn out to be their own representative.

Both of them could be performed concurrently for the finest result in future. Employees have to be both included and made to contribute for both the organisation and the individual employee. I consider that these two are assuredly imperative from each other, and that both are typical procedures that upcoming- centric organisations can exploit and practice for improvement and inventiveness.

How to include employees in decision making and incessant development activities is the tactical feature of involvement and can involve such procedures as:

·         proposal systems

·          producing cells

·          work groups

·          constant enhancement conferences

·         Kaizen (constant progress) occasions

·          counteractive action procedures

·         Regular consultations with the supervisor.

Aimed at people and organizations that want a model to utilise, the greatest I have found was established from work by Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) and Sadler (1970). They offer a range for leadership and involvement that contains a cumulative role for employees and a declining part for supervisors in the decision procedure. The continuum comprises this advancement.

·         Speak: the supervisor states the decision and broadcasts it to staff. The supervisor delivers whole direction. Expressing is valuable when conversing about security matters, administration rules and for choices that neither entail nor enquire for employee’s response.

·         Promote: the supervisor chooses the decision and then tries to acquire assurance from staff by "vending" the constructive features of the decision. Sell is beneficial when employee obligation is desired, nevertheless the decision is not exposed to employee effect.

·         Refer: the supervisor requests contribution into a decision at the same time as maintaining power to choose the last decision her/himself. The keynote to a prosperous discussion is to notify employees, on the front end of the conversation, that their contribution is desired, then again that the supervisor is holding the right to choose the final decision. This is the intensity of involvement that can generate employee discontent most willingly when this is indistinct to the people supplying input.

Social Networking can be an optimistic phenomenon, and can be used to create essential business contacts and to increase sales and goodwill. A research by Ellis and Richards regarding blogs finds that bloggers finds other inspirations for blogging comprise using it as an outlet for workers underemployed activity, to shape a cybernetic network of the compatible, and as a form of public relations for the job.

Utilising networking sites for business communications and marketing principles seems to be judged significant in several firms, particularly those in inventive businesses and those whose business systems have conventionally depend on profoundly on more well-known customs of social networking. Though the more famous sites such as Facebook have a tendency to be applied mainly for public rationale, there subsist added webs, such as LinkedIn, that are chiefly anticipated for business usage by specialists. As with furthermost electronic technologies, networking looks correspondingly proficient of being employed for work and social tenacities, consequently one cannot extract comprehensive suppositions that such growths promise fine or ill from a work viewpoint.

Image from: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CENSURA-CONSULTING/284339691641

Overall, employers should be clear that employee activity on social networking should not denote to or harm the name or character of the work place. The disappointment by employees to obey with that establishment should be stated to end in disciplinary procedures.

Many industries now use social networking sites as means of advertising of their customer base. It is significant that employers recall possession of the communications on behalf of their product so as not to affect the stability of their connection with their costumers when key members of staff leave.

Employers should also be vibrant as to the “possession” of the staff profiles and interaction with costumers on expert networking sites such linked-in. For key staff, it can be practical to require that all such action is directed over the company marketing department.

In conclusion, it is vital for the employees to have contribution both involvement and participation in any decision making as they might have innovative ideas that can make the business more successful using their feedbacks.

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

Gennard,J.,Judge,G.(2005)Employee relations : 4^th edition.London: Chartered Insititue of Personnel and Development .

Nickson,D.(2007)Human resource management for the hospitality and tourism industries.Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.

Swearingen,J.(2008).Social Networking for Businesses[online].Bnet Website.Available from: http://www.bnet.com/article/social-networking-for-business/219914 [ Accessed on 21 April 2011].

Gregory,A.(2009).20 social networking sites for business professionals [online].Sitepoint website. Available from: http://www.bnet.com/article/social-networking-for-business/219914 [ Accessed on 21 April 2011].

Rewards

Reward is a system to uphold and strengthen wanted performance, such as wage rate that upsurges with the output of the employee..

At my current workplace which is in Censura Consulting, only sales department gets rewards by getting bonuses and if we reached over our targets or even just on the spot , then we get 4% of the sales. Not only this, we also get a basic present from the manager if we constantly go on to reaching our target, we sometimes gets what we want like free lunch. However, it varies from different department as our department are more vocal to speaking to our manager about rewards. In addition to this, our job is easier to reach the target other than the other department. Fairness is assured as the management and we have a record of our individual sales where we can see if we are above or below the target sales. We can also calculate how much bonuses are we meant to be getting as they have explained the procedure of how to calculate the bonuses.

I think ,at present, my workplace do not have a stable reward system for the company to expand . Also, I noticed that most employees often are unhappy with the way the company is managed and most of their reasons for resignation is their wages. I believe, by changing this and improving their reward system, employees are more motivated into working harder and gaining excellent sales. As the management needs to keep in mind that employee satisfaction is also essential, as they are the aid in reaching the company’s aims and objectives.

In my opinion, I believe Chief executives should not receive their rewards if they have underperformed and resulted for the company to not do so well and lose out with potential profits. Here are the arguments for and against regarding giving rewards to chief executives:

Arguments for:

·         The chief executives are still doing their job. They are the ones who go in every day doing the hardest job, stressing out, and responsible for everything when something goes wrong so they still deserve the large bonuses.

·         If not, this will discourage the chief executives to work at a better rate and better pace and will lead into more underperformance.

·         If something bad happens to the company, they are the only ones who can turn things around because they know the company way better than anyone else as they are they know how to manage the company more than anyone else.

Arguments against:

·         It can lead into unemployment because employees might leave since large bonuses were taken off by paying it all out to the chief executives.

·         They have underperformed therefore they should not need to be getting large bonus; maybe the company should give them lesser bonuses than they usually get.

·         Bonuses will be led to waste if their performance will not improve. The money given for bonuses can be used for better things i.e. better facilities, tools and equipment, etc.

·         It will encourage the chief executive to work harder if they want their large bonuses back. This will motivate them to concentrate harder and perform well in order to get their bonuses.

·         They might continue to be doing the same mistake every month and the same performance will be made, this will lead the company to its downfall and bankrupt.

In conclusion, reward programs have their position in all business. Business owners must initially verify anticipated employee actions, abilities, and achievements that will uphold their business objectives. Through rewarding and identifying exceptional performance, entrepreneurs will have an advantage in a competitive corporate climate. Likewise, it is wise for the organisation to keep in mind the fairness for each employee regarding rewards to avoid conflicts yet to improve performance.

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

Holbeche,L.(2009)Aligning Human resources and Business strategy. Great Britain:Elsevier Ltd.

Armstrtong,M.(2002)Employee Award:third edition. Great Britain: Cromwell Press.

Kerr,J., Slocum,J. (1987) Managing Corporate Culture Through Reward Systems [online].1 (99). Available from: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4164733 [ Accessed on 21 April 2011]

  

Performance Management

Performance management is the procedure of generating a work environment or setting in which people are allowed to carry out to the best of their aptitudes. Performance management is a whole work system that instigates when a work is termed as required. It finishes when an employee departs from an organisation

At university, even from commencing, they had to give an assessment to test our English and mathematics knowledge in order to see what level we are in and whether some people may need extra help. Also, the university measures our performance by the use of courseworks, assignments and class works. Each term our teachers from four different modules, either a group work or individual work will be given in order to test topics in a module. In addition to this, at every start of a new topic there are stated aims and objectives  in each powerpoint and at the end of the lesson questions will be asked and all of us have to answer orally just for the teachers to make sure we understood the lecture. Other than this, I don’t see any other procedure the university take on to measure the student’s performance. Even the personal tutors , in my opinion , is not keeping in track of how we are getting on except from the results we get from our courseworks, assignments and class tests. It would be a good idea if the personal tutors had to meet the student every term just to see how each student are getting on and give targets for improvement.

From the article of the times online: “Entrepreneur: a mentor can tune your skills”, it is a good idea to be a happy mentee. A good mentor displays a yearning and a enthusiasm to despair time to assist others, upholds a positive attitude, thus far is capable to be truthful and have a solid fascination in their personal growth and self-development. Good mentors needs to be well-balanced, to offer and accept beneficial disparagement and understand how to test the mentee where and when it is suitable. It is also a plus for the mentor to be a good listener: more precisely an “active” listener. Supportive listening is also vital – the necessity to comprehend words and events as the mentee notices them and with the senses the mentee ascribes to them. It is signigicant for mentors to take interpretation by way of feedback, considering the mentee’s state of mind and precisely briefing or rephrasing their thought procedures.

I can say that my parents have been my mentor since birth as they have been there teaching me all the good deeds while growing up. They are there when I needed help in different areas such as money, education and other personal problems. Their advices made me stronger as an individual and made me as mature as I am now. They supported me throughout my whole life and gave the best treatment and happiness. Their stories from their previous experience inspired me to be a better person and to motivate me to work harder to achieve a better future. I know there was a time where I misplaced myself and did not listen to my parents who resulted for me to mess up my education and what I am. However, after that I made sure that I learnt my lesson and from then on, I should always trust on what they say as they only want the best for me even if they are strict.

In conclusion , a successful system proposes various potential advantages  mutually to individuals and the organisation nonetheless there are a number of significant queries to be tackled. Thought must be certain to the scheme and enactment of the system, procedures of appraisal , and possible delinquent areas.

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

The Sunday Times. (2008) Entrepeneurs : a mentor can tune your skills [online] . The times online. Available from: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece [Accessed on 20 April 2011]

Bacal, R. (1999) Performance Management.New York: R.R Donnelley & Sons Company.

Local Development (2008). Performance Management [online]. Available from: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=76209 [ Accessed on 20 April 2011]

Selection

Selection is concerned with picking the right candidate from the pool of applicants. Throughout this blog, I will state three different selection methods, describe an interview that I’ve had before and recommendations that I have for the companies that I am familiar with regarding their selection procedures.

There are also other selection methods other than interviewing such as :

·         psychometric tests

·         assessment centres

·         biodata

Psychometric tests

Psychometric tests can be valuable when selecting an applicant from a group of people who do not have clearly similar abilities or experience. They are more likely to be employed as soon as a manager is being sought. Psychometric tests can be utilised to assess intellect, character or ability for precise responsibilities, for instance:

·         perceptive/problem solving

·         decision making

·         interactive skills

·         self-confidence

However, an organisation need to think about the these things about the test as they :

·         are not always a decent pointer of future enactments

·         should not be utilised except if there is a verified requirement and a fittingly qualified person to manage them

·         frequently necessitate a fee when you practise them

Assessment centres

These are usually exercised by large companies, mainly when creating senior arrangements. Discrete and group practices occur, on occasion over limited days, every so often containing an interview, psychometric tests, group conferences and tasks, written exercises and demonstrations. They can be costly and timewasting.

Biodata

This test captures the method of a multiple-choice biographical questionnaire and is more likely to be employed by large companies. However, it is needed to take care not to rupture data protection or discrimination laws.

There was a time where I had an interview in my current job as a sales consultant in a private company called Censura Consulting. The manager who interviewed me explained that it was the first stage interviewing which will just basically wants to know more about my life so he just asked me to tell me more about myself other than what is stated on my CV. In my opinion, the interview went well as we already built a sense of connection as the manager was very professional in explaining clearly what the job is about and answered all the questions that I have asked about the company. In addition to this, he also mentioned what I aspire in the future and what good would I bring to their company. At the end of the interview, he asked his secretary to make a suitable time for me to come back to do the second stage which is job assessment where I have to work on to different departments of the company while they watch how I do. At the end of the office hours, the employees will get back to the manager stating how I did and whether I am essential for the job.

In the past, I had another interview in a retail shop which is in peacocks for a vacancy as a part time sales assistant. The interview lasted for five minutes which was very easy with simple questions like where do I live? Do my parents agree with me about working as a part time every weekend? Am I still in education? How many hours am I willing to work? These are the only questions that were asked. I think the interview went well because the Manager seems very happy with me and seems satisfied. After 2 days, the company rang me and said I got the job and set me a date to start and I was to work as a part time, 8 hours a week. However, in the future, I believe they should provide their employee with training and gain more experience about the job so that applicants will be confident to tackle the job after the training. Also, add more questions during the interview to show how interested they are working in the company such as: In a situation where a customer has erupted in a busy day, what would the candidate do. Likewise, they could have given me the chance to show them how I work first and assess how I work whether I am confident enough. These methods can make sure that an applicant is really enthusiastic in working as what the applied for and will be a benefit to the company. Also, it is important to keep in mind the criminal background checks and the status of their stay in UK, whether they are valid to work legally and other laws.

In conclusion, even at present, we know that interview is still generally the most popular use of method of selection, however by including other selection methods such as psychometric testing, I believe can make their choice a better as you will get to know most of the required information about the applicant. However, it should be kept in mind the critics that are accompanied by using other selection methods.

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

Koster,M.(2002) Human Resource Management: Classical selection methods and alternatives. Germany:Auflage.

Taylor,I.(2007)A Practical Guide to Assessment Centres and Selection Methods: Measuring competency for recruitment and development.Great Britain:MPG Books Ltd.

Graduate Recruitment Bureau.(2011) Selection Methods [online]. Available on: http://www.grb.uk.com/selection-methods.0.html [ Accessed on 19 April 2011]

Recruitment

Recruitment is an incessant procedure whereby an organisation tries to grow a group of capable candidates for the future human resources requirements albeit precise vacancies do not exist. Generally, the recruitment method commences when a manger introduces an employee demand for a particular vacancy or an awaited vacancy. 

I am going review about an online recruitment website which is www.fish4.co.uk. By its layout, I can easily tell the distinct purpose of the website which is for anyone to search for a job. Also, they maintained the use of the same colour which is orange and white and fonts and made the keywords needed to be bolder for it stands out from the rest of the words. Consequently, the colour that has been used is consistent as for the website’s logo so as a visitor on the page, I can easily tell that this website is for fish4job. Words have kept simple so it can be understood by anyone visiting this page and the purpose has been reinforced throughout. I think this a very well created website for recruitment as not only it is for people wanting to look for a job but also, employers who are seeking for future employees. Fish4jobs , likewise, has an advice link about looking for a job  such as creating CV ,training and other career advice. Most important thing that I have noticed is that, there is a hyperlink where you can directly subscribe to fish4jobs and automatically sends preferred vacancies sent to your email. Having a search engine to type in keywords that relates to what the person wants to look for, similarly, to make it easier for the visitor , you can alter the distance from his/her place so they can just browse the jobs near the area. One other clever method they used to use a map where anyone can just click on the area which will bring up all the vacancies there is in that area such as in London. However, I think they can make it better by adding more images to attract more visitors.

Workingmums’ campaign which is connecting mums and employers has really interested me as it based on mothers who cannot work as fulltime as they have become a mother and would like to have time for their babies and earn money at the same time and for dads, carers and other flexible job seeker. The founder of this campaign found herself and her friends in a similar position when they gave birth and wanted a flexible yet challenging work but it was too hard to find therefore she decided to create this campaign. Not only they offer job opportunities to individuals but also let them search small business and self –employed opportunities. They also offer advice, new and working mum’s blogs, in order to give feedback to other working mums around the world.

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages of using online recruitment.

5 Advantages of online recruitment:

·         More variety of jobs that can be applied for – there are options and keywords to be typed in that can suit the job that you want.

·         It is cost effective – not just for the candidate but for the employer too as they do not have to put a job board or advertise in a national newspaper which will cost more.

·          Knowing the amount of money paid before meeting the employer – this will give you an idea of how much are you going to get and whether this is suits what you need.

·         Details are shown for the job that are applied for; times, days, etc. – for you to make sure that you are capable to work at those times.

·         Faster than giving out CV’s to the stores – time consuming as you can just send your cv with by just registering online ,not having to travel to different shops in different areas.

5 Disadvantages of online recruitment

·         Too many candidates that have applied for the job – recruiters will take time going through all the applications and resume of people not even qualified for the position.

·         Lesser chance of success as there are a lots of choices to look upon

·         Les face to face contact – there might be a tendency that interviews will be done in telephone rather than in person and relying on resume is difficult as it is better to see the real personality and attitude by interaction personally.

·         Some jobs might need specific skills that an employer might not be capable of reaching suitable candidates by using job posts on the internet.

·         It does not always work as majority stated that low costs and cost savings are likely advantages of employing through the net

In conclusion, online recruitment proposes vibrant benefits over other recruitment procedures. At the same time, nevertheless, one needs to be aware of the drawbacks inherent in online recruitment if only to keep away from the downsides that they may yield.

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

Whatjobsite .(2009) The advantages and disadvantages of online recruitment[online].Available on: http://www.whatjobsite.com/Online%20Recruitment:%20Advantages%20and%20disadvantages.htm [Accessed on 18 April 2011].

Workingmums.(2011)About us[online]. Available on: http://www.workingmums.co.uk/corporate/aboutus/ [ Accessed on 18 April 2011].

Dale,M.(2006) the essential guide to recruitment:how to conduct great interviews and select the best employees.Great Britain:MPG Books Ltd.

Equal opportunities and Diversity

A vital and essential aspect of individual variances is the notion of diversity .It is the recognition that people are not homogeneous. Diversity stresses on the assortment of dissimilarities amongst people – on the range of people as heterogeneous groupings. Individual  variances are the foundation of diversity.

Equal opportunities associates to legislation envisioned to forbid discrimination. The government is dedicated to guard personalities at work in opposition to discernment in employment on the source of gender, disability, race, religion and sexual orientation or age. Boosting a assorted workforce is extraordinary on the government’s program and the hesitant employer is taking their hand involuntary by constitutional duties. Even though diversity in the workplace correlates to treating everyone similarly, it supplements and further progresses creativities on equal opportunities.

Acting as an employer the following I believe will be the impact on the business after age legislation has been approved in 2006:

·         Deliver a widespread variety of skills helpful to the organisation, various of which may be incredibly uncommon

·         Aid the organisation advance creative ways of resolving difficult glitches

·         Offer enhanced admittance to multi-ethnic and gender markets

·         Contribute to the organisation to improve a decent appearance with employees ,customers and other stakeholders perceding to:

-          Enriched employee gratification

-          Healthier employee preservation

-          Better-quality customer devotion

Diversity likewise disputes numerous customary stereotypes. Stereotyping imples that people in the interior of a precise apparent group are presumed to impart similar behaviours or characteristics. Stereotypes are a means of creating abridged opinions of other people as an alternative of managing with a variety of individual incentives. Stereotyping ascribes to all individuals, the characteristics or tendencies of the classification as an enitre.  Below is a list of common stereotypes for a young and old people at work place:

Young people

Older people

·         Tend to be seen as unreliable ·         Not enough skills ·         Costly as they are new  to the job therefore, they need to be trained. ·         Not as serious about their job and cannot be trusted ·         Does not have much experience .

·         Seen as not open to any new ideas - older workers be inclined to be tougher to teach, are less flexible, and more resilient to alteration, causing in less comeback on training funds ·         Poor Performance- older workers have minor performance, output and enthusiasms. ·         Lower Aptitude to be taught- older workers be subject to have less capability to learn; as a result, they do not progress novel skills as well as younger workers. ·         Shorter Tenancy- Due to their age, older workers are believed to possess more turnover than other age groups. ·         More Pricey- Older workers are more expensive because they are nearby retirement, utilise more benefits, and get higher salary

They can manage this diversities by these practical ideas:

1.       Check suppositions on people afore proceeding on them.

2.       Confirm that organisational policies associated to discipline and grievance are evidently comprehended

3.       Aimed at all employees, but predominantly novel recruits, make sure that inscribed and spoken diversity policies are grasped and worked upon.

4.       Preserve unrestricted passages of interaction to attempt to trace probable matters afore they grow into complications.

5.       Absorb how to comprehend the outlooks of all staff members and support open attitudes.

6.       Be ready to pay attention to changing procedures of unravelling work-related complications.

7.       Gain knowledge about and have regard to several strongly-held principles ( for example spiritual adherences ,food, relations) that are apprehended by individuals

8.       Recognise all involvements to enlightening operational atmospheres and methods from whatever the starting place

9.       Distinguish your personal cultural diversity partialities- and effort at not letting them influence the workplace

10.   Pay attention that any workstation founded societal occasions can be appreciated by the entire workers – specifically appropriate (but not constrained) to those with physical incapacity.

A growing amount of public and private businesses give the impression to identify the business instance for diversity. I am going to look on the organisation B&Q on how they employ diversity and equal opportunities.

In B&Q, equality and diversity is essential and a must. They are one of the companies that take anyone who is capable of meeting their needs, it does not matter what you are and where you come from, and they will take you if they think you have got what it takes to be trained as one of them.

Staff are given efficient time and provided with efficient training to make sure the company gets what they need out of their employees until they reach the certain level where they understand and experience what it takes to be a B&Q staff member. 

B&Q makes sure that they meet their costumers needs, treated with respect and gain trust with their costumers which benefits the company and themselves for self-esteem, personal development, and experience. They also have questionnaires for their costumers for their feedback or any complaints to make sure that the costumers will be satisfied and which will also benefit the company for better ideas and will not make the same mistake for the second time.

In conclusion, an understanding of diversity, which supplements and further advances creativities on equal opportunities, stresses a work climate that values individual variances and regards all associates with nobility and shared respect. Diversity tests several conventional stereotypes and one certain feature is the management of gender equality. A growing quantity of organisations appears to distinguish the business case for diversity as portion of the all-encompassing and imaginative procedure nonetheless there are numerous of possible disparagements involving distress for moral and social disputes.    

           

References:

Mullins, L. ( 2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. London: Person Education Limited.

Bagilhole,B. (2009) Understanding Equal Opportunities and Diversity: The social differentiations and intersections of inequality. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Wilson,J.(2005) Resource Development: learning and training for individuals and organisations (second edition).Glasgow:Bell & Bain.

Warwick Mill Business Village. (2011) Equality and Diversity [online]. Available on : http://warwickmill.blogspot.com/2011/04/equality-and-diversity.html [Accessed on 16 April 2011]

B&Q Website .(2011) About B&Q : Environment and ethics [online]. Available on: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/corporate/content/environment_ethics/index.jsp [ Accessed on 16 April 2011]

Personality

Personality can be seen entailing of steady features that describe the reason a person acts in a specific way. So, for example, independence, conscientiousness, agreeableness and self-control are some of the instances of these personality characteristics. On the other hand, it is just when we see/hear/observe an individual that we are able to acquire a knowledge of what their personality is. We expect that individuals are normally stable in the way in which they react to circumstances. There are occasions when we might be astonished by someone’s comportment and we may comprehend they are ‘acting out of character’ .Generally talking, personality studies can be divided into two main attitudes, characterised as nomothetic and idiographic. In this blog, I will be taking a look at the differences and the similarities of nature and nurture approaches to personality.

The nomothetic approach is a quantifiable and particular perception that examines at the recognition of behaviours and personality as a set of characteristics. These characteristics can be expressed, acknowledged and measured and thus can be exposed to investigations and experiments. Nomothetic attitudes have a habit to outlook environmental and public effects as negligible and regard personality as unchanging, mainly hereditary and resilient to alteration. Nomothetic researchers carefully support themselves to investigations that are ‘scientific’ in a positivistic wisdom. Such methodology moves procedures employed in natural sciences to the social world.

The idiographic approach is a universal and vibrant viewpoint which claims that managers take into account a ‘whole’ insight of the individual at work. This may also involve going yonder the study of utter psychology to an intellect of the societal perspective in which the person exists. It is further concerned with empathising the rareness of folks and the expansion of the self-concept. They deem personality growth as a procedure that is accessible to a modification. They view individuals as acting in response to the setting and people nearby them and perceive the changing aspects of the connections as enacting a significant fragment in forming personality.

In my point of view, personality is distinctive. I consider that it is not probable to place personal characteristics in an assessment. Each individual’s uniqueness crafts associations tough, if not unviable. Workers may not constantly disclose their right ‘self’ – at intervals, situations may push them to ‘mask’ their favoured habits of acting. They may not consistently report on their own performance or there may be an actual variance amid what they declare and what others grasp. Nomothetic theorists utilises questionnaires  for it to be a foundation for forecast but I believe responding ‘set’ questions is  ‘forcing’ replies to questions that may not be pertinent. As an alternative, it may be more suitable to apply open-ended methods. This guarantees that individuals employ their own descriptions and accepts for bigger interpretation about their inspirations and reasons of conduct.

I have taken a test in BBC which is called the Big personality test to determine what my personality by answering a set of questions : (https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/)

The Big five form the foundation of typical personality questionnaires that verify positive or negative scores for each aspect. Below is the result of my test :

I scored 3.8 out of 5 for Openness which is a medium.

The Big Personality Test says:

 “This trait is sometimes known as ‘Openness to experience’. People with scores like yours tend to have fairly broad range of interests. You may be more sensitive to art than those scoring low on this measure.

You are likely to find it easy to come up with original solutions to problems.

It has been suggested that Openness is related to a person’s likelihood to hold unusual beliefs. People with low-to-medium Openness may therefore be less likely to believe in things like conspiracy theories.”

I disagree with this point of view that I may be more sensitive to art as I am not really keen into art at the first place. However, I do have a fairly broad range of interests and not all the time I don’t believe in things like conspiracy theories as there are times that I do depending on the situation.

I scored 3.8 out of 5 for Conscientiousness which is a medium.

The Big Personality says:

“Conscientiousness describes how dependable, organised and hard-working a person is likely to be. This may be the reason why, of all the personality traits, Conscientiousness is the most consistent indicator of job success. People with scores like yours are less likely to be workaholics, instead achieving a good work-life balance.

Conscientiousness often gives out clues to the amount that a person plans. You probably enjoy planning aspects of your life and may indulge in occasional list-making, but you are unlikely to be averse to behaving spontaneously.

Some studies have shown the more Conscientious an individual is, the more disciplined they are likely to be about exercise and diet.”

Comment: I completely agree in this point of view as I may be not as addicted to working instead I balance my social and work life to balance my happiness and stress. In addition to this, I do have plans and aspirations in my mind but I am likely to be sometimes out of track on the pathway that I planned to be in. Also, at the past I was disciplined about exercise and diet to improve my appearance, nevertheless, at present, this changed to me trying to get back on strict diet and exercise but I tend to give up after a couple of days.

I scored 3.9 out of 5 for Extroversion which is high.

The Big personality test says:

“Extroversion is characterised by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out pleasure-stimulating or risk-taking activities. People with scores like yours are often perceived as gregarious, expressive and energetic. You are likely to be someone who enjoys socialising and be quick to form new friendships.

Personality studies have shown that scoring highly on Extroversion often translates to a natural capacity of leadership. High Extroversion may also indicate a tendency to earn more than those with lower scores, but the reasons for this are unclear.

People with high Extroversion are more likely to lead risky lifestyles and take greater risks in pursuit of rewards. Health studies have shown they are more likely to smoke and less likely to get enough sleep than people who scores less highly on this trait.”

Comment: I believe that my emotions tend to change at different levels in different situations, environment and the people who I am with. I agree with my personality being pleasure-stimulating as I think everyone would desire that but taking up risk-taking activities is not my interest at all as I get too nervous even just trying to watch how it is done or hear anything about it. Also, I do enjoy socialising and meeting new people and creating friendship with different kind of people. Again, sleeping less and smoking depends on the situation I am in. As there are times when there is a problem that caused depression in me which resulted to me not sleeping properly. Also, there was a phase in my teenage life where I started to smoke not just because of the stress but by the influence of other people too.

I scored 4.7 out of 5 for Agreeableness which is high.

The Big personality test says:

“Agreeableness measures how sympathetic and considerate a person is likely to be. People with scores like yours are likely to find it very easy to get along with other people. You probably find that you are sensitive to the feelings of others and that people find it easy to warm to you.

As a ‘people person’ you will probably be very comfortable in situations that require teamwork.”

Comment: It is certainly true that I tend to be really friendly which usually get along with anyone from different backgrounds. Also, I do take attention to what people feel  as I am myself is sensitive therefore it feels awkward knowing there is something wrong  with the people I know . In this situations I try to approach them and give advice so in my group of friends, most of them say that I am the person who they can run too.

I scored 3 out of 5 for Neuroticism which is medium.

The Big Personality Test says:

“In the context of the Big Five personality traits, the term ‘Neuroticism’ relates to a person’s response to threatening or stressful situations. People with scores like yours are likely to be comparatively level-headed about perceived threats, but you may find yourself worrying when faced with uncertainty or unfamiliar situations.

Some scientists have suggested that Neuroticism was beneficial in evolutionary terms. Early man may have found it advantageous to live in a population where certain individuals had a high sensitivity to threats to the group’s survival.

There is evidence to suggest that Neuroticism, when combined with high scores in personality traits such as Conscientiousness, can result in a powerful work ethic and a will to succeed.”

Comment: I both agree and disagree with this statement because in all honesty I believe that I worry and stress too much when under pressure and threats come along. I disagree with the last statement where it says scoring high in Neuroticism and Conscientiousness “can result in a powerful work ethic and a will to succeed” as in my opinion, most individual can achieve and would want this kind of life; it is just the case of the path they take in their future.

In conclusion, I believe that personalities cannot be measured by any kind of questionnaires as some of the questions from the questionnaires might mean different things to people and answer wrongly. Also, having 5 different measurements such as: strong agree, agree, unsure, disagree, strongly disagree, it can be biased as it is difficult to distinguish in which category they are in. Also, the big five personality is not the only measurement that can be done for instance: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Eysenck theory and Erikson’s as each theory/indicators has different views and it is hard to identify which tells your real personality especially if they are contrasting each other. In summary, in my opinion, personality is idiographic and it changes as time goes by, as they grow old, meet different kind of people and come into different cultures and phases in their life.

References:

Mullins, L.(2010) Management & organisational Behaviour : ninth edition. Harlow : Pearson Education Limited.

Gallagher,K .,Rose, E. , McClelland, B., Reynolds, J., Tombs,S. (1997) People in Organisations: An active learning approach.Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc.

Chamorro-Premuzic,T. (2007) Personality and Individual Differences.Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Wilderdom. (2004) Personality Traits: Idiographic vs Nomothetic[online]. Wilderdom Website.Available from: http://wilderdom.com/personality/traits/PersonalityTraitsIdiographicNomothetic.html [ Accessed on 13 April 2011 ]