APRIL 12, 2022
PSYCHOLOGY AT WORK – MG6828
ULTAN
SHERMAN
ULTAN
SHERMAN
ULTAN SHERMAN
SALLY QUIRKE
121109282
HRM MSc
Table of Contents
1.
To what extent is this job a good “fit” for your personality profile? .......................... 4
Conscientiousness ................................................................................................................. 4
Extraversion .......................................................................................................................... 5
Agreeableness ........................................................................................................................ 6
2.
To what extent is this job not a good “fit” for your personality profile? ................... 7
Openness................................................................................................................................ 7
Neuroticism ........................................................................................................................... 8
3. Critically analyse the value of the Big 5 framework in determining your fit for this
job. ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 12
Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 14
Big 5 Framework Results ................................................................................................... 14
Job Description – ................................................................................................................ 16
Consultant Project Manager at Morgan McKinley ........................................................... 16
2
Introduction
The five-factor model of personality or Big Five Personality framework (also referred to as
“The Big Five” or FFM) is the most widely used and empirically supported model of normal
personality traits. It consists of five main traits: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness,
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness” (Morgan, 2013). In order to identify a real-life job with
a comprehensive job profile, I carried out my own interpretation of the characteristics that
applied to me (See Appendix). My personality profile followed a medium to high score of
Conscientiousness and Neuroticism, a medium score of Agreeableness and Extraversion and a
medium to a low score of Openness.
Jong et al have argued that “how a person’s career unfolds is increasingly affected by his or
her own values, personality characteristics, goals and preference” (Jong et. Al, 2019).
Therefore, I believe the job profile I identified is suitable to discuss to what extent it is a good
or bad “fit” for my personality characteristics, values, goals and preference. I chose a job profile
in Morgan McKinley as a Consultant Project Manager. This job profile entails “helping clients
optimize, execute and realize their strategies.” This job also requires individuals to have many
skills such as excellent planning and organization skills, solution orientated, a team player and
communication skills. This will be discussed in further detail throughout this essay along with
determining the value of the Big Five Framework in determining my fit for this job.
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1. To what extent is this job a good “fit” for your personality profile?
Gupta (2020) argued that three of the Five-Factor Model (Conscientiousness, Extraversion,
Agreeableness) are particularly relevant in managerial roles. This is relevant in the discussion
of whether the Project Consultancy job role would be a good fit for my personality profile at
Morgan McKinley.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is described by traits such as trustworthiness, competence, achievement
striving, responsibility, self-discipline, dutifulness and efficiency (Farhadi, 2012). According
to Hussain, “conscientious trait holder people tend to be very careful about their future
planning’s; they are cautious about their surroundings, company and fully scheduled”
(Hussain, 2012). They are also associated with the “attitude of being systematic, goal orientated
and self-disciplined” (Alderrolli et al, 2021). Therefore, being conscientious is one of the most
important factors in predicting job performance across most occupations.
I maintained a score of 4.3 in conscientiousness which is considered to be “medium to high”
when interpreting the results. This describes how I am suited for jobs where I am highly
organised and reliable to get deadlines achieved on time. The Project Consultancy role
describes how they wish to acquire an individual who displays qualities of “excellent planning
and organisation skills, with the ability to confidently prioritise tasks and guide teams.” A
highly conscientious individual is needed for this job role because it is essential to deliver the
results for projects within the agreed deadlines for the clients involved.
According to Soto et al (2016), “conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of overall
academic and occupational success...conscientious students earn higher grades and
conscientious employees perform better in a variety of jobs.” I would have considered myself
a highly conscientious person even before carrying out the Big Five Personality Test. I am
quite organised and motivated in all aspects of my life. For example, I like to pursue my college
work in an organised manner in order to achieve the desired results and be satisfied with the
work I have put in. Therefore, I think this job is a good fit for me due to the responsibilities I
would have working in large scale operations and/or in a consulting role to achieve and deliver
on client and stakeholder expectations. Furthermore, according to Long Huo et al, “thriving
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experiences fostered by conscientiousness can drive employee satisfaction. Hence thriving
energises employees to learn and grow in career and work” (Long-Huo et al, 2021). Therefore,
having a high score of conscientiousness will develop my skill set further and allow for me to
grow as in individual starting my career.
Extraversion
Extraversion (i.e. gregarious, sociable, ambitious, and active) is the “extent to which
individuals engage with the external world and experience enthusiasm and other positive
emotions” (Ali, 2019). Following this, Kumar suggests that extraversion “allows extraverted
individuals to create and engage with their social network which in turn creates opportunities
for knowledge exploration which is vital for innovativeness” (Kumar, 2020). Extraverts are
capable of relating to others and are often liked in their teams and offices. The impact of
extraversion in team settings is important because most teams require social interaction in order
to solve problems, work through team conflict and achieve organizational goals.
I maintained a score of 3.6 for extraversion which is considered to be “typical or medium”
when interpreting the results. Morgan McKinley requires an individual who is a team player
and is well-spoken with excellent communication skills and confidence to create and deliver
high-quality presentations. According to Soto et al (2016), “extraverts tend to perform better
in social and enterprising occupations and are more likely to assume leadership positions in
their workplace and communities.” I believe my extraverted tendencies would help me deliver
on these required deliverables and allow me to be a good fit because I enjoy working with
people and sharing ideas. For example, I’ve always enjoyed college assignments where group
work is involved because it is an opportunity to collaborate with others and share ideas
together. I believe teamwork helps with critical thinking, ensures greater levels of productivity
and is enjoyable overall. Therefore, I think this job would be a good fit for me because working
with different individuals on multiple projects and helping organisations from a diverse range
of industries would be a fantastic opportunity to improve my skillset further.
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Agreeableness
According to Soto (2018), “agreeableness captures differences in compassion, respectfulness,
and acceptance of others. Agreeable individuals experience emotional concern for others’ wellbeing, treat others with regard for their personal rights and preferences, and hold generally
positive beliefs about others.” Agreeable individuals are also considered courteous, helpful,
trusting, cooperative and considerate. Soto (2018) explained further how agreeableness is
associated with a number of prosocial outcomes. For example, highly agreeable individuals
tend to be better liked by their peers, and their close relationships tend to be more stable and
satisfying.
I maintained a score of 3.4 for agreeableness which is considered to be a “typical/medium”
score. This score would potentially allow me to be a good addition to Morgan McKinley as
they would appreciate an individual who has a typical score on agreeableness. Individuals who
have a high score are friendly and are generally well-liked by people at work and appear
pleasing to those around them as they are considered an easy person to work with. I would
consider myself an agreeable person as I tend to get along well with others and form close
relationships in both my college and work environments. Being an agreeable person is closely
tied to my extraversion traits as agreeableness is an important predictor of social outcomes.
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2. To what extent is this job not a good “fit” for your personality profile?
Openness
According to Soto et al (2016), “openness to experience refers to the overall depth and breadth
of an individual’s intellectual, artistic, and experiential life.” Soto et al (2016) further elaborate
on how “highly open individuals tend to have a broad range of interests, and enjoy learning
and trying new things; those low in openness tend to have narrower interests and prefer
familiarity and routine over novelty and variety.” Therefore, individuals who are low in
openness often feel scared to try new things and prefer to stay focused on a unidirectional
output. They do not want to adapt to change and prefer to be practical and traditional.
I achieved a score of 2 which is considered “medium to low” when interpreting the results. I
initially was surprised to see I had gotten quite a low score. However, I would consider myself
apprehensive of the unknown. I prefer the reassurance of routine, familiarity and predictability.
This may be difficult in the workplace when considering how many new things I would have
to try in this specific job role in an effort to achieve satisfactory results for the various
stakeholders. Therefore, this job may not be a good “fit” for my personality as it requires an
individual who is flexible - it requires travelling and it involves helping various categories of
organisations such as Pharmaceuticals and Information Technology – those of whom would be
new clients which I would be unfamiliar with. Enhanced openness will always enable an
individual to face any challenges in life as one must be ready to make risky decisions and
produce imaginative solutions suitable to resolving any problem in life. Hence, this job does
not currently fit my personality profile.
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Neuroticism
Neuroticism, as opposed to Emotional Stability, describes individuals who are high in
neuroticism are likely to have more psychological distress and experience more negative
emotionality. They are anxious, hostile, tense, touchy and not calm (Deniz, 2017). In contrast,
individuals who are emotionally stable tend to be secure and calm, and therefore more likely
to control their impulses and cope with stress (Klang, 2012). Overall, this personality trait is
widely correlated with negative implications for performance in the work environment. Such
as being emotionally sensitive to job stressors, individuals could experience negative emotions
more frequently and intensively than their emotionally stable colleagues (Costa and McCrae,
1992).
I maintained a score of 4.4 for neuroticism which is considered to be “medium to high” when
interpreting the results. Morgan McKinley requires an individual who is able to keep on top of
numerous projects for organisations in an organised manner for companies such as
Pharmaceuticals and Information Technology; whilst also dealing with fast paced deadlines
and budgets. High scores may indicate a higher propensity toward employee burnout, as those
employees have a tougher time managing their emotions This job may not be a good “fit” for
me because I tend to worry about deadlines and I do get stressed easily. A high emotional
stability is linked to high life and job satisfaction, as well as lower stress levels. Additionally,
those with emotional stability have a better chance of dealing with workplace demands,
especially fast-paced change. Although, this is a personality trait that can be improved upon.
However, considering the context, I may not be able to handle the stress or pressures of the job
role which may hinder my personal development and job satisfaction in Morgan McKinley.
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3. Critically analyse the value of the Big 5 framework in determining your fit for this
job.
The Big Five Personality Framework is a quantitative method that uses personality
characteristics to measure and arrive at scores. These scores may be used to find out the career
paths that the participant may be successful in, the types of relationships they seek, and the
factors in their environment that they would find stimulating. In general, it represents a good
descriptive framework for studying personality.
Previous research has suggested that
personality is an important factor for analysing job performance and how personality is an
important factor in the work environment. It is a behaviour that differentiates one person from
another (Beer, 2011).
Jong et al have argued that “how a person’s career unfolds is increasingly affected by his or
her own values, personality characteristics, goals and preference” (Jong et. Al, 2019).
Therefore, personality is one of the leading factors in determining how well your job
performance and satisfaction will be. According to Anglim and O’Connor (2018), practitioners
should use the Big Five when seeking to measure or control a relatively complete set of broad
personality traits. Thereby, the Big Five framework is useful in determining suitability for job
roles and more specifically, for determining my suitability as a Consultant Project Manager at
Morgan McKinley.
The Big Five Framework provides a valuable insight to my strengths and weaknesses and helps
to frame them in a light that might predict my performance in the role at Morgan McKinley.
By knowing your strengths, it offers you a better understanding of how to deal with your
weaknesses—and helps you gain the confidence you need to address them (Roberts et al,
2005). The Big Five framework can enhance an individual’s self-awareness, which gives an
opportunity for the person to make better decisions towards a career path for themselves.
The Big Five Framework been valuable in determining my suitability for the job role because
it has broken down the different subsections of my personality traits and highlighted everything
that is a strength and the areas that need improvement. My strengths are Conscientiousness,
Extraversion and Agreeableness. The areas for improvement are my Openness to Experience
and Neuroticism. I am now acquainted with my strengths and challenges. This awareness will
allow me to continuously improve my skill set and strive towards a career suited to these
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personality characteristics.
However, although the model is useful in determining personality characteristics. There are
some limitations to note. According to previous research, “personality traits continue to change
throughout the lifespan” (Bleidorn et al, 2021). Therefore, personality traits are not fixed and
have the ability to change over time. According to Mottus (2011), we become more
conscientious and agreeable and less neurotic the older we get. Therefore, the value of this
framework in determining my future performance weakens as time passes, the model is very
much time sensitive.
This information makes the model even more valuable as potential employees, including
myself, are made aware of their weaknesses. For myself in particular, as I have scored highly
in conscientiousness and agreeableness, I am more likely to work towards improving upon my
weaknesses over time. Therefore, it is safe to assume that conscientiousness in particular, is a
good determinant of a person’s future performance in both the short and long term as these
individuals are likely to work on their weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths going
forward.
Therefore, I can come to the conclusion that the Big Five Personality Framework does provide
value in determining my fit for the role. It is also important to note that there is more to
personality than the Big Five Framework. It’s important to recognize there are factors beyond
the Big Five that need to be assessed if organizations truly wish to understand their employees.
An important trait to consider is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence bridges the
relationship of personality traits. Emotional intelligence is defined as an “individual’s ability
to access and describe his own and others’ emotions accurately” (Yu Dan et al, 2011). It is
important to note that emotional intelligence plays a role in determining your fit for a job role.
According to Yu Dan et al (2011), “the emotional intelligence of the individuals plays a very
important role in decision making, enhancement of quality of living, and many other social
realms.” Evidently, an individual’s emotional intelligence will be vital in determining how they
will interact with their co-workers, customers and superiors within the workplace. The Big
Five Framework does not have a means of measuring this trait.
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Previous research has argued that conscientiousness has a positive correlation with emotional
intelligence (Antoñanzas 2021), however, correlation does not always equal causation and an
important personality trait like this is completely unaccounted for in the model. For a role like
this where dealing with clients is a key part of the job, measuring emotional intelligence would
provide valuable insight into my suitability to the work.
Overall, the Big Five Framework does provide real value in determining my fit for the role.
Despite not accounting for all personality traits, the framework still summarises key,
performance defining characteristics into a set of 5 easily comprehensible numbers and should
be used by potential employees and employers everywhere.
Conclusion
The Big Five Personality framework plays an important role in determining your strengths and
weaknesses and deciding whether or not a job is a good or bad “fit”. The framework has
provided a great insight into how well I would perform in this job role as a Consultant Project
Manager in Morgan McKinley. It has highlighted my strengths such as Conscientiousness,
Extraversion and Agreeableness and the challenges I must I face and work on such as Openness
and Neuroticism. This will help both me and potential employers build realistic expectations
of my performance while highlighting areas to be improved upon.
I have also learned how important personality is in the workplace as these traits form an
individual’s character and not only predict how they will interact with each other but also how
they will fit with the tasks and responsibilities required for the position in order to ensure work
efficiency and good performance. Being aware of one’s flaws allows for the selection of roles
that are suited to a person’s strengths while also making them aware of their flaws so that they
may work to improve upon them.
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Appendix
Big 5 Framework Results
14
15
Job Description –
Consultant Project Manager at Morgan McKinley
16
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