1.2 Individual Differences
Activity: The Myers-Briggs Inventory
We will be talking about several individual differences that impact behavior in organizations during the next few lessons. For the rest of this lesson, I will focus on personality. Be sure that you have completed the reading assignment as specified in your online syllabus before proceeding. In addition, please complete the Myers-Briggs personality inventory. This inventory is available through a link on your course Web site. Have your results handy as you proceed through the lesson.
Our personality is a relatively stable set of characteristics, tendencies, and temperaments. Sounds pretty general, doesn't it? In practice, our personality influences all of the choices we make, all of the things we do, and the direction of our lives. One of my colleagues does not believe in personality. He thinks that everyone is the same. Ironically, he has one of the most predictable personalities you will ever encounter. He believes only in what he can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. As you might already suspect, he is an accountant. In his approach to his career, he is fatalistic--this temperament manifests itself in the following behaviors:
He claims that he learns "the game" (i.e., his understanding of the game) and plays it in order to survive at work,
He uses a subservient approach when he deals with the "power brokers,"
He always expects the worst case scenario and tends to spend a lot of time "waiting and seeing."
He doesn't always complete special assignments because things may not turn out anyway so--why waste his time?
He hates change.
I tell you this story because many technical people don't like concepts like personality which they cannot see--they are abstract, not concrete, and difficult to measure. The truth is that personality can be seen, and can be measured. In addition, using information from personality assessments, behavior can be predicted. Are predictions infallible? No, because there are so many variables that influence behavior, but it can prove to be helpful when you manage a project team.