Effects of Personality and Emotion on Individual Behavior and Performance at Work - Assignment Example

SЕLF-АNАLYSIS RЕРОRT ON РRОFЕSSIОNАL РЕRFОRMАNСЕ СHАRАСTЕRISTIСS Sеlf-Аnаlysis Rероrt on Рrоfеssiоnаl Реrfоrmаnсе Сhаrасtеristiсs Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 06, 12, 2012 Sеlf-Аnаlysis Rероrt on Рrоfеssiоnаl Реrfоrmаnсе Сhаrасtеristiсs Professional performance characteristics are the traits embedded in an individual that enable him to execute his duties efficiently, effectively and in time. There are a number of traits that a manager of a construction and designs firm should possess but of great importance is the personality and ability to deal with emotions at different levels. To understand emotion and personality as a characteristic of professional performance in this field it is important to evaluate a few tasks on the traits. Task one: effects of personality and emotion on individual behavior and performance at work Emotion and personality are some of the few factors that can be used to predict work behavior. Personality encompasses the way that an individual behaves, handles emotions, and executes his duties at the work place. Mostly for the manager of a construction and design stress is one of the likely factors that drive a person to an emotional state that will most likely affect his personality and breakdown the communication process that is the core value of team work. Emotions define the personality of an individual and his performance at the work place. Emotions may be brought about by pressure or stress. Ability to cope with stress at work place depends on how one is able to deal with pressure that can cause physical or psychological problems. These pressure range from boredom and lack of challenges to working for long hours and engaging in perfectionist thinking (McMahon 2008). Biologically, a human being resembles a machine. Overworking it for too long or leaving it idle and rusting away, or asking it to undertake functions it is not equipped to deal with will bring it harm. It is however important to note that recurrent situations in the construction industry enable one to gain experience of the unknown and therefore shape up the personality that ensures emotional breakdown due to stress are dealt with and the communication vital for team work is not broken. It is not possible to predict the breaking point of a person because some have high stress threshold than others just as some have high tolerance to pain. Emotions can provide either a push on performance or a pull. Pressure is healthy and provides the opportunities to stretch ability. On the other hand stress decreases the ability to work (McMahon 2008). Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor owns emotions and that of others, to guide the thinking and action of others, and discriminate emotions (Tucker, Sojka, Barone & McCarthy 2000). There are many types of emotional intelligence but the focus is mainly on logical and linguistic intelligence, though intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence that is argued to be more important for a successful career. In-order to be able to deal with emotions at the in the construction and design field it is important to incorporate emotional intelligence skills in the managers field of learning. Emotions can be used to make things work in a desired way by promoting the personality through behavior and way of thinking (Tucker, Sojka, Barone & McCarthy 2000). Changes in work environment suggest that emotional intelligence is of great importance to deal with the changes in technology and culture. Emotional intelligence in a few words in the construction business is the ability to recognize and deal with emotions as well as helping others deal with their emotions. In the modern construction business team work achieved through communication is perceived to be the ultimate key to success and thus the evaluation of a group’s emotional intelligence by the manager will be more appropriate than that of a single individual. Unlike intelligence quotient emotional intelligence can be improved through learning in a number of phases namely: preparation, training, transfer and maintenance, and evaluation (Tucker, Sojka, Barone & McCarthy 2000). In conclusion emotion affects the personality of an individual therefore affecting their work. In this case the role of analyzing and review of designs will be ineffective and team work and communication will be affected. The effect could be positive or negative but it is entirely on the individual to control emotion to his favor. To improve the business research has to be reviewed in-order to shed more light on emotion and personality in the construction and design business. Task two: effectiveness at work through personality and emotional competencies in Management skills. Modern management in the construction business has proved to be a challenge due to the ever changing factors in many fields. The ability of a manager to cope and work under pressure and stress at the same time turning emotions to work to his benefit is the core competence in managerial skills. Competence being the capability to work with professionalism and skillfully towards the goals of a construction firm is an aspect that is needed in dealing with emotions and shaping of personality. For a manager to be effective it is not only required to be able to control his own emotions but also control and guide emotions of others to bring them together to work as a team. In-order to do this the manager should be able to identify stress situations that affect team work and be capable of dealing with the same in a way that is of benefit to both the organization and the individual. Influencing the moods of others and making people appear trustworthy are just but a few of the positive social outcomes associated with competence in emotional management (Rothstein & Burke 2010). The behavior of a manger greatly influences the emotional state of staff and defines the personality of the manager that is vital in his authority as viewed by his subordinates. The behavior of a manager of a construction is not only influenced by the aspects at work but also by other social aspects outside the working environment such as climbing the social hierarchy, dealing with responsibilities at home, and also interaction with peers. Since a manger cannot work in ignorance of the external aspects affecting his emotion it is important that he learns a way of channeling the emotions into a useful tool to provide positive pressure at the work place (Rothstein & Burke 2010). The success of a construction firm lies in the personality of the manager that is the behavior for it greatly influences his authority on the subordinates and the ability to control their emotions thus having control over team work. The ability to predict the behavior of subordinate greatly influences the behavior of the manager since he has to adjust according to the situation that he predicts is going to be prevalent. In most cases the manager has to pretend and lye in-order to get things done. Therefore the behavior of the manager of a construction business will be greatly influenced by the type of situation being dealt with (Rothstein & Burke 2010). There is need for more research to be done to shed light on the relationship between emotional competencies and effective leadership. When this research is done it will be easier to develop emotional competence that improves management and leadership skills (Rothstein & Burke 2010). In conclusion the manager should be able to change his personality to fit every single situation that is likely to occur by being in control of his emotions in the work place and being able to predict the emotions of his subordinate as well to boost team work spirit. Task three: strategies for developing the effectiveness of the workplace encompassing personality characteristics and emotional competencies and their improvements Workplace strategy is the arrangement of work patterns within the working environment to ensure efficient and effective performance. The main objective in designing a work place strategy in the construction industry is to understanding the business setting and line of products so as to create a solution to help meet short term and long term goals. The workplace strategy will enable fulfillment of objectives and goals through: property costs reduction, business performance improvement, bringing together two or more business cultures, and changing location. In a few words workplace strategy provides a solution to the emerging issues at the right time. For a design and construction firm the work place strategy can be achieved through external workplace consultants who are professionals from various departments. In the case of design and construction firm the manager is responsible for identifying the key areas that may require development and also offer guidelines on a preferred mode of approach to emerging problems. It is important to note that the strategies that will be designed need to thrive on the emotional and personality aspects since the modern management is greatly embedded in these aspects. Moreover the working environment is that of team work and requires the interaction with various personalities in-order to achieve objectives through effective communication. Among the various strategies the objective of being more efficient and effective is prevalent. These strategies can be designed in a number of approaches such as: introduction of new ways of working, mergers, relocation, property lease, procurement, and marketing. To get a glimpse of how these strategies can be designed to fit the emotional and personality aspects we evaluate the marketing strategy which is perhaps the most common in many organizations since no matter the product or services the firm has to sell something at the end of the day. The question arising here is how the marketing strategy encompasses the emotional and personality traits and how the manager of a design and construction firm is involved in formulating it. A favorable marketing structure focuses on specific marketing resources and capabilities of both the firm and the department (Monaghan 2011). Emotion and personality greatly influence the capability of the department since as we have seen earlier the organization greatly depends on the behavior of its personnel who are responsible for the image of the firm which also contributes to relationship between the firm and the market. The manager has to understand customer needs so as to approve designs that deliver customer value by achieving a competitive advantage and improving the organizational performance. Due to internal and external aspects of each organization, the manager would approve different marketing strategies in the same industry (Monaghan 2011). The wide number of aspects that should be considered in marketing strategy evaluation process ranging from managerial capabilities due to personality and emotions to capability in product distribution makes it difficult for both the analyst and the strategist. Not only can it affect the strategy design process but it can also present an emotional pressure on those involved due to its complex nature. This emotional pressure could be used in a positive way to boost performance or it could break those responsible. In conclusion the modern construction industry has to take into account other aspects both internal and external to ensure that the objectives of the firm are achieved and at the same time the welfare of personnel is maintained by predicting and controlling their emotions and subsequently the personality. The manager in his review has to bear in mind that the designs and the management structure put in place to accomplish the various constructions have to encompass the emotional and personality aspects that will lead to effective communication and good team work. Reference List McMahon, G 2008, ‘Stress at work’, Training Journal, p.62. Available from: . [4 December 2012]. Monaghan, C 2011, Communities of Practice: A Learning Strategy for Management Education. Journal of Management Education, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 428-453. Rothstein, M & Burke, R 2010, Self management and leadership development, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Tucker, ML, Sojka, JZ, Barone, FJ, & McCarthy, AM 2000, ‘Training Tomorrow's Leaders: Enhancing the Emotional Intelligence of Business Graduates’, Journal of Education for Business, vol.75, no.6, pp. 331-37. Read More