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Big Five Personality Dimensions and Perceptual Errors

Anila Dadi

(2022827)

University Canada West

ORGB 601 Bon-Spring-07: Human Interface

Dr. Hiran Roy

April 29th, 2021

Word Count:1993
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Table of Contents

Abstract.....................................................................................................................................3

Introduction..............................................................................................................................4

Results and Discussion.............................................................................................................5

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................10

References...............................................................................................................................11
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Abstract

This paper examines three questions about the big five personality traits, leadership style, and

perceptual errors in three different sections. Section one is an elorabate discussion on the

positive and negative effects of the big five personality traits on an individual's job and my

personality trait assessment. In section two, a detailed discussion of the best suitable

management style for me based on my score from a personality test is servant leadership.

Also, the strengths and weaknesses of this leadership style are discussed in detail. Section

three discusses two perceptual errors and biases and their influences on an organization; in

this section, I discussed the effects of randomness bias and hindsight bias.

Keywords: Big five personality traits, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,

agreeableness, neuroticism, servant leadership, randomness bias, hindsight bias.

Introduction

Personality refers to the uniqueness of an individual concerning their thought process,

behaviors, and feeling. The big five personality traits give us a basic understanding of

ourselves and others. These traits help us to analyze the behaviors of others which can be

used to improve relationships. Companies often use this personality test for hiring and

assessing potential candidates. The managers can also use it to identify the weak areas of

their team and work on them. The big five personality traits also influence leaders concerning

their style of leadership, motivation, and performance.

Our personality and cultural trades influence our perceptions. Perceptual errors and biases

are failures to judge people, things, or circumstances reasonably and precisely. These errors

can hinder the efficiency of an individual and also often results in bad decision-making.
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Results and Discussion

Section 1: Big Five Personality Traits and its Effects

The big five personality traits assessment gives us a score on five important personality

qualities: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, often

referred to as OCEAN. My personality score on the above five factors illustrated in the

Figure1 below.

Figure 1

Personality Trait Scores

Note. Adapted from The Big Five Personality Test.

Openness (P)

An individual's quality to actively seek unique or new experiences is called openness

(Giluk & Postlethwaite, 2015). People who are high on this quality will appreciate the

investigation and findings of ground-breaking thoughts and strategies (Simha & Parboteeah,

2020). Studies have discovered that openness is favorably related to sensation chasing and

unfavorably associated with adjusting to the values of others (Giluk & Postlethwaite, 2015).

My score in this parameter is 62.5% which shows that I am a moderate personality who is

neither unconventional nor over conventional. The positive impact of this trait to being open
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to new experiences, for instance, due to my curiosity towards new things, I was made

moderator of the innovation council initiative at my workplace. This role was perfect for my

learning and has bought a lot of visibility from the management. On the flip side, I am pulled

into many meetings, which eventually affected my job performance.

Conscientiousness (C)

The propensity of an individual to be more coordinated, objective-oriented, and devotee of

standards and rules is defined as conscientiousness (Giluk & Postlethwaite, 2015). This

specific attribute comprises principally of two features, in particular reliability and

achievement. The reliability factor shows that a person is responsible, capable, honest, and

organized. The achievement factor shows that a person is working hard and achieving

expectations and expectations (Kalshoven et al., 2011).

My score in this factor is 56%. The low score in this trait shows that I am impulsive and

often sidetracked. On the other hand, a high scorer is the most reliable and effective. I am

often considered reliable and effective in my workplace, but I am easily distracted and

sometimes jump from one task to other. The flipside of a high scorer of conscientiousness is

less impulsive and cannot handle any influences from external challenges at work. For

example, any reduction in the structure of an organization due to loss in business or sudden

increase in the scope of work creates stress among highly conscientious individuals.

Extraversion (E)

The characteristic of an individual who is liberal, outgoing, and talkative is called

extraversion. Individuals who are high on extraversion will, in general, look for the rest of the

world. They are very cooperative and social climbers (Watson & Clark, 1997).

My score in this parameter is 62.5%. This score shows my personality is more towards

extraversion than introversion. For instance, I am a moderator for many initiatives at my

workplace, which requires me to interact with many engineers and directors daily. I enjoy this
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interaction with different people. However, this often affects my time and creates difficulty in

achieving my tasks.

Agreeableness (A)

An individual's quality tends to be benevolent, delicate, trusting, legitimate, and

philanthropic is known as agreeableness. Agreeable individuals have great compassion and

will, in general, get joy out of serving and dealing with others. They are generally trusting

and forgiving (Kalshoven et al., 2011).

My score in this category is 73%. I completely agree with this score because I always put

my team before me. At my workplace, I spend most of my time coaching my team and

understanding team needs. Though this factor is my strength, it also my weakness as I don't

have enough time to perform my task, and I am not aggressive with my deliverables.

Neuroticism (N)

The characteristic of an individual who feels uneasiness, dread, and grumpiness, as these

people cannot handle pressure and relationships, is called neuroticism (Hurtz & Donovan,

2000). Neuroticism can also be referred to as mental stability. The more a person is stable

mentally, the more that person succeeds in life.

My score in this trait is 35%. A high scorer in this trait needs help as they fear everything

around them. My low score shows that most of the time, I am optimistic and brush of my

fears. Any changes in roles and responsibilities at my workplace will not affect me as I am

confident that I can handle any situation. The negative effect of this low score is

overconfidence which results in ignoring early warnings of the conditions.

Section 2: Appropriate Management Style

Everybody has built-in leadership qualities, and leaders are made and not conceived

(Gandolfi & Stone, 2017). Leadership is the foundation of hierarchical advancement because,

without great authority, it will be hard to accomplish authoritative objectives, even to adjust

to changes that are going on inside and outside the association. Leadership is worried about

guiding representatives to manage the job. This is a significant piece of understanding work

conduct. A few studies have shown that there is nobody with an ideal approach to lead

subordinates. This relies upon the pioneer, associates, and the current circumstance (Pradito

et al., 2011).

The most suitable leadership style based on my personality score is servant leadership.

The main characteristics of servant leadership are listening, sympathy, recuperating,

mindfulness, influence, conceptualization, stewardship, an obligation to develop individuals,

and building local areas (Gandolfi et al., 2017). Servant leadership focuses first on the team

to succeed and then accomplish the mission compared to other leadership styles (Gandolfi &

Stone, 2017).

Servant leadership presumes that their teams will utilize their potential to the maximum

and increase a company's performance. However, this could both boon and challenge as not

all employees contribute equally. As a servant leader, you are trusting and forgiving; this

could be considered as weak leadership. These leaders are expected to listen to their team. It

consumes a lot of energy and time to retrain leaders to behave like servant leaders.
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Section 3: Two Perceptual Errors and Biases Influencing an Organization

Perception is an interaction with which we sort out and clarify the instinct to get

meaningful happenings (Sadi et al., 2011). Perception is one of the essential principles of

hierarchical conduct in which people change their practices dependent on the kind of their

thought process.

There are various perceptual errors and biases that impact our conduct in an organization;

from this list, I will be discussing the effects of randomness bias and hindsight bias in this

section.

Randomness Bias

Randomness bias perception of a person is pretty much influenced by karma and other

notion. It varies according to the beliefs of a society. This error is identified with control

focus. Individuals who have an outside control place have confidence in karma and other

notions more than those whose control community is inward. These people feel that things

happen out of luck. For instance, people often think that buying and selling stocks in a stock

market is pure luck. This error brings inefficiencies and demotivation in an organization (Sadi

et al., 2011).

Hindsight Bias

Hindsight bias is a perception of a person who thinks he knows it all when the incident is

over. The individuals who are acclimated with seeing deviation after the event will guess the

occasion unsurprising even though it was not really. Hindsight is against understanding and

forecast. Now and then, individuals will, in general, accept that they can foresee the outcomes

of an episode accurately but after the occurrence had occurred. In this case, an individual

might be considered overconfident and will create an undesirable effect in the decision-

making process (Sadi et al., 2011). For instance, a manager telling their team he knew this

incident would happen before the team failed to deliver the task on time.
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Conclusion

The big five personality traits give insights into one's personality. Based on this data, one

can work on their weakness and use their strengths to their advantage. From the results of my

personality test: openness (62.5%), conscientiousness (56%), extraversion (62.5%),

agreeableness (73%), and neuroticism (35%), it can be analyzed that my strengths are in

openness, extraversion and agreeableness and my weakness is conscientiousness, and I have

to work on reducing the percentage of neuroticism. Based on this personality test, I determine

that the servant leadership style is suitable for me to succeed. A servant leader always puts

other's needs first and is considered a successful leadership style among all other types. Any

errors in perception can harm the individual and also their organization.

The limitations of the big five personality test are the result changes every time you take

the test, and it is descriptive and extensive.

References

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