Essay Sample: Individual Differences Affect Behavior at Work

The success of organizations depends on work behavior. People relate, perform tasks, and view works differently. Why is that so? With a common goal, every employee in an organization ought to have a similar way of achieving the set target, but this is not always the case. To understand this case, the first thing that comes to mind is that people are different. These individual differences have a significant influence on work behavior.

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Work behavior is anything a person does in the work environment (Ivancevich et al., 2013). What an individual does in the place of work has impacts on the set goal and to his or her colleagues. This can have a positive influence on the generation of creative ideas or be a basis of constant conflicts that are detrimental effects on the work environment. Individuals differ based on personality, attitudes, stress, abilities, and skills, perception, and diversity. This explains why some people embrace change while others fear it or why some employees are productive under supervision. A close examination of the differences cuts a clear picture of how and why there are differences in work behavior.

Personality

Personality is the pattern of relatively enduring ways that a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It is important in accounting for the way employees act in an organization as it influences career choice, stress, job satisfaction, and job performance (Soto and Jackson, 2013). Personality is well described in traits a person possesses which are specific regarding how a person thinks, feels, acts, and is described by the Big Five model which are extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Admittedly, individuals have different personalities that reflect in what they do and say. Personality traits are the characteristics that describe an individuals behavior and form through genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors set the limits of growth of character while environment determines development within the set limits.

Personality manifests in two ways. First, it is unique thus; it differentiates one individual from another. Secondly, it is consistent and represents an individuals activities. Personality traits which influence work behavior include locus control which is an individuals belief that he controls his fate through owns effort. Other traits are self-efficacy (the belief in ones ability to perform a certain task), self-esteem, self-monitoring (involves monitoring ones behavior and adapting to external situations), finally, emotional intelligence (it encompasses capacity to cope, empathize with others and self-motivation) (Carver and Scheier, 2011). If all individuals had same personalities, they would also have the same work behavior.

Attitudes

The mental state of readiness describes what an attitude is. It is learned and optimized through experience and defines ones predispositions (Ivancevich et al., 2013). Attitudes are a cluster of feelings, beliefs, and intentions towards something or someone. For example, when an individual has a negative attitude towards the supervisor, it results to that person not performing his job efficiently. In the above example, the employees cognition may be that the supervisor is unfair, this will lead to dislike towards the supervisor, and consequently the employee might end up under performing.

As a matter of fact, attitudes can influence positively or negatively a persons behavior. An employee, who has positive attitudes towards work, as well as his colleagues, can positively influence others through positive actions. Employees with a good attitude are productive, and they tend to improve the mood of those around them while those with bad attitude are bad influences on peers, and are unproductive.

There are four categories of attitudes. They are utilitarian, knowledge, ego-defensive and value-expressive. Their influence work behavior is seen for instance in pay rise to the employees that fosters a positive attitude and in turn, positively affect their behavior. Moreover, people have tendencies to use their attitude to protect their ego and this result in the development of negative attitude. A manager who criticizes employees and offers no solutions may make the employees attitude towards them negative in a bid to protect their ego. What employees stand for; form the basis of their attitudes and consequently how they behave in places of work. Organizations need to recognize that it is possible to influence employees attitudes and in turn their behavior positively. The attitudes towards others and work need to be kept in check and aligned to suit the organizations goal.

Perception

Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from the senses to give meaning. It is a significant factor of individual differences since it varies from people to people. It has three components; the perceiver, the target and the situation (Ivancevich et al., 2013). There are four kinds of distortion in perception. First, there is selective perception where an individual tends to filter or ignore that contradicts with his belief or which is irrelevant. Another type of distortion is stereotyping which having predetermined judgment of someone based on the characteristics of a group that he belongs. The halo effect distorts perception as only one trait of an individual makes the basis of understanding someone. Finally, cause attribution type of perception distortion. It involves deducing causes for the observed behavior, which can lead to biases at work. Undoubtedly, biases in the workplace result to bad relations among employees and the management, which in turn affects the conduct of workers.

If a task contradicts with an employees belief, he or she may be reluctant to do it or not do it all together. Another employee may have reservations in relating with a colleague due to the stereotypes associated with the group that person belongs to. Based on the above analysis it is clear that perceptions affect behavior at work.

Ability

The capacity of a person to deliver a pleasing accomplishment when allocated various tasks is referred to as ability. There are particular talents possessed by individuals that define the performance level that an individual may achieve hence it directly affects his or her behavior (Ashleigh and Mansi, 2012). There are two types of abilities. These are physical and cognitive. Undeniably, people are physically different in either their motor skills or physical skills. Physical skills are due to a persons strength while motor skills involve the ability to manipulate objects in an environment. The inability to perform a particular task by one individual while the other is able due to differences in ability usually leads to envy or conflict within workplaces (Maltby, Day and Macaskill, 2010).

Indeed, cognitive ability predicts the performance of a task concerning ones ability. Certain jobs require more cognitive abilities than others do. People with different job roles in workplaces behave differently.

Stress

Stress is the tension people feel when they are facing extraordinary demands, and they are uncertain about their ability to handle those needs efficiently. Stress could emanate from individual tasks needs, individual role requirements, group demands, organizational requirements, and non-work demands. Stress can be positive or negative; positive stress leads to better job performance while negative stress leads to poor work quality. Managing stress in organizations can significantly improve productivity as it affects each differently. Stress leads to strained interactions with colleagues and supervisors contributing to job burnout.

Diversity

Diversity refers to the differences among people based on demographics (Ashleigh and Mansi, 2012). These demographic differences are of age, race, ethnicity, health, religious beliefs, marital status, and gender. Ivancevich et al., 2013 defines diversity as the vast array of physical and cultural differences that constitute the spectrum of human differences. They influence work performance and behavior. An example is a married person may relate differently with a colleague who is unmarried at work and may differ in view about marriage. The difference in views may alter their behavior towards one another. Also, people of different backgrounds perceive things differently.

Conclusion

All in all, individual differences are the major influence of behavior at work. Since everyone has unique traits, their reaction to others and others towards them is different. This forms part of how they behave at work. Individual differences can be considerable assets or significant challenges. Therefore, there is the need for organizations to understand and embrace them to increase productivity and reduce chances of conflicts. Measuring individual differences is one of the ways that organizations can develop effective organizational processes and adjust organizations requirement individually to generate greater performance by the person and the organization as a whole. A better understanding of individual differences can bring creativity and satisfaction in an organization.

References

Ashleigh, M. and Mansi, A. 2012. The psychology of people in organisations. Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Carver, C.S. and Scheier, M.F. 2011. Perspectives on personality. 7th edn. Boston: Pearson Education (US).

Ivancevich, J.M. , Roy, H., Chair, L.C.C., Behavior, O., Management, C.B.T., Konopaske, R.,

Maltby, J., Day, L. and Macaskill, A. 2010. Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence. 2nd edition. Harlow: Pearson.

Soto, C., and Jackson, J., 2013. Five-Factor Model of Personality. Oxford University Press.State, T., Matteson, M.T. and Behavior, E.O. 2013. Organizational behavior and management. 10th edn. New York, NY, United States: McGraw Hill Higher Education