Individual, most little unit of humanity, his interaction with the others forming then the society itself and the factors that defines his behavior, make us remember the Chiken – egg dilemma, What was first?. Well, Ask everybody (cause I did) and they will tell “the individual off course” PING!!! Wrong answer. Even if we don’t have absolute true, through the times, studies have proved that the whole individual concept is constantly influenced for a set of factors, internal and external, that define personality and help us make this construction, and making individual have x or y attitudes towards certain situations. Then, Behavior is a result of interaction, active individual and personal differences (Nelson, Quick, and Campbell. 2010), that concept is call interactional psychology, and it refers to the mental construction providing creation of personality. The last concepts, plus determinants as environment and heredity, lead to define Individual’s characteristics and even influence his behavior. Generally, In and Outside factors together providing individual the source for constructing personality.
Different studies have made an attempt to explain how personality has being formed and what kind of personalities exist, generalizing in order to compare what characterize the diverse personalities at some important levels. The Trait Theory of Gordon Allport (considered the first psychologist in deal with personality), is one of the earliest theories about attempting to describe personality, this idea stated “that the traits makes behavior consistent and that a trait is still there even if there is no one around to see it”. Then, Frued shows up in the time line with his psychodynamic theory, underlining the influence of the uncurious in individual’s behavior. From the earliest to the Integrative Approach (that talks about the interaction between the individual’s characteristics and the situational variables), defining factors that construct personality (pshycologic and genetic, Humanistic and Scientific) result in numerous perspectives and debates, but this field continue being source of study, more directed to psychologist disciplines.
“We see the things not as they are, but as we are” – H.M. Tomlinson.
After the study of the personality, it is important to define the results of personality’s interactions within organizations, and how individuals’ behaviors influence organization itself and viceversa. The interaction of an individual with others, in certain context, result in issues of academic concern, such as esteem, monitoring, and other ones, influencing the individual from out to inside. Also, the interaction in an environment and, most of the times, with other individuals, raises an important sensible issue: The Perception, “How the individual views and interprets the world”. All the theories about perception aim to the idea that our believes, values and views of reality make a preconception of how we see reality, so the creation of a third world, independent from what the another one thinks and what I think is necessary for generate understanding, but not consensus. Then, as individuals’ personality is important to be considered in organizations, so are the perceptions, widely affected by personality. Perceiving take us then to the Attribution Theory: referring about “How people explains things”, determinate for evaluating how individuals perceive performance in general, and how they think the organization and the individuals in It perceive the one of his own. In which level a job can satisfied an individual and what is he/she looking for at working in an A company? Those questions can be answered through observing how the individual identifies himself with an organization.
Pygmalion Effect
This term, may not be part public domain, but it can be easily seen every day. It refers at which level a person is able to trust and have a certain degree of expectations of somebody’s accomplishments and performance, and how this expectations will make indeed that the other person achieve what was purposed and use that perceived potential.
“The person believed in, being believed, becomes the person whom they are perceived to be” - Mark Machaalani
This theory strongly lies in the concept of perception. Being perception great part of the behavior of individuals within an organization, the application of the concept, may fit in several complex situations that appear in the every day relationships between individuals in the organization, and how it influence the performance of tasks. A very specific situation where it can be possibly applied, is in the one where the companies require make operation across borders, and be in touch with other many cultures. Being subjected to cultural differences, not only the ones from the culture, but the ones from the organizations itself, presents challenges to join projects get to be actually successful. Using Pygmalion effect theory may significantly influence the behavior and performance of an individual’s organization, and raise positive outputs for the members involved in a cross cultural context. Every one, being leader in a project, has to seek for give the best and take out best from their workmates. In the real situation, interactions between individuals and organizations of different cultures generates stress, even more when one of the parts think that its options are the right ones.
The problem here comes from the predicament of a leader, being persuasive, or losing fight against tendencies different from the ones of his one. One big challenge of this theory is not only of how motivate workmates, but most important, how to make a leader have high expectations and be uncharged of pursuing high performance, understanding the context in which he/she is moving in, being disposal to accept differences and mistakes from others.
A company trying to get in touch with personal values of its employees : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is7Rdk1hQgM
References:
M. Houston, Psychology , BPS Backwell Personality, Chapter 14
Attribution Theory http://www.as.wvu.edu/~sbb/comm221/chapters/attrib.htm
Ohtsuka K. & Hyam Petra, Internal and External Attribution of success and
Failure in a gambling and non-gambling situation
Perceptions in Organizations, Chapter 6: http://python.rice.edu/~arb/Courses/750_04chapter6.pdf
Image: hrneurope.com, salestestonline.com, aspiehomeeducation.blogspot.com
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