FBL5010 Managing People and Organisations Proof Reading Service

FBL5010 Managing People and Organisations Proof Reading Service

Introduction

Global managers have to be on their toes all the time as they have to manage global operations and for this, it is important for the managers to have effective leadership qualities and suitable personality which will help them to manage global business operations successfully. For every organization, it is important to instill significant knowledge of globalization which would help the managers to understand the key factors of improving the personality of the managers. For every manager, the big five personality factors are important to improve the skills of the leaders. The five essential personality traits that every manager should have are important for the managers to utilize in developing the personality of the managers. Personality is one of the essential aspects that a leader should have which definitely helps to manage operations as well as people effectively (Caligiuri&Tarique, 2009). The present report will help to discuss the key personality traits and evaluate and reflect on the efficacy of the study and the personality traits which would help to meet the objectives of the study successfully. The literature reviewed on the relevant subject of the personality of managers is effective will help to justify the evidence put forward to frame the objectives of the study.

Literature Review

As per Bird et al.,(2010)adapting to the global market scenario is extremely essential for an organization and hence being the global representative of an organization in the overseas market the managers should have ample global knowledge to manage the cross-cultural business and cross-border operations.

Importance of leadership skills for global managers

In this scenario, the personal traits come in extremely handy for the managers as they are able to analyze every globalsitation efficiently and could implement their personal and interpersonal traitsto get the best possible result. Caligiuri&Tarique, 2009states that for a manager communication is one of the key skills and hence it is important for every aspiring manager especially students to acquire important communication skills and knowledge which would help them to manage business operations effectively. As per Bücker&Poutsma,(2010)in this highly volatile global economy managers with weak personality will succumb and perish to the immense pressure of performance. In this situation, it is important for the managers to have significant personality traits which will help them to manage overseas operations as well as help to handle pressure and performance well. Caligiuri&Tarique,(2009) stated that leadership skills like communications skills and understanding cultural differences help the leaders to focus on improving their decision-making skills effectively in a global business environment. Having cultural knowledge helps to understand the traditions and diversity of the different cultures and treat employees and subordinates accordingly. Having leadership skills like interpersonal communication, understanding of foreign culture helps the organization to adapt to the new market, and global managers are largely responsible for that. Through communication and understanding of culture, leaders could teach a lot of new things especially the mind of its employees as well as consumers which allow them to offer the exact thing that will keep the employees and the consumers in a state of content.

Importance of Personality Traits for Global Managers

Todrive the management career towards success and also to drive an organizationtowards success, it is important that personality traits are used by the managers. In the contemporary business model, there are five different personality traits that a manager should have which are together called the Five Factor Model. The five personality traits are Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism or OCEAN which is an acronym. According to Furuya et al..,(2009)for a global manager these traits are extremely important which reflects the capability of the global manager to handle overseas operations and show significant performance. Alkahtani et al., (2011) stated even though the scholars talk about critical skills and competencies, but the personality traits in the form of OCEAN are the most essential aspects of a global manager to be successful.All the aspects of OCEAN that are Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism are considered important, but Extraversion stands to be a little more important among them given its ability to make a person social in any cultural situation (Bücker&Poutsma, 2010).

Extraversion: As per the behavioral theory of leadership extraversion is one of the behavioral traits of a leader or a manager. This aspect mainly indicates that how outgoing and bold a person is, considering his or her willing to be sociable and buoyant in a particular culture. Extroverts are highly inclined to extract positive vibes from a particular event which they use in developing their overall skills and capabilities to communicate with the surroundings. Extraverts are more often characterized as energetic, positive and garrulous that helps them to mingle with each and everyone around (Migliore, 2011). They are highly capable of emitting positive vibes and expressions which are extremely effective in making a particular situation positive. It is considered that extraversion is a trait that is an extremely important for a person to have due to its immense potential to make a person mingle in a new culture without any possible hindrances. According to Le et al.,(2011)the extraverts tend to have effective communication skills they are able to gel well with the surroundings which help them to understand the grievances and other key issues that could be sorted out once these grievances and issuesare known. Hence in a manager, the trait of extraversion is like “icing on the cake” that helps to get the right flavor. Extraversion largely helps Conflict resolution as it is one of the most important aspects for an aspiring global manager. Conflict resolution is important for an organisation especially when working in a cross cultural conditions and hence acquiring key skills regarding conflict resolution is important. Negotiations and arbitration are important in cross cultural management of organisations.

Zhao et al., (2010) said thatextraversion is complementary to the optimistic mindset of the managers and so, it helps to continuously inspire people around them which create a strong professional and personal relationship with the surroundings, especially with subordinates and peers. For a transformational leader or a manager, extraversion is a key tool based on which a manager could sow the seeds of transformation and make the conspicuoustransformation of the surroundings (Lee et al., 2011). Communicating in a culturally different area could act to be a strong barrier that might create a significant rift within a team. But with extrovert leader, this issue could be sorted out as they are natural speakers and love to talk to people who automatically help to understand the common grievances of the people working in the same environment.

Yukl& Mashud,(2010) said thatin most of the research extraversion has been displayed as an attribute bringing significant positive results for a global manager, but it also has a contradictory relationship with performance. In recent research, it has been stated that extraverted leaders have an adverse impact on theproductivity, given their dominant and powerful behavior. Hence it is important that the global managers focus on utilizing the behavioral trait of extraversion in the right way and with the help of participative leadership style which would help to get the best from the employees. Tarique& Schuler,(2010) saidas an influential global leader an extrovert always carries certain charisma which helps the global manager to take everyone in his stride to maintain a standard performance and communal harmony in the global business operations that will help to establish an individual as a competitive and efficient global leader that is likely to provide the best possible result for the business. Overall to conclude it could be said that extraversion asks for the presence and a global manager having extraversion is more likely to succeed in global business than any other leader following other personality traits.

Evaluation

It is not easy to become a manager, and it is extremely important for a person to realize this before he or she pursues the field of management. It involves a lot of dedication and devotion on the subject and is essential for every aspiring manager to understand their loopholes and shortcomings that naturally helps to improve the overall skills and capacities as a manager. As already discussed above the personality traits are extremely essential for global managers, and it is important for them to utilize these personality traits effectively in the practical field. Doing this assignment what struck me the most is my immense personal desire to become a global manager that was somewhat hidden in me. My willingness of becoming manager emerged out during the tenure of completing this assignment. To understand my personal skills and capabilities as well as personality traits, I have undergone different tests that helped me understand what kind of a character I have and what trait do I have that has been reflected through the personality trait test. From the above literature critically reviewed it has been seen that extraversion is one of the key personality traits that needs to be there in a global manager and in this scenario,it is important for me to understand the importance of extraversion and try to focus on my social skills which would help to improve my personality. In this assignment, I have used Big Five Personality test and some other tests like Myers Briggs Test and Belbin’s Team Role Test which would help to understand the skills and capabilities. For me, the big five personality trait has revealed a lot of things, and it will help me to implement certain key aspects in the way I manage myself as well as my surroundings. The entire test and the results are attached in the appendix section.

The Big five test (see Appendix A) showed that I am a neutral person with a bit of originality and creativity and to some extent conventional and with narrow interest with a score of 53 which clearly shows that I am partially open to new ideas, but I am also keen on taking steps prudently. The conscientiousness score shows percentile of 74 which means I am free to supporting people, reliable and well organized.This means that I am keen on operating in an organized way which would help me to handle global operations efficiently. The extraversion score is 91 percent which means that I am extremely sociable and like to go out and communicate which is an essential skill of mine as a manager as it will help to communicate and sort out differences among people. Agreeableness shows a percentile of 93 which means that I am incredibly supportive and good natured which will give me a hand to mingle with people actually allowing me to manage global businesses effectively.  Neuroticism score shows a percentile of 22 which is low, and this clearly means that I am relaxed and handle pressure in a relaxed way and I personally feel this is extremely important for a global manager ("Your Big Five Results," 2017).

Apart from Big Five test I have also applied Belbin’s Team Role Test (see Appendix B) and Myers-Briggs Assessment (see Appendix C). Belbin’s Team Role Test has shown that I am more of an executive (organizer), innovator, team player and driver who is capable of driving and encouraging teams and peers to do a particular job. For instance, doing a project with the team will require behavioral difference as a leader and also an intellectual difference which would help the team members to seek help from me and as per the Belbin’s Team Role Test, I am capable driving the team members with my motivational capacity. Team role asks to be focused on cooperation and coordination which would help to complete a project successfully, and as per the results of my Belbin’s Team Role Test, I would be able to contribute to the success of the team as a driver, a motivator and with my innovative ideas ("Team roles test take this free team roles test online at 123test.com", 2017). The Myers-Briggs Assessment has shown that my mind is extroverted with a percentile of 65 which clearly shows that I am more into understanding and arguing which helps to get the best possible reactions from people and also contributes to understanding what is suitable for a team (16personalities, 2017).

Plan

Setting personal objectives is crucial to be successful in life. It is critical for me to have an effective set of targets which would help me to move towards my career goals. Describing the goals will contribute to making plans effectively to achieve these objectives overall contributing to my career growth. Hence it is important for me to have SMART career objectives which would help to move on the right track. My personal SMART Objectives are given below:

To be able to acquire excellent communication skills by the completion of the course in the coming one year.

To learngood communication skills, I will focus on the completion of the course which is going to happen in the coming one year. I will deploy certain programs for myself which would help me to sharpen my communication skills. Being able to communicate with the corporate will help me to know I have been able to gather key communication skills for myself. Written communication is important as a manager working in a cross cultural environment and hence working on the written communication is important. Verbal and non verbal communication like team interaction and one on one communication are important to be understood and implemented. Excellent non verbal communication like body gesture and energetic behavior dress code communication is important for me hence it is important for me to constantly work on these forms of communication for constant improvement.

To evaluate my key skills and capabilities as a manager every three months.

As an aspiring manager, I have to evaluate whatever skills I have regularly, and hence it is important to deploy certain tools. I will monitor my communication skills, my cultural awareness of different regions, time management skills which would help me to prepare myself for the position of global manager. I will employ communication skill analysis with the help of my professor and my acquaintances who will be able to measure me by the skills given and what they feel is the benchmark to achieve my goal. This will continue for one long year to capture all the key skills and knowledge which would help me to understand my progress over the year allowing me to develop my professional intelligence. Communication skills in this case has to be evaluated which will involve assessment of the written skills, verbal communication, in a workplace it is also important to understand body gestures and hence understanding and constantly assessing written, verbal and non verbal communications is extremely important.   

To be able acquire team working skills within six months

As a manager it is important to work together with a team and coordinating and communicating with the team members is important. The team working involves motivating employees and apart from that listening, questioning, persuading, respecting, helping, sharing and participating in the team work. By acquiring team working skills it will be effective in gaining insights about effective team working experience. It is also important to keep a track of time and manage time effectively and hence time management skill is also important for me which needs to be integrated in the team working skills.

To acquire effective conflict resolution skills one year

Conflict resolution is important for me to be a successful global manager. It is important to have effective understanding of conflict resolution. As a manager it is important to acquire negotiation and arbitration skills which would help to manage team with diversified background. I am extravert in nature which helps me to communicate effectively. Conflict resolution skills will help me to work in overseas conditions as well as managing people from different background become easier. I will be going through different conflict resolution articles and practical articles which would help to understand conflict resolution effectively within this one year.

Conclusion

The Analysis was taken to understand my fundamental skills and personality traits which are important to become a global manager. The study was undertaken so that I could understand and analyze my positives and understand my negatives. The information and evidence have been collected from the different websites which have helped me to explain my personality traits and my team working skills, the evidence has been gathered by me as per my knowledge, and hence it could be said that they are to a large extent consistent. To conclude the study it could be said that for a global manager the five key personality traits are important. It is important for an individual to understand them and utilize them properly in the practical field which would help to ensure success to the organization. The present study has highlighted my personal traits which are extraversion and Belbin’s model, and Myers-Briggs Test has shown that I am more into innovation and exploring and also very intuitive which is likely to help me in my long-term objectives. The assessment of the personality traits did not surprise me as I am quite aware of my extrovertnature, but the Belbin’s Team Role Test has helped me to understand my role in the team. I am a reflector which is to some extent known to me, but I did not clearly know that I am a driver, or innovator as reflected by the test. These personality traits and skills tests have been able to support me to capitalize on my skills and capacities.

References

Alkahtani, A. H., Abu-Jarad, I., Sulaiman, M., & Nikbin, D. (2011). The impact of personality and leadership styles on leading change capability of Malaysian managers. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 1(2), 70.

Bird, A., Mendenhall, M., Stevens, M. J., & Oddou, G. (2010). Defining the content domain of intercultural competence for global leaders. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(8), 810-828.

Bücker, J., & Poutsma, E. (2010). Global management competencies: a theoretical foundation. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(8), 829-844.

Caligiuri, P., & Tarique, I. (2009). Predicting effectiveness in global leadership activities. Journal of World Business, 44(3), 336-346.

Furuya, N., Stevens, M. J., Bird, A., Oddou, G., & Mendenhall, M. (2009). Managing the learning and transfer of global management competence: Antecedents and outcomes of Japanese repatriation effectiveness. Journal of International Business Studies, 40(2), 200-215.

Kaiser, R. B., & Hogan, J. (2011). Personality, leader behavior, and overdoing it. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63(4), 219.

Le, H., Oh, I. S., Robbins, S. B., Ilies, R., Holland, E., & Westrick, P. (2011). Too much of a good thing: curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(1), 113.

Migliore, L. A. (2011). Relation between big five personality traits and Hofstede's cultural dimensions: Samples from the USA and India. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 18(1), 38-54.

Tarique, I., & Schuler, R. S. (2010). Global talent management: Literature review, integrative framework, and suggestions for further research. Journal of world business, 45(2), 122-133.

Yukl, G., & Mahsud, R. (2010). Why flexible and adaptive leadership is essential. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62(2), 81.

Zhao, H., Seibert, S. E., & Lumpkin, G. T. (2010). The relationship of personality to entrepreneurial intentions and performance: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Management, 36(2), 381-404.

16personalities. (2017, January 03). YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE. Retrieved from 16personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/estj-personality

Your Bibliography: Team roles test | take this free team roles test online at 123test.com. (2017). 123test.com. Retrieved 3 February 2017, from https://www.123test.com/team-roles-test/index.php

Your Bibliography: Your Big Five Results. (2017). Outofservice.com. Retrieved 3 February 2017, from http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.725&cR=0.722&eR=0.875&aR=0.917&nR=0.375&y=1990&g=m