Management class

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Survey Complete

Personality measurement can be fun and informative—but it can also be challenging if the results are not as you might expect. In this section, we will look at what each of the five dimensions measure. In the next section, we will look at actions that you might take to follow up on these results, whether they are what you expected or not.

The following survey was designed to assess your personality using the Big Five index.

Source: Adapted from Beatrice Rammstedt and Oliver P. John, “Measuring personality in one minute or less: A 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory in English and German,” Journal of Research in Personality, February 2007, pp. 203–212.

For each of the statements listed in this self-assessment, select the response that best characterizes the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement. After completing the self-assessment, read the feedback that explains how to understand your score and interpret your results.

You must respond to all statements in order to receive full credit for this self-assessment activity.

Extroversion

I see myself as someone who is not reserved.1.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I see myself as someone who is outgoing and sociable.2.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Agreeableness

I see myself as someone who is generally trusting.3.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I see myself as someone who tends to �nd the positive in others.4.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Conscientiousness

I see myself as someone who is not generally lazy.5.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I see myself as someone who does a thorough job.6.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Emotional Stability

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I see myself as someone who is tense and does not handle stress well.7.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I see myself as someone who gets nervous easily.8.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Openness to Experience

I see myself as someone who has several artistic interests.9.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

I see myself as someone who has an active imagination.10.

    

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Extroversion

Extroversion

0

10 8

8/10

Range 8 to 10

You may be high in extroversion.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness

0

10 7

7/10

Range 5 to 7

You may be medium in agreeableness.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness

0

10 8

8/10

Range 8 to 10

You may be high in conscientiousness.

Emotional Stability

Emotional Stability

0

10 6

6/10

Range 5 to 7

You may be medium in emotional stability.

Openness to Experience

Openness to Experience

0

10 7

7/10

Range 5 to 7

You may be medium in openness to experience.

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There has been a great deal of research and thought given to how best to categorize persons in personality terms. Much of this research and writing has coalesced around the view that the most helpful categorization scheme involves five dimensions of personality. These have come to be known as “The Big Five.” Much attention has been given to this question—what is the relationship between personality and real world outcomes such as job performance and career success? This feedback focuses on the answer to that question.

●  – Persons who score high on this dimension tend to be outgoing, talkative, sociable, and assertive. Research has shown that people in sales (think of a coach who recruits college athletes or a car sales person) tend to be more successful if they are on the high end of the extroversion scale. Likewise, managers tend to be more successful if they behave in extroverted ways. In contrast, persons who score low on extroversion (introverts) tend to like more solitary activities such as doing office support, research and development work, working with data, and so on. Both extroverts and introverts can be, and are, very successful in different work contexts. You might give thought to looking for a career that aligns well with the kind of person that you are, particularly if you are at the very high or very low end.

Extroversion

●  – Persons who score high on this dimension tend to be trusting, good-natured, cooperative, and soft- hearted. Surprisingly, while all of us would like to have work colleagues who are agreeable, research shows that agreeableness is less connected to general work success than are extroversion and conscientiousness. Of course, this does not mean that you should not work at being as agreeable as you can be!

Agreeableness

●  – Persons who score high on this dimension tend to be dependable, responsible, achievement- oriented, and persistent. Research shows that people who score high in conscientiousness tend to be more successful in all types of employment settings than their less conscientious co-workers. It is easy to see why. What employer wants to hire someone who sees themselves as lazy (item 3) or someone who does less than a thorough job (item 8)? If your score on this dimension is not as high as you would like, you can expect a high payoff from working on becoming stronger in this area.

Conscientiousness

●  – Persons who score high on emotional stability tend to be relaxed, secure, and unworried. In contrast, persons who score low tend to experience more highs and lows in terms of their emotional life. Research shows that this dimension has less to do with success at work than extroversion and emotional stability.

Emotional stability

●  – Persons who score high on this dimension tend to be intellectual, imaginative, curious, and broadminded. Research shows that there is not a strong relationship between scores on this dimension and success at work. However, certain types of jobs are certainly better fits for people who are strong in this area. For example, people who have to work across cultures are likely to be more successful if they are more open to experience because it is easier for them to imagine that people are different from them without having to draw conclusions about whether these differences are good or bad.

Openness to experience

There are many, many resources that you can use to follow up on these results. Informally, you can talk with your friends and family members to see if your self-assessment is consistent with their assessment of you. There are many online resources including longer versions of the Big Five assessment as well as a great deal of information on other types of personality assessment (such as the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). More formally, your campus probably has a career development office. Typically, professionals in those offices are familiar with the connections between personality and the kinds of jobs that you might find to be most suitable. And, if you find that you are struggling to cope with either short-term or long-term emotional issues, we strongly encourage you to seek support from a campus counseling office, a religious professional, or a close confidant who can help you work through the issues that you face.

The personality dimension that has the strongest relationship with job performance is conscientiousness. Employers like employees who are dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented, and persistent. This is something that you can work on improving in yourself. For example, if you notice that you have a tendency to procrastinate in completion of certain kinds of tasks, you can decide to work on fighting that tendency by working on those kinds of tasks first so that they are no longer hanging over you. Then, you are in a position to derive greater enjoyment from doing tasks that you more naturally want to do. College is a great setting in which to begin to develop strong and positive lifetime habits. Don’t miss the opportunity! Research shows that setting goals is a great way to improve your performance (this is covered in some detail in Chapter 12). You can practice setting goals right now and this will pay large dividends in the future.

Your scores on this self-assessment, while they can be very helpful for self-understanding, should not be over-interpreted.

● First, every person is complex and it is impossible to fully capture the unique person that you with any single assessment instrument, especially a short one like this. This is especially true with personality assessment.

● Second, many people find that their behavioral tendencies change over time, or that they come to understand what their behavioral tendencies are with greater clarity.

● Third, organizations need all types of employees and while the relationships described above are accurate and research-based, there are many, many exceptions to the rules. One well-known example is President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is routinely described as a brooding, perhaps even depressive, person. That is, he would not be described as particularly emotionally stable. Yet, Lincoln is also routinely described as one of the great leaders in all of

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human history. You should not see your scores on this self-assessment as limiting you from pursuing your interests and dreams.