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This assignment outlines some of the key findings and managerial implications of the Author’s Self, based on the Pearson, Prentice Hall Self-Assessment question bank. The selected question areas are grouped under three main categories of bout Me”, “Working with Others”, and “Life in Organizations”. Firstly the assignment gives and opening to what self- assessment is. Second it dives deep to discuss the three areas mentioned above in detail. The assignment is given life by charts and figures created by the author to showcase the scores obtained in the self-assessment library.
Lastly a two page description is given on what steps needs to be taken in order to arrive at the desirable state, followed by a conclusion which wraps up the discussion. * Self-Assessment It is said that a person’s perception of his abilities have consequences for his actions. If Shakespeare had a low self-belief, nobody would have come to know Macbeth. According to Reeling and Dunning, as cited by Martinez and Swank (2003) one possible reason why women avoid career in science is that they underestimate their scientific reasoning ability. What is Self – Assessment?
Self-Assessment acts as a powerful mechanism which allows an individual to look at their own performance, form conclusions about performance levels and act on those to create a development plan. Before any individual or organization try to develop a plan for performance improvement, it is first critical to draw a picture of the current performance. A self-evaluation can be used on its own to identify opportunities for improvement, or can be combined with the feedback of others to create a more rounded view of performance (Barabbas & ROR, 1994; Atwater, 1998). Why Use
Self-Assessment? * Knowing yourself play a pivotal role in both personal and professional lives * Self- Assessment makes the evaluator take responsibility for own performance * There is increased level of commitment to the goals formulated by own participation * Free from biasness as it is genuinely carried out by the individual. Self- Assessment Evaluation, Key Interpretations and Managerial Implications I met with a great opportune for self-evaluation through the Pearson, Prentice Hall’s Self-Assessment Library that contained 69 Research based Questionnaires and Instruments.
Under this, I was able to identify three key areas, namely “About Me”, “Working with Others”, and “Life in Organizations” that the self-assessment looked at. In this assignment the selected questionnaire areas are divided under the three key areas mentioned above. These areas will be discussed in more depth as we move along. Figure 1 illustration gives us a clearer picture of what areas we will be focusing upon. Communication and Listening Skills Trust and Trust worthiness Identifying Leadership Style and Building and Leading Teams How Charismatic Am I ? M an Tentacle Leader:” Communication and Listening Skills “Am I an Ethical Leader? * Organist or Mechanistic structure? * Do I like Bureaucracy? * How willingly do I delegate ? * What’s the right Organizational Culture for Me? * How do I respond to Change? * How Satisfied Am I in My Job? * Career as a Global Manager? About Me Working with Others Life in Organizations Key Interpretation Areas Figure 1: Key Interpretation Areas Source: Author Personality * According to Robbins, Judge and Pharaoh (2011) Personality can be defined as the “Sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interact with others”. Most of he individuals care very little about personality and the likes of improving it.
They tend to take it as a factor that cannot be changed “that is how I am and I can’t change who I am”. Yet organizations would want us to behave in certain ways and employers value social desirable traits in their employees. Therefore, having the right blend of personality is critical for career as well as self-development. * My Jungian Type Personality (AMBIT in Action) I nee Pearson Hall sell-Assessment online (Pearson taxation, Inc z ) Indicates that my personality to be an “JIFFS”. These types of individuals are labeled as the Nurturers” who are loyal, amiable and willing to make sacrifices for others for the greater good.
Some of the most famous people in the world such as “Mitt Rooney’, “Mother Theresa”, “Bruce Lee”, and “Jimmy Carter” are cited as “JIFFS” personality types. Appendix 1 Figure 10 gives us some more interesting examples of some famous personalities. According to www. Personality’s. Com JIFFS carry a gift for helping others and will speak up when they feel that another individual needs help. Table 5 reveals some more characteristics of this personality type that I found very useful to know to manage personal and work life better.
To a great extent I believe this definition is true as I am a person who is very caring and who extends a helping hand where ever possible. In the organization as well as outside among friends I am known as a person who goes the extra mile to make other people happy. Certain traits in Table 5 are all described in a true sense of what I usually undergo in life and give me valuable tips for advancement. * Big Five Model The Big Five Model measures personality through five key dimensions (Fig 2). According to research these dimensions carry a direct relationship with the Job performance of an individual.
Figure 2 highlights the results of the writer’s self- assessment on the Big Five. Figure 2: Grades scored by Me under each category of the Big Five 13 13 8 9 11 12 Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to experience Extroversion Emotional Stability High Moderate Agreeableness * As Figure 2 depict I have scored High on two aspects and Moderate on three . The successful manager will score very high on each of these key areas. Although rare, the CEO of the PepsiCo, Indri Annoy scores high on all personality traits which is known to have contributed to Onion’s high Job performance.
Table 1 ivies a few examples from my work environment that show how the traits identified above have contributed to my work performance so far. * * Table 1: Examples from My workplace on Big Five Score I Personality Dimension I Application to My Job I High I Conscientiousness I * Helps to distribute the highly technical knowledge areas (use of citric software tool) to Subordinates * More project success due to proper planning & organizing. E. G 2012 targets achieved within time limits I High I Agreeableness I * Extremely helpful in negotiating with employees for more commitment e. Extra work hours during Peak, Getting employees to come for ark on week ends I Moderate I Emotional Stability I * Helps to wave of negative thoughts that happen during work. E. G. Unexpected client feedbacks on poor quality. However, this trait need to be improved further I Moderate I Extroversion I * Helpful while working on Cross Division projects that requires good relationship building I Moderate I Openness to experience I * Keeps the balance when unexpected changes come into play where the environment is dynamic and changing. E. Frequent reporting line changes I * Source Author Type A personality * Figure 3: My score on Type A * 90 120 105 Type B Type A 102 My score Figure 3 above captures the scores for Type A and B personalities. An individual scoring high on Type A is known to give more weight to quality over quantity, long working hours etc. These individuals prefer work alone and would like to involve in projects that are short term as results are received faster. My score of 102, which is a little bit away from Type A and more closer to the average point of 105, makes me have an average behavior.
This seems a good balance, however depending on the Job type, e. G. My Job demands on time quality reports to be sent for senior managers very week. In times like this the sense of urgency in Type A behavior however is very useful for me to submit my work on time. Narcissism This measures the narcissistic personality where narcissists believe that anything they will do, will be successful, believes they are special and liked by others. In general they are termed arrogant and conceited. Scores on this behavior range from lowest point of O to highest point of 12.
My score on this is a 5 which is below the average point of 6. Therefore, I seem to exhibit low narcissistic behavior. How Spiritual and Creative Am I ? Figure 4: Scores on Creativity and Spirituality that wok towards Job Fit +8 to + 40 +8 to + 40 +12 to -18 measure Spirituality Creativity Spirituality & Job Fit * On this my score is a 33 which shows a great amount of spiritual belief present. According to findings, people with high spiritual values are better at creating and sharing of vision than those who have low spiritual values.
In addition they are also known to be more empathic which makes followers feel more appreciated and understood. * Creativity & Job Fit * For managers Creativity is very useful in decision making where they are able to e a wider range of alternatives to problems. On the range of -12 to +18 1 have scored a value of 1 which depicts a low a score for creativity. However, in real life I am an extremely creative person, good in art, music and designing. This is an important point for reflection on whether the inherent talent is fully utilized in terms of my work environment.
This assessment has paved the way and made me think about this aspect deeply in order to improve further in this aspect. A very valuable finding. * Table 2: Examples from My workplace on Spirituality and Creativity in use Score I Personality Dimension I Application from My Job Profile I High I Spirituality I * When it comes to relationship and interactions the writer has used ten spiritual Dweller to convince Ana to set an examples Tort Toddlers Moderate I Creativity I * Extremely helpful in thinking out of the box when difficult decisions are to be made.
Further very helpful in managing productivity in times of resource constraints due to alternative thinking. However, can be improved further. I Source: Author Values and Attitudes * According to Robbins, Judge and Pharaoh (201 1), “Values cloud objectivity and commonality; they influence attitudes and behavior”. * What are My Terminal and Instrumental Values? * According to Self-Assessment Library, I place a high value on Happiness , Peace , Harmony and Eternal Life (pyramid bottom has the highest values).
As Figure 5 show these are mainly achieved through instrumental values such as self-dependence. E. G. Hard work and achievement, standing up for yourself etc. Some of these were very interesting findings in life that I have not thought about before, yet aspects that do carry an importance in my life. E. G Peace, Harmony in the World. * Figure 5: My Pyramids of Terminal and Instrumental Values * Open Mind Open Mind Obedience Accomplishment Security Prosperity Instrumental Values Terminal Values What are my Attitudes towards the Nature of People? Based on Douglas McGregor Theory X and Y this questionnaire viewed the attitude towards human nature. My score ranged from 16 – 31 which stated that there is flexibility in perceiving others. Hence, there is no preconceived notion on being negative minded or positive about a person. In real life this is true as I believe that depending on different individuals, their characteristics of being lazy, assassinated will differ. This perception helps me to identify people for their characteristics and align my behavior accordingly.
In times where autocratic behavior Is name to manage I teen to accost accordingly e. G. When people near me 00 not submit the quality figures according to deadlines I attend to them sternly and it times a supportive role is required by me I act accordingly e. G. For company’s new recruits when initially they need guidance on work. * What are my Gender Role Perceptions? * Under this category I have scored 18, which nears that there is neither a rotational or modern view held towards women working in the work force.
The trend in the modern world is to now give and consider equal opportunity to women in participating in the work force. In real life I carry a similar view point and strongly believe and support this factor. Therefore, in a work environment where traditional view is mostly favored I realized that I may find a conflict on perception and attitude. However, in my own company there is biasness towards recruiting males as we operate on night shifts in which case it’s better for the organization to hire the male reader for safety and law regulations.
Motivation * Motivation is defined as the ‘processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of efforts toward attaining a goal” (Robbins, Judge and Pharaoh , 2011). What Motivates Me ? The assessment measured Motivation based on the categories of Existence, Relatedness and Growth from the ERG Theory by Clayton Alder. The results showed that I scored the most under Growth needs 17 out of 20 and mostly high on the other areas as well. Therefore, naturally I would tend to expect a lot of Growth needs from my work environment.
On another note it may seem as if my current Job environment has not sufficiently provided to satisfy my need. Hence, my Motivation to work would be high if the work environment does Justice to these needs. Figure 6: My ERG Theory Needs and how collectively work to Motivate Growth Expectancy Relatedness My Needs Behavior Goal Achievement 17 16 14 Bendable A reason for me to read for an MBA was in pursuit of reaching growth in career life. However in my organization career growth is not based on educational qualifications but hard work and results.
Yet, learning to “Be An MBA” has helped me to tackle organizational life in a much more effective way even though the qualification is not taken into account for career progress in my organization. It has raised my motivational levels many a time to stay focused until the true value of what I have learnt became useful. Figure 6 is an illustration of how the three categories of motivation would collectively work together to motivate me and attain organizational goals. What are my Dominant Needs? * The above evaluation “What motivates Me? Goes hand in hand with this next one, the Acquired Needs Theory by McClellan . The assessment on dominant needs Estes for Achievement, Affiliation, Autonomy and Power over a scale between 5 – 2. My scorings under this are shown below as illustrated by Figure 7. * Figure 7: My ERG Theory Needs and how they work to Motivate * Source Author * There is a relationship between the earlier comparison of a strong Growth need that is backed up by a high Achievement need and Power need. Especially with regard to the comparison between the averages I have scored very high on the power need.
Therefore, as a leader in the organization I should be mindful to avoid the need for personal power which as I have learnt can turn into politics within but use it instructively for building up institutional / social power that mobiles the goals of the organization. I have also experienced my trait of a strong follower of scripture, as was discussed in earlier section 3. 1. 1. 6 on spirituality have given me guidance in life many a time to avoid personal gain at the expense of organizational goals.
My Self Efficacy * Albert Bandeau, introduces this theory referring to an individual’s belief about being capable of a performing a task. The higher your self-efficacy, the more confident you are in your ability to succeed. I have scored a 45 in this area denoting a ere high level of Self Efficacy. This will act as a very favorable factor in carrying out challenging goals set by the organization. Example recently I was given the challenge of managing two departments (Training and Quality) in my workplace and a strong belief about myself greatly helped me to believe in my own abilities and to manage them both effectively. Good team players are often defined in trait terms; that is, they are described as dependable, flexible, or cooperative (Drinkers, Goodwin, Salsas and She, 2006) The next stepping stone in this assignment is to look at my behaviors and traits in elation to the community around that I associate with. * communication Ana Listening * According to the Self – Assessment test I have scored a 42 for listening skills, meaning that there is still a lot of room for improvement. Listening Skills are critical for a manager and knowing that there is an inherent weakness, I have being giving special attention to this.
The last semester’s subject on Business Communication (MBA 503) has greatly helped me to improve my skills of listening. I have learnt that to forgo the urge to always respond to a statement, to think in mind about an answer hill another person is speaking are my main problem areas in listening. I am currently working to improve these areas. * * My score with regard to faith and trust in other people is a 3 which is the average score. This stands true for me a great deal as to trust someone it depends on a lot of factors such as length of knowing an individual, the experience with them etc.
The general notion on the scores is that individuals with low faith in people would generally choose an occupation such as Business Finance, Sales promotion and Advertising. On this note I have a finance related occupation which could mean that here may be a slight chance of the dice rolling onto the low faith category. * On the other hand I have scored very high on receiving the trust of others with a 49. This is true in real life as lot of people have come to know me as an honest person who can be trusted with a lot of responsibility. I have mainly achieved these by carrying out many tasks to perfection in the past.
This trait has become very helpful for me in terms of leading the subordinates in times of uncertainty. As a result of this trait even in the workplace the followers willing become vulnerable when a request is dad by me. * * Leadership is defined as “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals (Robbins, Judge and Pharaoh , 2011). * Fred Fiddler proposed a theory called the least preferred co- worker (LAP) questionnaire to identify an individual’s leadership skill between relationship oriented or task oriented. Out of that 84% of the sample Fiddler chose fell under either category.
However, I fall under the category of 16% which does not have a particular leadership style. However, my trait on trust worthiness combined with task structure has helped many a time to overcome even the most difficult of tasks. In terms of building and leading a team the self-assessment library results revealed the score for me to be 83 which puts me in the second quartile of this category in comparison to others. Therefore, even though I do not belong to particular leadership style we can see that when it comes to Leading Teams there are characteristics of mine that are promising.
This proves true as there have being many successful stories in terms of Leadership for me both in personal life as well as in the workplace. * * Max Webber defined Charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality, y virtue of which he or she is set apart from ordinary people” (Robbins, Judge and Pharaoh , 2011) . He further came up with four types of Key Characteristics (Vision and Articulation, Personal risk, Sensitivity, Unconventional behavior) that should be present within a Charismatic Leader.
The Self- Assessment Library ran questions in ten above areas Ana I was very nappy to Tina myself Tall near ten cannonballs Leader type with a score of 88. Figure 8, illustrates the scores I obtained in a more detailed manner to reveal that I have scored very closely to the maximum number attainable. * Figure 8: My Scores on Charismatic Leadership * I have further listed under Table 3, the application of these characteristics to the organizational context that I work in according to Max Weeper’s Key Characteristics of Charismatic Leaders. * Table 3: Examples from Workplace on My Charismatic Leadership Trait * Item I * Category I * Workplace Application I I * Vision and Articulation I * As the Head of Internal Quality and Control in the project I have set clearly the Vision of “First Time Right” concept an easily understandable term to others under me. Under this every person is directed to obtain skills in order to get he productivity right at their first attempt. I * 2. | * Personal Risk I The commitments to this area I have shown by example where I give extra time out of personal life in order achieve the Vision. E. G.
Staying late every working day to ensure all trainings on skills are finished on time I * Sensitivity to Follower Needs I * I have used this trait very well to build rapport and support of my subordinates by looking to their needs. E. G. A Newly Married Employee requested from not be put in the Night Shift for the first month as he had to leave his wife alone t night at home. Although this was not in the company books the request was granted by me by having a chat with my senior I * Unconventional Behavior I * In the presentations that are run in office everyone tends to use the conventional PPTP slides and nothing more.
However, I always take time to include a real world example as a leader in my power points to my people in order to get their interest and attraction more. I * Further, according to Balalaikas 2012, charismatic leaders are aware about themselves “They are constantly aware of the fact that their followers are watching hem and so they find it important that they portray a good picture of themselves for their followers”. In real life I take great care to be an example to others. E. G. Very good example from my work life is where I make special efforts to not misuse the company resources, whilst others use it for personal gain such as taking print outs for personal use, stationary for personal use etc this is one area that I try to set an example. As a result whenever someone commits an offense I can always lead by example. This can be further reviewed through the next evaluation of “Am I an Ethical Leader? ” * * Ethics and Leadership intersect at a number of Junctures.
Ethical Leaders are known to transfer moral virtues in the hope of changing the attitude and behavior of followers. According to the self-assessment, I have being given a score of 49 on a scale of 10 to 70. The higher the score the higher would be your ethical leadership trait. * The followers of ethical leaders trust and support them rather than unethical ones. In real life I am a person who takes great care to demonstrate ethical behavior e. G. A few years back I left with a couple of peers from office on a request