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The way a person sees and reacts to a work environment, however, can be associated to certain factors. Mammoth and Aryans (2001) described that factors like heredity, external environment, and person-situation interaction influence the personality of a person. The relationship between personality and attitude has been a subject of many researches and discussions in the various sectors of the society. According to the BIBS Center for Management Research (2010), an individual’s personality is the way in which he views and understands himself, and the way in which he interacts with people.
However, it s the person’s attitude that enables him to adapt to a given environment. From this perspective, it can be said that the attitude of a person may have bearing on his emotional intelligence and personality. Properties, Pita, Okinawa (2007) described this connection whenever pointed out that self-report emotional intelligence measures and personality measures converge because they both intend to measure personality traits. Related Studies Concepts and theories about attitude and traits of a person have been the subjects of many discussions and views of previous authors.
According to Daniel Coleman 1998) emotional intelligence or ‘CEQ” or “E'” is a collection of skills which fall into four quadrants such as follow: (1) self-awareness , which comprised emotional self- awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence; (2) self- management, which comprised self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, achievement orientation and initiative; (3) other awareness, which comprised empathy, organizational awareness and service orientation; and (4) social skills, which comprised teamwork and collaboration,developing others, influence, communication leadership, and conflict management.
Salesman’s (1998) theory was described by Goldsmith (2009). She explained that emotional intelligence refers to that ability of a person to recognize his owns emotion and to understand what’s causing them, and reflect on them for the sake of emotional and intellectual growth. The idea is that people who are emotionally intelligent are able to maintain positive mental states because of their ability to manage their emotions. His research disclosed that high performers had stronger relationship skills than average performers. A person’s attitude represents how they feel or their state of mind about something.
Many features of working in an organization can cause a person to have a poor attitude about their Jobs and organizations. Some people adopt a poor attitude because they often resent their environment no matter what is going on around them. Some people feel poorly about themselves, which affects their attitude about their environment, as well. In contrast, some people work hard to keep a positive attitude. These people often have better overall health and can effectively address major challenges in the workplace, as well (retrieved from http://management’s. Org/ reasonableness/improving-attitude. HTML, July 2007). The tolerance of a person to a stresses depends on how he reacts to it. It means that some stresses may bring serious implications to one person but not necessarily to others. Thus, individuals appear to differ in the extent to which they are susceptible or tolerant to stress. At work, a person may encounter stress due to conflicting role in a given assignment, ambiguity or instructions, overloading, work environment, changes and relationship with others ((Village and Bobble’s, (2008).
Peak performance at work is achieved if tress is managed effectively and adverse impacts are reduced Prominent stresses in the workplace include factors such as overload, time pressure, organizational and personal change, technology, career challenges and conflict. Stress arising from overload occurs in two forms; one is in the form of excessive amount of work and the other is when an individual is ill-prepared for work (Mark (1997, as cited by Village, et. Al (2008). Different Jobs vary greatly in the amount of stress they generate. People also differ in what causes them to experience stress.
Both qualitative and quantitative overloading are usually the causes of stress in a workplace. In addition, stress causes may include responsibility for others, lack of participation in decisions, performance evaluations of appraisals, working conditions and change within an organization. Some people experience stress because they are detached from the world around them; they lack warm interpersonal relationships. (Stoner and Freeman, 1989; Stoner, 1997; and Newsroom and Davis, 2002). Personal sources of stress arise from non-work and work-related factors.
The non-work issues re family and intimate relationships, marriage, divorce, health issues, financial problems, raising children and even sexual orientation. Angry people or people with difficult personalities are also sources of star sees because of the conflict they cause in a person’s work and life. Changes can be enormously source of stress. Change for most people can be from moving to a new home, to a new relationship or changing themselves. (Mammoth and Aryans (2001). A cultured people refer to a change in employee’s values, norms, attitudes, beliefs and behavior.
Changes in culture and people pertain to how employees think; these re changes in the mindset. Two specific tools for changing people and culture are training and development programs and organizational development (Daft, 2005). People are generally more willing to adapt when they want to please others, gain approval and learn about their work environment. Many of the approaches help shaped the attitude, thoughts and behavior of employees. The broad environment that people live in is their social culture. People need to accept and appreciates the value that a diversity of cultural background (Newsroom and Davis, 2002).
In a team or roof’s perspective, Leister (2004) felt that the team needs to create emotionally intelligent norms, that refer to the attitudes and behaviors that eventually become habits. These attitudes support behaviors for building trust, group identity and group efficacy. When people feel good, they work better, are more creative, and are more productive. Good feelings are like lubrication for the brain. It means that mental efficiency goes up, memory is sharpened, and people can understand directions and make better decisions. Problems of seafarers aboard the ship are varied.
Cultural preferences could be one of these. Deal and James (2008) described that cultural differences often result in the confrontation and clash of cultures and nationalities aboard ship. Certain nationalities should never be put together on the same ship because racism and abuse are prevalent on many open registry ships today. The Philippine Online Chronicles (POCK, 2011) reported that the Overseas Filipino Workers (Offs) are very much prone to mental illnesses given the psychological stresses of their life abroad as they work away from their families for prolonged period of time.
Among the groups, the Filipino seafarers especially those working in cargo ships and tankers who are isolated out at sea for many months are highly vulnerable or prone to mental illness. The plight of seafarers has been the concerned of relevant organization. The International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare (CICS), released a booklet entitled “Guidelines for Mental Care Onboard Merchant Ships” (CICS 2009) that describes that stress, harassment and bullying, anxiety, fatigue, disruptive thinking and behavior and addiction to alcohol and drugs are the common causes of mental illnesses of seafarers.
Reaction The Filipino seafarers should be commended for appreciating their positive attitudes towards their work environment and should be motivated and inspired more to continue this kind of mood and climate on ships, to promote harmonious relationship with people on board. Conclusion The Filipino seafarers have generally high and positive attitude towards work environment because the physical environment aboard the ship provides them with better appreciation of standard work performance as well as general feeling of safety and healthy working environment.
Their emotional attitude is generally highly positive because they have the feeling of self-confidence, calmness and clear thinking moments. Their social attitude is highly positive because they have less fear and inferiority complex . They believe that the work environment promotes pleasant and harmonious relationship with people. On the one hand, the overall level of personality of the respondents was only moderate because of the presence or combination of both negative and positive traits in them. They are generally moderately extrovert, agreeable, conscientiousness, emotionally stable and open.