The Big Five Personality Dimensions results give a detailed picture of a person's personality. The suggest extraversion at the 80th percentile, agreeableness at the 92nd, conscientiousness at the 97th, neuroticism at the 19th, and openness at the 82nd percentiles on an individual level. The conclusions are accurate since they are related. The results of the personality test show a friendly individual who is conversational, upbeat, adventurous, and outgoing (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). Moreover, the agreeableness score demonstrates a person's drive to build pleasant relationships, which is in line with extraversion percentile. Individual character is that of being dutiful, responsible, organized, and orderly, which is illustrated by the 97th score on conscientiousness. The neuroticism score is 19th percentile, which tallies with personal abilities to experience positive emotions that include stress management, low self-worth feelings, and anxiety. A sociable person is open to others. This is depicted by the 82 percent score towards openness. Therefore, the results correlate to personal traits and attributes.
Develop strategies to advance your career using your strengths.
Advancing personal career using the strengths will involve focusing on understanding personal failures and success. Such will include discovering capabilities and attributes, which will assist in achieving a competitive edge for success in the career. Time will be sacrificed and a studying the course occur in accordance to the degree requirement (Burton, 2014). The aim is to have knowledge and skills, which are vital in personal career. There will also be strong commitment on following the rules and regulations, which are needed to advance in the career. Such includes interacting with others and finding role models in this career. The socialization will create an opportunity to gain insights on what needs to be done to be successful in this career.
Moreover, at a personal level, there will be a need to comprehend individual interest and strength. The aim is to ensure that these act as the guiding principles for achieving success in the career. Thus, sharing and learning of the knowledge in the career will occur easily. Further, there will be establishment of strong relationships, which will act as the motivating factor to proceed in studying this career. Moreover, there will be development of short and long-term goals, which are based on what needs to be achieved to have success in the career. Such will be followed by having a plan on how to execute the goals.
How can you use goal-setting to increase motivation and improve job performance?
Goal setting helps in motivating an individual to improve on the level of job performance. Further, a person is always motivated to work and sacrifice time to ensure that all the tasks and assigned responsibilities are completed in time (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). Moreover, goal-setting establishes the direction and platform, which a person has to follow in order to accomplish tasks. It is the map for execution of duties in accordance with the requirements of the leader or manager.
Goal-setting ensures that an individual is always aware of what needs to be done in different circumstance. Thus, a person is motivated at all times to perform the required duties with minimal supervision. Moreover, an individual gets the motivation to execute different tasks within the provided timeline of the employer. On the same note, goal-setting creates a self-drive for a person to perform the assigned duties. Such occurs as the individual understands what needs to be accomplished in different settings of the organization. Furthermore, a person develops positive attitude towards the work, which ensures that there are minimal cases of lateness or underperformance of work.
How might your engagement as an employee and job satisfaction influence job performance?
Managers often focus on ensuring that they fulfill the needs of the employees to improve on workers flexibility and content with pay (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). The outcome of this is that employees feel satisfied. An engaged employee depicts an individual who is invested highly in the work and gets involved at all times. As such, the person has a strong engagement with the work environment, which results into driving satisfaction in the accomplishment of different tasks. Hence, the engagement of an employee grows with time.
Engagement of the employees has a significant impact on the overall performance of the organization (Staw, Robert &Lisa, 1994). The workforce could not be satisfied, but their engagement ensures that they have the capability and potential of accomplishing different functions of the firm. The situation occurs since individuals get a good comprehension and understanding of how different functions of the organization are accomplished. Moreover, the workforce is able to cushion itself against unwanted negative attitude towards the business, which reduces the performance level of individuals significantly.
Discuss at least 5 of the following motivational theories and explain how these can aid in job
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
McGregor offers a theory of motivating and managing individuals in two ways. His ideas depict that managers obtain poor results because of their alignment to theory x while successful leaders achieve better outcomes because of using theory y. Theory x is considered as the authoritarian management style, which is linked to the dislikes of work by an individual. Thus, a person is forced to work because of the punishment threat focused on achieving the objectives of the organizations (Burton, 2012). A person prefers to avoid responsibility, have security, be directed, and be unambitious. On the other hand, theory y is considered as the participative management style where effort in the work environment is a natural outcome. Thus, individuals apply self-direction and self-control as they pursue to achieve organization objectives. Further, individuals seek and accept responsibility and focus on solving organizational problems.
The theory helps in improving job performance when the management team in an organization focuses on using a participative style of managing and leading employees. As such, employees develop the need of being and working in the firm.
Maslow's Needs Hierarchy
The theory of Hierarchy of Needs was postulated in 1943 by Abraham Maslow. The theory indicates that the basic needs of a person have to be met before an individual becomes motivated to achieve other higher levels of needs. The 5 levels of need include physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization (Staw, Robert &Lisa, 1994). Physiological needs include water, food, and shelter, which have to be met for a person to survive. Safety level relates to financial and personal security, wellbeing, and health. Love refers to family, relationships, and friendships. Esteem is associated with respect for others and feelings of confidence. Finally, self-actualization is linked to the desire to achieve things that an individual can be able to have in a given environmental setup.
The theory can be used to improve job performance by focusing on the transformation of the work environment of the employees. Such entails illustrating to employees that they are valuable in the organization and their roles have great value. As such, the workforce develops a feeling of being respected and motivated to improve on its execution of duties. Further, the managers have to support employees in other aspects of their lives, which are outside the scope of work. Therefore, employees get a sense that they are financially stable and can achieve all that they need with a lot of ease from the organization.
Herzberg's theory of motivation
Frederick Herzberg developed the two-factor theory of motivation in 1950s. The identified two factors are motivator and hygiene factors. Motivator factors are the things, which contribute to motivation and satisfaction of employees so that they can work really harder. These include career progression, feeling recognized, and enjoying the work environment (Burton, 2012). The hygiene factors include company policies, salary, benefits, and relationships, which when absent lead to dissatisfaction.
The level of job performance can be improved by ensuring that the manager improves the hygiene and motivator factors. As such, it is vital to ensure that workers develop the feeling of being supported and appreciated in the work environment. Further, employees need to understand that they have the right treatment for the working conditions, which ensure that they receive fair pay. Moreover, a leader has to understand that whatever might motivate one employee may not be a motivating factor for the other one.
Equity theory
Stacy Adams formulated the equity theory, which argues that workers adjust their output and performance level on the basis of the perception of how the results are equitable (Burton, 2012). A single employee may have a reduced performance if he or she perceives that there will be less reward as compared to colleagues for the same amount of work and effort. Such could also occur where a worker develops feeling that there is great rewards extended to him or her as compared to the peers.
This theory can be applied to ensure that an organization establishes pay structures, which are equal for all the works that are done. For example, the sales territories should be aligned such that they correspond to the average sales volume.
Expectancy theory
The expectancy theory indicates that individuals chose their behavior based on the expected outcomes when they interact with others and the immediate environment. Thus, the behavior of people is significantly influenced by the perception of the rewards (Burton, 2012). For example, a person can work hard because of the promise to be given a reward. The three elements of expectancy theory are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. Expectancy relate to the belief that a person develops that individual effort will have the outcome of achieving the desired goal. Instrumentality advocates for the concept that one will get a reward because of achieving specific goals. Valence focuses on valuing the place in order to receive a reward.
Job performance is improved by setting goals that employees can achieve and offering rewards for these goals. Such rewards, which can be provided to workers, include pay rises, praise for the work-done, bonuses, monthly rewards for employee of the month, and offering opportunities for future progression of employees among others.
References
Burton, K. (2012). A study of motivation: How to get your employees moving. Retrieved from:
https://spea.indiana.edu/doc/undergraduate/ugrd_thesis2012_mgmt_burton.pdf
Rothmann, S, & Coetzer, E. (2003). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance.
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 29 (1), 68-74.
Staw, B, Robert, S, &Lisa, P. (1994). "Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at
the Workplace." Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences 5.1: 51-71.
