Influence Of Personality Types In The Workplace

There is no doubt that personality types and traits strongly influence interpersonal relations in the workplace (Chauhan & Chauhan, 2006). For the purpose of this essay, personality is defined as the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2012, p.424). Through utilising previous literature, this essay will centre on the influence of personality types in the workplace as outlined by the Myers-Briggs type indication. This essay will discuss the Myers-Briggs type indication in regards to how personality impacts in what way a person approaches, responds and completes a task in a workplace scenario. Using this knowledge, self-assessments will be analysed to determine the importance of

Pittenger (1993) states the primary concern of the Myers-Briggs type indicator is the valuable differences in people resulting from the way they are likely to take in information, the way they like to make decisions, where they are likely to focus attention, and the kind of lifestyle they adopt. In its simplest form, the test comprises of a series of questions representing behavioural preferences and preferred self-descriptive adjectives (Pittenger, 1993). Upon completion of the test users are given a personality classification in the form of a four-letter acronym, showing to a degree which of the four opposite pairs of characteristics they relate to. The first pair being extraversion or introversion (E or I), the second relating to sensing or intuition (S or N), the third being thinking or feeling (T or F) and fourth relating to judgement or perception (J or P). A table in Appendix One summarises these four pairs of characteristics and the acronyms