Conscientiousness refers to “the degree to which a person is responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement-oriented” (Daft and Lane 100). Conscientious people usually focus their efforts on a few goals and pursue them in a purposeful. It is hard to distract conscientious people when they are pursuing their goals.
However, it is easy to distract less conscientious people. Conscientiousness mainly refers to how individuals undertake their activities instead of their relationship with other people (Daft and Lane 100). One may assume that conscientious people have poor relationships with other people. However, the reverse may be true.
Low conscientiousness of employees is disadvantageous to an organisation. Employees whose personality has low conscientiousness are usually unable to motivate themselves to perform various tasks within the organisation (Lussier, Achua and Lussier 38).
Motivation is a critical factor in the productivity of employees. Companies devise several strategies to motivate their employees. Therefore, individuals whose personality trait has low conscientiousness are likely to have low productivity. This is despite various efforts of the company to motivate the individual.
Employees whose personality trait has low levels of conscientiousness are likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour. The aggressive behaviour is usually due to frustrations that the employee may be facing. Directing the aggressive behaviour towards other employees may be detrimental to the organisation. Aggressiveness may impair the productivity of the employee and ability of the individual to work in a group (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham 65).
Organisations are an aggregation of people with different personalities. Therefore, from time to time, employees of the organisation may have conflicts due to differences in their personalities. Such conflicts usually begin due to disagreements on work related issues. Conflicts within the organisation may facilitate the exchange of ideas that may lead to innovation and increased productivity.
However, it is vital for employees of the organisation to prevent the conflict from degenerating into a personal issue. This is because personality driven conflicts may polarise the workplace and distract the employees from their duties. In addition, aggravated personality conflict may make employees of the organisation quit the organisation (Rout and Omiko 245). Therefore, it is vital for an organisation to devise strategies that may help in solving personality conflicts. This is because ignoring the conflict would only aggravate it.
It is critical for managers to devise strategies that would enable them personality conflicts effectively. Efficient handling of personality conflicts would help in improving employee retention and productivity. Managers should encourage employees to solve conflicts on their own (Rout and Omiko 245).
Therefore, it is critical for managers to develop conflict resolution skills among the employees. Regardless of whether the employees solve the conflict on their own or whether they seek the assistance of the manager, the process of conflict resolution is usually the same. Managers should address the root causes of the conflict with the employees. While addressing the issues, it is critical to have private face-to-face meetings with the employees.
In the meeting, managers should not start by blaming any employee. In addition, managers should desist from personal attacks during the meeting. It is critical for managers to stick to the main issue as this is the only method of unearthing the real source of the conflict. During the meetings, managers should treat all employees respectfully. This would make the manager gain the trust of the employees. Successful resolution of a conflict requires both parties to be willing to come to a compromise (Laton 84).
Works Cited
Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas and Furnham, Adrian. Personality and intellectual competence. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Daft, Richard L. and Lane, Patricia G. The leadership experience. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Laton, David. Developing positive workplace skills and attitudes. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2006. Print.
Lussier, Robert N., Achua, Christopher F. and Lussier, Robert N. Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Rout, Eirene Leela and Omiko, Nelson. Corporate conflict management: Concepts and skills. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2007. Print.