Self-Awareness and Career Path

The assignment is focused on developing self-awareness through various personality tests, including the Big Five, which helps identify strengths and weaknesses. The analysis aims to determine a suitable career path by leveraging these findings, particularly in sales or marketing roles that require interaction with clients and an agreeable nature.

Organizational Behavior
Reflective assignment

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 1
Contents
Introduction to personality...............................................................................................................2
Big 5 personality test.......................................................................................................................2
Action plan and Conclusion.............................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 2
Introduction to personality
Emotions and personality form two important aspect of a human being. Emotions are practically
the feelings that a person experiences in different circumstances. On the other hand, personality
is referred to a set of characteristics or qualities that form a distinctive character of an individual.
Personality of an individual plays a vital role in shaping the individual’s relationships, learning
and growth. This essay throws light on various attributes of my own personality. In order to gain
a deeper insight on the same, I have taken three online surveys. These surveys include MBTI
test, Type A & B personality and the Big 5 personality test. All these three surveys are well
known surveys and used globally by many individuals and organizations. Through these surveys
I have been able to understand my personality better by analyzing my strengths as well as
weaknesses. All these tests aim at defining an individual’s personality and it is imperative to
identify one’s competencies as well as areas of improvement (Townley, 2014). These self-
reflection activities also help individuals in defining their future course of action that suits their
personality the most. In this report I have highlight about my results from the BIG 5 personality
test as well as my analysis of the results. This is because from the three tests that I undertook, the
results of the BIG 5 were prominently clear and helped me gain a clear insight about my
personality.
Big 5 personality test
The big five personality test is conducted in order to understand the personality type of an
individual based on five major aspects like ‘Agreeableness’, ‘Openness’, ‘Extraversion’,
‘Conscientiousness’ and ‘Neuroticism’ (Im, Park, Choi & Park, 2015). These five aspects are
largely important for shaping the personality of an individual in the workplace. These five
attributes have a major role to play in defining an individual’s team building, leadership,
communication and relationship management skills. Organizations have also been taking help of
the Big 5 test in order to better understand the personality of the candidate applying for the job.
The first attribute that is analyzed by this test is an individual’s agreeableness. This attribute
reflects upon the individual’s ability to be compassionate and coordinating rather than suspicious
(Cobb-Clark, & Schurer, 2012). This attribute also reflects on the person’s nature with respect to

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 3
trust and helpfulness. I have scored 3.5 in this attribute which is fairly good. This signifies that
neither I am uncannily rude or suspicious and nor am I naïve to trust everyone easily. It also
reflects upon my optimistic attitude especially during interaction with other people (Sharpe,
Martin & Roth, 2011). In my personal life too, I try to believe the best in people. This attribute
would largely help my personality in my professional space so that I will be able to build deeper
relationships with my peers and colleagues. An agreeable individual has a pleasing personality
and this makes it easy to work with other people within the same organization (Sackett &
Walmsley, 2014). This attribute of my personality will assist me to work in a team of different
individuals at the workplace leading to improved team performance and better coordination
within the organization.
Openness to experience refers to the individual’s interest in trying out something new (Turiano,
Chapman, Gruenewald & Mroczek, 2015). This is very important as it is almost impossible to
understand 3.3 out of 5 in this attribute which demonstrates that I am not entirely open to new
experiences and that I possess a relatively lowered risk appetite. I believe I should work towards
this aspect of my personality so that I will be able to handle unforeseen situations of my life
better. While working in an organization, there are various stakeholders who are associated with
the business. The needs, attitudes and behaviors of different stakeholders vary among each other
and it is imperative to ensure the satisfaction of each of them. Similarly, an organization
encounters various situations including change of product line, geographical expansion, changed
leadership and unviability of resources. Such situations cannot be predicted beforehand and
having an openness to experience new things will help me tackle these situations in the most
effective manner.
I have scored highest in conscientiousness which reflects upon my ability to be responsible,
dependable, and persistent as well as achievement oriented. I have a tendency of setting short
term goals and pursue them in a purposeful way. As a person, I am largely self-disciplined and
can often rely on internal motivation to stay on the right track. Strong Conscientiousness also
helps me remain ethical with my decisions (Cohen, Panter, Turan, Morse & Kim, 2014). My
score in this attribute is 4.2. This score also often reflects a high degree of obsession or
stubbornness. I have personally experienced this in my everyday life as well. I like to do things
and conduct activities in a certain manner and it bothers me if that is changed. In my professional

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 4
life, there are various processes and policies that I would have to adapt to. Therefore I must work
towards being more open to adapting methodologies as long as the goal is achieved.
The fourth score of extraversion reflect upon the fact that I am social and assertive. I have score
3.37 in this attribute. This is a fairly positive score. Such factors would help me build strong
relationships with people in my career. At present too, I have a strong set of loyal friends and I
find it easy to converse with people even if they are absolute strangers. These attributes would
help me build a solid network of people and a positive positioning in the minds of my peers. My
achievement orientation will also help in fulfilling organizational goals and working hard for my
personal growth at workplace.
The last attribute analyzed by this test is ‘Neuroticism’. I have scored the least in this attribute.
My score is 3.125 which is the least in all five attributes. Neuroticism refers to the tendency of an
individual to experience negative emotions (Friedman & Kern, 2014). These emotions include
anger, anxiety, depression or vulnerability. My score reflects that neither am I completely
unaffected by the situations around me and nor do I give relatively strong reactions or experience
strong emotions. My emotions and my behavior are in control. Neuroticism often refers to the
degree of emotional stability experienced by an individual.
Action plan and Conclusion
The big five personality test is essential for organizations to understand the kind of people that
would be recruited within the business (Gosling, Rentfrow & Swann, 2003). It helps
organizations in analyzing important attributes of candidates and hence can help them make a
better choice about the most suitable candidate for the job. Through these personality tests, I
have come to gain a deeper insight about my own personality and this has largely helped in
analyzing my strengths and weaknesses. My plan is to work on my weaknesses and ensure that I
am an efficient asset in the workplace in future. Through this course, I have been able to
understand and reflect upon my personality and I would work towards strengthening the same.
I would read more managerial books to enhance my learning of today’s workplace environments.
Currently, I have a relatively rigid thought process and an extremely low risk appetite. My sore
on ‘Openness to experience’ is very low and therefore I need to work on that attribute. In order

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 5
to achieve this I would try to be more open to new ideas and flexible in my thought process.
Upon encountering an unforeseen situation, I would make a conscious effort to be patient and
think rationally. This would help me improve my risk appetite and develop an open mindset.
I would continue to be an extrovert and leverage this attribute of my personality while
developing long term relationships with people in my workplace. This would help me build a
strong network of people. I would also work on my obsessiveness about my short term goals and
try to work towards a longer term picture. Overall, the course has been a major help and this is
the first time that I have reflected upon my personality is such great detail. Besides BIG 5 also, I
took various tests which deepened my understanding further. Through every test, I learnt
something or the other about myself and this will also help me analyze the kind of a career field
that I can get into.
From the current analysis, I believe I would flair well in sales or marketing job that requires
interaction with different clients as well as an agreeable nature. A sales job also requires an
optimistic personality and extreme persistence. I would like to improve upon my ability to be
able to handle unforeseen situations. This job prospect feels right for my personality and I would
work towards finding jobs in this field. This self-awareness is empowering as well as liberating. I
would continue to take these tests every few months and analyze my personality traits before
deciding my career path. I would also continue to seek professional or personal help in order to
address my weaknesses in a better manner.

Organizational Behavior – Reflection 6
References
Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Schurer, S. (2012). The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics
Letters, 115(1), 11-15.
Cohen, T. R., Panter, A. T., Turan, N., Morse, L., & Kim, Y. (2014). Moral character in the
workplace. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), 943.
Friedman, H. S., & Kern, M. L. (2014). Personality, well-being, and health. Annual review of
psychology, 65.
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann Jr, W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five
personality domains. Journal of Research in personality, 37(6), 504-528.
Im, G., Park, H. R., Choi, N. S., & Park, P. W. (2015). A study of correlation between big 5
personality traits and SRQ of brain quotient. Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial
cooperation Society, 16(6), 3760-3768.
Sharpe, J. P., Martin, N. R., & Roth, K. A. (2011). Optimism and the Big Five factors of
personality: Beyond neuroticism and extraversion. Personality and Individual
Differences, 51(8), 946-951.
Townley, B. (2014). Selection and appraisal: reconstituting. New Perspectives on Human
Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 92.
Turiano, N. A., Chapman, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., & Mroczek, D. K. (2015). Personality and
the leading behavioral contributors of mortality. Health Psychology, 34(1), 51.