Personality Determines Behaviour: Relevance to Project Management

This article discusses the extent to which personality determines behaviour and its relevance to project management. It explores different personality traits and how they can influence the behaviour of individuals in project management.

Personality determines behaviour To
what extent do you agree and what is
the relevance of this idea to project
management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Personality of an individual can be defined as a characteristics set of an individual's
behaviour, emotional patterns, cognition which can evolve from environmental and biological
factors. It can also be referred as characteristic way of thinking, behaving and feelings of an
individual, also it embraces a persons moods, opinions as well as attitudes. It is also a clearly
expressed in terms of interactions with other people. So, yes personality can determine the
behaviour of an individual as it includes various behavioural characteristic which can be
acquired from others or are inherent which distinguishes one person from another and it can be
observed by determines people's behaviour or relations to social group or environment. As
personality of an individual reefers the difference in characteristic pattern of thinking and
behaving accordingly which make it a strong point that personality determines the behaviour of
an individual.
MAIN BODY
Personality word is derived from the Greek word “Persona” which mean “Speak through”
and it is the combination of different characteristic and qualities which can form an individual's
unique identity or behaviour. It also signifies the role that an individual plays in a society and
each and every individual has a unique personality traits which can be a major determinant of its
behaviour which defines the personality. Personality trait of a person can be divided in to two
categories which can influence the behaviour of an individual are learned characteristics and
inherited characteristics (Deesilatham & Hosany, 2018). Inherited characteristic are those
characteristic which are acquired by an individual from its parents or can also be referred as
gifted features which an individual can possess from birth. This inherited characteristic can be
religion, race of person, etc which can influence the behaviour of an individual for example
when a child is born in a family when it starts to grow, its parents make the child to get familiar
with its religion and start practising it. So, a person starts behaving as per the guidance of its
religion. One the other hand no body in this world learns each and every thing by birth, a person
can learn various things from external environment which can influence their behaviour to higher
extent (Ruiz Rodríguez Gutiérrez and Peri, 2018). At the beginning a person can adopt a
particular behaviour from school and then comes the society which is followed by various
educational institutions from which person learn, which can influence its behaviour. There are
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various learned characteristics that may shape the behaviour of an individual in terms of values,
perception, attitude, etc.
There are various personality traits in an individual which shape the behaviour,
personality traits are considered as an enduring feature which help in defining the behaviour of
an individual. Various psychologists have agreed that there are 5 different personality traits
which are as Neurotic, extrovert, open, agreeable, conscientious, depending on these personality
traits a person can behave accordingly (Parks-Leduc, Feldman & Bardi, 2015). Also, a person
may also have different personality attributes which can influence the behaviour of an individual
in project management. One of the major attributes is called locus of control, this is also referred
as centre of control for an individual's code of conduct in a project management. While,
managing a project there are two groups of people one the people who consider themselves as
being a master of their own fate and such type of people are known as internals. Such people
during the project make a proper research of the information before making any decision.
Internal are achievement oriented which make their behaviour more active and do well and put
their extra efforts in managing the project (Mõttus & et.al.2017). There personality is such that
they want to command the environment and give directions to people which work with them. So,
it can be said that internal type of people within the project management do well as the develop a
behaviour of craving the information and processing the complex information, they keep on
taking initiatives and take actions independently. So, based on this personality attribute it can
influence the behaviour of an individual in a project management process. Another type of
people which can be involved in project management are those whose behaviour is controlled by
external factors and such people are known as externals. These people do not take initiative of
their own but just simply wait for instructions and put efforts in following them in an effective
manner. So, during project management the behaviour of these people are controlled by internals
and are more compliant in a project and are always willing to follow instructions in order to do
well in the project.
Another personality attribute which can influence the behaviour of an individual is
known as Machiavellianism, which refers to be emotionally distant, being practical and there are
the people who always want to win and referred as greater persuaders. So, personality attributes
can help in determining the behaviour of an individual (Clark & Vanderbleek, 2016). Such
people behave differently and have significant features for example during the project
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management these people prefer precise interactions with others rather than beating about the
bush and they tend to improvise in order to achieve effective results from the project. Also, such
people during the project management may not certainly abide according to rules and regulations
all the time but want to do something new out of box (Lo & et.al., 2017). One the other hand
these high-Machs may get distracted by some emotional details which may be irrelevant from the
outcome of a project. So, it can be justified that, yes, this personality trait can determine the
behaviour of an individual and can get influenced by it. For example during the project
management, these people may be achievement oriented for this they prefer to have a precise
interactions with others who are involved in the project in order to achieve the perfect results
they may do something different but may get diverted if they become emotional during the
project management tasks as they have a personality of getting emotionally distant (Tang &
et.al., 2016). So, it clearly justifies that personality have an influence on the behaviour of an
individual.
Another personality attribute which can help in determining the behaviour of an
individual is self-esteem personality. These are the type of people who wither dislike or like
themselves and this personality is directly linked to the expectation of success for a project. This
personality can help in determining the behaviour of an individual during the project for example
if a person with high self-esteem is working on a project makes them behave in different manner
as they think that have to do whatever it takes to complete a project successfully. This mean that
they are always willing to take challenges in order to complete a project on time with high rate of
success. So, people with high self-esteem get influenced to take extra risk as they are willing to
accept and face challenges (Hudson & Fraley, 2015). On the other hand, a person with low-self-
esteem get more susceptible towards distractions which may be external and internal. They feel
worried about the completion of tasks during the project and remain confused. So, these people
get more likely to seek approvals and suggestions from others and then try to adopt their
behaviours and beliefs according to those who they respect and follow. Also, one of the major
personality attributes which can help in determination of behaviour of an individual as with self-
monitoring capability a person has the capability to regulate its behaviour according to various
social situations. So, this justifies that how this personality attribute in an individual can
influence the behaviour of an individual. If an individual with high levels of self-monitoring
skills has the capability to adjust its behaviour according the situations which may arise from
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internal and external factors. For example, during project management if a person faced a
problem like a potential financial risk but due to its self-monitoring skills a person can make
adjustment in its behaviour which can be beneficial for the project. So, this is how a person with
high self-monitoring skills can influence its behaviour and can even make adjustment in
behaviour (Ruiz Rodríguez Gutiérrez & Peri, 2018). Thus, it can be said that this personality trait
can help in determining the behaviour of an individual. On the other hand, a person with low
self-monitoring skills are not able to cover themselves, though they may be in any situation.
They tend to behave normal in every they face and does not want to be more concerned about the
situations that they are in. These people have an attitude of “What you see is what you get.” It
can be demonstrated with an example, a project manager during a project has identified a slight
variation in the project as compared to its plan but due to its low self-monitoring skills it failed to
monitor the loss which may arise due to variation in the project which remain unpredicted. So,
this means that even if a person identifies any sort of flaw but to due to its personality, a person
tends to behave in a particular way which surely explains the fact that personality of an
individual helps in determining the behaviour of an individual. One of the major personality
attributes which helps in explaining that personality determines the behaviour of an individual
which is called as risk taking. Some people are born as risk takers and are always willing to take
risk in order to be achieve goal and to be successful in their career. Risk taking personality
attribute also influences the behaviour of an individual while performing a task or living a life.
For example, if project manager has risk taking attribute so, these types of managers are always
reluctant to take risks in order to complete a project at any cost (MacKillop & et.al., 2016). One
the other hand managers with risk taking inclinations is affected by the bulk of information that
is gathered by manger which reflects its decision-making process. If a project manager lacks risk
taking attribute, it makes its behaviour depend on the external as well as internal factors and
makes a well-planned decision after a long-term research of information. So, this personality
attribute also helps in determining the behaviour of an individual in a project management.
There are also various personality traits in an individual which can influence the
behaviour one of the personality trait is openness to experience, this trait is referred as depth of
individuals mental experience or its imagination. People with this type of personality traits are
curious to try new things and remain open to external environment which can influence their
behaviour. One they learn new things they try to modify their behaviour in a similar fashion. For
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example, if a project manager has scored high score in this area, they remain curious and try new
things in order improvise. Project manager is willing to come out of its comfort zone in order to
complete the project effectively but on the other hand if the score is low it may have an influence
on the behaviour of a project manager. It can be explained with the help of an example like in
order to complete a project, project manager try to be more conventional and don not want to
come out of their comfort zone (Mõttus & et.al. 2017). This means that they follow the project
plan and are not willing to try new things which make them behave in a certain manner. Another
personality trait which can prove the personality helps in determining the behaviour of an
individual is conscientiousness, this trait measure the person's behaviour of dependability and
reliability, i.e. to what extent a person's behaviour can be reliable and dependent on others. If a
person score high in this area makes their behaviour more goal oriented and tend to have more
organised behaviour towards others and if a person’s score low in this area make their behaviour
more impulsive and procrastinate on the assignments. So, it can be argued that this personality
trait has a significant impact on the behaviour of a person and one’s behaviour can be easily
predicted by this personality trait of an individual.
Personality can be seen as a motor which can drive person's behaviour and it can remain
consistent over a period of time across various situations which can predict the success or failure
of an individual. A person may have a unique set of personality which can help in determining
the behaviour of an individual and how they influenced by their personality which they persist.
Personality of an individual can affect its mood and behaviour which in turn can affect the way
that a person behaves in a particular manner (Mak, & et.al., 2017). Personality have a strong
impact on the behaviour of a person for example the personality trait agreeableness can have an
indirect affect in behaviour of people involved in the project like they are happy and satisfies
with the project and if they are happy this will result in extra efforts from the people in order to
make a project a success. If there is lack of personality trait agreeableness in the people it may
result in dissatisfaction in their performance this may result major error in project management
process. A personality results in expressing of feeling feelings, thoughts, nature and behaviour
patterns of the person. Everyone has a different and unique personality that differs them from
each other so does the behaviour. If personality of a person has good personality traits it can
reflect on its behaviour and vice versa. Personality of a person can also affect the interpersonal
relationships which can have a strong impact on the behaviour of project manager with its team
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and other members involved in the project. So, this makes it really important the personality is
the one of the best determinants of behaviour of an individual and it can also help in
determination of success of project (MacKillop & et.al., 2016). Different persons come with
different personality traits so their behaviour also as per these personality traits for example
introvert is a person who feels shy to interact with others so, that person is unable to lead a group
of people or a project or may even face complication in doing so. Similarly, a person with
extrovert personality can be easy to easy interact with other and motivate them is an effective
manner which can increase the chances of project to become a success. So, it can say that
personality of an individual depends on various personality traits and it is these personality traits
which controls the behaviour of an individual. So, there is a clear link between the personality
and behaviour and it totally depends on the personality of an individual.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that personality is the kind of aspect that reflects individual
behaviour. In other words, People behaviour is one of the key factors which drives person
personality in different forms. It has been analysed from the research that; people have often
researched what it is that makes us behave the they do. for example, this trait is often referring to
as the depth of someone mental experiences. Also, Extrovert personality of an individual reflect
that how talkative person they may be. So, such things directly or indirectly affect the other
people as well as the outcomes of project management. It also defines in positive sense that;
people are confident and give their best efforts to the task in which they involved. Good
personality creates good possibilities of the result and outcomes. The information also supported
by other way that project leadership is an interesting factor to make task accomplish with
effective manner. Somehow, lack of leadership can cause the project failure as well. In order to
promoting the task Individual personality should depends and should be considered in proper
manner. People who have open minded and having good experience such personalities create
more opportunities to grow and also explore the new ways of research. Personality also impact
several strong relationships and also making the best adaptable skills to promote the effective
services outcomes. Along with that, good or bad personality has their own pros and cons to get
the results. Therefore, leaders who having effective leadership styles and personality
development growth. It helps to be more authenticated and effectively gain high advantage
growth.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Clark, L. A., & Vanderbleek, E. (2016). Schedule for nonadaptive and adaptive
personality. Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 1-4.
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LIFESTYLE CONGRUENCE, PERSONALITY TRAITS AND WELLNESS
RELATED SELF-IMAGE. In 8th ADVANCES IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT (AHTMM) CONFERENCE (p. 767).
Hudson, N. W., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose
to change their personality traits?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 109(3),
490.
Lo, M. T., & et.al., (2017). Genome-wide analyses for personality traits identify six genomic loci
and show correlations with psychiatric disorders. Nature genetics, 49(1), 152.
MacKillop, J., & et.al., (2016). The latent structure of impulsivity: impulsive choice, impulsive
action, and impulsive personality traits.Psychopharmacology, 233(18), 3361-3370.
Mak, A. H., & et.al., (2017). The effects of food-related personality traits on tourist food
consumption motivations. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 22(1), 1-20.
Mõttus, R., & et.al., (2017). Personality traits below facets: The consensual validity, longitudinal
stability, heritability, and utility of personality nuances. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 112(3), 474.
Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G., & Bardi, A. (2015). Personality traits and personal values: A
meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review,19(1), 3-29.
Ruiz Rodríguez, J., Gutiérrez, F., & Peri, J. M. (2018). Hierarchical Structure of Maladaptive
Personality Traits. InPòster presentat a: 5th International Congress on Borderline
Personality Disorder and Allied Disorders. 27-29 September 2018. Sitges/Barcelona.
Tang, J. H., and et.al., (2016). Personality traits, interpersonal relationships, online social
support, and Facebook addiction. Telematics and Informatics. 33(1), 102-108.
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