Theories and Concepts of Organizational Behaviour: The Big Five Personality Traits

This essay discusses the theories and concepts of organizational behaviour, focusing on the Big Five personality traits. It explores the different dimensions of the Big Five traits and their impact on employee behavior in the business environment.

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The purpose of the essay is to guide the reader regarding the details about the theories
and concepts of organizational behaviour. The theory of big five personality traits is discussed in
the essay. The Big five personality trait refers to the traits that identify the personality of an
individual that differentiate them other people in the environment. This type of concept explains
the different personality dimensions that are required in the traits of an individual in shaping
their overall personality. Further, below mentioned essay the guide the leader with the
personality trait along with the combination of organizational behaviour theories in the
environment. The use of the big five on the part of a manager is discussed in the essay that
elaborates the scenarios where these theories are used to manage the satisfaction level of the
employees in the business environment (Judge, & Zapata, 2015).
The big five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism (OCEAN). Openness refers to the trait that develops the
capability in people to learn new aspects in the environment and enjoy having new experiences
as well. This type of trait include being insightful and imaginative in the environment. A
welcoming approach to every situation in life regards openness in behaviour. The second aspect
is conscientiousness refers to the high of reliance and prompt attempting in the environment.
This is the trait of being thorough and organized in the environment. This type of trait helps an
individual to be thoughtful and initiate goal directed behaviour in the environment. Such people
are also mindful with the deadlines given to them. The third trait of extraversion is elaborated
using sociality, assertiveness and excitability in the environment (Stajkovic, Bandura, Locke,
Lee, & Sergent, 2018).
People possessing this type of trait in the environment tend to show high energy in social
gatherings and feels energized when surrounded by people. Agreeableness personality dimension
include the attribute of trust and affection in the environment. Such type of people high
agreeableness in their behaviour, they are highly cooperative with different settings in the
environment. High agreeableness in the behaviour shows that the people are okay with all kinds
of situations in the environment. These people feel empathised and concerned for other people in
the environment. While low agreeableness states that, people takes less interest in the external
environment settings and do not care about how other people feel in the setting (Soto, 2015).
Lastly, neuroticism refers to the trait that is related to being sad and emotionally unstable in the

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environment. People possessing high trait under this case shows that they are usually irritated in
the environment and have high mood swings as well. People having high neuroticism in their
behaviour tend to experience a lot of stress and anxiety issues whereas low trait of neuroticism in
people express that these people are stable and deals with stress easily.
Elaborating the big five theory with the organizational behaviour theory of X and Y, it
should be noted that in every organization there are two types of people. Theory X explains
about the irresponsible and lazy employees of the company while the theory Y talks about the
efficient employees who drive themselves to work effectively for the growth of the organization
(Vedel, 2016). The theory Y employees of the company are the employees who have high
openness, assertiveness, Conscientiousness and extraversion in the behaviour with low
Neuroticism. Whereas in case of theory X employees of the company, the employees possess just
opposite behaviour within them that is discussed above. Thus, it should be noted that the big five
personality traits plays a lead role in making a person successful in the professional environment.
The big five traits successfully helps a person to identify the features present in their nature and
how they can grow in the organizational settings to improve their professional aptitude. The
theory X employees can easily shift to theory Y employees if they focus on the characteristics
traits that they possess in the environment (Sorić, Penezić, & Burić, 2017).
Further, thinking of myself as a manager of an organization, it should be noted that Big
Five Personality Dimension is crucial in understanding the behaviour of the employees and
motivating them to succeed in the business environment. Considering one scenario where I can
make use of this framework, it should be noted that this type of framework helps in identifying
the differential features in the behaviour of the employees (Chan, Uy, Chernyshenko, Ho, &
Sam, 2015). With the help of information about the nature of the employees, the manager can
effectively predict the future actions conducted by the employees. For instance, an employee
possess agreeableness feature in their behaviour and if now they have suddenly started showing
less interest in the activities of company then it means that they have started getting demotivated
(Ötken, & Cenkci, 2015).
So, it should be noted that the manager can make use of this framework to motivate the
employees to analysing their needs in the environment and creating a positive environment at
work. Further, the manager can also make use of this type of framework in training the

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employees to grow professionally. This trait can help the manager in understanding the
behaviour of the employees in a better way and training them accordingly. Thus, these are the
two scenarios that explain the ways in which the manager can make use of the big five-
personality trait to shape the behaviour of the employees in an organization (Schaufeli, 2016).
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the above
mentioned essay highlighted the details about the big five-personality traits. The characteristics
of the personality of a person are discussed in the paper. These traits change from person to
person and make an individual different in the environment. Further, the organizational
behaviour theory is discussed in the paper to give better understanding of concept along with the
elaboration of two scenarios that can help a manager in development of employee behaviour.

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References
Chan, K. Y., Uy, M. A., Chernyshenko, O. S., Ho, M. H. R., & Sam, Y. L. (2015). Personality
and entrepreneurial, professional and leadership motivations. Personality and individual
differences, 77, 161-166.
Judge, T. A., & Zapata, C. P. (2015). The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation
strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting
job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1149-1179.
Ötken, A. B., & Cenkci, T. (2015). Big five personality traits and organizational dissent: The
moderating role of organizational climate. Business and Economics Research
Journal, 6(2), 1.
Schaufeli, W. B. (2016). Heavy work investment, personality and organizational
climate. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(6), 1057-1073.
Sorić, I., Penezić, Z., & Burić, I. (2017). The Big Five personality traits, goal orientations, and
academic achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 54, 126-134.
Soto, C. J. (2015). Is happiness good for your personality? Concurrent and prospective relations
of the big five with subjective well‐being. Journal of personality, 83(1), 45-55.
Stajkovic, A. D., Bandura, A., Locke, E. A., Lee, D., & Sergent, K. (2018). Test of three
conceptual models of influence of the big five personality traits and self-efficacy on
academic performance: A meta-analytic path-analysis. Personality and Individual
Differences, 120, 238-245.
Vedel, A. (2016). Big Five personality group differences across academic majors: A systematic
review. Personality and individual differences, 92, 1-10.