A Self-Reflective Essay on Learning Organizational Behavior

This essay presents a detailed self-reflection on organizational behavior, utilizing tools such as MBTI, DISC, transactional analysis, and the Johari Window to analyze personal strengths and weaknesses. The author reflects on feedback from peers, identifying areas for improvement such as patience and conflict resolution. The essay also discusses the impact of different personality types, particularly ESTJ, on teamwork and leadership, highlighting a specific incident where understanding team members' personalities helped resolve conflict. Ultimately, the author emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in enhancing communication, building relationships, and achieving success in a sales and marketing career, with a commitment to continuous self-assessment and improvement. Desklib offers this assignment, along with a wide array of study resources, to aid students in their academic pursuits.

Organizational Behaviour
Self-reflection

Self-Reflection 1
Organizational behaviour is the study of human behaviour in organizational settings
(Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). Understanding organizational behaviour is crucial for effective
human resource management within the organization. Through this course, I have learnt various
tools that have helped me in gaining a deeper insight about my own personality. These tools have
also helped me highlight my strengths and weaknesses. The predominant tools used are MBTI,
DISC, transactional analysis and Johari Window. These tools have helped me understand and
further analyze my behaviour in terms of communication and conflict management.
Johari window is an effective tool that can be used for training self-awareness, improving
communications and interpersonal relationships (Hillson & Murray-Webster, 2017). The matrix
has been effectively designed for people to gain a deeper insight into their personalities.
There are certain aspects of my personality which are known to myself and all around
me. Every individual has a large open arena. There are many personality attributes of individuals
that are known to everyone. As a person, I have always been an open book and rarely shied away
from sharing my feelings or emotions. My open arena includes my personality attributes include
my extrovert, helping, assertive, practical and highly optimistic nature.
While using this tool, I tried to seek feedback from my peers and friends in order to
understand those aspects of my personality which are unknown to me but known to others. My
friends mentioned to me that I often tend to get highly aggressive during arguments and entirely
fail to consider the viewpoints of others. Another feedback that I received was that I can
sometimes get insensitive towards people’s feelings or emotions as I tend to be too practical in
my behavior.
The third section of the matrix that focuses on personality attributes that an individual is
aware of but others are unaware of (McCabe & Timmins, 2013). This includes my massive stage
fear and inability to articulate and present my thoughts in an effective manner.
This test helped me in understanding that I must learn to be more sensitive towards other
people and respect their opinions. Being modest is important to grow in organization and build
positive relationships with colleagues and clients. Therefore, I would work towards enhancing
my threshold for patience and resolving conflicts in an effective manner.

Self-Reflection 2
Transactional analysis throws light on four important states that an individual can be in.
These four stats include two parent states and two child states (Clarkson, 2013). In a parent state,
one can be nurturing or controlling while in the child state one can be free or adaptive. After
online surveys and seeking feedback from my friends and family members, I have realized that
my dominant state is that of a ‘Controlling parent’. This depicts a strong personality and the
ability to convince people.
The results also people with this dominant state find it difficult to be open to learning
new things and often block themselves from developing new ideas. This can act against me in
the long run. At workplace, especially in the field of sales, employees have to interact with new
clients frequently. Each client is different and hence needs to be treated differently. Success and
growth in any organization is only plausible when one is open to learning and embracing new
ideas (Barrow, Bradshaw & Newton, 2012). Therefore I would work upon improving this aspect
of my personality.However, this personality instils traits of an authoritative leader. Autocratic
leaders assist the organization by bringing order and control to the everyday operations of the
organization.
DISC personality test demonstrates an individual’s personality depending upon four
important factors of dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance (Lykourentzou et. al.,
2016). My DISC personality test results showed that I have a dominating personality with an
immense strong inner motivation to influence people and circumstances. The test results also
reflected upon my competitive nature. I scored the high in two areas; dominance and influence. I
can completely relate with the analysis of the test. The test results highlight me as a dominant
person that can have a large influence on others.
DISC personality model is highly effective for an individual in analyzing their
personality (Emanuel, 2013). The tool can highlight the aspects that an individual needs to work
upon. I have scored the least in compliance. This reflects that I have a difficult time in complying
with what is being told to me. This is true for my behavior. I believe in doing things on my own
regard and opinions of others matter less to me. In fact, very often I find it difficult for myself to
listen to authorities and obey them.

Self-Reflection 3
After taking this test, I analyzed that I need to work upon improving this aspect of my
personality comply with and respect those in authority. In the workplace, it is important to
establish a clear chain of command. In such a case, I would have to report to my seniors. Hence,
it is imperative that I improve upon this from now onwards. I have also scored really less in
‘Steadiness’. Steadiness reflects upon the individual’s ability to have patience, control
temperament and be persistent. As a person, I have been very impatient and this attribute can
hamper my work life. I wish to make a career in the field of sales. A sales job requires consistent
follow ups and immense persistence. Hence, it is required that I start improving this part of my
personality.
Myers Briggs test is one of the most renowned personality tests which helps people in
understanding which personality type to they fall into out of the pre-determined 16 personality
types (McShane & Glinow, 2013). These personality types are based on eight importance
indicators. These indicators are extroversion and introversion, perceiving and judging, sensing
and intuitive and lastly thinking and feeling (Lloyd, 2012).
After taking the test, I realized that my personality type is ESTJ (Extroversion, sensing,
thinking and judging). My results of the test resonate well with my personality. Through this
test I came to understand how I handle different situations in life. I have always been an
extremely practical person. I try to make the best out of every situation by evaluating the pros
and cons. I am judgmental and I only believe in making practical choices in life.
I have understood that my personality type has certain advantages as well as
disadvantages. Being practical helps me in taking calculated risks and be prepared for unforeseen
situations that I may encounter in my future workplace. Strictly from a work perspective, being
practical and calculate helps in being more prepared.
Owing to this personality type, I have decided to build a career in sales and marketing. In
order to be successful in the same I need to focus upon my communication as well as
relationship management skills. Sales job requires excellence in communication and negotiation
skills (Martin, 2011). I would try to make these my strength and excel in sales field of a leading
organization.

Self-Reflection 4
One specific incident wherein I applied the MBTI model in order to resolve conflict was
my recent argument with my team members. We needed to do a project that required us to
introduce a new product and try to sell it to our friends and family members. My team member
was introducing products which was creative for others but would not help us in making any
profits. On the other hand, I had done a demand analysis for the product and I realized it will not
sell in the market. After various arguments, I realized that my team member has an entirely
different personality from me. I asked her to take the MBTI test and her personality type was
ENFP. This made me realize that she is highly creative and emotional. It is difficult for her to see
things practically. On the other hand, I am very practical and often assertive. In order to resolve
this conflict, I decided to take a step back. I had a one on one meeting with her wherein we
mutually decided that we can work together more effectively. She can focus on the creative side
of our new product and make it appealing to customers. Along with that, I can take care of more
practical issues including reducing our overall costs and increasing profit margins.
The example given above is one of the many examples in my life where I tried to
understand different personality types of people. Personality tests like MBTI, DISC and TA help
people in resolving conflicts and enhancing their level of communication with others. Resolving
conflict in an effective manner is imperative for the long term success of any relationship
(Moore, 2014). This course and these tests have largely helped me in gaining a much deeper
insight about my own personality. Self-reflection helps people in identifying their weakness so
that they can work upon it. I am grateful that I took this course through my learnings here, I have
been able to take control of the conflicts that I face and resolve them effectively. I will continue
to take these tests every few months in order to stay updated about my own strengths and
weaknesses.

Self-Reflection 5
References
Barrow, G., Bradshaw, E. and Newton, T., 2012. Improving behaviour and raising self-esteem in
the classroom: A practical guide to using transactional analysis. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Clarkson, P., 2013. Transactional analysis psychotherapy: An integrated approach. Routledge.
United Kingdom.
Emanuel, R.C., 2013. Do certain personality types have a particular communication
style. International Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 2(1), pp.4-10.
Griffin, R.W. and Moorhead, G., 2011. Organizational behavior. Cengage Learning. United
States
Hillson, D. and Murray-Webster, R., 2017. Understanding and managing risk attitude.
Routledge. United Kingdom.
Lloyd, J.B., 2012. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and mainstream psychology: analysis and
evaluation of an unresolved hostility. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 33(1), pp.23-34.
Lykourentzou, I., Antoniou, A., Naudet, Y. and Dow, S.P., 2016, February. Personality matters:
Balancing for personality types leads to better outcomes for crowd teams. In Proceedings of the
19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 260-
273). ACM.
Martin, S.W., 2011. Seven personality traits of top salespeople. HBR Blog Network, 27.
McCabe, C. and Timmins, F., 2013. Communication skills for nursing practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
McShane, S. and Von Glinow, M., 2013. M Organizational Behavior. New York, New York:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Moore, C.W., 2014. The mediation process: Practical strategies for resolving conflict. John
Wiley & Sons.

Self-Reflection 6