Principles of Business Management: Personality and Work Behaviors

This assignment analyzes the SAS Institute, a software company known for its employee-friendly policies, focusing on how it manages factors influencing work behaviors. It examines how SAS addresses employee personality, work outlook, work-life balance, stress management, and physical/mental abilities, aligning with the 'Principles of Business Management' framework. The assignment discusses the importance of employee satisfaction and retention, highlighting SAS's practices during economic downturns. Furthermore, it explores the 'Big Five Personality Traits,' specifically focusing on 'Openness' and its relevance to the author's role as a Human Resource Manager. The analysis includes a review of SAS's organizational culture, managerial policies, and the use of employee surveys to assess and meet employee expectations. The assignment uses references to support the analysis.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Read the mini-case study in section 2.1. “Case in Point: SAS Institute Invests in Employees.”
The study generally discusses the approach of a major software company to its employees.
Then, consider the “Factors That Have the Strongest Influence over Work Behaviours” from
figure 2.15. Describe how each of the four factors is managed by SAS. Do you agree with the
firm’s policies?
SAS institute has been listed as one of the leading institutes that exclusively deals
with the production of comprehensive and complicated data mining softwares. SAS
technology has produced a number of brilliant data mining softwares that has been used by
leading companies including Google in light of the occasion of the launch of its first ever
legendary campus in California (Florida & Goodnight,2005). The USP of the company
includes employee friendly strategies and a strong and positive organizational structure, so
much so that SAS institute makes it to the ‘best places to work for’ in “Top organizations to
be associated with list” published by Forum magazine every year (Karlgaard,2006). Positive
work environment promotes a high rate of employee retention for any organization
(Dobre,2013). SAS institute has catered to the need of the employees and ensured a happy
and healthy work environment for them, as a matter of fact, when the huge economic
recession struck the corporate sector in the year 2009, and almost every company resorted to
terminating employees in order to combat the financial crisis; SAS believed in retaining its
employees and believed that the employees are an asset to the organization (Karlgaard,2006).
Employee satisfaction is strictly governed by the factors that include, Employee
personality, Positive work outlook, Professional and Personal life balance, Stress
management and Physical and mental abilities in general (Habib et al.,2014). An organization
that has managerial policies keeping in mind all the above said factors happens to serve as the
most desirable organization to work for (Lazaroiu, 2015). SAS institute qualifies as the most
ideal institute to work for which is evident from the statistics of the employee turnover rate

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that is less than 4%. The organization recruits employees purely on the basis of merit with an
enthusiastic approach towards the job role in order to maximise the possibility of company
profit in terms of production. The institute follows a strict 8 hour schedule and does not
entertain the idea of employees having to work more than 8 hours and compromise with their
personal life. The organizations ensures that the employees are not stressed by the mundane
work schedule and provides stress-buster facilities that include a gym, a swimming pool and
a basketball court within the institute premises. The company also provides facilities that
include medical facilities, counselling and medical cover to all the employees as well as
financial assistance to the workers who have been diagnosed with serious illness. Hence, it
can be concluded that SAS Institute follows a positive organizational culture based on
employee friendly managerial policies.
According to my point of view, SAS Institute indeed is an ideal organization to work
for in terms of the perks that it offers to the employees working for the organization.
However it must be noted that, the policies are framed efficiently by the administration
keeping in mind both the pros and cons associated with it (Zacher,2014). In order to assess
the degree of employee satisfaction, the Institute conducts regular employee surveys that put
forth the employee expectations to the notice of the Organization and the Organization strives
hard to meet the expectations of the employees and maintain an excellent work culture.
The text defines personality as “a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and
behavioural patterns” while values are “stable life goals, reflecting what is most important to
them.” Pick one of the “Big Five Personality Traits” (see figure 2.5) that details the most
important trait for your current job. Describe why this is the most important. Give an example
of how this personality trait aligns with one of your professional goals.

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‘The Big Five Personality Traits include Neuroticim, Extraversion, Consciousness,
Openness and Agreeableness’ (Zacher,2014). ‘Openness’ is the most important trait that suits
my current job profile. Openness refers to degree of possessing the ability to adjust to a new
environment and be ready to assimilate new ideas that would be beneficial to carry out new
and complicated tasks that are assigned to me in future. I strongly feel that an enthusiastic
attitude open to learning more and more, especially during the training period helps in
gaining personal experience and also creating a good impression among the supervisors.
Reluctant attitude towards learning or getting frustrated with negative feedbacks leads to
frustration and stress. Therefore I strongly feel that being able to grasp a lot of knowledge
will help me become a versatile performer and would help me in solving complicated
problems with ease in future. I also feel that every opinion is important and a number of
opinions helps in forming a wide perspective or outlook towards various things. At present, I
am working as a Human Resource Manager and possessing an open outlook helps me helps
me design better recruitment strategies and implement better employee motivation schemes.

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References:
Dobre, O. I. (2013). Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of
Applied Socio-Economic Research, 5(1).
Florida, R., & Goodnight, J. (2005, July–August). Managing for creativity. Harvard Business
Review, 83(7/8), 124–131
Habib, S., Aslam, S., Hussain, A., Yasmeen, S., & Ibrahim, M. (2014). The Impact of
Organizational Culture on Job Satisfaction, Employess Commitment and Turn over
Intention. Advances in Economics and Business, 2(6), 215-222.
Karlgaard, R. (2006, October 16). Who wants to be public? Forbes Asia, 2(17), 22; SAS
ranks No. 1 on Fortune “Best Companies to Work For” list in America. (2010,
January 21). SAS press release. Retrieved May 27, 2010, from
http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/2010fortuneranking.html.
Lazaroiu, G. (2015). Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and
Philosophical Investigations, 14, 97.
Zacher, H. (2014). Career adaptability predicts subjective career success above and beyond
personality traits and core self-evaluations. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 84(1),
21-30.