Business teams: structure, dynamics, and organizational effectiveness

Personality and Personalistic Leadership: An Assessment of Team Management for the 21st Century Business Team Environment

Contemporary studies on emerging new principles on the nature of the culture of the business environment and team management within organizations led to the development of what is termed as "personalistic leadership." This new term and concept refers to the prevailing use of personal relations and strategies that aim to build stronger social bonds between leader and members, as well as among members of an organization. Personalistic leadership arises from the development of diversity among members of an organization; it is in this change in the business environment that made personal and social relationships important within business organizations (Buhler, 2004). In this kind of leadership, it is also vital that leaders/managers must be able to adapt strategies and methods which reflect the flexibility or adaptability of the leader to changes within the business environment and among its members. In addition to flexibility, a leader / manager should, however, "adopt" specific standards that will guide him/her in accomplishing the task of team-building and management (Weiss, 2004).

Organization members, on the other hand, must also meet specific criteria in order to become part of a diverse and dynamic organization and business environment. Just as leaders must learn to subsist to a personalistic style of leadership, members must also be able to have the flexibility and adaptability in order to relate with other members. Thus, personality is an essential factor that must be considered in order to ensure 'synergy' within an organization -- that is, a diverse and dynamic business environment brought about by various personalities of its members.

Personality is considered an essential factor needed by a group or team for it to become effective; consequently, it also contributes to team success. The role of personality to team success is illustrated in the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI, which assesses the personality of an individual as s/he is about to enter or become part of an organization. Through the MBTI, management is able to determine whether the individual's personality is parallel with the business culture of the organization. MBTI is categorized into four (4) cognitive styles, which include: (1) natural energy orientation (extrovert vs. introvert); (2) ways of perceiving and understanding (sensing vs. intuitive); (3) forming judgments (thinking vs. feeling); and (4) action orientation (judging vs. perceiving) (Personality Pathways, 2004).

These dichotomies of personalities in the MBTI test reflect two facets of member personality: task-oriented and emotional. Task-oriented members are those who think first before acting on a particular task (introvert), is practical and plans concretely (sensing), uses rational judgment, and acts according to plan (judging). The emotionally-oriented member, on the other hand, looks at his/her 'external world' when going through the process of decision-making (extrovert), creates plans based on abstract ideas (intuitive), uses 'gut feel' as basis for judging, and acts immediately on situations and problems as presented to him/her (perceiving). These primary personality types are the prevalent types of member personality in today's business environment.

The development of new organizational management principles, such as TQM, or Total Quality Management, led to the development of an employee-driven management method, which centers on employee relations and organization rather than focusing on the management or company's wants and needs. By knowing and understanding the company's human resource, there is indirect, positive effect on the company's performance -- that is, through employee/member efficiency and productivity, which is similar with the company's goal to achieve productivity in the most efficient (optimal) way. Thus, through TQM, there has been focus on the emotionally-oriented leader and member, which led to the emergence of personalistic leadership and management within the organization.

Personalistic management of members involves subsistence to maintaining personal or social relations between leader and member. Dulewicz and Higgs (2003), in their analysis of the usefulness of emotional intelligence (EI) in the workplace, showed that among high-ranking leaders such as Chairmans, CEOs, and Directors in UK firms, intelligence quotient (IQ) competency has greater significance than emotional intelligence (EQ) competency in leadership/management tasks (205). This means that rather than the personalistic or emotionally-oriented kind of membership, task-oriented member personality has more relevant implications in improving work efficiency and productivity, leading to successful team-building and management. This view is supported by Antonakis' (2003) assessment of EI in the workplace, and proved that, indeed, "intelligent functioning" matters greatly than EI.

These studies may prove that a personality is not significant in determining team success; however, it must also be noted that in Dulewicz and Higgs' study, EI in the workplace has a significant relationship with competency, albeit second only to IQ competency. This means that just as a task-oriented personality is vital for team success, emotionally-oriented type of personality is significant too, especially when dealing with internal dilemmas and problems encountered within the organization's structure (i.e., member-member and employee/member-employer relations).