Personality and Communication Styles in the Workplace

Workplace

PersonalityConflicts

Personality and Communication Styles

in the Workplace

Alison R. Dorsey & Kathleen Parker

Industrial/Organizational Psychology 350

Conflicts can arise in the workplace because of the different styles of task orientation, personality clashes, and interdependence conflicts. Most of us have experienced a personality conflict at some point. Whether we like it or not, we are going to have to face various types of conflicts in the work environment. We have to learn how to communicate with our fellow workers in different styles. Parker Allison has been transferred to a different department in her company; her boss wants her to improve productivity. The interpersonal relationships in Parker's company have presented challenges to her and her co-workers because of different work and communication styles. Theoretical foundations of personality and communication with respect to the workplace are explored. Parker's interactions with her boss and two co-workers are described. A counselor recommends strategies to improve Parker's "fit" within her organization with respect to her workplace strengths, weaknesses, and communication style.

Introduction

John Holland's theory of vocational personalities and work environment has been a dominant one in career psychology for many years (Arnold, 2004, p. 95). Holland believed that there are six personality types and that one can categorize people and occupations using combinations of these types (Toomey, Levinson & Palmer, 2009, p. 82). According to Holland, the personality types are: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.

Realistic people work well with animals, tools and machines and do not do as well in more social professionals such as teaching. Investigative people enjoy problem-solving but do not particularly like to persuade or lead. Artistic types, as the title suggests, value creativity and the freedom to be expressive and independent. Social people tend to seek work in helping professions such as counseling or nursing. Enterprising people like to lead and persuade; they are good at selling things but not as good at activities requiring careful observation and analytical thinking. Conventional people are suited to working with numbers, records, or machines in a prescribed, orderly fashion (CareerKey.org, 2011).

Parker can be categorized as an investigative type; she enjoys solving problems. She felt that her position as a customer service representative was well-suited to her personality and skills. She spent the majority of her work day on the phone, talking with people from across the United States. She answered questions and provided callers with additional information -- sometimes information they did not realize they needed but were grateful to receive! Parker enjoyed the interaction on the phone. She liked hearing weather reports from around the country and she particularly enjoyed the satisfaction she got when customers thanked her and told her how helpful she had been. Although Parker enjoyed talking with customers and always tried to build rapport, she was also adept at managing conversations with customers so that she was not on the phone with them longer than necessary. As a result, Parker had a consistently high call volume and it was this success that convinced Parker's boss she was the right person to improve productivity in another department.

Parker visited a workplace communications consultant within the first two weeks at her new position. She had been flattered when her boss asked her to "work her magic" in a new department. Parker was given a raise and promised a bonus if she could improve productivity. Her nature as a problem-solver and the appeal of a greater annual income made Parker determined to keep her new job.

As Saklani (2010, p. 71) points out, "Excessive concern for economic development and materialism during a major part of the last century in most of the countries of the world relegated values having bearing on the qualitative aspect of life to the background." He notes that organizations are now taking a greater interest in the relevance of the quality of work life. Parker was delighted with her higher salary but felt the money would not be worth it unless she felt good about her work and her workplace. Ilies, Scott & Judge (2006, p. 561) point out that there is an increasing amount of research being done with respect to work behavior that goes beyond traditional measures of job performance. They found that people with positive affect and agreeable personalities exhibited greater levels of citizenship than people deemed less agreeable, or even disagreeable.

Parker's co-workers would probably all agree that she has a positive affect and an agreeable personality. She does not like conflict and feels that she goes out of her way to avoid it. She was therefore taken aback by comments from Susan, her new secretary. Susan is older than most people in the department and has less education. She avoids work, if possible, and complains about everything. She seems friendly in one-on-one exchanges but Parker quickly found out that Susan makes negative remarks and snide comments once someone is out of earshot. Parker's new boss was annoyed when she did not receive Parker's weekly report on time. Parker finished the report several hours early, but Susan did not put the documents in inter-office mail in a timely fashion. Parker's relationship with Susan can be characterized as an interdependence conflict.

Another new co-worker is Adam. According to Holland's theory of personality types, Adam would be described as conventional. He is good at his job but largely invisible as far as other co-workers are concerned. Parker would like to see Adam do more work collaboratively; she also wishes that he would take initiative instead of waiting for her to tell him what to do. Parker's workplace relationship with Adam can be characterized as a difference in work style personality.