Summarizing Your Self-Awareness Profile

MANAGERS’ APPLICATION TIPS

Most Type A individuals are unaware of or refuse to acknowledge their problems, or their need to change. Many attribute their past successes to Type A behaviors and others they fear that seeking help to change their behavior will be viewed as a sign of weakness. If extreme Type A’s continue in this manner, their behavior could become a major social problem. Since hostility and anger are the most “toxic” contributors to coronary heart disease for both men and women, Type A managers need to be open to feedback that they are hostile, and then do something to improve. Suggestions include reducing cynical mistrust of the motives of others; reducing the frequency and intensity of their anger, frustration, and rage; and learning to treat others with kindness and consideration.

SUMMARIZING YOUR SELF-AWARENESS PROFILE

You now have calculated your scores for learning style, interpersonal needs, assertiveness, the Big Five personality factors, and cognitive style. Together they make up your Self-Awareness Profile. The interpretation sections for each characteristic have allowed you to analyze your scores and interpret what they say about you. Summarize your self-assessment profile in the spaces in the following table for future class discussion.

Learning Style Scores from page 18:

Learning Style _________________________ Concrete Experience ____________________ Reflective Observation __________________ Abstract Conceptualization ______________ Active Experimentation __________________

Interpersonal Needs Scores from Table 2.1 on page 23: Total interpersonal needs score: ____________. Enter your scores from Table 2.1 on page 23:

Need Expressed Wanted Inclusion ________ ______ Control ________ ______ Affection ________ ______

Assertiveness Scores from page 25:

Passive ______________ Aggressive ___________ Assertive _____________

Big Five Personality Scores from page 31:

Emotional stability ________________ Extraversion______________________ Openness________________________ Agreeableness___________________ Conscientiousness ________________

________E [Extrovert] or I [Introvert] ________S [Sensing] or N [Intuition] ________T [Thinking] or F [Feeling] ________J [Judging] or P [Perceiving]

________Internal (6–0) ________External (7–10)

Cognitive Style Scores from page 33:

Locus of Control Score

Type “A” Personality Score

____ 20–25 Extreme Type A ____ 10–20 Moderate Type A ____ 1–10 Low Type A ____0 Type B

All of these personality characteristics impact the nature of your interpersonal relationships and job performance.46 Understanding the meaning of these factors and being aware of your own scores can help you determine areas for personal growth, professional development, and compatible person/job fit.

CONCEPT QUIZ

Take the following 10-question, true–false quiz concerning self-awareness. Answers are at the end of the quiz. If you miss any, go back through the text and find out why you got them wrong. Circle the right answer. True False 1. To increase self-awareness, your need to know needs to be stronger than your fear of knowing. True False 2. Comparing actual results with your expectations will show your strengths and weaknesses. True False 3. Writing down your thoughts about significant experiences increases the likelihood of learning from them.

True False 4. To be most productive, you should go into solitude with a list of things to accomplish. True False 5. Self-assessments should always be verified by soliciting feedback from relevant others. True False 6. Learning style is based on four very different learning processes. True False 7. Interpersonal needs have two subdimensions: the expressed desire to give the need and the wanted desire to receive the need from others. True False 8. Aggressive behaviors are more effective in interpersonal relations than either passive or assertive behaviors. True False 9. Personality traits are relatively stable over time and in different situations. True False 10. Cognitive style affects how you think about relating to others, not how you actually behave. Answers: (1) True; (2) True; (3) True; (4) False; (5) True; (6) True; (7) True; (8) False; (9) True; (10) False

BEHAVIORAL CHECKLIST

The following behaviors are important for enhancing self-awareness. Refer to them when evaluating your own and others’ skills in these areas. To Increase Your Self-Awareness: •Compare actual experiences with previously set goals. •Keep a journal. •Create time to find solitude and reflect. •Complete self-assessment questionnaires. •Solicit feedback from others.

GROUP EXERCISES

Exercise 1: Checking Self-Assessments with Feedback from Others

Meet in established learning groups or form small groups with three to five class members. The following activities take approximately 40 minutes to complete and should be conducted within these groups. 1. Each group member spends 3–5 minutes introducing himself or herself. Highlight your background, career goals, and most important accomplishments to date, and briefly describe what you believe are your interpersonal strengths and limitations. 2. After all group members have completed their introductions, discuss this statement: “First impressions can provide a lot of insight into people.” 3. Then, one person volunteers to be the focus. 4. Based on their first impressions of the focus person’s behaviors exhibited in steps 1 and 2 of this exercise, group members give the focus feedback about how they perceive his or her scores on the self-assessment questionnaires in this chapter: Learning Style, FIRO,

Assertiveness, the Big Five Personality Factors, and Cognitive Style. Use the Summary that follows for a framework. 5. Then the focus shares his or her scores on the self-assessment questionnaires and feelings about their accuracy. 6. The group discusses how the group assessments corresponded with the focus’s individual assessment profile scores: How different or similar were the assessments? Why? What does this imply? 7. Finally, based on these assessments and discussion, the group members help the focus develop an action plan for becoming an effective group member, including what the focus should do and how other group members can help the focus. 8. After the first focus clarifies this feedback, another person volunteers to be the focus, and steps 4–8 are repeated. The process continues until all group members have shared and received feedback.

Time. 40 minutes to complete steps 1–8.

Exercise 2: Developing a Team Resumé

1. Meet with your learning team, or form teams of five to six people. 2. Develop a team resumé that includes the results of every team member’s self-assessments and members’ other skills, experience, and attributes. 3. Each team presents its resumé to the class. 4. The rest of the class provides feedback on what they see as the team’s strengths and areas they need to enhance. Time. 60 minutes

Summary Checklist

Take a few minutes to reflect on your self-assessment results and the feedback you have received from others. Now assess yourself on each of the following key self-awareness behaviors. Make a check (✓) next to those behaviors in which you need improvement. I compare actual experiences with previously set goals. ________ I keep a journal. ________ I create time to find solitude and reflect. ________ I complete self-assessment questionnaires and verify results with relevant others. ________ I solicit feedback from others. ________

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

1. How do you describe your personality? How could you improve it to enhance your interpersonal competence? 2. What are your interpersonal strengths and weaknesses? How can you find out more about them? 3. Think of people you know who are high and low in self-awareness. What are the differences in their interpersonal styles? What are the consequences?

4. How can your self-awareness from completing each of the self-assessment questionnaires in this chapter help you interact effectively with others? a.Learning Style b.Interpersonal Needs c.Assertiveness d.Big Five Personality e.Cognitive Style f.Locus of Control g.Type A Personality

REINFORCEMENT EXERCISES

The following suggestions are activities you can do to reinforce the self-assessment and selfawareness techniques in this chapter. You may want to adapt them to the Action Plan you will develop next, or try them independently. 1. Read the Appendix and review the section on journals in this chapter. Keep a daily journal for the remainder of this semester. Record significant events and insights that will enhance your self-awareness. At the beginning of each new week, study your journal entries from the previous week to see what you can learn about yourself. 2. Share your self-assessment inventory scores with a significant other. Explain their meaning. Discuss their implications and see what you can learn from the other person’s reactions and experiences with you. 3. Visit your campus counseling center. Ask which self-assessment inventories are available. 4. Ask a good friend to share with you his or her perceptions of your strengths and weaknesses as a friend. 5. Practice finding solitude for 30 minutes a day for a week.

ACTION PLAN

1. In what areas do I most need to improve my self-awareness?

2. Why? What will be my payoff?

3. What potential obstacles stand in my way?

4. What are the specific things I will do to enhance my self-awareness? (For examples, see the Reinforcement Exercises.)

5. When will I do them?

6. How and when will I measure my success?

Endnotes

1.Adapted from S. C. de Janasz, K. O. Dowd, and

B. Z. Schneider, Interpersonal Skills in Organizations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), pp. 12–13. 2.Peter F. Drucker, “Managing Oneself,” Harvard

Business Review (March–April, 1999), p. 65. 3.Jennifer Robison, “The Essence of Real

Leadership,” Interview of Bill George, author of

Authentic Leadership and True North in the Gallup

Management Journal Online, http://gmj.gallup. com(May 10, 2007). 4.Thomas Mannarelli, “Charismatic, Transformation

Leadership through Reflection and Self-Awareness,”

Accountancy Ireland, Vol. 38, No. 6 (December 2006), pp. 46–48. 5.Jennifer Robison, “The Essence of Real

Leadership,” Interview of Bill George, author of

Authentic Leadership and True North in the Gallup

Management Journal Online, http://gmj.gallup. com(May 10, 2007). 6.Thomas Mannarelli, “Charismatic, Transformation

Leadership through Reflection and Self-Awareness,”

Accountancy Ireland, Vol. 38, No. 6 (December 2006), pp. 46–48. 7.Ibid. 8.Hugh McIntosh, “Solitude Provides an Emotional

Tune-up,” APA Monitor, Vol. 27, No. 3 (March 1996), pp. 9–10. 9.Ideas about how to keep and apply a journal for optimal results can be found in M. Csikszentmihalyi,

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New

York: Harper & Row, 1990). 10.Reyhan Harmanci, “Time to Get a Life—Pioneer

Blogger Justin Hall Bows Out at 31,” San Francisco

Chronicle (February 20, 2005). Retrieved on June 9, 2006. 11.Mallory Jensen, “A Brief History of Weblogs,”

Columbia Journalism Review, No. 5 (September/

October 2003), http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/ 5/blog-jensen.asp? 12.Ibid., p. 66. 13.Ibid., pp. 66–67. 14.It should be noted that these assessment instruments have all been validated in North American cultures and that the implications drawn are predominantly oriented for North American business organizations. Different implications may be drawn for managers in countries outside of North

America. 15.This assessment is adapted from W. Bloisi,

C. W. Cook, and P. L. Hunsaker, Management and

Organisational Behaviour, Second European ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2007), pp. 161–163.

It is based on the abilities identified in David Kolb’s model of experiential learning described in Joyce S.

Osland, David A. Kolb, Irwin M. Rubin, and Marlene

E. Turner, Organizational Behavior: An Experiential

Approach, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

Hall, 2007), pp. 52–61. 16.See Joyce S. Osland, David A. Kolb, Irwin M.

Rubin, and Marlene E. Turner, Organizational

Behavior: An Experiential Approach, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007), pp. 52–61, for a more comprehensive description of learning styles and their development by David

Kolb. 17.Ann C. Baker, Patricia J. Jensen, and David A. Kolb,

“Conversational Learning: An Experiential Approach to Knowledge Creation,” in A. Baker, P. Jensen, and

D. Kolb, Conversational Learning: An Experiential

Approach to Knowledge Creation (Westport, CT:

Quorum Books, 2002). 18.A total of 1,876 entries appear in the 2005

Experiential Learning Theory Bibliography by

Alice Kolb and David A. Kolb (Cleveland, OH:

Experience Based Learning Systems, 2005). See www.learningfromexperience.com. 19.David A. Kolb, “Management and the Learning

Process,” California Management Review, Vol. 18 (Spring 1976), pp. 21–31. 20.Charalampos Mainemelis, Richard Boyatzis, and

David A. Kolb, “Learning Styles and Adaptive

Flexibility: Testing Experiential Learning Theory,”

Management Learning, Vol. 33 (2002), pp. 5–33. 21.William C. Schutz, FIRO: A Three Dimensional

Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (New York:

Rinehart & Co., 1958). Permission granted from the author for historical purposes only. FIRO-B has been recently revised and updated. Its replacement, ELEMENT B, is described in Will

Schutz, The Truth Option (Tenspeed, 1984), and is available from WSA, Box 259, Muir Beach,

CA 94965. Items in this instrument are not to be reproduced. 22.William C. Schultz, FIRO: A Three Dimensional

Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (New York:

Rinehart & Co., 1958). 23.D. A. Whetten and K. S. Cameron, Developing

Management Skills, 5th ed. (Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002), pp. 78–79. 24.R. E. Hill, “Interpersonal Needs and Functional

Areas of Management,” Journal of Vocational

Behavior, Vol. 4 (1974), pp. 15–24. 25.N. J. Dimarco, “Supervisor–Subordinate Life Style and Interpersonal Need Compatibilities as

Determinants of Subordinate’s Attitudes Toward the Supervisor,” Academy of Management Journal,

Vol. 17 (1974), pp. 575–578; W. W. Liddell and

J. W. Slocum, Jr., “The Effects of Individual-Role

Compatibility Upon Group Performance: An

Extension of Schutz’s FIRO Theory,” Academy of

Management Journal, Vol. 19 (1976), pp. 413–426. 26.Douglas T. Hall, Donald D. Bowen, Roy J. Lewicki, and Francine S. Hall, Experiences in Management and Organizational Behavior, 2nd ed. (New York:

John Wiley & Sons, 1982), p. 101. With permission. 27.Donald D. Bowen, “Toward a Viable Concept of Assertiveness,” in D. T. Hall, D. D. Bowen,

R. J. Lewicki, and F. S. Hall (eds.), Experiences in

Management and Organizational Behavior, 2nd

ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982), pp. 414–417. 28.Ibid. 29.Joni Rose, “Communication Styles: Aggressive,

Passive, Passive-Aggressive or Assertive Communication.” http://trainingpd.suite101.com/article.cfm/ communication_styles#ixzz0kjpZTuos(January 21, 2007). 30.The questionnaire and norms used in this section are from Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., and

W. B., Jr., Swann. “A Very Brief Measure of the Big

Five Personality Domains,” Journal of Research in

Personality, 37 (2003), pp. 504–528. There are used with the authors’ permission. 31.If you are looking for a quick way to compute and display your Big Five scores, Daniel DeNeui has created an excel spreadsheet that computes your scores and plots them alongside the norms in the Big Five Interpretation Sheet. To obtain this spreadsheet, go to http://homepage.psy. utexas.edu/homepage/faculty/gosling/scales_we. htm#TenItemPersonalityMeasureTIPI. 32.This definition is adapted from S. F. Maddi,

Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1980), p. 10. 33.S. D. Gosling, P. J. Rentfrow, and W. B., Jr., Swann (2003). “A Very Brief Measure of the Big Five

Personality Domains,” Journal of Research in

Personality, 37, p. 526. 34.Dorothy Marcic, Organizational Behavior:

Experiences and Cases, 3rd ed. (New York: West

Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 9–12. 35.Adapted from Charles Margerison and Ralph Lewis,

“Mapping Managerial Style,” International Journal of Manpower, Special Issue, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1981, pp. 2–20; Stephen P. Robbins, Self-Assessment

Library, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

Hall, 2004), pp. 3–7; Dorothy Marcic, Organizational Behavior: Experiences and Cases, 3rd ed. (New York: West Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 9–12. 36.Carl Jung, Psychological Types (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1971). 37.I. B. Myers, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Manual (Princeton, NJ: Education Testing Service, 1962). 38.Carl Jung, Psychological Types (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1971). 39.Derived from J. B. Rotter (1966) “Generalized

Expectancies for Internal versus External Control

of Reinforcement,” Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Whole No. 609), pp. 1–28. 40.P. E. Spector, “Behavior in Organizations as a

Function of Employee’s Locus of Control,”

Psychological Bulletin (May 1982), pp. 482–497;

H. M. Lefcourt, “Durability and Impact of the Locus of Control Construct” Psychological Bulletin, 112 (1992), pp. 411–414. 41.Created from concepts in Meyer Friedman and Ray

Rosenman, Type A Behavior and Your Heart (New

York: Knopf, 1974). 42.A. P. Brief, R. S. Schuler, and M. Van Sell,

Managing Job Stress (Boston: Little, Brown and

Co., 1981), p. 138. 43.C. Lee, S. J. Ashford, and P. Bobko, “Interactive

Effects of Type A Behavior and Perceived Control of Worker Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Somatic

Complaints,” Academy of Management Journal, 33 (December 1990), pp. 870–882. 44.R. B. Williams, Jr., “Type A Behavior and

Coronary Heart Disease: Something Old,

Something New,” Behavior Medicine Update,

Vol. 6 (1984), pp. 29–33. 45.“Type-A Managers Stuck in the Middle,” The Wall

Street Journal (June 17, 1988), p. 17. 46.Murray Barrick and Michael Mont,“The Big Five

Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: A

Meta-Analysis,” Personnel Psychology (Spring 1991), p. 11.