| Abstract | This doctoral research project explores individual differences at the workplace by focussing on key personality characteristics and styles in the field of business and organisational psychology (e.g., Benton, 2017). The Big Five (John & Srivastava, 1999), Team Roles (Mathieu et al., 2015), Conflict Management Styles (De Dreu et al., 2001), and Decision Making Approaches (Scott & Bruce, 1995) are investigated. The research adopts the philosophy that differences in personality preferences influence individuals’ team roles, their conflict resolution as well as decision-making styles.
While these constructs cover distinct aspects of an individual’s personality, there is conceptual overlap with regards to the tendencies of an individual to approach and make sense of situations at the workplace. For example, agreeableness is related to the degree of cooperativeness, whilst extraversion is related to the degree of assertiveness in conflict management styles (Wood & Bell, 2008).
Some personality characteristics and styles have been identified as ‘healthy’ and productive (e.g., problem-solving conflict management; Dijkstra et al. 2011) and others as ‘unhealthy’ and dysfunctional (e.g., neuroticism, avoidant decision making and conflict management style; e.g., de Dreu et al., 2001; Dijkstra et al., 2004). Accurately measuring individual differences in the workplace is considered highly valuable in view of its diagnostic potential (cf. Sackett et al., 2017). Furthermore, these constructs were found to be significant predictors of well-being and job satisfaction, team climate, innovation, engagement and performance in the workplace (e.g., Allwood & Salo, 2012; Dijkstra et al., 2014).
The novelty of this research project lies in its unique design which encapsulates all of; the Big Five, team roles, conflict management styles, and decision making in the workplace within the same study in Jordan’s middle eastern context. Since most cited evidence focuses on ‘Western’ individualistic countries (the US, the UK, the Netherland, and Scandinavia), this design is highly valuable in today’s globalised economy. There is a dearth of studies on individual differences and organisational psychology in Jordan. In terms of culture, Jordan is considered a collectivistic society (Hofstede, 2018) where the individual’s personality is constructed in view of the group and community the individual belongs to. Loyalty and commitment to the group are highly important in life in general and at the workplace (e.g., with respect to hiring and promotion decisions; Hofstede, 2018). The study focuses on one of Jordan’s top 20 employers, Naouri Group, a Shipping and Logistics company; 224 participants, half male and half female, from all managerial levels and across all departments (Information Technology, Finance, Human Resources, Sales and Marketing, Quality Assurance, Operations, and Documentation) have completed questionnaires that measure personality characteristics and styles: the Big Five (John & Srivastava, 1999), Team Roles (Mathieu et al., 2015), Conflict Management Styles (De Dreu et al., 2001), and Decision Making Approaches (Scott & Bruce, 1995). As such, this research is comparable with other studies that used identical questionnaires in different contexts, which allows contextual comparison and contributes to Jordan’s business psychology literature. |
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