Personality Traits

Organizations have greatly evolved over the years in the way organizations operate and react to situations. Today they are leaner with fewer levels and more transparency. Managers are more participative involving subordinates at all levels. The shift towards more knowledge-oriented and customer-focused jobs have rendered more autonomy even at fairly low levels within organizations.

The constant volatility of the environment affecting organizations have made them open to changes and newness. All of these factors have contributed to personality being seen as more important now than it was in the past.

Behavior patterns have been a constantly evolving field of study where psychologists attempt to identify and measure  individual  personality characteristics, often called personality traits which are assumed to be some enduring characteristics that are relatively constant like dependable, trustworthy, friendly, cheerful, etc.

Modern personality theorists, Costa & McCrae, have researched and published their study of a ‘5 trait’ model which is now widely accepted among psychologists. These 5 aspects of personality are referred to as the 5-factors or sometimes just ‘the Big 5’.