The Relationship Between Personality and Communication and Its Influence On Teamwork (Dissertation Sample)

The Relationship Between Personality and Communication and Its Influence On Teamwork
Word count: 9232
Table of Contents
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990727" Abstract PAGEREF _Toc17990727 \h 2
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990728" Chapter 1: Introduction PAGEREF _Toc17990728 \h 4
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990729" Chapter 2: Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc17990729 \h 5
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990730" 2.1 Effects of personality on interaction of team members at an individual level PAGEREF _Toc17990730 \h 6
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990731" 2.2 Contingent Approach PAGEREF _Toc17990731 \h 9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990732" 2.3 Universal Approach PAGEREF _Toc17990732 \h 9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990733" 2.4 Configurational Approach PAGEREF _Toc17990733 \h 10
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990734" 2.5 Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc17990734 \h 12
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990735" Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology PAGEREF _Toc17990735 \h 14
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990736" 3.1 Sampling & Sample PAGEREF _Toc17990736 \h 14
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990737" 3.1.1 Company Description PAGEREF _Toc17990737 \h 15
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990738" 3.1.2 Criteria of selecting studied teams PAGEREF _Toc17990738 \h 15
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990739" 3.2 Surveys PAGEREF _Toc17990739 \h 16
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990740" 3.3 Measures PAGEREF _Toc17990740 \h 16
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990741" 3.3.1 Big Five Personality Dimensions PAGEREF _Toc17990741 \h 16
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990742" 3.3.2 Team Process-Oriented Communication Measurement PAGEREF _Toc17990742 \h 16
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990743" 3.3.3 Relationship Conflict PAGEREF _Toc17990743 \h 17
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990744" 3.3.4 Interpersonal Relationship within Teams PAGEREF _Toc17990744 \h 18
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990745" 3.4 Analytical Procedures PAGEREF _Toc17990745 \h 18
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990746" Chapter 4: Results PAGEREF _Toc17990746 \h 18
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990747" 4.1 Interpersonal relationships within teams PAGEREF _Toc17990747 \h 21
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990748" 4.2 Team Effectiveness and Performance PAGEREF _Toc17990748 \h 21
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990749" Chapter 5: Discussion PAGEREF _Toc17990749 \h 23
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990750" Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation PAGEREF _Toc17990750 \h 25
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990751" Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc17990751 \h 29
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc17990752" Appendix PAGEREF _Toc17990752 \h 32
Abstract
Different factors influence the performance of teams within all levels of an organisation. At the center of this interaction of different influencing factors is team members’ personalities and how they impact communication within the team. This study investigates the influence of personality on team communication and how this affects team performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how different personalities, based on the five major personality types, relate and communicate when undertaking tasks in a teamwork setting and how this influences the team performance. Accordingly, data was collected from an apparel company in London and analyzed. The study concludes that there is direct correlation between extraversion and member acquaintance and openness within a team. Agreeableness correlates with tolerance to diversity and reduces relationship conflict while teams led by conscientious members tend to perform better than others. Conscientious members further improve relationship conflicts as members with this personality are increasingly focused on the task at had and are result oriented. In sum, this study found that there is no unique formula to the formulation of teams. Moreover, teams are not merely the sum of their members but a combination of various factors and how they interact. Personality and communication, however, are stationed at the junction of this interaction and play a critical role in determining how teams perform.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Organizations are built on human resource. This means that for an organization to effectively achieve its objectives and goals it has to rely upon human talent and personalities to undertake day to day tasks. To work toward uniform goals and objectives requires teamwork and consolidation of ideas. Such teamwork and consolidation of ideas is actualized through communication. According to Ghayebzadeh et al., (2015) communication is the medium through which personalities within an organization can exchange ideas, transfer knowledge, and interact with the internal and external worlds (2015). Thus the ability to communicate effectively within a team is integral to team performance. Yet human interaction, via different mediums of communication, is greatly influenced by the personalities of the parties involved. Hazel, Keaton, and Kelly (2014) in a study about how personality variable such as openness, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, found that people’s fear of negative evaluation and their ability to communicate with restraint could be predicted using their personality variables (Keaton et al., 2014). Juhasz (2010) found that the influence of personality on people’s communication within a group is extensive even in highly professional and expert fields where the team members involved have studied at length for the task being conducted (2010).
Even when “team members studied a lot in order to belong to a certain team – which means that everyone is considered to be an expert in their own professional area” (Juhasz 2010), personality still plays a significant role in how team members communicate with each other and effectively impacts team performance significantly. Different personalities within such teams “cooperate in order to achieve a given task following and complying with the rules. High risk environments mean that certain failures of teamwork in complex organization can lead to dramatic effects” (Juhasz 2010). This highlights the importance of understanding how personalities influence communication and the effects of this on teamwork. Moreover, team work has become the cornerstone of organizational operations in the emergence of technologies that allow teams to correspond real-time from different geographical and sectorial regions. Indeed, in the age of globalization, different personalities emanating from a variety of cultural backgrounds are bound to be brought together within teams in organizations. As such, it is important to be able to predict how different personalities might be fitted in teams that improves both the individual and the team performance.
Yet, despite this reality, there exists quite a big gap in existing research literature on the impacts of personality on communication and teamwork within organizations. This gap is stretched further when it comes to research of this impact in organization within the United Kingdom. In this regard, this research aims to establish how different personalities – especially the big five – relate to communication within organizational contexts. The conclusions brought about by the examination of this relationship will be fundamental in creating models that can help employers recruit based on both skill and personality in professions where a professional team will be necessary. It will achieve this by establishing how the relationship noted above affects teamwork, particularly in strenuous work environments. As LePine et al. (2000) concluded, further research into the relationship between personality and communication will help create an "a framework that provides a foundation for understanding how individual differences ultimately influence team effectiveness". The increasing use of teamwork in organizational operations, sometimes even using teams scattered all over the globe, this research is both timely and profound. In the organizational context, understanding personality and its impacts on communication will form a large part of the organizational behavior assessment in future.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Communication within an organization influences interaction. Written or verbal communication within and among teams plays a significant role in influencing the effectiveness and performance of an organization (Ghayebzadeh et al., 2015). Team building is a significant topic in the business climate as companies are formulating team-based structures that can stimulate improvements to their service delivery quality, productivity, and profitability (Juhasz, 2010). As such, managers try to explore ways that they can improve the profitability of their business outcomes and profit margins by having strong teams whose personalities complement each other.
Team building is designed to bring out the best in a team, and the focus lies in communication and the personality of the members (Rainey and Petkari, 2019). Team communication relies on new communication tools that have been designed for the sole purposes of communication management roles such as planning, organizing, human resource management, and leadership. The “Five Factor Model” (FFM) of the personality of the “Big Five” plays a major role in influencing communication trends within a team (Macht and Nembhard, 2015). The FFM has five categories of personalities; extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness to experience. Understanding how these personalities influence communication is critical in assembling effective teams (Jordan, and Troth, 2011). Different personalities have various communication styles which affect the communication patterns of others, and the outcome is of...