Meaning of Personality – In the organisational behaviour human behaviour is primarily the focus of study and personality happens to be an important aspect of human behaviour. It is, therefore, important for the managers to study personality so that they are able to control the behaviour of their subordinates.
Personality combines both the psychological and physical aspects with the help of which one comes to have a special adjustment with the circumstances. It is only on the basis of his personality that a person appears to be different from the other members of the group. Personality does not mean some particular quality of a person. On the contrary, it’s a combination of all the psychological and physical traits. It is, therefore a fact that personality of an individual is referred to as a whole just as a house gets a complete shape when all the bricks are joined with the help of cement. So is the case with personality which is a combination of all the traits of an individual.
Nature of Personality
(1) Psycho-Physical System: Personality happens to be such a system which combines two types of qualities-psychological and physical traits. Psychological traits include character, temperament, intelligence, etc. On the other hand, the physical qualities are characterised by complexion, weight, health, etc. Personality is neither completely psychological, nor physical, instead it is a mixture of both.
(2) Dynamic Organisation: Personality is a dynamic organisation. Organisation simply means the combination of some qualities both psychological and physical. In other words, we can say that when we look at all the qualities of a person collectively, we can call it organisation. The different traits of an organisation cannot be separated. To be dynamic means, which is subject to change. There are always some changes in the traits of the organisation from time to time. It is because of this that the personality has been given the name of being a dynamic organisation. For example, somebody can be honest and punctual today but it is quite possible that he may not be honest and punctual tomorrow.
(3) Consistency: Consistency happens to be the third chief characteristics of personality. It simply means the consistent behaviour of an individual on two different occasions. For example, if a person possesses the quality of being punctual at home, he would be punctual in the office as well.
(4) Adjustment Ability: Personality and adjustment ability have a deep relation. It is only on the basis of his personality that a person makes adjustment with the atmosphere or surroundings. In case a person fails to make adjustment with his surroundings, it can be said that he lacks personality. In other words, personality happens to be the power or strength that helps an individual to make adjustment with his surroundings. Everybody possesses a different personality. It is because of this that different people adjust differently to some similar surroundings.
(5) Uniqueness: Personality has the quality of being unique. Any two individuals, however similar they may be, cannot be having the similar personality. That is precisely the reason that an individual behaves differently. Every individual happens to be a combination of various unique qualities Consequently, every individual has a unique personality of his own.
(6) Wholeness: Every individual possesses a variety of psychological and physical traits. All these traits go to form personality. In other words, every trait or quality forms a part of personality. The sum total of all the qualities alone go to form personality. In this way, it can be said that personality is a complete unit in itself. These inherent qualities cannot be separated. In case these qualities get separated the very existence of personality vanishes
(7) Persistency: Persistency happens to be a significant quality of personality. If we take away persistency from personality, what is left is simply a failure. It is only the people with a strong personality who can adjust themselves with every kind of condition or circumstance and it is only such people who achieve success. A personality that lacks persistency cannot be called a good personality.
(8) Sociability: It is an undoubted fact that personality gets influenced by social interaction. When an individual comes in contact with different people in society, he undergoes different types of experiences. These experiences richly contribute to the development of personality. When personality comes in contact with social influences, it achieves maturity which gives a glow or a sparkle to personality.
(9) Self-consciousness: Self-consciousness means ‘knowledge of the self or ‘consciousness about the self. When a person gets conscious about his self, personality gets reflected. In other words, so long a person does not get to know his ownself the question of personality is simply irrelevant. It is a common knowledge that a child lacks self-consciousness, so he lacks personality also. As he grows and starts getting to know himself, his personality also starts reflecting itself.
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(10) Goal-directed: Personality has an inalienable relation with objective. Every man’s personality is directed by the objective. Objective alone goes to determine the quality of personality-good or bad. If the objective of an individual’s life happens to be positive, he will come to acquire a really top-class personality or vice-versa. Hence, it can be said that objective gives direction to personality.
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