Background of the Study
The Personal Interests, Attitudes, and Values (PIAV) assessment explores one’s “passions” in life and how it affects their relationship with others. It assesses the interests, attitudes, and values that drive one’s behavior. These passions are formed by genetics and life experience that influence how someone sees the world, how they value certain activities, and what impels a person into action (Coughlin, 1993). These powerful motivating forces are the drivers of one’s behavior that will motivate someone to take a specific action. These attitudes are more fixed than other human characteristics. They are derived at birth, from the experiences growing up, and out of the basic needs, interests, and values. In this sense, why do people behave the way they do?
Furthermore, people choose what they want based on their inherent attitudes. Identifying individuals’ values is an important component in understanding what makes them effectual, satisfied, and personally successful. A person’s attitudes play a major role in motivation. The PIAV profile depicts the major categories of motivation in terms of interests, attitudes, and values. Most people will take action chiefly to fulfill their important motivators—whether inside or outside the job. Getting people to understand their own motivational attributes—and those of others—creates the possibility of adaptation and improvement. The insights gained through the usage of the PIAV profile shows why people are moved to work hard on the job or not. Understanding people’s motivators helps managers handle employees in a more productive manner in order to get the best possible result out of them.
The Six Attitudes
Six attitudes lay the foundation for the PIAV, and these six major attitudes form a sort of window through which individuals view the world and seek fulfillment in their lives. These are their driving force in their lives, their passions. The six major attributes are:
Theoretical – A passion to discover, systematize, and analyze; a search for knowledge. Someone whose dominant interest is the discovery of truth.
Utilitarian – A passion to gain return on the investment of time, resources and money that was utilized. This type of individual is all about what is useful, what will work, and how much money will be gained.
Aesthetic – A passion to add balance and harmony in one’s own life and protect our natural resources. Someone whose highest value is form and synchronization.
Social – A passion to eliminate hate and conflict in the world and to assist others in helping them achieve their potential through the investment of one’s time and resources. Someone whose highest value is love of people.
Individualistic – A passion to achieve position and to use that position to influence others. It is all about one’s advancement, getting to the top, and the assertion of the self.
Traditional – A passion to pursue the higher meaning in life through a defined system for living, according to an unquestioned set of rules.
Different people are motivated in different ways. And with these different motivations produce different actions. To understand the relationship between the two is the solution in determining what motivates them. An understanding of values will reduce conflicts, improve talent selection, increase retention, expand efficiency, increase productivity, and energize a group working toward common goals. With years of research and validation, PIAV reports provide accurate information of a person’s attitudes – Information that should be an integral part of human capital management efforts worldwide (Coughlin, 1993).
The DISC Report
Behavioral assessments (DISC) is a behavioral personality assessment. DiSC is based the work of William Moulton Marston, the developer of the D.I.S.C. Model. Marston’s model examined the behavior of “normal” people and how their behavioral preferences are affected by their personality and the environment or situation they find themselves in. The DISC profile consists of the following four primary categories:
Dominant– Demanding, decisive, direct, and fast-paced.
Influential– Social, enthusiastic, fast-paced, and persuasive.
Steady- -Patient, sincere, calming, and dependable.
Compliant– Accurate, precise, slow-paced, and analytical (Couglin, 1993)
This four-quadrant behavioral personality profile test provides an understanding of people through awareness of temperament and behavioral styles. Personal and professional success requires understanding people’s model of the world. Research indicates the insight achieved through the understanding of one’s personal behavior on themselves and others. It is used to develop and enhance productive communication, rapport, and relationships for people at the workforce. Moreover, knowledge of an individual’s values through the use of the DISC personality assessment tells a person why they do what they do. Because values lie beneath observable behavioral styles, values are not discovered until individuals are known for a long period of time. Values can be measured and motivations of employees can be known by partaking and with a highly validated personality profiling.
Values: The Latent Motivators
Why do employees sell, manage, or service customers and clients the way they do? What prompts their enthusiastic responses – a happy customer, a big sales contract landed, a tough problem solved? What can a manger do to capture their enthusiasm and leverage their unique talents? The answers to these questions are all based on Values (Lingham, 2007). What people value are the drivers behind their behavior. Abstract concepts in themselves, values are principles or standards by which someone acts. Values are beliefs held so strongly that they affect the behavior of an individual or in an organization. An individual’s experiences, references, education, and training tell us what they are capable of doing.
Organizational Values
Organizational values define the acceptable standards, which govern the behavior of individuals within the organization. Without such values, individuals will pursue behaviors that are in line with their own individual value systems, which may lead to behaviors that the organization does not wish to encourage. In a smaller, co-located organization, the behavior of individuals is much more visible than in larger, disparate ones. In these smaller groups, the need for articulated values is reduced, since unacceptable behaviors can be challenged openly. However, for the larger organization, where desired behavior is being encouraged by different individuals in different places with different sub-groups, an articulated statement of values can draw an organization together (Wenstøp & Myrmel, 2006).
Clearly, the organization’s values must be in line with the organization’s purpose and mission, and the vision they are set to achieve. An articulated and well-thought out values of an organization can provide a framework for the collective leadership of an organization to encourage common norms of behavior, which will support the achievement of the organization’s goals and mission. In addition, moving any organization along the ethical continuum involves some well-defined and meaningful processes in terms of consistency in outcomes, attitudes, organizational commitment, and organizational learning. Every single effort done toward moving an organization headed for ethical excellence and creating organizational values involves either defining, re-confirming, or creating the foundation of values.
Recurrently, organizations either make comment or at the very least tacitly imply that their people are their most valuable resource. This cannot be simply a catch phrase; indeed, it must be a demonstrable reality within the various levels of the organization. If the values of the organization are to be subscribed to by all members of the organization, there must be a process designed whereby the significant levels of the organization will have a meaningful, observable input into the creation of the values. One may be tempted to simply adopt a set of values that appears to fit. With a modest amount of research, the values of a variety of organizations can be obtained and be adapted to the organization. Although this may appear to be more effective in the short term, but in the longer term, this process has some inherent weakness, not the least of which is a total lack of buy-in and ownership throughout the organization (Fitches, 2005).
A well-defined value system is considered as the moral code. It refers to how an individual or a group of individuals organize their ethical or ideological values.The organizational culture may benefit from a focus on shared values, one of its measurable core elements. A typology of value systems based on the content (functional-elitist) and source (traditional-charismatic leadership) of values permits a contingency approach for the analysis of the emergence, change, and maintenance of a culture as well as the contributions culture makes to organizational effectiveness (Wiener, 1988). A corporate value system consists of three value types. These are considered complementary and juxtaposed on the same level. The first value type is the core values, which prescribe the attitude and character of an organization, and are often found in sections on code of conduct. The philosophical antecedents of these values are virtue ethics. The second type is protected values, which is about the protection through rules, standards, and certifications. They are often concerned with areas such as health, environment, and safety. And the third type created values is the values that stakeholders, including the shareholders expect in return for their contributions to the firm. These values are subject to trade-off by decision-makers or bargaining processes. In most cases, the suitable organizational values system is the core values. Demonstrating all the perceived behaviors by the employee because of what the organization stands for typically happens. If exposed to a certain mood or character of an organization, it is not far that one is going to adapt that certain characteristic. Mostly, it depends on the personality of the person.
The Big Five Personality Dimensions
Traits are consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that distinguish people from one another. Traits remain stable across the life span, but characteristic behavior can change considerably through adaptive processes. A trait is an internal characteristic that corresponds to an extreme position on a behavioral dimension (Pervin & John, 1999). There have been different theoretical perspectives in the field of personality psychology over the years including human motivation, the whole person, and individual differences. The Big Five Personality falls under the perspective of individual differences. These are: Extraversion – means a person is, talkative, sociable, and assertive. It is an energetic approach to the social and material world. .Agreeableness – this means that a person is good natured, altruistic, co-operative and trusting. Conscientiousness – describes a person with tight impulse control that facilitates task and goal-directed behavior, such as thinking before acting, delaying gratification, following norms and rules and the like. The person is responsible, orderly, and dependable. Neuroticism –the reverse of emotional stability. This means a person is anxious, prone to depression and worries a lot. Openness – means a person is imaginative; independent minded and has divergent thinking.
Self-Monitoring Behavior
Self-Monitoring involves learning to pay careful and systematic attention to a problem in behaviors and habits, and to the stimuli that trigger them into action. Some people are sensitive to how other sees them, whilst others are not. People who are high self-monitors constantly watch other people, what they do and how they respond to the behavior of others. Such people are hence very self-conscious, like to ‘look good’, and will hence usually adapt well to differing social situations. On the other hand, low self-monitors are generally oblivious to how other see them and hence march to their own different drum (Dombeck & Wells-Moran, 2009). These self-monitoring behaviors or the use of empathy relate in the personality dimensions and organizational values in ways that how you act or deal with a certain situation can be its “make or break”. When a person is in a particular environment, he is bombarded on how to act in a certain way, or why he is to act that way. In an organization, to better understand the plight of oneself or the others, one must do some “self-checking” or “self-regulation” and assess the options on how to act accordingly.
Moreover, the question of who gets ahead and why it is of interest to most people who work in organizations fuels debate. Promotions and other employment changes can drastically alter the lives of both those who move and those who stay. Employment changes can lead not only to different job duties and rewards, but also to differences in where people live and whom they interact with. Such changes can indeed, transform people’s lives. The self-monitoring personality variable provides important insights into the dynamics of impression management in organizations (Kilda, & Day, 1994).
Two Types of Employee Motivation: Internal and External Self-Motivators
Internal self-motivators motivate themselves from within—they acquire drive or reason to do their jobs well based on what they feel within themselves. Recognition for a job well done is a strong internal employee motivation. Employees who are internally motivated demonstrate all the appropriate behaviors. It is inevitable that a confident, hard-working employee, who was recognized by the contributions he made and were rewarded by acknowledgement, will pass on those positive behaviors and aura to other employees. These positive behaviors will lead directly to the success of the organization.
Externally motivated employees get inspired from awards, bonuses, titles, promotions, money, etc. Unfortunately, these external motivators do not last and are not a very reliable source of motivation. Let us say everyone is given a bonus. That bonus will run out and it is not possible that another bonus will be given again immediately. Therefore, the employee gets discouraged. External motivators fade easily. Employee motivation, like success, grows from the inside out, from within, and not from the external to the internal.
Furthermore, the motivation and performance of a company can make or break organizational success. Ineffective understanding and communication with customers or employees can be disastrous. High employee turnover, low sales, low staff performance, low customer retention, union disputes, lawsuits, employee theft, low response to marketing efforts, executive and staff burnout ( Rao, 2004) are some of the consequences of not empowering employees. A good and well-equipped organization leader has to demonstrate the appropriate behaviors and create an environment that accentuates employee motivation. Usually, it is easier to theorize than practice employee motivation. Training the managers extensively on motivating employees will manufacture efficiency and success towards the organization, the employees, and consumers. The rewards for the organization could be less employee turnovers, high levels of motivation, increased productivity, commitment, and teamwork. Moreover, motivation–whether it is self-motivation or employee motivation, is the trigger to act (Trinka, 2003). The factors involved in personally motivating and inspiring employees are not necessarily the factors that motivate all individuals and will lead to overall employee motivation. In this sense, only the individual himself can discover the best methods in which to motivate him. More often than not, employee motivation comes from within the individual. Motivation that comes from the outside, from external factors, is the responsibility of the business leaders. The job of the manager in the workplace is to get things done through the employees. The employees then must be motivated by the manger to produce a stellar performance. The transparency of working together between the two is a surefire method to the success of an organization.
The Importance of Organizational Behavior
The core of any organization is in its personnel and the success depends on the people staffing the organization. The goal of a company is to increase profitability, increase growth, and innovation, and introduce new values and culture into the organization. In order for to remain competitive, the need to have “maximum quality, minimum cost, and maintain peak performance. The staff operates by a “hard-skills” ethic; they deal with the technical and functional aspects of the job but not the social. “Soft skills” work synergistically with the hard skills. The soft skills like team work, communication, problem solving, and leadership together with the hard skills of computer knowledge, filing, and financial analysis make for a well-rounded employee (Thompson, 2007). When workers and managers operate as if they own the company and their jobs, they will assume responsibility for the results they agree to create and be accountable for the results they deliver.
In addition, the concept of organizational strategic planning is the guidance of members in an organization envisions its future and develops the necessary procedures and operations to achieve a successful future. The strategic plan sets the stage for creating the marketing plan and the financial plan. The risk analysis section of the strategic plan includes the development of a succession plan (Rusch, 1987). Strategic planning in an organization can be used to determine its mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives. Strategic planning is only useful if it supports strategic thinking and leads to strategic management – the basis for an effective organization (Allison & Kaye, 2005). Strategic planning or behavior is the making of an assessment using the three key requirements about strategic behavior: a definite purpose is in mind; an understanding of the environment, particularly the forces that hinder the fulfillment of that purpose; and the creativity in developing effective responses to those forces. It then follows that strategic behavior is the application of the three elements in effective business execution: the formulation of the organization’s future mission in changing external factors such as regulation, competition, technology, and customers. The development of a competitive strategy to achieve the mission and the creation of an organizational structure that will deploy resources to successfully carry out its competitive strategy. Finally, strategic behavior is a creative process—a disciplined in that calls for a certain order and pattern to keep everyone focused everyone and productive. Strategic planning and decision processes should end with objectives and a roadmap of ways to achieve those objectives. Strategy lies in making the tough decisions about what is most important to achieving organizational success.
Conclusion
Employee motivation focuses on individual strengths (Magnini, 2007). Brainstorming before major decisions could be a motivator that could increase the sense of belongingness for an employee. When the employees are motivated—may it be internal or external—it definitely will put an organization into new heights. In addition, the assessment of PIAV and the Disc profile is designed to understand people’s drives and passions, recognize their passions, learn how they to motivate them into action appreciate differences and understand sources of conflict. Identifying the values drivers of individuals, teams, and organizations reduces conflicts, increases talent retention, improves efficiency and productivity, and energizes any group working together toward common goals. When combining the Employee Values and Motivators reports with Behaviors (DISC) and Personal Talents (PIAV), one can have the most complete picture of the person.
References
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