Mymanagementlab: Personal Assessment

The personal assessments from MyManagementLab has allowed me to delve into my skills and preferences. This has allowed me to better understand myself, how I communicate with others, and how all this comes together in an organization. Not only have I gained general knowledge about organizational behavior from these personality tests, but I have also learned things about myself that will allow me to become a better employee, coworker and in the future, a manager. However, all this knowledge is pointless if we forget what should be our reason behind everything. Through the sacrifice of Christ and His precious blood, we have been bought out of sin and no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to God, and everything we learn or do should be for His
glory.
Step 1
What About Me? Introduction. Personalities, preferences and behaviors affect how we interact with other people in our personal lives as well as our business lives within organizations. Before we can investigate and understand how we deal with others and how that affects our lives in organizations, we must first understand ourselves. What is our personality? What values and attitudes direct us? What motivates us, and how do we make decisions? By knowing the answers to these questions, we can begin to explore how that affects our interaction with others as well as our place in an organization. MyManagementLab’s assessments can shed some light on my personality and skills. However, I question some of the results of the tests. I could take it again and get completely different results. This may be based on my mood at the time of testing or the fact that I have a hard time choosing the answer to many of the questions. I tend to see how I could fit into either extreme for a specific question. Therefore, many times I tend to go with the middle ground. Personality Insights. The main insight into my personality that I received is that I do not have a Type A personality (MyManagementLab). While I do feel that my job is meaningful, I appreciate a good work/life balance. Per MyManagementLab, Type A personalities tend to focus on speed and getting as much done as they can. I would rather take a little more time and get it right the first time. I received a low rating for a competitive nature, but I think that I tend to be competitive. I like excelling, and sometimes I do compare my work with others. However, I try to make sure that I do not develop a superiority complex. My feelings of mental superiority are offset by social inferiority. Neither one is acceptable, and I am working on it. Values and Attitude Insights. My values are very important to me. Robbins and Judge (2009) define values as “basic convictions” that certain behavior is more acceptable than the opposite (pg. 117). While I can adapt to various situations and change my behavior to a certain degree to fit in, as a Christian, I have a moral standard that does not change. Regardless of the culture or the situation, the God and the Bible do not change! I would rather be a poor person of integrity than a fool who connives and schemes to get ahead (Proverbs 19:1). Motivation Insights. The MyManagementLab assessment listed me as a low ability to create an effective work setting. It was difficult to choose answers to the questions for that assessment, because I have never been in a situation where most of the questions would relate. If I was put into a management position where I had to diagnose and fix performance issues, I am not sure how I would do. I am a procrastinator and have difficulty motivating myself most of the time, especially when it comes to writing papers. However, I have recently figured out how to motivate myself to write more, generally through a change of scenery. Decision Making Insights. As mentioned in the introduction, I have a difficult time choosing the answers to many of the assessment questions. I prefer objective questions that allow me to work through the problem in a rational decision-making model kind of way (Robbins & Judge, 2009, pg. 147-149. However, when the question is subjective, I tend to rely more on an intuitive approach, which is “an unconscious process created out of distilled experience” (Robbins & Judge, 2009, pg. 149). Unfortunately, after I have answered a question in that manner, I tend to rethink it and question my original decision. I need to learn to focus more on the details and think things through. Other. Some of my issues with taking these assessments may be attributed to my low ability to increase self-awareness (MyManagementLab). I usually do not spend time thinking about my self-awareness, but this course has forced me to. I believe my self-awareness has increased exponentially throughout this course, and it is very important for me to understand myself. As Proverbs 20:5 illuminates, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out” (English Standard Version). If we are not careful, we can get lost in ourselves. We need to work on getting to understand ourselves, but we should not focus on that so much that we lose sight of others.
Working with Others Communication Skills.
Taking the assessments on communicating with other was very eye-opening for me. Per MyManagementLab, I have a low knowledge of coaching and counseling, low knowledge to provide negative feedback, and low knowledge to communicate supportively. In conjunction with that, my communicating style is skewed towards deflecting. I am an introvert who does not like conflict. While I may understand the reasons my communication skills are so poor, that does not give me an excuse to remain that way. MyManagementLab gives some pointers on how to improve in my areas of inadequacy, and I need to take the time to reflect on them and improve myself. Leadership and Team Skills. My leadership style is almost completely even between the three styles listed by MyManagementLab. There is only a .75 difference between the lowest and highest styles. I have not been any many areas of leadership, but since I do not have a strong preference towards a certain leadership style, I can adapt to the situation at hand. Due mainly to the fact that I am a Christian, my ethical leadership is high. I have a set moral code that I hold myself to, and this is more important than a business’s
“profitability.” Power and Conflict Skills. I have a low ability to gain power and influence. I do not care about politics and trying to scale the corporate ladder at the expense of others. I just do my job to the best of my abilities and it gets noticed. I enjoy doing my job well and enjoy being recognized for it, but I am not an ambitious person. I am also poor at handling conflict; this is something I have never enjoyed. My natural tendency is to ignore conflict and wait for it to blow over. However, “handling conflicts appropriately is a crucial part of developing healthy work environments and fostering productive working relationships” (Managing conflict, 2007). I know this is an important aspect of dealing with others, and I need to work on it.
Life in Organizations Organization Structure. My results for the organizational structure is significantly different from what I would have assumed. My results state that I have a high preference towards organizations with built in team structures and encourages employees to work together (MyManagementLab). It also said that I prefer to work near my coworkers. I believe these results are erroneous. I prefer to work alone than in a team, and I like my space without people around me all the time. It did say that I have a low tolerance for risk and like to have a close connection to my superiors. I would agree with those two statements. Careers. My assessments do have me most closely aligned with domestic companies. This is all that I have ever worked for. My current job as a controller allows me to work closely with my superior, the CFO, and as a Christian university, we tend not to take many risks. Change and Stress. MyManagementLab says that I have a low ability to effectively process stress, but this has never been a problem with me. I have a very laid back personality, and few things get to me. I may have a low ability to process stress, but that is because I do not get stressed. As far as change goes, by growing up as a missionary kid, I learned to adapt to many different situations. While I like having my routine, and sticking with it, change does not bother me.
Step 2
Question 1 While it is best to have a high score on some of the assessments such as ethical leadership, sometimes it is better to find a nice middle ground, not too low and not too high of a score. One aspect where that is important is with someone’s Type A personality. You need a “Healthy Balance” to benefit from Type A traits, but you do not want those traits to be so strong that they become a hindrance (MyManagementLab).
Question 2 Currently, I am not in a leadership position, but if I ever want to be an effective leader, I need to start working on my communication skills. As Fischer (2012) explained, I need to be able to communicate the big picture to cut down on excessive written communication. This will also empower the employees and allow them to take ownership of their work, thereby motivating them to work more effectively.
Step 3
Strength from Weakness Sometimes we can get caught up in academia and the pursuit of knowledge that we forget what should be our reason behind our learning.
As Dr. Fischer (2006) so eloquently reminded us, “it was Jesus Christ’s work on the cross, and then His resurrection from the dead, that opened the way for us to walk in newness of life.” We should strive to become more and more like Christ, not so we can be viewed as a holy person, but so that we can glorify God. Everything we learn and everything we do should be for the glory of God. He is the only One worthy of this. As Revelations 4:11 exclaims, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (English Standard
Version).