ORGANIZATIONAL ORIENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATION TRAITS (part C)
by
Charles Lamson
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Achievement orientation. Organizations are particularly thankful for the next personality orientation (continued from the last article). These people are the high achievers, sometimes overachievers. Money is not the main motivator behind the high achiever. These people work because they want to achieve certain goals for themselves. They are often over-committed, overextended and overworked. They will often take on more duties than they can handle, but they will work overtime to make sure things get done. They are the "workhorses" in most organizations.
You can spot them in the following ways: They seem frazzled at times, have more work than most, more responsibility than most, and love it. They will often let others know how much they do by complaining about being overworked. They thrive on sympathy and praise. They are likely to volunteer for extra duties a minute after they have complained about being overworked. They are the people who validate the old maxim "if you want something done fast, give it to a busy person."
High achievers have a tendency to blame themselves when things they are responsible for do not work. They tend to be harder on, and more critical of, themselves than others would be, and often get overwrought when others show a streak of laziness. These people also need some praise from their coworkers or supervisors for jobs well done. If you praise high achievers they will work and work hard. The biggest drawback to their personality type is that they might take on more work than they are capable of handling effectively. Hence, an astute supervisor should be happy to have a high achiever, but must be careful that the person does not insist on more work than he or she is capable of handling. It is easy for systems to abuse these people, because they are willing to do more than others. Hence, if you are a high achiever, be careful.
High achievers are easy to communicate with. They will try to assist you with your problems and make your job easier. In fact, they will rarely expect you to do what they do not. However, they do expect you to work hard. The key to interacting with high achievers is the appropriate use of praise. These people need to know that you respect what they do. If you like their work, they like you.
Dogmatism. People of the next personality type often are considered difficult. These are people in organizations who have a narrow view of issues, and expect others to see their point of view. These are the highly dogmatic persons. They are rigid in their beliefs, and do not tolerate viewpoints that disagree with theirs. They tend to be narrow in their thinking, and will either avoid those that do not think as they do, or will simply get rid of them if they can. Dogmatics see things as right or wrong, black or white - there are no gray areas or compromises. The
It is virtually useless to argue with a highly dogmatic peer, much less, one who is your supervisor. He or she will simply discount your arguments as wrong, frivolous, or just plain stupid, and develop similar views about you. Hence, communication with a highly dogmatic individual is not easy. You have to determine what his or her views are, fit your ideas into his or her viewpoints, and even let him or her think he or she generated the idea, and you might be successful in communicating with a dogmatic person
If you cannot do this, and the dogmatic is your supervisor, you might have to leave the system. Think of what it would be like if your supervisor were a combination of a high authoritarian and a high dogmatic. Communication will be restricted to only views on issues with which he or she agrees. Even unemployment might look attractive in comparison.
Self esteem. Many people in contemporary organizations have constant feelings of inadequacy. These feelings dominate their entire personalities. They have low self-esteem. These people are referred to as inadequates, because that is the way they see themselves. They worry that they cannot perform their work well. They fear that others will not like them. They worry that they might be promoted, because they know they could not succeed at a higher level. They are insecure about their marriage, their children, and life in general.
The first thing we should recognize is that a person who has low self-esteem can be right - that person may really be inadequate. But many people who have these perceptions are incorrect in the way they see themselves. Nevertheless, we must deal with these people every day in our organizational lives. Most of us have the common response of trying to tell these people they are more adequate than they think they are (even if they are not). That response will be met with rejection, as will praise for something the person does well.
These insecure people also tend to see attacks coming from all sides. Thus, to be on the safe side, we can simply accept an inadequate's claims of inadequacy, and move on to some other topic. Avoid praising their work, since they will not believe you anyway, and be extremely careful to avoid anything that would sound like criticism. Anything of that type is likely to prompt a highly defensive reaction (such as aggressive denial), or an emotional acceptance of blame. Either will be unpleasant. Fortunately, these people seldom are promoted to supervisory positions, since others recognize they are not likely to succeed in such positions. Consequently, most of the inadequacies we will encounter, will be peers are subordinates.
END
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