Personality Traits: Business versus Technical Graduates

Abstract

Effective interactions depend largely on personality traits, which is a consistent and longlasting tendency in behavior. In psychology, five major trait factors (Big Five personality traits) have been generally used to assess personality of people. The study highlights the practicality of importance-performance analysis as a means to assessing the importance of personality traits dimension that should be possessed by Malaysian graduates. The importanceperformance analysis is used to evaluate the gap in personality traits possessed by Business and Technical Graduates. The study is carried out in two phases: Phase 1 which involves a focus group session and Phase 2 which focus on establishing a questionnaire appropriate to the study across a diverse range of industries. The questionnaires were distributed to managers selected from a sampling frame. Graduates' personality attributes are analysed in terms of big five personality traits which include openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and emotional stability traits. The findings of this study suggest that Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia should target improvements on a specific personality development component pertaining to openness and extroversion personality for business management graduates, and conscientiousness personality for technical graduates as part of the curriculum development strategies of these Higher Education Institutions.

An empirical study of personality traits, job market appraisal and self-perceived employability in an uncertain environment

“…Individuals who are high on agreeableness are considerate, easy-going, good-natured, adaptive, cooperate with others and help others create and sustain existing relationships (Sung and Choi, 2009;Migliore, 2011;Ranwala and Dissanayake, 2016), as opposed to less agreeable individuals who are deceitful, self-centered, and suspicious. With regards to employment, individuals with an agreeableness personality preference usually seek supportive environments and are usually courteous, trustworthy, flexible and good-natured (Abidin and Daud, 2012). Perkins (2016) found that agreeableness plays a vital role in the non-contracted aspects of performance as individuals with this personality trait have the tendency to do their jobs without being ordered to do so and also corporate with co-workers and help them do their jobs and thus are viewed as model employees in the workplace.…”

Personality Traits in Australian Business Graduates and Implications for Organizational Effectiveness

“…George et al argue that strong engagement and an ability to demonstrate initiative and entrepreneurship are important in extrovert's work roles. High levels of Extroversion are typical in business occupations (Lounsbury et al, 2009) and are a prerequisite to business success (De Janasz et al, 2002), although Abidin and Daud (2012) argue that it is still lacking in business graduates in relation to industry requirements. Agreeableness concerns individual orientations to interpersonal relationships (Graziano and Tobin, 2009), described by Poropat (2009) as 'likability and friendliness' (ibid, p 322), and is characterized by 'forgiving attitudes, belief in cooperation, inoffensive language, reputation as a pushover ' (McCrae and Costa, 1999, p. 164), using terms such as 'appreciative, forgiving, generous, sympathetic, kind, warm, trusting' (McCrae and John, 1992, p 178).…”

“…Relatively high levels of Extroversion in business graduates predict efficiency (Abidin and Daud, 2012) and strong job performance, particularly for those jobs involving social interaction such as management and sales (Barrick and Mount, 1991). The relatively high Emotional Stability is critical for managing the stress and pressure associated with the corporate world (Lounsbury et al, 2009), an ability deemed highly important by graduate employers (Casner-Lotto and Barrington, 2006;FSSC, 2007).…”

“…The findings therefore suggest that business graduates are less prone to professional burnout which adversely affects individuals and organizations each year and could be aggravated further by economic uncertainty and soft labour markets. Elevated Conscientiousness is consistently associated with strong job performance because it typifies self-discipline and dutifulness (Abidin and Daud, 2012); compliance with policy and procedures (Arthur and Doverspike, 2001); systematic decision-making (Clarke and Robertson, 2005) and goal targeting and reporting and contingency planning (Abidin and Daud, 2012;Bipp and Kleingeld, 2011). The relatively high mean for Conscientiousness indicates persistence, a propensity to work hard and elevated levels of responsibility within the sample.…”

Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness: An Importance - Performance Analysis (IPA)

“…Ramli, Latifah and Ng (2008) used IPA to assess the improvements in delivering its services to students at an Open University in Malaysia whilst Abidin and Daud (2012) used the IPA to compare the personality traits of business and technical graduates. In another study, Abdul Hamid, Islam, and Abd Manaf (2014) investigated graduates' employability skills as perceived by employers.…”