Personalities in the Workplace

Personalities in the workplace? What about no personalities in the workplace?

Joanna Wilde’s excellent, The Social Psychology of Organizations clearly defines the potential hotspots of social misbehavior within companies and organized work groups. These areas: the architecture of the company and the overt and covert beliefs and behaviors of the staffers and executives are at the heart of creativity, production, and output.

Though my own research and client work is based on particular subsets of personalities such as control freaks, micromanagers, and lately the infantilized state of working teams, the standards and directives are established by workplace systems and company culture. Ultimately, we deal with how communication conflicts among staff and within the hierarchy exacerbate human conflict. Full disclosure: I don’t get called in (as often) when things are going smoothly.

Wilde details the categories of investigation used by professionals assessing workplace problems. For the rest of us, we can bucket ongoing issues into: fraternity, redress, psychological issues from birth, self-assigned roles, and levels of collaboration and defiance. We must also consider compassion and appreciation as part of the solution process.

This book provides a perfect course in toxicity management within companies. Outlining problems, solutions, and methods, Wilde has given us a sensible reference book.

As technology pushes us all toward more creative endeavors and workplaces, collaboration and coherence are essential. Personality, and the way we understand it, use it, and manage it, will be paramount. Clones are meant to replicate exactly; humans are meant to diverge, instruct, and disrupt. We are still working on the rough edges. Wilde is supporting our work.

 Dr. Shawn Michael Nichols