BUS103: Agreeable People Tend to be Kinder and more Accommodating in Social Situations :Organisational Behavior Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Question 1
Read the Case Incident 1 On the cost of being nice on page 163 of your e-textbook (Case and answer the following questions.

Note: Answer the following three questions using the Organisational Behaviour (OB) concepts covered in your course materials. You MUST support your views by drawing on evidence from OB research studies, the given case incident 1, and other relevant evidence drawn from your work experience/s. While relying on your course material, remember that it is essential for your answers to be original. Show your proficiency in written English by answering the following questions:

(a) Define the personality dimensions of the Big Five Personality and relate each of them to work behavior prediction. State whether these are the only traits that a person exhibits and discuss whether these personality dimensions appear in all cultures.

(b) “When hiring new employees, ‘agreeable’ individuals should be the employers’ first choice”. Indicate the extent to which you agree with that statement and explain why. Then, identify two (2) job situations in which agreeableness is a virtue and two (2) job situations in which it is harmful to job performance.

(c) Identify and write short notes on three (3) relevant personality attributes (other than the Big Five model) that are powerful predictors of employee behavior in organizations.

Case Incident 1 On the Costs of Being Nice

Agreeable people tend to be kinder and more accommodating in social situations, which you might think could add to their success in life. However, one downside of agreeableness is potentially lower earnings. Research has shown the answer to this and other puzzles; some of them may surprise you.

First, and perhaps most obvious, agreeable individuals are less adept at a type of negotiation called distributive bargaining. As we discuss in Chapter 18, distributive bargaining is less about creating win—win solutions and more about claiming as large a share of the pie as possible. Because salary negotiations are generally distributive, agreeable individuals often negotiate lower salaries for themselves than they might otherwise get.

Second, agreeable individuals may choose to work in industries or occupations that earn lower salaries, such as the “caring” industries of education and health care. Agreeable individuals are also attracted to jobs both in the public sector and in nonprofit organizations. Third, the earnings of agreeable individuals also may be reduced by their lower drive to emerge as leaders and by their tendency to engage in lower degrees of proactive task behaviors, such as thinking of ways to increase organizational effectiveness.

While being agreeable certainly doesn’t appear to help your paycheck, it does provide other benefits. Agreeable individuals are better liked at work, more likely to help others at work, and generally happier at work and in life.

Nice guys and gals may finish last in terms of earnings, but wages do not define a happy life and, on that front, agreeable individuals have the advantage.