- Title
- The influence employee personality type has on employee and organisational outcomes
- Creator
- Kelly, Ami-Lee
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
- Description
- This study examines the influence employee personality type has on employee and organisational outcomes at one of Australia’s largest financial-services organisations. It is specifically focused on knowledge-based workers who are employed in productivity-centred roles. In the banking and finance industry, the products on offer are a commodity, as customers can obtain the same products and services from each of the main providers, and there is no difference between them from a functionality perspective. So, the one differentiator is the competitive advantage that sets an organisation apart from the next. With every organisation chasing that competitive advantage, companies need to become more creative in how they ascertain that ever-priceless competitive advantage. One of the ways of obtaining competitive advantage is through the implementation and management of an organisation’s talent pipeline. Companies need to determine ways to attract and recruit the best people to help set their business apart from the rest, and, used correctly, the right personality profiling coupled with effective knowledge-based productivity and application of high-performance work systems can be factors that can set a company apart from its competition. Personality profiling is a tool that has been around for some time. Personality profiling provides individuals with insightful information about their preferences and, ideally, tasks they enjoy and do not enjoy. If used correctly, personality profiling can provide insights into how to get the best out of an individual in many different settings. This study has focused on Myer’s Briggs personality profiling (MBTI) as the preferred tool, as the Myer’s Briggs instrument has been around since the early 1920s, it provides 16 different personality types that reflect the entire population and it is detailed enough, but also concise in nature, to accurately reflect the entire population. It is also widely used by business. Historically, productivity has been grounded in the manufacturing or the operational environment, however, in recent times, companies have seen an increased demand for productivity in the knowledge-based environment. The literature tells us that, for organisations to survive in today’s tough market, an organisation needs to know how to use its resources and productivity to differentiate itself, as this differentiation can be the key to competitive advantage. Previous research has argued that organisations need to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers, as the demand for employees with an academic education has greatly increased and is still on the rise. This study has reviewed and analysed the concept of high-performance work systems (HPWS), which is said to be the logical focus for building and maintaining competitive advantage. HPWS is underpinned by the Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) model. Simply put, Ability is the idea that employees will perform because they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so. Motivation is that employers need to build the right environment, as the right environment will see employees perform because they are motivated to do so and, finally, by creating an environment which focuses on Opportunity for employees, which is the notion that if the work structure and environment provides the necessary support, then employees will use it. The critical review of the literature has guided the research in the identification of the theoretical framework to examine the research problem, the related research questions and the development of seven groups of associated hypotheses. Adopting a positivist, quantitative research method and approach, a self-administered online survey instrument was developed. The online survey was promoted via e-mail to the productivity community at one of Australia’s largest financial-services organisation, with 288 responses received. After data cleaning and screening, a total of 263 responses were deemed usable for analysis. Respondents were typically full-time employed (91%) and female (55%). The average age (and mode at 42%) was the 36-45-year-old category, most of the sample respondents were university educated (Bachelor qualified 42%, Masters/Doctorate 23%) and had been with the organisation 6-10 years on average. Regarding productivity aspects, most respondents (83%) were Green Belt qualified and had been at that level for several years on average, and most (62%) respondents had an active productivity project at the time of data collection and 76% had completed 2+ productivity projects in their career (33% had completed 6+ productivity projects). Accordingly, the sample was deemed suitable for the purposes of the research. There were several different tests used to understand the relationships and whether there were interactions between the different variables, which included descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, ANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The tests showed that in most of the relationships between the dependent and independent variables relationships were present. Specifically, there were supported relationships seen between MBTI and Ability, MBTI and Motivation and MBTI and Opportunity. In addition, there were partially supported relationships seen between MBTI and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), MBTI and affective organisational commitment (AOC) and MBTI and productivity, specifically task enjoyment, which was linked to satisfaction and duration. The findings lead to both theoretical and practice-related implications. Theoretical implications include the contribution of the study to the productivity domain, as operational definitions and terms of operation have now been developed for a highly complex and poorly investigated topic. Next is the contribution to the knowledge-based productivity methodology, which will pave the way for future research through growth and evolution of the productivity domain. The final contribution is to the HPWS domain, coupled with personality profiling and productivity, providing the start of a new stream of research that will allow future researchers the ability to evolve the research domain. Practical implications include the recommendation of a formal community of productivity experts and a means for communication and future talent management, along with defined roles and responsibilities for productivity-based knowledge workers. This can be followed by the development of a mechanism for talent pipeline management through a threefold model that will help manage recruitment and career progression and lastly business knowledge and understanding concerning organisation competitive advantage.
- Subject
- personality profiling; productivity; banking; Australlia; Myers Briggs Type Indicator; MBTI; high performance work systems; HPWS; organisational outcomes; employee outcomes; productivity knowledge based work; banking and finance Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1388115
- Identifier
- uon:32718
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Ami-Lee Kelly
- Language
- eng
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