The Personality Traits Approach to Explaining Entrepreneurship - Coursework Example

?Critically assess the personality (or psychological) traits approach to explaining entrepreneurship. Introduction Entrepreneurs could be simply defined as those people who are able to organise and manage a business (McLuskey, 1998). People have varying personalities and so the entrepreneurs. It is of great interest to understand what make people prosper in business and understanding their varying personalities is an integral part of this context. Explaining entrepreneurship in the context of an entrepreneur’s personality is commonly a practical approach in understanding on what ground an individual should be successful in business. There is a positive link associating the environment and prevailing situation, and the characteristics needed in entrepreneurship, because personalities or characteristics of an individual are linked with the environment (Littunen, 2000). Therefore, based on this idea, experiences and further changes in the person’s life are crucial to the understanding of personality and entrepreneurship as well. In this paper, the proponent critically assesses the personality (or psychological) traits approach to explaining entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs and the development of their personality traits Personality is defined as an individual’s pattern of behaviours that differentiate him or her from the other, creating certain uniqueness on that person (Feldman, 2003). There are varying psychological approaches in understanding personality and from psychoanalytic perspective, each personality is a significant effect of unconscious forces. These unconscious forces are integral parts of individual’s personality that could potentially determine behaviour. However, aside from this approach, there are still varying theories aiming to identify or understand what personality is all about and that includes the idea of understanding the interplay between the individual and environment (Feldman, 2003). It is important to understand that entrepreneurship is specifically an activity that is created in a business environment where an entrepreneur has the ability or even a chance to develop personal traits in the process in order to be successful in conducting or running an enterprise. In other words, there is a great possible reason to believe that creativity for instance can be learned along the process in conducting or doing a business because it could substantially promise an individual on how to successfully obtain his or her objectives. Moreover, it is possible to obtain the fact that it is not necessary to carry certain personality traits that successful business persons posses prior to venturing into business just to be successful. After all, business could be a series of trial and error in which along the process, an individual may find an opportunity to develop special skills or even personalities that could lead him or her to success in business. In the study of Littunen (2000), entrepreneurship was found to have an effect on the personality characteristics of the entrepreneur. On this ground, there is a significant reason to use individual’s characteristics in explaining what entrepreneurship is all about. After all, entrepreneurship could potentially develop certain characteristics and this would mean there is something powerful force about it that could substantially change a person. In great important detail, entrepreneurship enhances a person’s potential in the enterprise. In other words, entrepreneurship is a potential training ground for an entrepreneur to enhance more specific character or personality traits. This specifically proves that personality can be acquired aside from the fact that some theories potentially suggest that it could be innate at some point (Feldman, 2003). Although it was strongly argued that personality is innate based on the basic understanding on the twins’ personalities, there are substantial studies which can also prove that it can be learned through a person’s experience (Jacoby and Youngson, 2004). The following are specific examples highlighting personality traits of renowned business icons. In these examples, it is illustrated that particularly in an enterprise; potential personalities and entrepreneurial success are remarkably enhanced or developed through the environment, experiences, opportunities and potential skills. Steven Jobs’ personalities Achieving competitive advantage for Apple Incorporated is what makes Steven Jobs to be noted to employ revolutionary competitive strategies in business. However, apart from this, there is an important reason to believe that it was his specific personality traits that he possessed that made him successful in moving Apple Incorporated forward to its competitive advantage. There are many important or good adjectives that can be used just to be able to define the ultimate characteristics or personality traits of Steven Jobs. For some, he could be someone who could give trust, a good listener, absolutely perfectionist, incredibly creative, persuasive, charismatic, energetic, confident and powerful (Griffin, 2008). All of these are important words to use prior to understanding who was Jobs at Apple Incorporated. These traits are remarkably considered, and even common sense would suggest that they would point to success at some point or certain level. However, Jobs also was noted to have undesirable personality traits such as being erratic, tempestuous, mercurial, obsessive, aggressive, demanding and grandiose (Griffin, 2008). These personalities are destructive in a sense. If Jobs got these destructive personalities then it should have hindered greatly the success of Apple Incorporated. However, the company remains and continues to become successful in its industry. This could substantially illustrate some important fact that personality theory cannot be sufficient enough in understanding how successful entrepreneurship could be obtained. On the other hand, personalities could either be innate or as upshot of a highly demanding role to play at Apple Incorporated. Placing it in the context that personality can be acquired; there is much reason to believe then that some of Steven Jobs’ personal characteristics are formed due to the nature of his work in line with organising and managing a business. For instance, it is important for Steven Jobs to trust his subordinates as they aspire for excellence in the company. Excellence is what they want to achieve because this is the key to obtaining a highly creative product that would make their offerings highly differentiated in the market. Their business requires them to create something new because their competitive strategy is about focus differentiation which integrates the idea of innovation. It was expected of Jobs to substantially hold a strong level of trust to his subordinates in order to motivate them to come up with their best shot. Trust is a remarkable core value at Apple Incorporated, which means that every employee must learn to adhere to it and place it in their innermost being. It is therefore implied that each employee at Apple particularly Jobs must have created a high level of trust with each other. As a result, this specifically allows them to learn to appreciate the value of understanding each other, and believing that they can do the greatest and excellent things for their competitive advantage. At work or most specifically in a business environment, it is therefore required to adapt to the very nature of that business environment. Just like with the case of Jobs, people necessarily have to be influenced by their environment and this specifically brings them the chance to identify themselves as integral part of the organisation where they belong. Entrepreneurship therefore is a way of uniting people to come up with specific personalities which are highly applicable to their business environment. Apple Incorporated is widely known as a dynamic company which critically considers the advantage of becoming a cut above the other in its industry. As a result, it seeks to substantially develop varying strategies and the ultimate goal is to come up with human resource uniting them with the idea of achieving a highly profitable personality. Jobs was promoting highly profitable personalities because these could give them a competitive edge in achieving their company’s vision in the long run. This could be illustrated this way; at Apple Incorporated it is hard to motivate their employees without the need to establish their personalities based on the company’s core values. This is the reason why Jobs critically considered establishing a highly important core values that at some point would serve as guiding mechanism for their entire business model. However, from the perspective of static analysis approach which criticises the personality traits theory, entrepreneurship in the case of understanding Steven Jobs’s personality can be defined as a dynamic process. This is due to the prevailing fact that Apple Incorporated continues it search for the best out of their employees allowing them to essentially come up with specific personalities that could be more profitable at some certain level. This is indeed a very dynamic approach. This therefore proves a remarkable limitation in relying on psychological traits theory alone towards understanding entrepreneurship. It is also evident that even if personalities could be poorly appreciated, success could still be implemented because there are some important ways in dealing them and this includes setting core values for instance or a definite standard just like in the case of Apple Inc. Ophra Winfrey’s personalities A successful woman who disproved the idea that only men have the power to acquire richness and wealth, Ophra Winfrey is known for her ability to be equal with men in power, intelligence and energy in the business world. At some point, it is critical to consider that her marvellous achievements have been due to her innate personalities. Every person who has specific goals in life strives for success. Striving for success is innate to an individual but it must be developed (Feist, 2005). At this point it is important to point out that personalities may be innate but they can be potentially developed as a person tries to strive for success especially when exposed to the right environment. Specifically, Winfrey is one of the most successful people on earth when it comes to business because she was exposed to the right environment where she could potentially hone her skills and eventually develop her personality. Innate personalities of Ophra include her interest on people, love for fun and laughter, and more (Mansfield, 2011). These specific characteristics made her very famous in a talk show business. Ophra was one of the greatest people of our time who once in their lives took the chance to dream that someday they would be more successful in life. The innate personalities of Ophra were essentially developed and it is because she was exposed to the right environment. For instance, these personalities she innately possessed failed her for nightly news but made her suitable on daytime television in a talk show (Mansfield, 2011). Oprah significantly possesses self confidence and high internal locus of control, believing that she controls her destiny. From this perspective, entrepreneurship therefore could be illustrated as an activity inhabited by people who have the capacity to believe on their natural skills and personalities. These give them the potential to shine above any other given the chance of exposing them to the right environment or simply giving them a major break. It is therefore important to comment on the basic idea of entrepreneurship on the standpoint of psychological traits approach that the supply of potential entrepreneurs is limited. This at some point may have a significant limitation. There are people out there just like Oprah or other renowned entrepreneurs who have potential innate personalities of an entrepreneur but the problem is that they are not exposed to the right environment where they could further enhanced their skills, talents and above all, personalities. As stated earlier, Steven Jobs was exposed to the right environment where he could enhance or develop a personality for business. Furthermore, Ophrah’s personalities are shining on the television when she was transferred from nightly news to reality talk show at daytime. There is a clear picture point in here that though personality traits theory could substantially explain what entrepreneurship is all about, there are some limitations that it needs to accept though. Not all people therefore are given the chance or opportunity to develop their personalities in business. Bill Gates’ personalities Bill Gates on the other hand is renowned for his strong personality as a leader, innovator, motivator and more (Kinicki and Williams, 2002). He could effectively motivate the human resource to go with his vision because of some intrinsic personalities he has with him. It is the very nature of Microsoft to become the leader in its industry, and this is depicted from the very effort of Gates in achieving a huge market share. This could substantially illustrate the fact how entrepreneurship is affected by a person’s personality. However, it is not just enough to rely on this because Gates is also renowned for his great talent or skills in computer programming. Being a business leader was not what he studied for in the university, but on how to create both simple and complex computer applications and programs. This simply shows another important point that relying on personality traits theory alone in understanding business would not be enough to understand entrepreneurship in great detail. In order to effectively achieve this objective, there are other factors that need to be considered that are outside the bound of psychological traits theory. Conclusion The personality traits theory is evaluated in this paper. It is found that this theory cannot be sufficient enough to be fully implemented in understanding entrepreneurship in great detail. After all, entrepreneurship is not only about having the essential personalities to be successful, but as stated in the above examples, the success in achieving it includes the right opportunities, environment and skills. The above stated renowned business icons have the personalities that would take them to a higher level. Personalities need to be developed as a person is involved in business. However, in the absence of opportunities and the right environment and other aspects for personality enhancement and development, it should be substantially understood that there are still other factors that need to be considered in order to critically consider a successful entrepreneurship. Jobs, Winfrey, Jobs and other remarkable potential entrepreneurs have one thing in common, and that is having their unique personalities. These have contributed to their success as entrepreneurs, but having the right personalities alone could not substantially explain the basic and major concerns about entrepreneurship and the potential success for it. There has to be other specific factors that need to be considered and that include the environment, opportunity, skills and other important factors. References Feist, G. J. (2005) Theories of personality. 6th ed. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University. Griffin, R. W. (2008) Management. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Jacoby, D. B., and Youngson, R. M. (2004) Encyclopaedia of Family Health. 3rd ed. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish. Kinicki, A., and Williams, B. K. (2002) Management: a practical introduction. New York, NY: MacGraw-Hill. Littunen, H. (2000) Entrepreneurship and the characteristics of the entrepreneurial personality. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research. Vol. 6 (6): 295-309. Mansfield, S. (2011) Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World’s Most Famous Woman. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. Mcluskey, K. (1998) Entrepreneurs. Alberta: Weigl Educational Publishers. Read More