Individual Differences in Talent Management - Essay Example

? Managing People Theme Individual differences in talent management Admittedly, it is a difficult task to identify people with the right skills forvarious tasks. In fact, a good selection technique takes into account various factors ranging from reliability validity, standardisation, usefulness, and fairness. In order to understand individual differences in talent management, there are various qualities which are usually measured. They range from abilities, personality characteristics, emotional intelligence, locus of control and other factors. The Big Five Personality Theory It is common for human resource professionals to use the Big Five Personality dimensions of traits which make up an individual’s personality. The five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Wiggins 1996, p. 3). The term ‘openness’ indicates that people who love to learn new things and experiences have high degree of openness. Such people are marked by an appreciation for unusual ideas and art. They tend to be highly imaginative and creative. Those who possess creativity are resistant to change and analytical. Now, a look into the performance of Steve Jobs proves that he was a man who was highly open in nature. He was a man who loved innovation and creativity and he wanted his people to be so (Case study). Every time, he and his company managed to come up with radically new things. The second important point is conscientiousness. A person who possesses high conscientiousness is marked by high self-discipline. In the case of conscientiousness, it is evident that such people are capable of controlling, regulating and directing their own impulses. They are capable of developing long-term goals, organising ways to achieve the goals, and working consistently and tirelessly to achieve the goals. Admittedly, such people are capable of showing high degree of responsibility and reliability. One can see that Steve Jobs was a man who possessed great degree of conscientiousness which made him appear as a perfectionist at times. As Wiggins (1996, p. 87) points out, it is likely for conscientious people to be termed as perfectionists. Another point of consideration is their relentlessness. As a result, it is possible for people to term people with high degree of conscientiousness as workaholics. The next important point of consideration is extraversion. It shows how outgoing and social a person is. Such people enjoy being with people and participating in social gatherings. Admittedly, Steve Jobs had high degree of extraversion. He loved to be the spokesperson of the company and he communicated with customers directly (Case study). However, there is the other side of extraversion. The introverts do not love to communicate with the outside world. These people tend to be quiet and keep to themselves. Another important point is agreeableness which means warmth, friendliness, and tactfulness. Such people are marked by helpfulness, friendliness, and generosity. That means, in work, Steve Jobs was less of an agreeable person because he never was ready to compromise on his on perceptions and intuitions in order to accommodate the opinion of others (Case study). He knew he was correct, and this feeling made him less agreeable in front o other people who worked with and under him. The next important point is neuroticism. People with high neuroticism can be divided into various categories based on various sub-traits like anxiety, anger, depression, self-consciousness, and immoderation. Admittedly, Steve Jobs was a man who was famous for his short-temperedness. From the discussion, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs was a man with openness, conscientiousness reaching the extent of workaholic and perfectionist proportions, poor degree of agreeableness, and neuroticism. Also, the two important factors that made him stand out from the rest is the high degree of conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism followed by less agreeableness and high neuroticism. That means, if the company manages to find a person with this mix of factors, the person will be a perfect replacement for Steve Jobs. Gardner’s multiple intelligences According to Gardner (2006), there are nine intelligences altogether. They are linguistic intelligence, logical intelligence, musical rhythmic intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and existential intelligence (p. 55). According to the theorist, each person has a unique combination of various intelligences. If these points are taken into consideration, it is possible to find people with the same combination of intelligences as Steve Jobs had. To illustrate, Steve Jobs had linguistic intelligence. This is so because he was a good speaker; to begin with (Case study). If a person has the capacity to use language to express what is in ones own mind, that person possesses linguistic intelligence. Steve Jobs loved to speak in public, and he even communicated with his customers directly. Also, he had logical intelligence which is evident from the fact that he too came down to the creative teams and worked along with them (Case study). However, it is necessary here to argue that he possessed less intrapersonal intelligence. This is so because intrapersonal intelligence should be defined as the understanding of ones own position, how others view one, how to react to situations and so on. Thus, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs failed to understand how his employees feel under him, or he used the pressurising tactics effectively in order to get the best out of them. That means it is possible to find a leader like Steve Jobs. The new CEO should be ready to use pressurising tactics to make employees work relentlessly. Also, the person should have linguistic intelligence. The Sixteen Personality Factor model According to Cattell (cited in Raab 2007), it is possible to measure personality using sixteen source traits. The various factors are warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, rule-consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, boldness, privateness, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism, and tension (p. 15). According to Cattell, every person has all these traits on a continuum. Abstractedness ranges from being imaginative to being practical. Similarly, in the case of apprehension, the factors range from insecurity to complacence. One can see that these sixteen factors are in fact an extension of the Five Traits theory. To illustrate, Steve Jobs was a man who possessed great degrees of tension which made him impatient and time-driven. Also, he was a perfectionist and this perfectionism made him compulsive and socially precise. However, one can find him possessing less sensitivity and apprehension. While apprehension leads to self-doubt and worry; sensitivity leads to tender-mindedness and sentimental attitudes. In this case, one can see that people vary greatly in the combination of these various characteristics. It can be understood from the sixteen factor theory that Steve Jobs had features like aggressiveness, perfectionism, self-reliance, tough-mindedness, criticism and social boldness. He was less sensitive, less warm-hearted, and less liberal. Also, it becomes evident that theories almost fully manage to explain the character traits in Steve Jobs and the ones to be searched for while looking for his successors. Theme 2 Steve Jobs and theories of leadership This section analyses Job’s way of leadership and compares it with various theories of leadership. There are various theories that deal with leadership. While the earlier ones stress on the qualities of leaders, the later ones consider situational factors and skill levels too. The Great Man theories and Trait Theories The Great Man theories claim that leadership capabilities are inherent in people. That means, great leader can only be born; not made (Croteau & Smith 2011, p. 20). It seems that the company Apple was totally reliant on its former CEO Steve Jobs (Case study). He was the only source of direction and motivation for the entire company. Similarly, trait theories point out that people inherit leadership qualities by birth. These qualities are expressed through certain behavioural characteristics. Admittedly, this set of theories too supports the view that Steve Jobs cannot be replicated entirely because he possessed a set of features which are highly unconventional in the business world. In the modern world leadership theories which rely on skills and situational factors, the success of Steve Jobs has become a matter of surprise and dispute. This is so because the Great Man leaders often move against the concept of team work, cooperation, and delegation. It is usually considered important to keep the people motivated through democratic processes of information and responsibility sharing. However, the Great Man leaders often are autocrats who fail to do all these. It is evident from the performance of Steve Jobs that he was one such man who believed to do things himself (Case study). To illustrate, he used to check the mails from customers himself, and he was the person who always revealed the launch of new products to the world. That means he was the sole decision-maker, spokesperson and image-maker of the company. Thus, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs was not a man who fit into the concept of a good leader according to the modern corporate concepts but the remnant of the great man concept of the past. When the great man qualities were combined with sheer innovation and luck, he became one of the most successful leaders in history. Transactional theories According to the transactional theories of leadership, it is important to have proper supervision, organisation, and group performance. The transactional system adopts a reward and punishment strategy where the successful ones are rewarded and the failed ones are reprimanded (Martin 2006, p. 46). A look into the performance of Steve Jobs reveals that he was actually a man of this class. He used this system in its rudimentary form. That means only the very best were retained and the rest were fired (Case study). The transformational leadership theories Admittedly, while the discussed theories belonged to the traditional concept of leadership where the leader is the one who decides as the leader is a charismatic figure who possesses the capacity to bring the company out of any situation his magical powers, the transformational theory opines that a successful leader is one who leads through motivation and commitment (Bass & Riggio 2006, p. 6). In order to achieve the same, the leader resorts to influencing and inspiring others. Admittedly, one can see that to some extent, Jobs belonged to this category too. He was a man of inspiration who had his meetings with employees like ‘rock concerts’ (Case study). From the case study, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs was less of a friendly nature but of a charismatic nature. Here, again, in order to motivate the employees properly, it becomes necessary that the leader assumes a higher position than that of his subordinates. Thus, the theory shows its connection with the traditional great man model of leadership. As a great man himself, Steve Jobs found it easy to motivate his employees. However, the mere fact is that the employees were motivated, to a great extent, by the desire to retain their jobs as underperformers could anytime be shown the way to the gate by Steve Jobs. That means there was the element of transformational leadership in the attitude of Steve Jobs. However, he was too compelling and perfectionist in his attitude to consider his attitude as motivating. It is better classified as coercing. Contingency theories of leadership Contingency theories believe in adopting various leadership styles depending on the situation in hand. In other words, the theory holds that no particular leadership style is suitable in all situations. The theory claims that the success of a leadership style is purely dependent on the aspects of the situation, qualities of the followers, and the leadership style (Lussier & Achua 2009, p. 152). One can see that as a leader, Steve Jobs was not running a business that was in real competition with other businesses, but he was totally relying on innovative ideas of himself and his subordinates. Admittedly, Steve Jobs was more of an innovator who was highly autocratic in nature. It was the success of his innovation that made him a successful leader. Thus, it becomes evident that the great man style approach becomes successful when the products introduced are totally innovative in nature. In other words, it seems that if his products were mediocre in the world market, he would have miserably failed in moving his company ahead. This is evident from the fact that when he started NeXT, he was unable to move things ahead as the products were more expensive than the products of competitors (Case study). Thus, it becomes clear that situation too has an important role deciding the success of any leadership style. Steve Jobs became a successful leader only through innovation and not because of good leadership qualities. This is evident from the evident dislike and discomfort expressed by his employees even when the company reached heights. They admit that it had never been a good feeling to work under Steve Jobs because there was total insecurity and uncertainty surrounding their lives. In other words, he only created a frying pan situation where employees had to come up with innovation to avoid getting burnt. In total, according to the theory, Steve Jobs succeeded because his leadership style befitted the situation. Behavioural theory of leadership The behavioural theory claims that great leaders can be made through teaching and observation (Vinzant & Denhardt 1998, p. 78). However, one can see that Steve Jobs did not learn anything from the contemporary business world. In other words, there was no effort from his part to share responsibility or to delegate others. This is the reason why the company fell into total dilemma as Steve Jobs relinquished his post. Participative management According to the participative management style, an ideal leadership takes the input of others into account. This leadership style encourages the participation and contribution of others in the decision-making process so that others too feel relevant and committed to the decision-making process (Nohria & Khurana 2010, p. 341). Evidently, Steve Jobs was never a man who allowed participative decision-making. It is this lack of participative concept that made the company fall into total uncertainty about the future at present. Had he developed a culture of participative decision-making in the company, it could have been easy for the company to find a successor for Steve Jobs. Thus, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs was an exceptional leader in the modern business world because he was a man who belonged to the traditional great and charismatic leadership concept. When this concept was accompanied by great degrees of vision, innovation, and creativity he himself possessed, he managed to run the company almost single-handedly. However, it becomes evident that such a leadership style will not survive in the modern business world without great degree of creativity. References Bass, B.M & Riggio, R.E. 2006. Transformational leadership. NJ: Routledge. Croteau, J.D & Smith, Z.A. 2011. Making the case for leadership: profiles of chief advancement officers in higher education. 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