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Self-Awareness Dimensions

Know Thyself Sensitive Line and selfdisclosure

Go to library or a bookstore Go to Google.com, search on personality tests or on individual tests like locus of control http://similarminds.com/personality_tests.html http://www.personalitylab.org/ http://www.personalitytest.net/ipip/ipipneo300.htm http://www.psychologytoday.com/pto/self_tests.php

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Four Core Concepts


Values

Attitudes toward change


Interpersonal needs

Cognitive style

Cognitive Styles
Large number of factors relating to how people perceive, interpret, and respond to information. Many dimensions exist to define cognitive styles Keirsey Sorter or Myers-Briggs two of the best-known

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Keirsey Sorter is similar)

Designed by mother-daughter team, based on work by Jung (1923) Four pairs of attributes leading to a matrix of 16 personality types

The Four Pairs of Attributes


Introversion/Extraversion Sensing/Intuiting Thinking/Feeling Judging/Perceiving

Performers ESFP

Cognitive Style

Overwhelming amount of information; we develop strategies for reducing and interpreting it About 80 % of people develop (mostly unconsciously) preferred informationprocessing strategies Here will focus on two major dimensions of relevance for managerial behavior

Two Major Dimensions of Cognitive Styles


1. How individuals gather information (sensing-intuitive strategies) 2. How they evaluate the information they receive (thinking vs. feeling)

Intuitive strategy (informationgathering)


Holistic view; commonalities, generalizations Have preconceptions about what information is relevant; they look for information consistent with these preconceptions Tend to be convergent thinkers

Sensing strategy(info. gathering)

Focus on details or specific attributes of each element of data, rather than on relationships among the elements rational; tend to examine data to see what patterns there are Sensitive to uniqueness of information and tend to be divergent thinkers

Views of a sunset

Thinking strategy (informationevaluation)

Develop from reliance on particular problem-solving patterns Thinkers evaluate information with a plan and follow systematic, sequential steps Appropriate methods and logical progressions Fit problems within existing theories or frames; defend their approaches

Feeling strategies (info. evaluation)


Gut feel or internal sense Trial-and-error Impressionistic data rather than objective data Cant describe problem-solving processes Solutions through analogies or seeing unusual relationships

Key implications

Sensors focus on details: more subject to info. overloads & personal stress. Too much detail Intuitors handle additions of detail more easily However, when diversity and aberrations exist, intuitors likely to have more difficulty than will sensors (who do careful analyses of data)

Implications for managers, continued

Thinkers less effective with creativity/innovation (problems with no apparent solution) Thinking managers better where information suggests a clear-cut computational solution; feeling managers propose too many solutions or even solve wrong problem Thinkers dont do creativity and feelers dont do engineering

Implications for study methods


Intuitors: reading, integrating, concepts Sensors: memorizing,debating,identifying facts Thinkers: logical reasoning, outlining, writing out Feelers: Creative thinking, diverging, trial-anderror Student intuitors do better in conceptual courses and learn through reading. Exams with one right answer easier for them than for sensors.

In Summary:

Regardless of the type of problem, most individuals use their preferred style to approach it: thinkers implement rational procedures and computer-based systems, for example. Knowing cognitive style can help managers or students in: selecting career options choosing appropriate business environments and managerial assignments such as teams capitalizing on academic strengths

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