Big Five Personality Traits in Business

 

 

I chose Openness from “Big Five Personality Traits” as the most important personality trait that aligns with my job. The textbook teaches us "openness is the degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas"(Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B., 2010, chap.2).

 

I am working as an exterior designer in Japan. To explain it briefly, I design the garden and propose various ideas for customers. You can imagine easily it needs openness.  Exterior designers should be curious, original, and creative all the time. There are new additions to a line of products incessantly; we always need to pursue that information to make a more fascinating and economic suggestion.

 

Additionally, we need to maintain the creativities, avoiding being focused on preconceptions. It is important having my own ideal of what I really want to make. Therefore, I am always searching for new ideas produced by other professionals. Of course, my ideal is not always realized because customer's budgets are limited, but I do not think that I am wasting time or effort. On the contrary, this effort for something that will not unrealize will help me growing as an exterior designer and maintaining motivation for this work.

 

 

Furthermore, people high in openness are highly adaptable to change and manage unforeseen changes in their tasks well(LePine, J. A., 2003). I often experience unexpected situations, such as sudden dimension change, changing the construction schedule due to bad weather, and customer claims caused by misunderstanding. We need to take the initiative to handle the situation first. And it is dispensable to facilitate communication on a routine basis because many staff contributes to one case. I still have difficulties with this ability compare with seniors. I will keep getting better.

 

In conclusion, people high in openness are curious, original, and creative. And they highly adaptable to change and manage unforeseen changes in their tasks well. This ability is essential to success as an exterior designer.

 

 

 

References

 

Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2010). Management principles, v. 1.1. Retrieved from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/index.html

 

LePine, J. A. (2003). Team adaptation and postchange performance: Effects of team composition in terms of members' cognitive ability and personality. Journal of applied psychology, 88(1), 27-39.