Case Incident 1 Chapter 5

The Nice Trap

PREPARED BY: TANUSIA

 SUMMARY
Variability among people with different thinking skills

Quoted by Immelt and Boeing’s James McNerney

Agreeable people do earn less

money because they only follow
instructions
Agreeableness is something employers value

Desiring success in their careers is to

be complimentary, kind and good to
others
Example of 500 employee Lindblad Expeditions
 Agreeableness being emphasized
 Technical skills can be taught but not kindness
 Employers want agreeable employees but agreeable
employees are not better job performers indirectly less
successful in their careers
 The way they are being accepted, pleased to be
around, helping others but not on job performance.
 Whether agreeable people are helping more people or
the other way around
 Q1
Do you think there is a contradiction between
what employers want in employees (agreeable
employees) and what employees actually do best
(disagreeable employees)? Why or why not? 
 their agreeableness X their disagreeableness
 agreeable employees provide cooperative working
environment to better communication
 less competitive and less aggressive nature gives them
disadvantage in provider of tangent idea options or force of
negotiations
 might create a comfortable environment for communication
 disagreeable employee might have the nerve to push
unique ideas and stand behind them
HIGHLY AGREEABLE PEOPLE HIGHLY DISAGREEABLE PEOPLE

Pleasant, tolerant, warm, cooperative, Disagreeable, cold, aggressive,

flexible, modest, and tactful reserved, quiet, shy, and distant

Decent and trustworthy Pessimistic view and low in trust

Considerate and helpful and have Put own interest above others and
better interpersonal relationships doesn’t care about others

Tend to give way in arguments Became narcissists and or antisocial

Prefer negotiation Low in conscientiousness

Useful in attaining and maintaining Tend to be more engaged with their

popularity work
  For example, it might be so that CEOs of a
company chosen based on high
agreeability
 Ease communication between
managers and departments
 Play diplomatically within the company
 Managements of specific departments
make deals and negotiations
 Having a disagreeable person in charge
 Employers tend to favor hiring
agreeable employees, it would
contradict overall success
 The only employee they tend to hire
 Company should have a more aggressive approach
in their business strategy
 Q2
Often, the effects of personality depend on
the situation. Can you think of some job
situations in which agreeableness is an
important virtue? And in which it is
harmful?
Good quality to possess in a job situation where
communication and team work would make for the
most healthy and productive outcomes

Big corporation jobs require constant

communication between different
departments and project groups

Function to individual jobs such as a lab

scientist who wishes to communicate her
research to her peers
 Examples of jobs that requires agreeable situations:

 Social workers
-Assess client need, assist clients

 Nurses
- Friendly, care the patient
want and needs
 Primary school teachers
-Assist students, warm, kind,
helpful, communication

 Customer Service
-Customer satisfaction, friendly
Agreeableness, harmful in situations where
the job requires a dog-eat-dog attitude

Pose as counter-productivity in such a case

Apply to any job ranging from a sales person

working to earn the highest return on a seldom
sold luxury item

The head of a public service organization

negotiating with a government leader
AGREEABLENESS DISAGREEABLENESS
Negative Side Positive Side

Wear themselves out trying to please Hard headed and practical

everyone

Pass over opportunities in order to Says what they think without sugar
maintain good social relations coating it, if they feel it politically
necessary

Risk of dependency syndromes Do well in careers where they have

to treat people like objects
 Q3
In some research we’ve conducted, we’ve
found that the negative effects of
agreeableness on earnings is stronger for men
than for women (that is, being agreeable hurt
men’s earnings more than women’s). Why do
you think this might be the case? 
 Negative effects hurt men’s earnings more than women’s
 Differences in way men are perceived
compared to women

Women being more communicative both society and

cross-culturally
Assumed to be more conversational and mediators in
social conflicts than men are

Overall agreeableness of women may be perceived to

be higher due to their more socially active nature

Having a man display agreeableness more likely
to stand out amongst peers

possibly feminize him at an unconscious level

put him in more of jeopardy of assuming lower

earnings like other women

Agreeableness may be looked at as a feminine feature and

thus by being agreeable, the feminization of the subject leads
to a decrease in corporate value which is still an unfortunate
case in our society’s progress in achieving equality.
 CONCLUSION
o Agreeable candidates are rated high on good traits

including teamwork and leads to less success in any

organizations

o Organization is like a white sheet of paper, following all

the manual will only lead to moderate success but

creating colorful patterns in contradiction will lead to

unexpected success
Thanks for your attention!

QQ &&AA

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