Understand Yourself

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Describing four dimensions of personality according to Jason and myself....................................3

Analysing the bases of power through Jason’s approach................................................................6

Legitimate power.........................................................................................................................6

Reward Power..............................................................................................................................6

Coercive Power............................................................................................................................6

Informational Power....................................................................................................................7

Expert Power...............................................................................................................................7

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7

References........................................................................................................................................8

Appendix........................................................................................................................................10
Introduction
This report is about understanding yourself and by putting in different situation one can
understand the situation better. The main part of this report is to describe the personality of a
CEO according to the four dimensions of the personality. Jason is a CEO of the ABC company
who joined the company in 2015 and the board of directors puts their faith in him and give him
independence to operate the company. Here the internal and external locus of control, Type A
and Type B personality traits and Machiavellianism are discussed regarding Jason. Also,
analysed Jason’s approach to managing ABC company using bases of power.

Describing four dimensions of personality according to Jason and

myself
ABC company needed a professional HR manager to handle the situation in the company. So
they appointed me as their manager human resources. As a manager, I like to work
independently and try to make some decisions according to the situation. The characteristics of
myself will describe my personality. As a person, I like to complete my task until I am fully
drained and I don’t feel regret working hard as a person much. Also, I love to take challenges in
any kind of situation and try to make myself involved in decision making (Bean, 2020). I like to
take my task seriously and manage my task within the time limit.

Describing Jason according to the Four Dimensions of the personality.

Jason is a CEO of the ABC company who joined the company in 2015 and the board of directors
puts their faith in him and give him independence to operate the company. Jason is successfully
ruining the company by managing the operation of the company both internally and externally.
Jason tends to keep both formal and informal relationship with his employees to manage the
company and which helps him to make decisions. Also, he tries to influence every sector of the
company and get involved in every decision taken by the company (Brill, 2017). Here, below
describing Jason according to the Four Dimensions of the personality.

Internal and external locus of control

Control is an important word in the context of people’s life. Some people think that they control
everything around them and others think that they are controlled by their surroundings. Control
is required in every aspect of the work and it helps to influence others in the work. Locus refers
to the position and when it comes from the locus of control it becomes more meaningful. People
who believe that they can control their surroundings and can achieve success through it are
known as internal locus of control (Lefcourt, 2018). On the other hand, people who think that
they are controlled by their surroundings are known as external locus of control. Jason is the
CEO of the ABC company who joined the company in 2015. He likes to works independently
and makes him involved in every decision taken by the company. He is kinds of person who
believes more in the attitude and confidence rather than technical knowledge. Jason has an
internal locus of control because he thinks that he can control the surroundings around him and
he tries to influence every person around him and try to take control of them. He also influences
others in taking a decision and always make him involved in every aspect of the work. Jason
keeps both formal and informal relationship with his employees to collect information from them
so that he can take control of the situation (JIROUMARU, 2018). These characteristics of Jason
indicates that he has an internal locus of control who achieve success in life by controlling the
surroundings and working hard.

Type A Vs Type B

Type A and Type B are two personality profiles identified by the cardiologist. Type A
personality tends to be impatient, competitive, ambitious and upright and whereas Type B
personality is less competitive, more relaxed and easy-going. People who like competition and
more focused on their work and have a strong sense of time urgency are referred to as Type A
personality(Houghton, 2018). The people who love the comfort and tries to avoid a difficult
situation and have a weaker sense of time urgency is referred to as Type B personality. These
kinds of people love comfort in their life and do less work out of their comfort zone. Jason the
CEO of the ABC company falls in the Type A category in terms of personality(Hooker,
Blumenthal & Siegler, 2018). Jason is a workaholic person who loves to take challenges and
believes in his confidence and attitude. He makes himself involved in every decision taken by the
company which makes him attentive in his work. Jason has a strong sense of time urgency as he
works till 8 pm and keeps key employees during the weekend (Cooper, 2017). These
characteristics of o Jason indicates that he is more competitive than others, more devoted to the
work and have a strong sense of times urgency.
Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is another personality trait which means behaviour directing to gain power and
controlling the behaviours of others. The person who has more Machiavellianism tends to do
anything to gain power and control others. These kinds of person are rational and less emotional
as they can do anything to attain their personal goals and also they value less in friendship and
loyalty (Esperger & Bereczkei, 2018). The person who has less Machiavellianism is likely to be
emotional and value friendship and loyalty more. Jason the CEO of the ABC company tends to
value friendship and loyalty above everything and also he tries to gain power by controlling
others. Jason keeps both formal and informal relationship with his employees which helps him to
take control of them. Other the hand, he also emphasized the loyalty for the recruitment of the
employees (Lyons, 2019). These characteristics show Jason has balanced Machiavellianism
which helps him a lot in success.
Analysing the bases of power through Jason’s approach
Bases of power refer to the method by which managers and leaders control their employees and
make the best out of them. Bases of power are divided into two groups which are personal and
positional. Legitimate power, reward power, coercive power and informational power falls into
the positional power sources and the expert power falls into the personal power sources. Bases of
power are important for the mangers to influence and take control of the situation (Dowding,
2018). Here Jason’s approach to managing ABC company using bases of power analysed below.

Legitimate power
Legitimate power comes with the position of people. A prime minister, president or CEO of a
company tends to have legitimate power. The person who has legitimate power can directly
order or control the people who are under his or his wing. This type of power is unstable and
unpredictable because if you lose the position then you will lose power. People are more
controlled by the position rather than by the man who holds the power. Jason is managing ABC
company has legitimate power as he is the CEO of the company (Raven, 2018). He is making the
best use of his power by influencing the people who work under him and make him involved in
every decision of the company. People are controlled by him not by the position and it is a great
sign of leadership.

Reward Power
Reward power refers to the power which in the form of reward. Reward powers given as a
promotion raises or simple compliments. People often think that if they do their job accordingly
then they shall be rewarded with these kinds of power. The main difficulty with this power is not
often people are rewarded with power. Jason as the CEO of the ABC company has dealt with
reward power (Hammer, 2017). As a CEO he tries to influences the employees by
communicating with them both formally and informally. He creates an expectation among the
employees by giving them decisions about the work.

Coercive Power
This type of power is abusive and problematic. Coercive power refers to the power by which
managers and leaders take control of their employees by using threats and punishments. Jason’s
in managing ABC company used less coercive power towards his employees. He tried to more
cooperative and influential in their work in a friendly way which helped him to get the desired
success in the work.

Informational Power
Information is a key part for managers to control the employees. Informational power is
important for managers and leaders to influence the people around the work (Raven and French,
2018). Jason had great informational power on their employees as he kept both formal and
informal relationship with the employees. In managing ABC company Jason influenced every
decision taken by the company by the informational power.

Expert Power
Expert power is personal power sources for managers and leaders. Expert power comes from the
skill and knowledge of the managers. When you have the proper knowledge and skill people will
follow you without any question (Leahy, Wallace, Mulvenna & Hughes, 2017). In the case of
Jason, he had the proper managerial skill and knowledge which help him to take control of the
employees.

Conclusion
In all, managers and leaders should have control over the employees to complete their given
tasks. As Jason, the CEO of the ABC company influence every sector of the company and get
involved in every decision taken by the company which help him to takes control of the
employees. The four dimensions of the personality are important for the managers to take control
of the employees. The bases of is also an important method to exercise power on the employees
and the managers have to take sensible and skilful decisions while exercising the powers.
References
Bean, A., 2020. Understanding yourself as a leader: diagnostics and tools. BMJ Leader,
pp.leader-2020-000240.

Brill, N., 2017. The Importance of Understanding Yourself. The American Journal of Nursing,
57(10), p.1325.

Cooper, C., 2017. Type A behaviour. Personality and Individual Differences, 12(12), pp.1361-
1362.

Dowding, K., 2018. Encyclopedia Of Power. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.

Esperger, Z. and Bereczkei, T., 2018. Machiavellianism and Spontaneous Mentalization: One
Step Ahead of Others. European Journal of Personality, 26(6), pp.580-587.

Hammer, T., 2017. Reward Systems And Power Distribution In Organizations. Ithaca, NY: New
York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell Univ.

Houghton, A., 2018. Understanding personality type: Introducing personality type. BMJ,

329(7473), pp.s177.2-s178.

Hooker, K., Blumenthal, J. and Siegler, I., 2018. Relationships between motivation and hostility
among type A and type B middle-aged men. Journal of Research in Personality, 21(2), pp.103-
113.

JIROUMARU, M., 2018. A STUDY OF INTERNAL-EXTERNAL LOCUS OF

CONTROL. The Japanese journal of psychology, 46(5), pp.272-280.

Leahy, D., Wallace, J., Mulvenna, M. and Hughes, J., 2017. Knowledge-based assistance for
contract compliance [power stations]. IEEE Expert, 12(2), pp.58-64.

Lefcourt, H., 2018. Research With The Locus Of Control Construct. New York: Academic Press.

Lyons, M., 2019. The Dark Triad Of Personality. London: Academic Press.

Raven, B. and French, J., 2018. Legitimate Power, Coercive Power, and Observability in Social
Influence. Sociometry, 21(2), p.83.
Raven, B., 2018. The Bases of Power and the Power/Interaction Model of Interpersonal
Influence. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 8(1), pp.1-22.
Appendix
Instructions
Indicate the extent to which each statement is true of you.
Neither Very
Not at All True Nor Very Very True
True of Me Untrue of Me of Me
1. I hate giving up before I’m absolutely sure that I’m licked. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

2. Sometimes I feel that I shouldn’t be working so hard, but something

Drives me on. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

3. I thrive on challenging situations. The more challenges I have, the

better. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

4. In comparison to most people I know, I’m very involved in my work. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

5. It seems as if I need 30 hours a day to finish all the things I’m faced
with. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

6. In general, I approach my work more seriously than most people

I know. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

7. I guess there are some people who can be nonchalant about their
work, but I’m not one of them. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

8. My achievements are considered to be significantly higher than

those of most people I know. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

9. I’ve often been asked to be an officer of some group or groups. 1 —–– 2 —–– 3 –—– 4 ––— 5

Total score _ __35___

Arbitrary Norms
9–22 = Type B
23–35 = Balanced Type A and Type B
36–45 = Type A