The Owner's Manual for Personality at Work: How the Big Five Personality Traits Affect Your Performance, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, and Sales [Paperback]

Pierce J. Howard (Author), Jane Mitchell Howard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1885167458 | ISBN-13: 978-1885167453 | Publication Date: December 12, 2000

In the past decade, the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM) has gained significant ground toward replacing other widely used models of personality, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indictor (MBTI), as the primary model of personality in professional circles.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D., is a general partner and director of research for CentACS, the Center for Appliued Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since starting the company in 1986 with his partner and wife, Jane, Pierce has specialized in team building, assessment, and cognitive science. He now manages CentACS' research division, compiling data from ongoing research projects on the Five-Factor Model of personality, developing software applications, and continuing to develop and teach the Big Five certification program with Jane. Pierce recieved his Ph.D. degree in education with a special interest in curriculum and research in 1972 from the University of North Carolina at Chapil Hill. For the last twenty-five years, he has been an organizational psychologist. He is the author of The Owners Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research. He and his book were featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in May 1997. Pierce and Jane both Teach in the University of Norht Carolina-Charlotte Certificate Program in Organization Development; have coauthored workbooks, manuals, and articles on the Five-Factor Model; and Are frequently presenters at regional, national and international confrences.

Jane Mitchell Howard, M.B.A., is managing director of CentACS, where she oversees the promotion, marketing, sales, operations, finance, and programmatic aspects of the company. Since 1991, Jane has worked with Cleints in using the Five-Factor Model of personality, integrated the Big Five into training programs, and, with Pierce, develope the Big Five certification program for consultings and trainers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

During a typical week, while trying to get our jobs done, each of us runs head-first into personalities. Personalities at work are like cars in the city: they often can keep us from our destination. On the other hand, personalities can also make the job easier. Here are just a few examples of these two effects: An insensitive manager: Ellen was an award-winning architect and had been managing a team of a dozen architects and project managers for about two years. Everyone in her department, to a person, hated her and complained above her head about her unfair, insensitive management practices. Her boss didn't know how to get to the next level, short of firing her.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Bard Press (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885167458
• ISBN-13: 978-1885167453
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pierce focuses on two specialties: assessment and cognitive science. In the area of assessment, he has designed and conducted employee attitude surveys, succession planning research, personality assessment, career development instrumentation and feedback, performance appraisal research, and in-depth selection assessments. In the area of cognitive science, he has conducted creativity workshops for R&D labs, problem analysis in industrial settings, problem prevention planning for product teams, decision analysis for engineering teams, employee involvement techniques for Total Quality Management programs, presentations on brain research for professional associations, presentations on effective learning techniques to various groups of educators, and workshops on learning and memory enhancement. His primary research interest at the present time is the Five-Factor Model of personality. His next project is to develop an integrated model of intelligence, and to coordinate intelligence and personality assessment for use as an aid in workplace decision making.

He has taught Organization Development as a Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Queens University (Charlotte), and Pfeiffer University (Charlotte campus). In the Spring of 2010, he will teach a new course at the McColl School of Business (of Queens University) entitled "Personality Assessment at Work."

Pierce graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in 1963. After a three-year tour of duty with the U.S. Army, he completed his Ph.D. in 1971 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, the American Society for Training and Development, and the Carolinas Organization Development Network. He has served on several boards of directors. He is the author of The Owner's Manual for the Brain: Practical Applications from Mind/Brain Research(2006; 3rd edition) and, along with Jane Howard, The Owner's Manual for Personality at Work (2000), The Big Five Workbook (1994), and the Professional Manual for the WorkPlace Big Five ProFile (2001). He and Jane are close to finishing a book on using the Big Five personality model with adolescents: The Owner's Manual for Personality from 12 to 22. His next book will be on the subject of happiness as a false god. Interests include chamber and choral music, crafts, and camping.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personality at Work, March 16, 2001

By 

Stephen Straus (Aliso Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Owner's Manual for Personality at Work: How the Big Five Personality Traits Affect Your Performance, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, and Sales (Paperback)

Being a doctoral student in organizational leadership, I have read most of the books written about personality research, and especially those that focus on leadership behavior. Examining leadership competencies, learning styles, team development, and the application of personality assessment with the book has "simply" further opened my eyes to the importance of improving interpersonal awareness in the organization. The Howard's book is the first that I feel approached the subject from an understandable and practical basis. I use the book daily as I write my dissertation as a reference for practical applications of personality testing with the NEO-PI-R, and how to apply what I have learned from my data in the topic of leadership. It was a pleasure to find a book that allowed me to peruse the table of contents and move right to a section that applied to my current research without having to struggle. A nice thing that the authors have done is to provide a common language that can be used in the workplace with regard to understanding individual differences. This can set the stage for better communication among team members. In addition, I have found that as people understand themsleves better and can speak a similar language it can improve the flow of overall understanding in the organization. The book has opened my eyes to better acknowledge individual differences within teams, and to believe that there is no perfect solution when choosing leaders and team members. The world must incorporate these important individual differences effectively into their organizational structure; so as opposed to sujectively wandering through the personnel challenges of today's workplace, understanding these differences and blending the right mixtures of personality traits can make a difference in determining success. I applaud their efforts, and look for more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Big Five Interpretations Practial and Applicable, May 20, 2001

By 

Stephen Kincaid (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Owner's Manual for Personality at Work: How the Big Five Personality Traits Affect Your Performance, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, and Sales (Paperback)

As a corporate psychologist, I was pleased to find the serious research underlying this book, although it should be just as appealing to new students and the lay public. It is an excellent combination of literature review and applied science. Particularly valuable are the mappings of Big Five personality factors to various leadership styles (Kotter, Bennis, etc.) and 200 managerial competencies. Additional chapters do the same for approaches to learning, team building, interpersonal relationships, sales skills, and more. This book should soon be required reading within this field.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Working 9-to-5 with the Big Five, January 31, 2009

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Owner's Manual for Personality at Work: How the Big Five Personality Traits Affect Your Performance, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, and Sales (Paperback)

Why is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator so popular among trainers, leadership coaches and others who use personality theories at work? I think the numerous books presenting the MBTI to practitioners play a key role. There is more research support for the Five Factor personality model, but it is less known outside of research journals. Pierce and Jane Howard address this issue with their clearly-written guide to five-factor personality applied to work settings.

The book opens with a brief history of personality research and the emergence of the five factor model to summarize many dimensions of personality. In an executive summary style, the first chapter argues for the reliability, validity, representativeness, global applicability and descriptive power of five factor personality measures. The following chapters present descriptions of the five factors: 1) Need for Stability/Negative Emotionality; 2) Extraversion; 3) Originality/Openness to Experience; 4) Accommodation/Agreeableness; and 5) Consolidation/Conscientiousness. Chapters include descriptions of each factor, characterizations of high, medium and low scores, and case studies illustrating each factor "in action." Although the authors' terminology departs somewhat from established definitions, it communicates well.

The rest of the book explores implications of the five factor model. Successive chapters describe personality's impact on leadership style, persuasive techniques, career planning and work relationships. The team building and employee selection chapters advise managers to consider personality differences when delivering feedback and assigning work. The book closes by outlining how personality is both inherited and learned, and its effect on learning style, job performance and non-work interests. The introduction (pp. 19-20) helps readers pick and choose from these applied chapters, depending on their needs.

This book was clearly written with a business agenda. The authors promote their consulting services and their "Workplace Big Five Profile" alternative to the widely-used NEO-PI-R. This agenda occasionally grates--as when their "Timeline Illustrating the History of the Development of the Big Five" (p. 249) focuses exclusively on the authors after 1985. Admittedly, it can also aid understanding. The side-by-side comparison of subscales from the WPBF and NEO for each personality factor is an effective strategy, for example.

Their occasional conceits cost the authors a star from this reviewer, but need not cost them any readers. The Howards do a passable job explaining five-factor personality to the interested nonpsychologist. Practitioners can use this book to understand and work with different personalities on the job. It's a useful and needed alternative to the many, many popular books on the MBTI.