Honey

Case Incident 1

THE NICE TRAP

I.Background

Research shows that one downside of agreeableness is that agreeablepeople tend to have lower levels of career success. Agreeable peopletend to perform less on their jobs compared to the more aggressive andgoal oriented disagreeable employees. Agreeable employees earn lessmoney, and are less aggressive in negotiating starting salaries. Yetthere is clear evidence that agreeableness is something the employersvalue. Employers want agreeable employees even if they are not better job performers compared to disagreeable employees for the reason thatagreeable employees are more pleasant to be around.

II.Study/AnalysisStudy Questions:

1.

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?

According to studies agreeable or nice employees are less competitive than disagreeable employees. Disagreeable employees tend toper form best in their jobs and delivers quality outputs. Yet according to Thaler & Koval (2006), employers tend to consider agreeableness as one of the criteria for hiring employees. Employers tend to value nice employees over the more focus and goal oriented non agreeable employees. Based on the assumptions stated above there is a slight contradiction between what the employers want from their employees against what their employees can do. For employers there is a need for them to hire as much as possible the best of the best employees in order for them to deliver quality services to their clientele. But yet that’s not the case of what’s really happening in terms hiring new employees because some employers tend to hire the more likeable applicants even if their performance are not that good compared to the non-likeable applicants.

According to

Forbes,

n

ew research shows that

88% or majority of employers

are looking for a cultural fits over skills when they hire, sothey...