THE INFLUENCE OF THE BEHAVIORAL PROFILE UPON THE MANAGEMENT TEAM’S PERFORMANCE

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BEHAVIORAL PROFILE UPON THE MANAGEMENT TEAM’S PERFORMANCE Conf. Radu Ogarcă, Ph.D Conf. Liviu Crăciun, Ph.D Laurențiu Mihai, Ph.D Student University of Craiova Faculty of Economics and Business Adminstration Craiova, România Abstract: The present paper’s goal were: analysing the relationship between the personalityprofile (determined using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and the team role (established with the Belbin Test), identifying the possible correlations between the two and studying the way in which these correlations are influencing the relationships between the team members and the efficiency with which they are fulfilling their tasks. The present research is exploratory and due to its characteristics, the sampling has not been probability-based. Thus, the sample is composed of the members of the executive board of AIESEC Craiova, a non-governmental organisation, active in the youth-work field. Our endeavour is focusing on problem which has been sparsely researched in the best: the analysis of the management team’s performance through two models, which have not been thoroughly studied together (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Belbin Team Roles) Keywords: MBTI, Belbin, behaviour, team-role, personality 1. INTRODUCTION An organization’s results can be seen as a reflection of several individual and group parameters (values, knowledge, professional experience, age, social interractions, etc) of the management team (Hambrick & Mason, 1984) 1. The top management team can determine the performance of the organisation by influencing (directly or indirectly) the organisational culture, structure and strategy (Paterson et al, 2003 2). Collins and Clark (2003) 3 underline the fact that the management team’s social networks, both internal and external can become a competitive advantage for the company. 1 Hambrick, D. C., Mason, P. A. (1984). Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of management review, 9(2), 193-206. 2 Peterson, Randall S., D. Brent Smith, Paul V. Martorana, and Pamela D. Owens. "The impact of chief executive officer personality on top management team dynamics: one mechanism by which leadership affects organizational performance." Journal of Applied Psychology 88, no. 5 (2003): 795-808. 3 Collins, Christopher J., and Kevin D. Clark. "Strategic human resource practices, top management team social networks, and firm performance: The role of human resource practices in creating organizational competitive advantage." Academy of management Journal 46, no. 6 (2003): 740751. Murray (1989) 4 shows the context of the relationship between the top management team and the organisational perforamce: the influence of the management team is different from one industry to another; the homogenous or heterogenous character of the team can stimulate/inhibit the organisation’s performance according to the nature of its objectives (long or short term) and the degree of stability of its surrounding environment. In our opinion, the first condition for the top management team to have a positive influence upon the organisational performance is to function efficiently, coeherently, without internal disfuctionalities, despite the diversity of its composing members (for more information on this subject, please relate to Nielsen’s review from 2010 5). Hurst (1989) 6 considers that Belbin (1981) 7 has a major contribution (at that time) in the theory of the management team’s efficiency and underlines two elements from the aforementioned work: a team can perform if the members can identify their strenghts and are undertaking roles in the team for which they have the neccesary experience and abilities; the personal qualities are making the members efficient only in certain roles in the team. Hursts conclussion is: „...the difference without synthesis is anarchy. The organization and its members must also have the ability to achieve unity from diversity, the ability to transcend”. Our articole aims to analyse (in an NGO), in which degree the assumed/distributed roles in the management team are adequate to the members’ personality traits and how is the role distribution affecting the organisational performance. In order to fulfill this goal, we will analyse AIESEC Craiova’s management team, using a so-called classic toolkit (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Belbin Test). First and foremost, in the first part of the paper, we will state the characterstics of the two theoretical models and we will highlight the connections (positive or negative) between them and we will justify our option for this choice. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator is an instrument that allows the analysis of the individuals’ psychological preferences regarding decision-making and their perception of the world. This test has been developed by Katherine C. Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers after studying Carl Jung’s works, for 20 years. The first version appeared in 1943. In 1962, Educational Testing Service published the first utilization manual of this instrument (for a more detailed history, please refer to Quenk, 2009 8. Murray, Alan I. "Top management group heterogeneity and firm performance." Strategic Management Journal 10, no. S1 (1989): 125-141. 5 Nielsen, S. (2010). Top management team diversity: a review of theories and methodologies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(3), 301-316. 6 Hurst, D. K., Rush, J. C., & White, R. E. (1989). Top management teams and organizational renewal. Strategic Management Journal, 10(S1), 87-105. 7 Belbin, M (1981). Management Teams, Why they succeed or Fail. London, UK: Heinneman. 8 Quenk, N. L. (2009). Essentials of Myers-Briggs type indicator assessment (Vol. 66). John Wiley & Sons. 4 1 Jung (1921) has identified three dimensions for the analysis of each individual’s cognitive style: the way they approach day to day life, the way they perceive the world and the way they take decisions regarding the world they live in. In order to further explain these dimensions, the Swiss researcher has developed the following statements: past experiences and future expectations affect behaviour and personality; the individuals are capable of continuous and constant development and personality is an open system, receptive to external inputs. Jung considered the behaviour as being a sub-system of personality, which can be modified by interacting with the external environment. Based on this statement, the researcher is highlighting the influence that the interaction with other people can have upon an individual’s behaviour. This theory identified two attitude related orientations and four basic psychological functions. The attitudinal orientations are introversion and extroversion, two concepts that refer to the way in which an individual is focused (inwards for introversion and outwards for extroversion) and where and how is he extracting hi (...truncated)