The Nice Trap free essay sample

In these pages we’ve already noted that one downside of  agreeableness is that agreeable people tend to have lower  levels of career success. Though agreeableness doesn’t appear  to be related to job performance, agreeable people  do earn less money. Though we’re not sure why this is so,  it may be that agreeable individuals are less aggressive in  negotiating starting salaries and pay raises for themselves. Yet there is clear evidence that agreeableness is something  employers value. Several recent books argue in favor  of the â€Å"power of nice† (Thaler Koval, 2006) and â€Å"the  kindness revolution† (Horrell, 2006).Other articles in the  business press have argued that the sensitive, agreeable  CEO—as manifested in CEOs such as GE’s Jeffrey Immelt  and Boeing’s James McNerney—signals a shift in business  culture (Brady, 2007). In many circles, individuals desiring  success in their careers are exhorted to be â€Å"complimentary,†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"kind,† and â€Å"good† (for example, Schillinger, 2007). We will write a custom essay sample on The Nice Trap or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Take the example of 500-employee Lindblad Expeditions. It emphasizes agreeableness in its hiring decisions. The VP of  HR commented, â€Å"You can teach people any technical skill,  but you can’t teach them how to be a kindhearted, generous-minded  person with an open spirit. So, while employers want agreeable employees, agreeable  employees are not better job performers, and they are  less successful in their careers. One might explain this apparent  contradiction by noting that employers value agreeable  employees for other reasons: They are more pleasant  to be around, and they may help others in ways that aren’t  reflected in their job performance. While the former point  seems fair enough—agreeable people are better liked—it’s  not clear that agreeable individuals actually help people  more.A review of the â€Å"organizational citizenship† literature  revealed a pretty weak correlation between an employee’s  agreeableness and how much he or she helped others. Moreover, a 2008 study of CEO and CEO candidates revealed  that this contradiction applies to organizational  leaders as well. Using ratings made of candidates from an  executive search firm, these researchers studied the personalities  and abilities of 316 CEO candidates for companies  involved in buyout and venture capital transactions. They found that what gets a CE O candidate hired is not  what makes him or her effective.Specifically, CEO candidates  who were rated high on â€Å"nice† traits such as respecting  others, developing others, and teamwork were more  likely to be hired. However, these same characteristics—especially  teamwork and respecting others for venture capital  CEOs—made the organizations that the CEOs led less  successful. 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? 2. 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? 3. 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?