PREPARED BY: TANUSIA

Case Incident 1 Chapter 5

The Nice Trap

SUMMARY

Quoted by Immelt and Boeing’s James McNerney

Agreeable people do earn less

money because they only follow

instructions

Agreeableness is something employers value

Desiring success in their careers is to

be complimentary, kind and good to

others

Variability among people with different thinking skills

Example of 500 employee Lindblad Expeditions

Agreeableness being emphasized

Technical skills can be taught but not kindness

Employers want agreeable employees but agreeable

employees are not better job performers indirectly

less successful in their careers

The way they are being accepted, pleased to be

around, helping others but not on job performance.

Whether agreeable people are helping more people

or the other way around

Q1

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? 

their agreeableness X their disagreeableness

agreeable employees provide cooperative working

environment to better communication

less competitive and less aggressive nature gives them

disadvantage in provider of tangent idea options or force of

negotiations

might create a comfortable environment for

communication

disagreeable employee might have the nerve to push

unique ideas and stand behind them

HIGHLY AGREEABLE PEOPLE HIGHLY DISAGREEABLE PEOPLE

Pleasant, tolerant, warm, cooperative, flexible, modest, and tactful

Disagreeable, cold, aggressive, reserved, quiet, shy, and distant

Decent and trustworthy Pessimistic view and low in trust

Considerate and helpful and have better interpersonal relationships

Put own interest above others and doesn’t care about others

Tend to give way in arguments Became narcissists and or antisocial

Prefer negotiation Low in conscientiousness

Useful in attaining and maintaining popularity

Tend to be more engaged with their work

For example, it might be so that CEOs of a company chosen based on high agreeability

Ease communication between managers and departments

Play diplomatically within the company

Managements of specific departments make deals and negotiations

Having a disagreeable person in charge

Employers tend to favor hiring agreeable employees, it would contradict overall success

The only employee they tend to hire

Company should have a more aggressive approach in their business strategy

Q2

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?

Good quality to possess in a job situation where

communication and team work would make for the

most healthy and productive outcomes

Big corporation jobs require constant

communication between different

departments and project groups

Function to individual jobs such as a lab

scientist who wishes to communicate her

research to her peers

Examples of jobs that requires agreeable situations:

Social workers

-Assess client need, assist clients

Nurses

- Friendly, care the patient

want and needs

Primary school teachers

-Assist students, warm, kind,

helpful, communication

Customer Service

-Customer satisfaction, friendly

Agreeableness, harmful in situations where

the job requires a dog-eat-dog attitude

Pose as counter-productivity in such a case

Apply to any job ranging from a sales person

working to earn the highest return on a seldom

sold luxury item

The head of a public service organization

negotiating with a government leader

AGREEABLENESS DISAGREEABLENESS

Negative Side Positive Side

Wear themselves out trying to please everyone

Hard headed and practical

Pass over opportunities in order to maintain good social relations

Says what they think without sugar coating it, if they feel it politically necessary

Risk of dependency syndromes Do well in careers where they have to treat people like objects

Q3 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? 

Negative effects hurt men’s earnings more than women’s

Differences in way men are perceived compared to women

Women being more communicative both society and cross-culturallyAssumed to be more conversational and mediators in social conflicts than men are

Overall agreeableness of women may be perceived to

be higher due to their more socially active nature

Having a man display agreeableness more likely

to stand out amongst peers

possibly feminize him at an unconscious level

put him in more of jeopardy of assuming lower

earnings like other women

Agreeableness may be looked at as a feminine feature and

thus by being agreeable, the feminization of the subject leads

to a decrease in corporate value which is still an unfortunate

case in our society’s progress in achieving equality.

CONCLUSION

o Agreeable candidates are rated high on good traits

including teamwork and leads to less success in any

organizations

o Organization is like a white sheet of paper, following all

the manual will only lead to moderate success but

creating colorful patterns in contradiction will lead to

unexpected success

Page 18

Thanks for your attention!

Q & A