A comparative study on Personality Traits and Optimism among Women Employees and Women Entrepreneurs

A comparative study on Personality Traits and Optimism among Women Employees and Women Entrepreneurs

This study is an attempt to contribute afresh with a perspective to the field of organization behaviour and psychological resource development with special reference to optimism (success/ lack of success) factors and big five personality traits among women employees and women entrepreneurs. This study provides more insight into the psychological profiles of female employees and entrepreneurs. Success/ lack of success factors and big five traits affects work choices, career choices, retirement choices, and marital choices. Women can be prepared and trained to be successful employees for both large and small organizations. The future policy making agencies can learn lessons to make meaningful plans and policies to prepare future generations for the future challenges of entrepreneurship. Policy makers can promote entrepreneurship through SMEs to strengthen future economy of the nation. This would help to increase the awareness of both educationists and students to follow entrepreneurial careers in the times to come. This study will help to understand entrepreneurial personality traits to carve and trained future entrepreneurs. The pedagogy institutions can train and carve leadership style and success factors amongst future women entrepreneurs. Short training interventions can be designed to develop positive psychological resource capacities which involves training the employees in set goals and engage in contingency planning to overcome potential obstacles. This training will lead to optimistic style and pessimism can be avoided.These activities and exercises also trigger self confidence among these employees. This also facilitates their emotional and behavioural adaptation at workplace. Hence the level of employees psychological capacities will increase.. 100 women employees from 5 employment sectors and 100 women entrepreneurs from 5 different sectors were the surveyed for the study. The sectors used for the study were manufacturing, IT services, services, trading and professionals.For employees sample was drawn from executive, sr.executive, assistant managers and manager??s level.The type of the organization studied were proprietorship, partnership, private limited and public limited. The tools used for the study are: 1. Optimism: Attribution of success and failure inventory- ASUFA-G. This is the inventory developed by Uday Paareek. It has got eight dimensions developed by Weiner 1974 and Seligman 1991. 2. Big Five Personality tool developed by psychologists John, Donahue and Kentle in 1991. It has got five dimensions. Major findings of the study 1. The study found that there was no relationship between big five personality traits and success and lack of factors among women employees. 2. The research revealed that there was significant relationship between big five personality traits and success and lack of success factors among women entrepreneurs. Extraversion was positively correlated with self directedness, self confidence and group directedness and negatively correlated with compliance. However the highest significance being compliance which is negatively correlated and the lowest being group directedness It was found that agreeableness was positively correlated with optimism and hope . The highest relationship being optimism and lowest positive relationship being hope. It was found that conscientiousness was positively correlated with self directedness optimism self confidence and hope and negatively correlated with fatalism. The highest significance being self directedness and lowest being fatalism which is negatively correlated. 3. The study conducted revealed that among big five personality traits it was found that extroversion and conscientiousness significantly influenced the lack of success factors among women entrepreneurs however the significance is negative. 4. It was found that the big five personality traits significantly influenced success factors among women entrepreneurs. Among these extraversion and conscientiousness positively influenced the success factors. The highest influence was conscientiousness followed by extroversion. 5. Very interesting observation was that there was no significant influence of big five personality traits on success factors and lack of success factors among women employees. 6. The findings revealed that no significant difference was found with the success factor self directedness, optimism, hope and lack of success factor fatalism, pessimism, among women employees vs. women entrepreneurs. 7. It was found that women entrepreneurs have higher group directedness and compliance compared to women employees. Whereas, in self confidence, women entrepreneurs are more confident when compared to women employees. 8. The study revealed an interesting facet that there was significant difference with neuroticism, extraversion and openness to experience between women employees and women entrepreneurs. Extraversion and openness to experience was more with women entrepreneurs compared to women employees and neuroticism was more with women employees compared to entrepreneurs.

Arvind Tripti

Management Studies