Behavioural paradox
Understanding the personality of another human being has always been an insatiable quest of mankind. Although several management pundits and behavioural experts have tried to categorize people based on several parameters, decoding human psychology is a tough nut to crack. In the corporate world with its time constraints first impressions can be crucial in career progression. First impression is like judging a book by its cover, what lies inside can be revealed only after reading it. The following case study conducted by a fellow participant, Mr. Chiranjibi Panda, is an attempt to challenge the traditional belief that the first impression lasts forever.
PART ONE
There is an academy called Gurukul. It had been recently established and was admitting students for its first batch. Since it was part of a well known group of institutes, it had managed to attract the best brains of the country. The excitement and expectations among its students were running high.
Chinmay, was one of the students who had cleared the rigorous selection process and joined the institute. His behaviour from the first day reflected arrogance and over-confidence. He was an extrovert, loud, short tempered, picked up fights easily and meddled in the affairs of other students unnecessarily. He was responsive in the classroom sessions but many a time bordered on disturbing and even disrupting the class. The initial impressions of those interacting with him were not very positive – he was believed to be a person of above average intelligence but with severe attitude problems.
During the second week there was a sudden change in Chinmay’s behaviour. He suddenly grew more silent and calm. His response in class was measured and balanced and he was even friendly with his fellow students. The sudden impulsive change in his behaviour amazed his classmates but they took it positively.
The big question is what was the reason for the sudden change in Chinmay’s behaviour?
PART TWO
Chinmay is a management student who has always been fascinated with how people behave according to situations. How someone can manifest a dual personality? And why is it difficult to judge a personality?
He decided to conduct a simple experiment to find answers to these questions. Gurukul was a good opportunity since no one knew him or his temperament. The first week at Gurukul, he projected a personality which was completely opposite to his real traits which later he switched back to during the second week. Now, if we were to ask his classmates at Gurukul to assess his personality; their results would be in stark contrast to those of his childhood friends and family.
It is this difference of opinions which is termed as ‘Dual Personality’ in management terminology.
EXPLANATION
As human beings, we tend to judge people on the basis of first impressions. This is true even in the case of management. We form opinions about people within the first one eighty seconds of meeting them and spend the rest of our interactions either justifying or negating them.
This can also create problems especially in management. It is most prominent in the recruitment process of companies where interviews play the deciding role in hiring or rejecting candidates. Here we take the example of XYZ Ltd, a multi-national company, conducting interviews for the post of trainees. The package offered and the brand name both attracts a large number of applications. An interview panel is set up for the selection process. They hired seven candidates who they judged to be of equal caliber. However, three months into the job, the managers discovered that two of the recruits were not making any contributions and their productivity was very low. This was in complete contrast to what they had projected in their interview.
The question is what should the organization do in cases like these? We can conclude that there is a lacuna in the selection process. These candidates successfully adopted different personalities during the interview to gain entry into their respective jobs. The interview process or interviewers cannot be blamed since they are also prone to the natural human tendencies of split second judgments.
Instead of analyzing people based on short interactions, more psychometric tests and observation processes should be added to make such analysis comprehensive. Proper training will help in these decisions as it is one of the most important factors in the 3M theory – Man, Money & Machine.
END NOTE
Though an extra ordinary experiment, it was a helpful tool in demonstrating the phenomenon in an innovative way. We all face awkward situations to arrive at conclusions which may be different from traditional approaches.