“Essay: Critically analysis of the characteristics of ideal employees
Topic: What characteristics do you think constitutes an ideal employee? Why? Discuss with reference to the research and literature engaged within the module.
This essay aim is to discuss the characteristics that constitute the ideal employee.
The reason for undertaking this topic is that in today’s scenario, there is strong competition exist in the market, therefore, talent workforces are the crucial assets for the company which helps to deal with tough competition.
In that case, it is must to have an understanding that what all characteristics make the employee supreme (Heinen et al., 2011). This study would help the companies to make clarity while hiring any candidate for the job position or helps to strengthen the skills of existing employees.
This paper presents the theoretical and empirical contribution to the essay topic through the use of theories, models. This helps to gain the better understanding of the ideal employee image.
In regards to this study, there are different characterizes of employees will be studied based on identifying how each characteristic bring efficiency for employees. Thus, this essay presents the various features that make the employee different from others.
This is because employees are the important assets for the company to stay for a longer duration. So, understanding these employee traits and recognizing them in candidates can help to improve the recruitment process. Thus, such practices directly influence the individual and organization in a positive manner.
In the view of Perkinson-Gloor et al. (2013), there are various characteristics that support towards making the employee unique and supreme.
Such qualities are either inherent developed in individual or it is incorporated through the training. Both types of employees prove to be an essential part of the organization.
However, Positive Attitude is the one characterizes that majorly contribute towards the development of ideal employees. This is because the positive attitude of employees towards the work, individual or risk allows them to face any difficult situation in an easy way.
Thus, positivity of candidate leads to a more productive workday and creates the better working environment for the individual. According to Katsaros et al. (2014), great employees consistently stand out for their upbeat attitudes and earn positive reputations for them.
So, one trait that always makes the ideal employee with other is the positive attitude towards the lives as such behavior converts the negative ambiances into the positive one.
Therefore, positive attitude proves to be an essential area to create the employee ideal as such characteristics influence the organization in the form of creating the healthy working environment.
In a similar manner, Arnaud (2010) stated that along with positive behavior, Strong Work Ethics tends to be important for the employee to be considered as supreme.
This is because Individual work ethics demonstrate their ability to work hard and set the goals high for themselves so that the final results can be better or productive. That’s why employees with strong work ethics prove to be the ideal individual for business.
Likewise, Mayer et al. (2010) found that there are various employees that possess the positive attitude but have lack work ethics due to which they fail to address of the organization goals and strategy.
This affects the firm willingness to achieve goals. In regards to this, it is important for the employee to have a set of values which involves the right approach, attitude, precise behavior and respect for others. Such helps the employee to set the right working environment.
Therefore, both positive behavior and work ethics are required for performing well and become unique among other employees.
In the research of Dobre (2013), it is identified that Self- Motivation Power is the one that each employee should possess in regards to achieve the personal development.
It is found that leader always looks for the motivated employee as that one has the power to work effectively with even little directions. The encouraged employee also boosts other people morale and brings efficiency in work performances.
Thus, there is huge benefit occurs with the selection of a self-motivated employee. That’s why hiring often looks for the candidate who has an ability to take initiative and get work harder with little push or encouragement.
However, sheer enthusiasm and interest in the work often drive these employees. Thus, self-confidence is the one characteristic that is the particular requirement for employees and the person that posses such feature would be considered as unique and perfect employees.
In relation to this study, Cervone and Pervin (2015) mentioned that action-orientation is another quality that makes the individual far better than others.
Likewise, the employees whose morale tends to high will take action without having any fear of failing.
If in case chances get failure then the individual look for another idea but never give up. Thus, such action-oriented employee is always in demand by the company side and such characteristics make the employee as important for the company.
In contrary to study, Angeline (2011) believed that Modesty plays an important role to constitute the ideal employee as those employees’ shows their value with work not through their words will leave the more positive impression on others.
Likewise, organization employees usually focus on more towards the impressing the top managers with their words rather than the use of ethical actions. However, modest employee presents their work through their final output.
Thus, organizations mainly required such kind of people towards the recruitment. The characteristic of modest differentiates of an employee among others. Based on the study, it is suggested that each employee should adopt the modesty in order to get selected into the reputed organization.
In regards to Kang and Hyun (2012), the modesty can only be achieved with the Hard-Work. The humbleness can’t be solely way to achieve the target without putting an effort.
For instance, in case any employee only presents their modesty without contributing anything in task performances.
Then such kind of employee does not consider as an ideal individual. Eventually, the combination of hard work and modesty make the employee ultimate.
However, the trait theory of personality can explain the differentiated between the personalities of individuals.
Trait approach is considered as a vital area of study in psychology that helps to identify the person personality (Colbert et al., 2012). The theory defined the trait as stable characteristics that become a reason due to which people react in such a way to a given situation.
At the same time, an individual never has a single trait but they have a variety of trait and it result information of personality. Every Trait forms are unique to other. Thus, this theory proves to be helpful to determine and analyze the individual personality characteristics.
In the same concern, the employee’s characteristic in terms of their qualities is different and it is purely based on their parental background. Likewise, some employees are modest and good appearance personality then such characteristic comes inherently or genetic.
But the characteristics of strong work ethic, self-confidence and hard working attitude etc, these generate with the experience and learning.
According to Men (2015), every individual person is different and depends on an individual like how much they strengthen their characteristics for becoming the ideal employee. Thus, the learning of traits helps the individual to gain the multi-task personality.
In the finding of Lee and Way (2010), it is analyzed that 51% of companies in the USA prefer to recruit those employees which have Flexibility. It means that an employee which is opened to adopt the change and embrace it properly will be preferred by the organization.
This type of employee does not resist towards the change and show their willingness to learn new skills. Thus, such characteristics in employees are always in demand for the organization.
This is because the competition in the current scenario is too high then it put pressure on the leader to bring change and fulfill the current needs and wants.
In such a situation, the organization does not feel pressure if the employees possess the characteristic of flexibility. This helps the firm to easily implement the changes.
In support of this study, Lee (2010) stated that Passionate behavior of employees also supports the changes in the organization. The people with great passion will always look for new skills development or learning.
Thus, the passionate employees possess the flexibility which helps them to strengthen their skills. The employee with passion and flexibility would be considered as ideal people in the workplace.
In the views of Zhao et al. (2016), there are various countries which have adequate resources and capital but due to lack of talent workforces, they get failed. The retention of talent workforces is must for the countries.
This is because without possessing the quality personnel, none of the company can survive for a longer duration and it affects the economy adversely. Thus, that’s why the company needs to focus more on the individual growth rather than excessively adopting the technology.
In the context of this study, Kang and Hyun (2012) depicted that Effective Communication is the important soft skills which are undertaken by the organization when it comes to select the candidate.
This is because employees with proper communication can help the firm to perform each task with clarity. This characteristic is also useful at the time of cultural diversity as it is found that the chances of conflicts occur more between the different cultural group due to lack of communication between the individuals.
Thus, effective communication characteristic plays an important to both organization and employee in the form of achieving higher productivity and personal development.
Thus, the employee with proper communication skills will get a higher chance to become a part of the business. On the basis of this section, it can be stated that the employee who has a command over the different language and has a capability to communicate with another individual will consider as an ideal employee.
In a similar manner, Yukl (2012) considered that the characteristic of leadership also proves to be an essential constituent in regards to making the ideal employee.
This is because there are various employees working in day to day basis but only a few having an inherent trait of leading or guiding people properly.
Such type of people always in the observation of organization as it looks at the existing employee characteristic on a daily basis so that business can change the leader and give chance to another one.
This leading characteristic also proves to be useful for an employee at their own level in regards to guide their peer ones about the work performances.
Thus, the organization gets numerous benefits from the employee leadership style. That’s why an employee with an effective leadership style considers as a supreme leader.
According to the study of Angeline (2011), it can be identified that Dependability can differentiate the employee because shows the commitment of the person to completing the task that was assigned by others to him.
In this concern, the employees show their responsibility to finish the given task in a given time to resolve any kind of problem. The dependable employees produce consistent work in the business environment through the use of strategic policies and procedure of the business.
Dependability is essential for an employee to make their job security because it creates the image of the employee in front of the manager about their responsibility to timely complete the task.
On the other side, Christensen et al., (2014) help to understand that the dependable employee leads to responsible for the organizational task and complete them in an effective manner.
A dependable employee in an organization usually increases their responsibility for the firm to make it at a successful level. In addition, the dependable employee can work with effectively because he/she has less supervision because they have trust that the work will be completed effectively.
Moreover, through this, the employee makes their image in the organization for their consistency of work.
According to the layoffs of the company, each organization chooses the loyal and dependable employee for their organizational task because they are loyal for completing each task in a timely manner.
The less dependable employees cannot make an effective value and position in the organizational culture because everybody understands them worthless. It is also estimated by a supervisor that the employee is working under-pressure and it is not supportive of the organizational development.
Thus, it can be said that an employee in an organization should be dependable for different organizational tasks to show their strength of handling the work.
In relation to this study, Brown-Iannuzzi et al., (2013) mentioned that Team-oriented is also a specific quality of an ideal employee in an organization.
It shows the collaborative nature of the person in the firm where it has friendly relations with other to successfully complete the organizational task.
If there is a requirement to be a great employee in the organization then it is necessary to have the quality to work with the team members. An ideal employee must have the quality to work well with others in the organization or they should feel comfortable during working with other team members.
According to the research of Kondrasuk, (2012) it can be said that 60% of managers in an organization prefer the employees who are comfortable with other team members. In addition, it can also be said that an organizational success is based on their team members.
In which, each employee of the team should focus on the organizational goal and helps the team members to make the firm successful.
It is also identified that the success of the company is based on the whole team not only on a single person. Each individual participates in the team to make the organization successful and provides their points to the others.
The team-oriented quality of an individual is accepted by an organization to get success to complete the task with normal efforts.
In concern to this, Tuckman has provided teamwork theory to motivate the team members. In this study, it is defined by Tuckman that a group can be converted into the team through the use of four important stages.
First of all, the forming stage of the group is concentrated according to the degree of conflict (Kang and Hyun, 2012). After this, the storming stage helps the group members to make them the part of the team as well as they challenge each other about the abilities.
At the same time, the next stage is Norming for successfully achieve a team goal. In this, the team members carefully develop the process to work together. They develop the plan to accomplish the organizational task with the help of their team members. In final, the performing stage is suggested by Tuckman to increase the focus on the task as well as building team relations.
In the study of Kiarie et al., (2017) it can be stated that the Confidence is a useful power of an employee in an organization.
It makes the employee successful as well as it creates the value of the organization in front of the others. In addition, it is identified that the confident employee positively works for the organizational value and the organization also help them.
in concern to the current business organization, it is a necessary part of the employees in an organization that shows the knowledge and ability to complete the commitment in a successful manner.
It is seen in different organizations that the confident people in the firm creates trust among the colleagues as well as helps the team members to make a decision on right time.
There are several things are using by the organizational people to make organizational employee confident such as education, training, motivation, empower and reward.
But, it is depicted by Sallee, (2012) that the confidence in the employees comes naturally and they need not any motivation and training.
The knowledge about the task and work develops the confidence level of the employee. Thus, organizations need not reject any employee’s quality without testing their knowledge and confidence.
On the other hand, the research of Henker et al., (2015) helps to understand that an employee in an organization must have a good confidence in their task and work quality.
In addition to this, there are some techniques that can be used by an individual in the organisation to develop their confidence.
One of the most import elements is ‘having good skills and knowledge’. In this if the employee has good knowledge and skills then it has a high level of confidence as well as the clear objectives can also be helpful to develop the confidence.
Moreover, the firm should also provide some new opportunities and challenges to increase the confidence.
These above mention characteristics make the employee ideal and increase their demand in the organization as an employee with different characteristics always able to contribute productivity.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that there is various characteristics constituent make the employee ideal for the organization. It includes the positive attitude, strong work ethics, self-motivation and many others.
The combination of all features gives rise to the development of the supreme employee. There is a high demand of ideal workforces in today’s scenario where there are high competition and advancement of technology.
In such a situation, the talent human resources prove to be a vital asset for the company. That’s why the individual that possesses the above mention characteristic will have high chances to get selected.
On the basis of above discussion, it is summarised that self-motivation, effective leading & teamwork, modesty with hard-work are the essential characteristic that an individual should possess event in their personal lives.
These features help the individual to grow not only at the professional level but also on a personal level. Thus, it is rightly stated that employee with having various traits can become an extreme or supreme as compare to other individuals.
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