Personality Conflict

The purpose of this paper is to identify a personality conflict between employee and employer and how it played a part in my last job as a Library Director. I will also explain at the end of my paper how the Big Five Model supports my research for the decisions I made as a supervisor.

Before I moved back to New Hampshire last June, I was living in Iowa; in a little town called Earlham. I had been there two weeks and decided to get a library card. Upon entering the establishment I noticed that they were hiring for a Library Director and two assistants. I needed a job so I inquired about both positions. I filled out the application and within two days I received a phone call from the President of the Library Board to come in for an interview. I went and interviewed and before I knew it, they were hiring me to be the new Library Director. I was ecstatic. I had never worked in a library before and I certainly didn't have a MLS degree, but they hired me because they liked what they saw on my resume and they were very impressed with my answers. I told the interviewers that I was a very hard-working, dedicated, detail-oriented professional. I explained that if I was hired that the library would need a complete overhaul to keep the patrons wanting to come back and use the library. They found my candidness to be very refreshing. My predecessor had just up and left and didn't leave any time for training. The previous assistants didn't stay either. Apparently there were many issues between the last Director and her staff. In order for me to learn everything about a library and keep the library accredited, I had to become certified in Public Library Management. What normally takes three years for someone to accomplish, I did in 9 months! I was very gung-ho. I loved the fact that I was learning something new and I was very interested in learning every aspect about Library Science that I could. I felt that in order for me to run an efficient library it would have to structured around what I knew would be an uncomplicated way to shelve current items and archive old ones. The Earlham Public Library needed some revamping and Shay Favata was just the person to do it. I was all set, but now the Library Board needed to hire a couple of assistants to help with the day to day operations of running the library. They hired two other women. Becky and Sherri. Sherri was a very easy going person and had a personality a lot like mine. We were very open and honest with each other. Becky on the other hand had a completely different personality. She was an introvert and very closed minded. I knew instantly that there were going to be work place issues. Usually the Library Director will hire her own staff, but in this instance because of the complete turnover, the Library Board did all of the hiring.

My personality type is an ENFJ. As an ENFJ, my primary mode of living is focused externally, where I deal with things according to how I feel about them, or how they fit into my personal value system. My secondary mode is internal, where I take things in primarily via my intuition.

ENFJ's are:

* Genuinely and warmly interested in people

* Value people's feelings

* Value structure and organization

* Value harmony, and good at creating it

* Exceptionally good people skills

* Dislike impersonal logic and analysis

* Strong organizational capabilities

* Loyal and honest

* Creative and imaginative

* Enjoy variety and new challenges

* Get personal satisfaction from helping others

* Extremely sensitive to criticism and discord

* Need approval from others to feel good about themselves

This describes me very well.

Becky was an ISTJ.

ISTJs generally have the following traits:

* Value tradition, security, and peaceful living

* Will work long and hard to fulfill duties

* Can be depended on to follow through on tasks

* Loyal and faithful

* Stable, practical and down-to-earth

* Family-minded

* Dislike doing things which don't make sense to them

* Dislike abstract theory, unless they see the practical application

* Natural leaders

* Prefer to work alone, but work well in teams when necessary

* Extremely observant, they take in facts via their senses and store them internally

* Vast, rich inner store of facts which they rely on to understand problems which they encounter in their lives

* Profound respect for facts and concrete information

* Make decisions objectively, applying logic and rational thinking

* Dislike change, unless they are shown it's benefit in a concrete way

* Have strong opinions about the way things should be done

* Appreciate structured, orderly environments

* Have very high standards for their own behavior and the behavior of others

* Not naturally in-tune with other people's feelings

* Able to accomplish almost anything if they put their minds to it

* Community minded "good citizens"

This describes Becky very well.

Because of the difference in our personalities, it created interpersonal conflict. Our personal values were extremely different and our goals were incompatible. She wanted things done her way and I wanted them done my way. There never seemed to be a middle ground. Becky worked better on her own. She was not a team player in the least. Becky was the type to hold things in and let them build. I'm just the opposite and always put all the cards out on the table. I never would know that anything was wrong with her until she