PERSONALITY FACTOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21807, 23 May 1934, Page 15

PERSONALITY FACTOR

PLACE IN ORGANISATION " DANGER OF OVER-USING " ORIGIN OF DICTATORSHIPS Personality and the part it plays in modern organisation was the theme of a talk by Professor A. B. Fitt at the monthly lunch of the Auckland Chapter of the New Zealand Institute of Secretaries, held yesterday in Milne and Choyce's Reception Hall. Mr. W. M. Bartdn presided. After describing some of the characteristics which make up personality, Professor Fitt gave the result of an analysis of the stature of the heads of departments in the United States. It was found that the average height of these men was well above that of those in subordinate positions. Tracing back this factor to more primitive conditions, he pointed out that the basis of this dominance was proved to be fear. Among the British people the same result would not be obtained, for British organisation was on a different plane, and not bound up so much with executive management, i Here there was the principle of working as quietly as possible, with the underlying ideal of democracy.

"There is a danger of over-using personality in business," he said, "and no good business can live on contacts based mainly on it. Many people place undue importance on the value of an interview in gauging the accomplishments of a man. There is the difficulty of discerning between excessive nervousness and impudence. The deeper factors of stability and character are very hard to determine during an interview and, after many years of research, scientists are still unable to find a reasonable agreement between face and feature, on the one hand, and character and ability, on the other."

Professor Fitt dealt with the progress of different types of organisation from primitive dictatorships to the democracies of nioro civilised man. In the latter there was a recognition of the increased worth of each member of the community. Dictatorships were not indicative of social advancement, and it was in times of crisis that nations and businesses returned to these more primitive methods of control. In real organisation there was the tendency to delegate more and more power to those lower in the scale, the leaders retaining only so much power as was necessary to their own task. The personality of the leaders set the standard by which those lower down were judged. "There is a danger of confusing real ability with the semblance of it,' 5 concluded the speaker. "I have been amazed at the number of people who get away with shallow accomplishments while being regarded as experts. In the dealings between men there is the perpetual conflict between the appeal to the emotions and that of intellect and character. Not that personality can be ignored, for it is one of those factors that raise the human being above the level of the lower animals." A vote of thanks to Professor Fitt was moved by Mr. W. F. O'Donnell, who emphasised the value of the speaker's views in the special problems of those present.