The impact of personality and cognitive style of managers on their work types

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the personality and cognitive styles of managers and different types of work. Design/methodology/approach The personality types and cognitive styles of managers were measured, respectively, with the help of the Big Five personality factors and Jung’s cognitive types. Different types of works in an organization were categorized in three ways: identity, institutional and integrative work. A survey questionnaire method was used to collect data from a sample of 107 managers from a diverse range of industries, and these data were used to test the hypotheses. Findings The study found that intuitive feeling and intuitive thinking types of cognitive styles are suitable for identity and integrative kinds of work, respectively. Openness to experience and conscientiousness positively correlate with identity work. For institutional work, conscientious personality trait is most important for managers; agreeableness has a negative impact on identity work and institutional work. Practical implications This study will assist recruitment and staffing professionals, when recruiting managers for an organization, and the paper should be interesting for readers in industry (professionals in HR, managerial career development and managerial competence audit and counseling) and academia (research scholars). Originality/value Analysis of theses relationship types is unavailable in the literature of leadership and organizational studies. It can help organizations utilize their human resources efficiently.