How do I describe myself?

This was the very first question that came across my mind when I first learned that we are to write a self-analytic paper. Yes, a self-analytic paper. And the question that follows is, What is that? I do not know. It all came to me as a surprise, though it was not a real surprise because it was to be expected that a subject like Organizational Behavior would require writing. Nevertheless, I want to suppose that it was a surprise. For the past three years of my stay in UP Visayas Tacloban College, I am still not used to writing paragraphs, essays, formal papers, letters and all sorts of writing, although, I have been subjected to all these kinds of writing under skilled instructors and professors. Perhaps I never really learned to like the field of writing. And one of the reasons why I chose my degree program, which is BS in Accountancy, was that I believed that it required less or no writing at all. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I keep telling everyone that I hate writing, or I do not know what to say, or I am not good at it. But in contrast to what I was saying, it comes out that I do know how to write. It is proven by my grades in all writing subjects I went through, that is, I never got a grade below 2.0 from such subjects. But I really do not know. There are sayings like grades are just numbers and grades do not define who we are. Then the thought came to me. Maybe, I am really good. Maybe, it is just in the way on how I perceive things, on how I look at things, on how I believe things to be. Maybe it is on my personality. Maybe it is on my values. Maybe it is on my leanings. But that does not change a thing; I still hate writing. Oh! How rude of me not to introduce myself first. I sometimes do that. My name is Marc Joseph T. Loyola. My high school friends call me Loi while my college friends call me Marc. I am second of the three sons of Nerio and Estefania. I was born in Tacloban City and I am now nineteen years old. I currently live in Palo, Leyte. There, that is my basic profile. If you ask me to introduce and describe myself, those are probably the first things I would say because they are facts and I am certain they are true. But if you ask me about my personality, values and the like, I would really find it difficult to answer. It is very strange to think that I do not know myself but it is really challenging to find the right words to describe myself. As a future accountant and perhaps a future manager, it is important that I know and understand myself, my behavior, personality, values, motivations and the like for me to be able

to handle things in the future because such things have impact on any organization and knowledge of which may be applied in improving the effectiveness of the organization. The first thing I can say about me is that I am a man, single and still young. Although there are studies suggesting that there are no differences in productivity between man and woman and that age has positive relationship with productivity there are still advantages to what I am now. Being a man means I am strong and can perform heavy tasks. Being single can make me focus more on my job, although there are studies saying that married individuals are more satisfied in their jobs. My young age implies good health and good physical condition which means I have the energy and endurance to allow me to fulfill the requirements of my job in a particular organization. My intellectual abilities are fair enough to enable me to perform mental activities. I am not bragging but people around me themselves say so. In an activity during the 1st Executive Board Meeting of the Local Chapters of Junior Philippine Institute of Accountants (JPIA) of Region 8, we were tasked to write on a piece of paper attached to the back of each participant how we knew or what is the first impression we had on the participant. Incidentally, a number of other participants wrote on my paper that I am smart, intelligent, and has the substance. In other words these are how other people see me based on my projections and actions. It is interesting how people can tell those things about me to think that we just met for the first time during the said meeting. In another activity, during the teambuilding we had during the Division of Management Days, we were given the Kokology Quiz which stands for Self-Discovery. We were asked the question What is your favorite color? I answered blue. Next we were told to describe the color and I said Bright. It was explained by Prof. Viola Siozon, the facilitator, that it was how I view myself. The result was quite surprising but it was my subconscious which told me to write such description. It was consistent with what I trying say, though. It might mean that I may be able to perform well in an organization if I have good mental abilities. I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which would tell people how they usually feel or act in particular situations. The results showed that I have slight preference of Introversion over Extraversion (22%) which means I tend to focus more on myself. Next, it

showed that I have a slight preference of Sensing over Intuition (12%) which means I tend to gather information systematically. This is good especially for the organization because being systematic would produce better results than relying on sheer intuition which is less accurate. Additionally, the results told me that I have a distinctive preference of Thinking over Feeling (62%). This is particularly good because it means that I make decision objectively and impersonally rather than making decisions subjectively and interpersonally. This entails being fair, unbiased and impartial in decision-making. Lastly, the test showed that I have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (22%) which means I tend to be decisive and planned. Moreover, I made a survey for the Big Five Model also known as the OCEAN model for personality. According to Stephen Robbins, this model encompasses the most significant variations in human personality. I had twenty-five respondents with different degree of closeness or relatedness to me. The results were as follows: for Openness to Experience/Intellect my percentile was 41% which said that I typically don't seek out new experiences. For this part, I am not sure if I agree with the results but this is how other people see me. During the teambuilding activity mentioned earlier, Prof. Siozon told us that if there are differences in how I see myself and how others see me, I do not have to change. I only have to let other people know me better. For Conscientiousness, I scored 74% which means that I am well-organized and reliable. I agree with this result. I sometimes get frustrated if things are not organized and everything is a mess. This also means that I am self-disciplined, careful and responsible. On Extraversion I scored 53% which means that I am neither particularly social nor reserved. This means I can still be sociable, friendly, and fun loving. On the aspect of Agreeableness I scored 44% which says I am neither extremely forgiving nor irritable. This means I can be rude and harsh but I can also be good natured and courteous. With regards to Neuroticism, my percentile was 22%, meaning I am generally relaxed. This suggests that I tend to be calm, relaxed, secure and hardy. Additionally, I also took the Type A or Type B personality test. The result held that I have mixed characteristics but I am more of Type B personality. According to Robbins, Type Bs never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience, feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation, play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any cost, and can relax without guilt. The test explained further that I am more laid back than

most but I am also alert at the same time (mostly). I might be lazy from time-to-time but I do work hard. And that is what really counts. According to Robbins, values are basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct endstate of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. In a class activity we were given a test on what we value by giving a score, in a scale of ten to one hundred, to particular things mentioned by the teacher. The outcome told me that I value the most Family Matters and Intellectual Value Dimension. Ranking second are Professional Matters and Physical Matters. Third came Financial Concerns, Social and Spiritual Matters and last is Community Concerns. This result simply shows that I have priorities as to how I do things. Family comes first but I also value intellectual things. This shows that although I am concerned with some other things, at the same time I also give a high regard for my profession. In another class activity a story was read to us using general words. After the story was read, questions were asked about the story. The twist was specific and detailed words were used in the questions. This was to test on how we assume or perceive things and how we make judgments. High scores mean that a person does not make hasty judgments while low scorers assume a lot. On my part, I scored barely six out of twelve, that is, I fall in the middle part. That means I do not extremely assume a lot, and I also do not make quick conclusions. Perception is how we view things. According to Robbins, it is always good to question my perceptions just to be sure that I am not reading something into a situation that is not there. Perhaps it is my perception that tells me that I am bad in writing as mentioned at the start of this paper. It is a situation which may not really be true. Motivation is defined as the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. One tool for understanding motivation is Clayton Alderfers ERG theory which includes three groups of core needs. This is actually in line with Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which includes physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. As long as a need is not yet substantially fulfilled, it is a motivation. Under ERG theory, the existence group is concerned with our basic material existence requirements; the relatedness group is concerned with our desire for maintaining important interpersonal relationships; and the growth group is concerned with our intrinsic desire

for personal development. Basically these needs are what motivate me now, being still dependent on my parents for existence, being a young adult who strives for social position, and being an individual who seeks self-actualization. At this stage of my life I have such motivations which will allow me to perform well in any organization. And being so motivated, I will commit to an organization which will help me fulfill such needs. Such organization will give me an incentive to commit. Having mentioned commitment, I remember having another test as to what is our affective and continuance commitment. This test gives us several items and we give them scores which corresponds to how much we agree to such. The result showed that I have an average affective commitment and an above average continuance commitment. This means that I really tend to stay long in an organization especially when such organization helps me fulfill my needs as mentioned earlier. To add things up, it is important that I know my abilities, my personality and perceptions so that I can be more careful in dealing and for me to handle different things well. Things that best describe me are that I have distinctive preference of Thinking over Feeling, I am conscientious, calm and relaxed, and that I am a Type B person. These things can greatly contribute, in a positive manner, to an organization that I may join in the future. This is because such characteristics of mine mean I make objective decisions which entails fairness. I am also more scientific and organized which will enable me to work more efficiently and this is particularly good for any organization because actions made out of sheer intuition tend to be less precise. Also being a Type B person is great thing because it implies being able to work and perform a task proficiently. And as a future CPA who may also assume a managing position, I have to be able to work with grace even under pressure unlike Type A persons who tend to trade off quality over quantity, which is not good. Being able to handle stress and pressure is a skill needed for the job. These things are significant because knowing my personality permit me to greatly contribute to any organization which I may join. Every position in an organization has particular sets of requirements and specifications. There still a lot of things I need to do and know but first knowing my personality is already a great leap.