Personality Characteristics and Growth-orientation of the Small Business Owner-manager

PAUL. MORAN IS SENIOR TUTOR AT Durham University Business School's Small Business Centre in the United Kingdom. This paper reports on exploratory work with groups of owner-managers in the North-east and South-west of England employing a form of Assessment/Development Centre (ADC) in which participants undertake a 'battery' of psychological tests and exercises from which an individual profile can be derived. The rationale for this approach stems from the need for a more comprehensive, multi-dimensional view of the personality of the owner- manager rather than the 'single-trait' view which is pervasive in much of the literature on the topic and is arguably outmoded as well as untenable. It was felt f- 1- - -tmr, I II -Irlxr mrn "rt,ent foir the business support. Accordingly, a modifited ADC (labelled ASSENT) was introduced into extended development programmin-. es for owner-managers to stimulate sell- understanding and self-reflection in the context of the future development of tle business, and also as a means of identifying training and development needs which could be addressed through the programme. The approach has been found to have a high degree of relevance and utility in this regard and continutes to be used within a development programme context. The results finom the various ADCs can be examined in terms of whether they differentiate between owner-managers in significant an(l meaningful ways. For this purpose, the sample (N=75) was segmented according to criterion measure of 'Growth Contents Summaries 1 3 High GO, Medium GO and Low GO sub- samples and the ADC results compared. A number of potentially important differences between the three groups were highlighted. In particular, the more High GO the owner-manager, the more he/she will tend to be strongly leadership oriented with strong drive, action orientation and a liking for constant decision-making. Such individuals tend not to enjoy being in a purely administrative role and do not tend to value order or system. Indeed, 'variety' seems to be their predominant personal value and they tend to have a preference for a 'perceiving' mode (open, flexible) over a 'judging' mode (closed, conclusive). They also tend to use an 'intuitive' form of perception, which emphasises patterns and relationships, rather than a 'sensing' form which emphasises the nitty-gritty detail. The picture which emerges of the High GO owner-manager is of an energetic strategist who enjoys action, change and the opportunity to make decisions and be in charge and to innovate constantly. Such an individual tends not to be a conventional manager but seems to be more akin to individuals identified as 'entrepreneurs' or 'leaders' in the literature. The question arises to what extent the role influences the individual personality or the personality 'gravitates' towards the role and adapts it to fit. This could be addressed by a longitudinal study tracking individuals from pre-start through the stages of business development to determine if there are any significant differences in personality, attitude, motivation, etc. An approach such as ASSENT could be used for this type of study. Over time the findings and insights from research utilising an ADC approach or similar can enrich our understanding of the owner- manager and of owner-manager personality. Such an understanding can also enable the support networks for small business to segment their provision more effectively.