Social style
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Social style" is the behavior that one exhibits when interacting with others. Being cognizant of one’s social style helps a person develop relationships, particularly at work.
In the Training and Development community, "Social Styles" is the name of a psychometric instrument used to teach interpersonal skills to employees with the end goal being to increase workplace communication, teamwork, productivity, and morale.
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[edit] Historical Development
In 1964 Dr. David W Merrill and Roger Reid began research to create a model that could predict the success in selling and management careers [1]. What the partners ended up discovering was that people's behaviors and actions are consistent. The original Social Style model was worked on by Dr. James W. Taylor, who at the time was a staff psychologist at Martin Corporation (later Martin Marietta) in Denver. Dr. Merrill obtained the rights to use the Social Styles ModelTM (whose rights are now owned by The TRACOM Group, a workplace performance company specializing in Interpersonal Skills Training and Performance Consulting, and a division of Reed Business Information, whose parent company is Reed Elsevier).
[edit] Model
Originally, Social Styles was determined by having respondents say "yes" or "no" to 150 adjectives measuring three scales: Assertiveness, Responsiveness, and Versatility.
Assertiveness: The effort a person makes to influence the thinking and actions of others. Or - the measure of whether a person appears to ask or tell in interactions with others.
Responsiveness: The extent to which a person reacts readily to influence or stimulation with a display of feelings.
Versatility: A type of social endorsement based, in part, on the extent to which others see the individual as competent, adaptable, and behaving appropriately. Versatility measures the extent to which a person appears to be working to make relationships mutually productive.
The first two trace back to Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton's Managerial Grid Model. The two Social Style scales revealed that by combining the two dimensions, Assertiveness and Responsiveness, four patters of behavior, or "Social Styles", can be identified.
Driving: (Tell Assertive + Control Responsive) These individuals are seen as strong willed and more emotionally controlled.
Expressive: (Tell Assertive + Emote Responsive) These individuals are described as outgoing and more dramatic.
Amiable: (Ask Assertive + Emote Responsive) These individuals are seen as easy going and supportive.
Analytical: (Ask Assertive + Control Responsive) These individuals are described as serious and more exacting.
[edit] New Developments
In 2004 The TRACOM Group created a new survey that used behavior-based statements instead of an adjective checklist - because it proved to be more valid and reliable. It continues to use the Assertiveness, Responsiveness and Versatility scales but can now provide an even greater depth of information about an individual's behavior - especially his/her Versatility - and is much more accurate, especially when translated into a variety of languages.
Robert Bolton, and Dorothy Grover Bolton (President and vice president of Ridge Consultants) wrote on and expanded upon the Social Style model, and introduced four subtypes for each style, which are blends with other styles ("Amiable-Analytical", etc.) This results in 16 types that closely match the 16types of the MBTI.[1]
[edit] Use
Social Style is used in corporation throughout the world to build the interpersonal skills of their employees, resulting in increased employee morale, productivity, retention, and efficiency.
Assessments and models such as the Myers Briggs Personality Test are also used within corporations to build interpersonal skills. Personality tests focus on the person's inner feelings and motivations. Behavior-based models such as Social Style focus on the behaviors that a person exhibits.
[edit] Similar Intruments
There are a number of other similar "four type" instruments, using the same two factors of expressiveness and task/people orientation. One is The Platinum Rule Personality or "Behavioral Styles" of Dr. Tony Alessandra [2]. It's two factors are "Indirect/Direct", corresponding to assertiveness, and "Open/Guarded" corresponding to responsiveness. The resulting four types are "the Director", "the Socializer", "the Relater", and "the Thinker". (Allesandra also similarly blended the styles into 16 types).
Another is the Interaction Styles of Dr. Linda V. Berens, PhD: "In Charge", "Get Things Going", Behind the Scenes" and "chart the Course". These are mapped to the MBTI 16types model by pairing Introversion and Extroversion with a factor called "Informing and Directing" which loosely correspond to Thinking and Feeling, and also indicates people vs. task focus.
And others include FIRO-B and a Five Temperaments theory based on it. Both use the scales of "expressed" and "wanted" or "responsive" behavior, but the two factors are done in three areas, called Inclusion, Control and Affection. Both five temperament theory and Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (which also uses the "assertiveness" scale along with "cooperativeness") and add an additional "moderate" score in both dimensions, creating a fifth behavioral or personality type.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Reid, Roger H. and Merrill, David, W. Personal Styles & Effective Performance. ISBN 0-8019-6899
