Socionics: Four Types of Business Activity

Who and how does the weather in the company? 
Four types of business activity

V. V. Gulenko , 23. 05. 1998, Kiev

People who have serious interests in business value the time factor very expensively. It is tempting to go to an unknown company to quickly determine which business style really dominates it, and what should be taken as nothing more than a game. But how to do that?For this you need to master the secrets of the typology of personality.

The psychological atmosphere itself, which envelops any member of the group that has formed, helps the person — specialist — to assess the essence and not the visibility. Conversely, by recruiting a group of people who will work together for a certain time, the prepared manager, using a typology, predicts the nature of their business activity and compatibility in various types of work.

The experience of personnel counseling allows you to make advancing conclusions regarding the future of an organization. The atmosphere of a team at the stage of formation is determined by the selection of people, including the manager himself, as well as their placement in one or another position, from which the structure of their interaction follows. Not a single factor from this aggregate can be overlooked.

1. Some principles of the formation of teams.

The main personological question that inevitably arises when people are invited to work together: to take workers who are similar in behavior or, on the contrary, opposite? To get people together, to bet on the similarities or differences of characters? Most managers simply go through trial and error. For them, the principle of personal loyalty is paramount, not typological analysis.

1. 1. The first principle of team building (from the English. Team - team and build - to build) requires to distinguish between narrow- profile teams from generalized teams . The first are engaged in the solution of homogeneous, and the second - of heterogeneous tasks. Services operate in a much narrower functional corridor, unlike branches — small copies of central organizations.

An example of a narrow-profile team: a group of rescuers, an anti-terrorism unit and other militarized groups. Accounting as a compulsory service in any economically independent organization. Another team of a narrow profile, but from a completely different sphere: a film crew preparing reports and programs for television.

Narrow profile groups are effectively built only on the basis of typological similarities. And the more narrow the task of the group, the more similar must be the people who solve it. The formal distinguishing feature of such a team is the unity of place and time : the efforts of its members are made in the same place and at the same time.

A particularly cohesive special team is called a cohort. The motto of the cohort is no irreplaceable. Within its framework, these are the real "multilane": each fighter can, if necessary, replace any out of order. In this way, the vitality of the team is increased.

Experienced production workers know that it is inefficient to put people of opposite temperaments behind the conveyor. How fast to let it go? If slow, then fast types will be dissatisfied. If fast, then protest slow. If with average speed, the first will be underloaded and the second will be overloaded.

2. The atmosphere in the creative team.

Olga Gerasimyuk, who heads one of the most popular film crews working on Ukrainian television, tells in an interview about the personal composition of her team:

“Our group is very small. This is Andrei Nesterenko - we call him “two in one”: he is a director and cameraman ... Then Igor Lebedkin is a music editor and composer ... Zoya Prikhodko, our producer, organizes everything, is responsible for everything, considers money.Well, besides that, Zoe is my own sister. She is a psychologist by education. It really helps. We all need psychological help ... Everyone is very similar to each other, everyone has a lot of flaws. But without them, we probably would not have agreed. ”[Capital News, # 19, 1998, p. 20. ]

It is easy to guess that all the employees of her group have the same sociotype - Player / Mentor. Psychological fatigue - a fee for similarity, generating monotony in communication. On the other hand, with a variety of types such a group could not work so hard and productively.

And now examples of teams of a wide profile. The leadership of a large but non-monopolistic company is seeking such a personal structure. Any organization with a democratic management style, which is engaged in extensive activities, where there are stages of the promotion of ideas, its development, implementation and establishment of public relations.

Personal diversity is very conducive to a positive outcome when discussing a multifactor problem, where opposite approaches of equal power emerge and it is necessary to cooperate at the negotiating table. This is the fundamental psychological difference between the teams of wide profile.

Today we live in an era of complex problems. The need for multidisciplinary teams will obviously increase more and more. In such teams, the players act relatively autonomously, but consciously take into account the common goal facing them. Correction of actions is carried out during periodic meetings, which take place not in the legislative, but in a collegial atmosphere. They are not afraid to spend time and additional forces on regular grinding.

1.2. The second principle of team building concerns the distribution of roles in a team. In order for the team to work in full force, it must stand out, firstly, the leader, secondly, the leader’s “right hand”, thirdly, simple performers and, fourthly, the marginalized ones - the participants included in the group’s activities. This is how the quaternary structure of the contact group - the core of a real team - is realized.

And we are talking about the actual, rather than the official distribution of responsibilities. If the formal and informal sets of roles are the same, this is optimal for the organization. If they strongly contradict one another (for example, the official leader is a completely non-authoritative member of the group), then the group’s activity deteriorates. It is necessary to spend additional forces on the coordination of official and actual lines of communication.

Roles are not necessarily fixed rigidly. The place is changing, the conditions of activity are changing. It is impossible to predict in advance how effective the initially chosen lineup of people will be. Therefore, a rotation periodically occurs in a viable team . However, it is not to the extent that the member of the group with the lowest status becomes the leader.

Fixed leadership and strictly prescribed roles are justified only when the team performs an extremely narrow task. The more versatile the team becomes, the more democratic the leadership becomes. In an extremely broad team, leadership becomes liberal — like a relay race: which side of a common task gets the focus of attention, that sociotype becomes a temporary leader, and without a special order from the nominal leader.

Summarize the information. Here is a comparative table of fundamental differences between two types of commands:

Comparison option	Narrow profile	Wide profile
A variety of sociotypes	Small	Large
Productivity	High	Low
Manual	Authoritarian	Democratic
Life cycle	Short	Long

Below we analyze one of the principles of the formation of working units. He assumes as a consolidating factor the coincidence of orientations on the socionic scales of rationality / irrationality and logic / ethics. This is a functionally specialized approach. Consequently, it is justified for individual units, but it is not suitable for mature democratic groups with mature cooperative ties.

This method occupies an intermediate position between the bundling of groups according to similar temperaments or coincident settings. It is described in the books of American typologists as prevailing in the practice of personnel policy of most Western companies and organizations [1]. True with this, as we shall see further, it is possible to argue.

1. Rational-logical division

The group of rational-logical types includes: Inspector (LF), Administrator (PS), Analyst (LI), Entrepreneur (PT).

The group has a pronounced administrative and technological bias. Therefore, we will call these sociotypes constructors . They are characterized by a rigid orientation toward the task, albeit with a certain compensation in terms of the human factor. These constructors are not so heartless bureaucrats as it may seem at first glance.

First of all, they are united by rational consistency and perseverance in moving toward the intended goal. This is their constructive power. Their weakest feature is inflexibility, the difficulty of rearrangements and reorganizations. Because of this, designers can continue and continue the activity that has already become useless, turning into the worst example of workaholics.

Are there any factors separating the Constructors? - Yes, for example, they are separated by a difference in temperaments. Entrepreneur and Administrator are fast, assertive and emotional. The inspector and the Analyst types are much slower; they are cautious, afraid that the situation will get out of control.

To solve this problem, constructive types must allocate roles. Linear-energetic temperaments should take the external leadership, to engage in expansion activities, and balanced and stable types to refine, deepen what has been achieved.

The next risk factor that awaits this group: the difference in attitudes. The Entrepreneur and the Analyst are Scientists, i.e., research types that seek to innovate and continually improve the existing ones. The administrator and the inspector are much larger conservatives in this regard. They do not want to risk for the sake of a hazy future, they prefer to use already tried methods.

To avoid collisions on this issue, it is better to agree in advance on the distribution of roles and the priority of current and future tasks. The arrangement is better to draw on paper. Logical-intuitive Scientists may be engaged in the development and testing of new projects, while logical-sensory managers will turn to their usual daily administrative work practice.

In order to establish smooth relations, the duties of Scientists will be made to contact sensory colleagues with fundamentally new proposals, and managers should consider them within the stipulated time frame. On the other hand, managers give an order for innovations to scientists, and they strain their intuition to find a way out for abstract ideas on living practice.

2. Irrational ethical division

The group of irrational ethical types has the following composition: Politician (FR), Mediator (SE), Lyrik (TE), Advisor (IR).

These are antipodes of constructive types. Very non-business group in the sense of discipline and clarity of action. This is her weakness. They work well only in a diverse environment, which supplies their curious natures with a large variety of interpersonal impressions.Let us assign the working title Improvisers , or Diplomats , to these sociotypes .

Diplomats' feelings and attitudes are their main weapon with which they achieve their goals. In their activities there should be no regulation of relations, detailed schedules and formal subordination. They should be allowed a free diplomatic game, containing not so much a calculation as a significant proportion of adventurousness.

Most of all they are consolidated by a free work schedule and the opportunity to improvise. The atmosphere, reminiscent of the Oriental bazaar, is very typical for their socio-psychological atmosphere. Of course, their leader will have to pay special attention to timely compensating spontaneity and anarchism threatening to get out of control.

Consider a temperamental barrier hindering group integration. The politician and the Advisor have an active, flexible and depraving temperament. For them it is difficult to keep up with a more restrained and modest Mediator and Lyric. Joint activities at close distances with respect to the same subject with such differences is difficult.

To reach a compromise, you need to highlight the extrovert Politician and Advisor. The mediator and Lyric will naturally take on the role of the second echelon. Anyway, to such a regime, the communicative system itself will be. So it is better to provide it immediately.

There is a second barrier that separates improvisers according to targets. Politician and Mediator - types are much more pragmatic and materialistic than Counselor and Lyric. Therefore, it is better to entrust them with material-consuming, supplying functions. They will cope better with the tasks of the day. Advisor and Lyric let them search for interesting people and work for the future.

3. Anomie and its consequences

French sociologist E. Durkheim proposed the term anomie . Under it should be understood value-normative vacuum, characteristic of the crisis periods of the development of society. With anomie, a clear moral regulation of human behavior is lost. Good and evil are "mixed" together. In an anomic society, the destruction of the habitual is ahead of the creation of new norms.

One of the consequences of anomie, as Durkheim showed, is an increase in the number of suicides. Social maladjustment (the inability to find a place in the new way of society) puts such external pressure on the human psyche that people with a weak nervous system do not stand up and voluntarily pass away. With anomia, a more favorable environment is formed for the irrationals. Freedom from ethical obligations is not perceived by them as something abnormal. However, the deterioration of morals leads to a general atmosphere of idleness under the motto of "bread and circuses." Inevitably, corruption flourishes. An instructive example in this regard is the fall of the Roman Empire, which was not only undermined by the raids of the barbarians, but by the gradual loss of internal rational values.

Such an improvisational-pulsating division is, of course, a rarity in a rational-technical business. But it may well justify itself in advertising or wholesale, as well as in show business. Improvisers are indispensable in those units where it is necessary to conduct "soft" negotiations, to process clients in a variety of ways, including arranging informal parties and other amusements.

3. Irrational-logical division

We will get acquainted with a group of irrational logicians: the Master (FL), the Master (SP), the Seeker (IL), the Critic (TP).

We will give them the common group name Restructuring , considering their tendency to quickly change the patterns of actions depending on changes in the situation. The logic for them, therefore, is only a working tool. But ethics is repressed value. In this sense, they are nihilists: they only care about their relations, since they need to find all the new human resources for their transactions. Maximum mercantile and do not like moralizing intonation.

Restructive flexibility is striking, sometimes reaching unprincipled. This, in fact, is the consolidating trend of this style. It unites irrational logicians into a pronounced commercial group that is able to quickly restructure itself depending on changes in market conditions.

4. Socrates against the Sophists

The ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric - the sophists proceeded from the principle of ultimate relativity. What is moral and fair for some is not for others, they thought. True knowledge of the world therefore does not exist. It is not surprising that in democratic Athens, where litigation was commonplace, their dialectical tricks were in real demand.

Socrates was poor, but stubbornly insisted on unchanged human values. Above all, he valued virtue as an absolute, rather than a relative moral imperative. He possessed the art of proof as well as the sophists. However, he directed his eloquence in the opposite direction. The subjectivity of perception can be misleading, he argued, but he cannot deceive the voice of conscience. Which of them is right?

Both points of view are right in their own way. The sophist's point of view, imbued with skepticism, is a restructive one. Socrates also stood on the positions of rational and ethical. They exclude each other in close alignment. But at a sufficient distance may well coexist, maintaining a common homeostasis (dynamic equilibrium) in the team.

Inside the restructuring group there is a tendency to polarization in temperament. The agile and flexible Master and Finder often act as instigators of deals. They can not keep up with the Master and Critic, who are not inclined to rely on breakthroughs and head-on collisions.

These opposites are subject to the already known to us the dilution between the activities in the forefront and in the rear. Master and Critic are not very offended, if less energy will not be spent on external contacts. If only their material interests were not affected and they would not be treated worse.

The difference in installations is another barrier that restructuring agents must overcome. The generation of ideas for the future will be better for the Seeker and the Critic. Marshal and Master focus on solving urgent tasks of today. By distributing roles according to this principle, restructuring agencies are given a chance to achieve stability for the whole group.

Such a unit will manifest itself very effectively in commercial activity - the acquisition and resale with the benefit of various goods. In conditions of free competition, restructive types confidently take the lead, bypassing all other business styles.

One should not forget that large-scale liberalization in society cannot last for long. Anomia based on irrationalism should sooner or later be replaced by order or a social explosion will occur. The powerful factor of rationalization of the industrial society, about which Max Weber wrote so much, leads to the stabilization of the political. The economy of civilized countries is organized more constructively than restructively.

4. Rational and ethical division

The fourth type of business activity comes from a group of rational ethics in which the Enthusiast (ES), the Keeper (RF), the Mentor (ET), the Humanist (RI) are united.

It is a natural counterbalance to restructuring merchants. Rational ethics are set up for long-term relationships, stable interpersonal relationships. The strength of the Guardians , as I will call the representatives of this group, is work with conservative clients who value a certain worldview and lead a lifestyle regulated by any norms.

Thus, they are united by sensitivity and exactingness to moral norms (by the way, not necessarily positive). Feelings and interpersonal relationships are paramount to them, and logic is just a tool to keep a stormy human character in some kind of framework.

They hold corporate morality of any organization. They are voluntary Guardians of the norms of the human community at any stage of its development. Breaking the customary value system for them is a very painful and undesirable process.

5. Ethics of ascetic Protestantism

There is reason to believe that the custodial (ethical-sensory introverted) value system was the moral cause of the development of Western capitalism. German sociologist Max Weber in his classic work "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" analyzed the influence of Protestantism on the development of market relations in the economies of Western Europe and the United States of America.

On the basis of sociological data, he showed that rational ethics in its most ascetic forms (Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism, Anabaptism) instill in people thrift, hard work and honesty in making money. Civilized capitalism, formed by people precisely with this morality, has nothing in common with the thirst for profit at all costs.

In our country, the formation of private business, unfortunately, does not have a moral foundation. Rather, the mentality of our population (Russian is much more than Ukrainian) is irrational-ethical: the hope for "maybe", the eclectic market, the reluctance to work systematically, etc. The deplorable consequences of such unprepared capitalism are obvious. Where is the role of religion? It is, but completely different. Russian and Ukrainian Orthodoxy brings up more in the humanitarian and suffering than in the social and practical spirit. Are the Guardians waiting for a temperamental barrier? Yes, in their energy they are as polarized as other types of business style groups. Energetic Mentor and Enthusiast risk conflicting with the less expansive Keeper and Humanist. They do not remain, how to divide the places in the first and second echelon. Otherwise, the unit will be subject to failure.

The installation barrier is the next obstacle that stands in the way of rallying the Guardians into a well-coordinated team. Coherence interferes with the multidirectionality of individual goals. Enthusiast and keeper types, based on simple everyday, often family values. The Mentor and the Humanist are distinguished by their elevation, commitment to one or another systematic ideology.

There is nothing else to do but to correctly combine the role expectations in a group. Let the everyday practical work lie on the sensory Enthusiast and the Guardian. Preaching by word and deed to the values ​​of the group, severe mental states with joy shake the intuitive Mentor and Humanist upon themselves.

Rational ethics create a stationary (not market) trade. They normally work only when there are generally accepted clear rules that unequivocally separate evil acts from good ones, a certain interior of communication, a traditional meeting place. Different rituals are well perceived in this group.

The motive of profit as a pure man can by no means be in the foreground of the Superintendents.

Material remuneration should be a natural result of actions on a particular system of ethical rules of life. Stepping on the path of ethical nihilism, the supervisors undermine the basis of the psychology of the whole society.

Image making is an organic activity for these sociotypes. Life style is what they create by their own efforts and observe, passing on to their students and followers. Human culture exists and is enriched due to the fact that the total humanity behaves as a rational and ethical system.

6. Conclusion: an integral type of organization and individual leaders

When you determine by which typological principle the group is integrated, remember that this is not about quantitative predominance, but about the qualitative influence (significance, peculiar communicative “weight”) of certain types.

Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention not to individual people, but to a bunch of types - communicatively welded dyads, triads, fours. It is in such a large number of contact groups that most of the life of any person, both at home or in the company of friends, and at work, flows.

In addition, it must be remembered that different principles usually operate at different levels of the organizational hierarchy. For example, the top management of the company is built on the principle of functional breadth and is based on a quadra or ring, and some of the lower divisions is based on the principle of specialized functions. For example, the marketing department works individually as a narrowly focused rational ethical group of watchmen.

That is why it is impossible not to judge by the whole organization not only by one leader, but also by one subdivision. For this you need to know the whole set of principles of its personal architecture. As well as the extent to which individual units are integrated into an integrated system.

If this is just a conglomeration of separate groups, then there is no point in talking about a single integral type - the external image of the organization.

Americans O. Kreger and J. Tuson argue that rational-logical types (in their terminology - mental-critical) make up 90% of all employees in senior positions of large organizations and institutions [1, p. 294]. In particular, according to their calculations, among the senior managers, the Administrator social type is 22, 8%, the Inspector 20, 7%, the Entrepreneur 17, 7% and the Analyst - 11, 2%.

This data gives me some doubt. First of all, due to the strong underestimation of restructures. Let's not forget that typology is still far from ideal accuracy and reliability. Although the prevailing trend in a rationally organized society, their statistics, of course, reflects true. For comparison, look at the photos of the six leaders of the business world of Ukraine (data from the Center for Forecasting Socio-Economic and Political Processes). My assumptions about their social types are as follows.

Karl Fritz - Macdonalds' general manager - Ukraine. Likely sociotype: Entrepreneur or, more likely, Mentor (group of designers or supervisors). Occupying such a prominent position, you need to work not so much in a rational and logical way as on the image of a world-famous company.

Valentin Landik - President of JSC "NORD" (Donetsk). Likely sociotype - Marshal (restructuring group). It gives an example of successful industrial actions under conditions of irrational laws and moral anomie in the state.

Vadim Rabinovich - President of the holding RICO Capital Group and the Ukraine-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Likely sociotype - Mentor (group of peace officers). The activity is aimed at forming a new attractive image of Ukrainian business in the world.

Peter Balabuev - General Director of the ANTONOV ANTK. As head of the aircraft manufacturing company, he proved that even in the conditions of the economic crisis, competitive aircraft models can be made (AN-70, AN-140). Mass production, however, is not established. Likely sociotype - "Entrepreneur".

Alexander Slobodyan - General Director of Obolon JSC (Kiev). Beer with this brand is the most popular product of Ukraine abroad. Likely sociotype - Marshal. He managed to find a balance point between Western rationality and eastern oligarchicism.

Alexander Rodnyansky - General Producer of the Studio 1 + 1 shopping and entertainment center. Creator of the most popular Kiev channel after Inter. Likely sociotype - Politician (group of diplomats). A man in his element, whose task is to balance between the tastes of spectators of opposite social groups.

The conclusion that follows from the analysis of this list is simple. The Slavic mentality and the protracted economic crisis in our country, which is accompanied by anomie, do not allow rational-logical types to dominate.

Ideally, a working team in the production or government sphere is structured as follows: the leading unit is rational-logical, the second in importance is irrational-logical, the third is rational-ethical and the fourth, the least involved is irrational-ethical. If the sphere is a market-commercial one, then it is better to put the number of restructures first. In accordance with this scheme, you need to select people for key positions.

It would seem, what could be easier? But even with a strong desire, it is impossible to be consistently logical where the subjective interests of people with power are involved. And since there is no choice, we will continue to live as we are accustomed to. Until then, until the West does not come the fashion for personology. His achievements will once again remain on the outskirts.

Literature

1. Kreger O., Tewson J. Types of people and business. How 16 personality types determine your success at work. M .: Perseus-Veche-AST, 1995.
2. Lewis J. G. Antique philosophy: from Thales to Socrates. - Minsk: “Galaxias”, 1997.
3. Weber M. Protestantska etika i spirit of capitalism. - K .: Osnov, 1994.
4. Gulenko V.V. Personology and Management - Kiev, 12.16.1997 // SM & TL, 2000, № 3.