Workshop on “Workplace psychology” by
Dr.Darshan Perera
Daniel Pink once wrote that one
of the motivating factors for any employee is having power and autonomy over
four areas of work: what they do, when they do it, how they do it and with whom
they do it (employee’s task, time, technique and team).
What’s it about?
Our Rotaract Club took the
initiative of organizing a workshop under the professional development avenue for
our club members, to give them the proper understanding of workplace
psychology, personality traits of an employee and how they should behave in
certain situations in order to achieve the best. Rtr. Samuditha Ganepola took
the initiative in chairing the project together with the support of all the
club members.
The workshop was held on the 20th
of August at the faculty Conference Hall. It was conducted by Dr.Darshan Perera
who is the Founder and the Director of Academic Affairs of Colombo Institute of
Research and Psychology (CIRP). In addition to our club members few students
from CIRP also participated in this workshop.
Are you an Extrovert or an
Introvert?
First and foremost, Dr.Darshan
gave a brief introduction about CIRP and about the diplomas and degrees that
they are offering in the stream of psychology. The audience were informed regarding
the avenues that they can focus on in the line of psychology which in turn will
be an added advantage for us as management undergraduates.
Then Dr.Darshan initiated the
discussion by explaining what is personality and what makes up a person’s personality.
He went on to explaining that the theory of Extrovert
and Introvert plays a major role in
identifying ones personality type. Accordingly, if you are an extrovert, you
will always “crave for brain stimulation” hence will enjoy having a lot of distractions
going on. On the other hand if you are an introvert, you anyways have an “over
aroused brain” hence those people are very capable of handling more serious
monotonous activities.
Dr.Darshan then explained the
importance of hiring the right type of employee for the right job. And he also
made it very clear that job satisfaction mainly depend on to what category an
employee belongs to ; extrovert or
introvert since that will decide whether you enjoy the job or otherwise.
We got a very clear idea as to
what extrovert and introvert actually meant and hence I am sure all of us tried
categorizing ourselves into either extrovert or introvert. Dr.Darshan, answering
to a question raised by the audience, stated that there can be a mix of these
two types which is called Ambivert.
Low self-esteem and high
self-esteem
Further, the discussion went onto
explaining the connection between self-esteem and dominance/submissive
behavior. Dr.Darshan added a little kick to this discussion by connecting marriage
life and relationship handling to this topic. And he brought up real life
incidents that he has experienced throughout his counselling sessions to make
it more realistic and interesting.
Be safe during
probation!!!
Final topic for the day was about Do’s
and Don’ts during the probation time period of an employee. This was very
relevant for the audience since all undergraduates are expected to enter the
job market within the next two years.
The audience was made aware of the
importance of building healthy connections with the superiors at the work
place. Further Dr.Darshan demonstrated that there is an inner circle in an
organization which is made around the superiors which every employee should
struggle to get included into. In fact it was noted that the secret of being
successful during the first phase of the job is to be recognized by the
superiors and to maintain a positive image.
Work hard while you are young…
Dr.Darshan described that any person’s
achievement depends on three important factors and hence it can be reflected in
an equation.
Achievement = Aptitude x Opportunity x
Effort
Further he brought to light that
aptitude and opportunity are the two variables in the equation that cannot be
controlled by an individual but effort is solely dependent upon an individual’s
courage and motivation to work. He also pointed out that the young age is the
age where anyone can commit fully to achieve the maximum.
With that topic Dr.Darshan concluded
the session requesting the audience to engage in further reading on the topics
discussed. It was certain that all the club members who attended the workshop
got a sound knowledge about workplace ethics, how to build an exuberant and a
charming personality, ways that an individual can handle various situations at
the workplace and also how to be determined throughout our careers to achieve
positive results. Further the audience was able to get an idea on how to
differentiate among different personality types and how important it is to
consider each and every individual’s traits when hiring an employee.
At the end of the workshop, it was
evident that it was not only resourceful and interactive but also memorable.
