A current awareness resource for students & faculty members in Business & Economics

Introverts in the Executive Suite: presentation downtown + research here!

Published November 12, 2015 by Mark Bodnar

I just noticed that the CMA Innovation Centre within our Beedie School of Business wil be hosting a presentation on Introverts in the Executive Suite on Nov. 26th. Interesting topic!

I'm not able to attend, but for those of you who are able, or even just those of you who want to learn more about the topic, check out the research tips below. I've pulled these from one of the topic guides I created for a BUS 360W class a couple years ago.

1. Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers

a. Start with this rough exploratory search I did in Business Source Complete, then try further searches in Business Source using various combinations of such Subjects as:

Work environment
Introversion
Introverts
Bashfulness
Extraversion
Social skills
Personnel management
Organizational behavior
Risk-taking (Psychology)
Personality & occupation
Quality of work life
Diversity in the workplace
Organizational sociology
Corporate culture

b. You might also want to try a database that deals more closely with psychology and personality types: PsycInfo. Start with this rough exploratory search I did in PsycInfo, then do your own searches using combinations of such Subjects as:

Personality traits
Peronality measures
Extraversion
Introversion
Personality
Occupational stress
Work Attitudes
Personality correlates
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
Job performance
Job satisfaction
Employee attitudes
Employee productivity
Personnel
Coping behavior
Working conditions
Work environment

c. Or how about Sociological Abstracts? Start with this exploratory search.

2. Books & eBooks

a. Start with keyword searches using some of the same terms you used in your Business Source Complete searches, especially Introverts or Introversion. In general, remember that you should think more broadly to find useful books. For example, a book on Creative ability in business or Work environment - Psychological aspects could have chapters dedicated to personality differences.

3. Other random resources

a. Try these search results at the American Management Association site. Limit those results to articles and white papers to get rid of the mentions of expensive seminars, etc.

b. Much of the recent discussion on this topic in popular media was started with the publication of Susan Cain's 2012 book: Quiet : the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking. See also her website and the trailer for the book. (If the SFU Library copies of this book are all out, consider checking your local public library.)

c. You might have also seen this oft-tweeted Daniel Pink article in the Washington Post newspaper back in 2013: Why extroverts fail, introverts flounder and you probably succeed.

What are your favourite resources for researching introversion (and personality in general as applied in the work world)? Send them my way and I'll add them to our list!

-- MarkB

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Mark Bodnar

Business Librarian

mbodnar@sfu.ca