Demystifying Overconfidence at Work

Abstract

Demystifying Overconfidence at Work 1. IntroductionWith the current wave of new business order emphasizing knowledge capital as the bedrock of organizational competitiveness, organizations desiring to remain operationally viable and favorably surmount the challenges that come with competitions are now beginning to leverage on the competency of individuals possessing not only the requisite know-how to the job, but also possessing self-confidence trait in their personality makeups. This is because as a personality trait, self-confidence is perceived as an indispensable competence for quality leadership and enhanced performance outcomes especially in the face of adversity. According to Sapru (2013) the foundation of self-confidence as a concept can be traced back to the trait leadership theorists' prior to 1949. From the standpoint of the trait theorists, Stogdill (1974); Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) identified self-confidence as one of the most important qualities in the determination of how successful an individual can be as a leader. In alignment with this view, Oney and Uludag (2013) maintain that self-confidence has long been used as an essential influencing factor in the field of business and marketing, while Bénabou and Tirole (2002) contend that possession of self-confidence posture stimulates and helps the individual undertake more ambitious goals while persisting in the face of adversity.Given this observation, Eccles and Harold (1991) assert that self-confidence is associated with an individual's selfconcept of abilities. Accordingly, Clement(1980) posits that the concept of self-confidence is usually stimulated by the individual's level of perceived competence and lack of anxiety in any circumstance. This therefore implies that people tend to display self-confidence when they understand they possess or carry the prerequisites competencies and abilities to successfully execute a given task without anxiety. Bearing these views in mind, we make bold to say that amid the unpredictable environment in which businesses operate, the desirability of organizations to acquire and retain a pool of workforce with self-confidence attribute is discernibly a necessary and valuable pursuit; knowing that self-confidence traithas the capacity to infuse independency among teams and groups which in turn stimulates functional conflict that promotes creativity, innovation, and team building. This is as autonomous mindset is associated with independent action by an individual or team with a view to bringing forth new business concept or vision, and pursuing such to completion (Boohene et al., 2012). However, such functional conflict is usually achieved through diversity of opinions that help teams to identify new ways of approaching problems and alternative methods of handling it (Lepsinger, 2018).In view of the forgoing observations, the question before us now is, if self-confidence is not invasive and contributes in the reduction of one's anxiety in the face of turbulence, does overconfidence contribute same level of perform...