The issue of personality was mentioned by a number of participants as contributing to informal relations both positively and negatively. In general, officials and stakeholders noted that certain types of people are attracted to IG work, and that those people are effective relationship-builders. Virtually all officials noted that personality conflicts were quite rare, and for the most part “people are pretty reasonable”. They also noted the effects of the ‘wrong’ personality, however, and most officials of long experience were able to think of specific examples. In those cases, the officials in question “thought they were larger than the job”, were “not team players”, and were inflexible: “The problem that we were facing was that IGR, in order to achieve an outcome, you have to be flexible and to know when to lower your expectations to get to the common denominator, otherwise you are not really doing business.” The consensus seemed to be that those officials tended to move on to other portfolios before too long, and their behaviour was considered aberrant. With personality as with trust and honesty, the issue seems to revolve around communication. The ‘right’ personality is one that engages with others in a way that allows for a productive exchange and good communication.
