Although there is current interest in the Emotional
Intelligence test personality profiles and traits have not
proven to be very good predictors for who becomes a manager
or who will be successful. Despite this personality tests
have become a fixture of the business landscape. These tests
presume to identify a specific trait or characteristic of a
person. They report a person's predispositions,
preferences in alternative choices, or dominant values based
on the person's response to questionnaire items. The concept
of a "personality type" may have utility in understanding
how we interact or behavior and in how to manage or
collaborate with another. In business typically we find
applications for these tests in:
-
Employee screening - to
match an applicant's values to that of the organization and
to rule-out incompatible types.
-
Career counseling - to
advise people on compatibility of career choices.
-
Business research - to
relate significant outcomes or choices to personality types.
While the text authors
emphasize 5 personality trait tests, the most commonly
encountered test instruments are:
Jung Typology Test -called the Myers-Briggs, An
instrument for measuring a person’s preferences, using four
basic scales with opposite poles. The four scales are: (1)
extraversion/introversion, (2) sensate/intuitive, (3)
thinking/feeling, and (4) judging/perceiving. “The various
combinations of these preferences result in 16 personality
types.” Types are typically denoted by four letters--for
example, INTJ (Introversion, Intuition with Thinking and
Judging)--to represent one’s tendencies on the four scales.
Locus of Control (Julian
Rotter) -
Measures External vs Internal personality.
Self Esteem (Mehrabian &
Epstein) - measures attitude towards
self; optimism.
Need for Achievement/Affiliation/Power (McClelland)
- measures personal drive to achieve, to need attachment, to
acquire power.
Open and Closed Mind
(Rokeach) - measures terminal/instrumental values
(goals/means) to determine authoritarianism or
liberalism.
Emotional Intelligence (BarOn
[EQ-I]; Mayer, Salovey, Caruso [MSCEIT]) - measures
self-awareness and emotional/relational skills (maturity).
The most commonly seen job trait tests are:
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionaire (MSQ)
(Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist) - measures
level of satisfaction with job.
Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) (Hackman
& Oldham) -measures job characteristics and worker
attitudes about job
