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Q: You have some other concerns about business owners relying too heavily on personality tests in general. What are they? A: I think, in general, people have a predisposition to make personal, rather than situational, attributions for behavior. We are all susceptible to "the fundamental attribution error," meaning that we discount situational factors when trying to explain why other people behave as they do. Personality tests therefore confirm what we have a natural tendency to believe -- that individuals create and influence situations, not the other way around.
These tests are also memorable, simple, intuitive, and often confirm what we already know about ourselves and others, even if that knowledge is, to some extent, built on simplified, stereotype-like categories of personalities and styles. This type of classification of people is an integral part of American popular culture, marketing, and politics. Just as many of us use movie and television stars as points of reference when describing others, marketers have well-developed "psychographic" categories that they use to target advertising, and pollsters segment the electorate and tailor candidates' messages accordingly.
Q: Are there situations where the propensity to test employees for personality types can actually be harmful? A: I think tests can be harmful when they are used for purposes for which they are not intended. For example, because it is an "ipsative" test, meaning that there is forced choice between alternatives and no "right" answer to any question, the Myers-Briggs test is not meant to be an employee-screening tool, and its publisher cautions against using it to select employees. Managers should consult with their HR team before deciding which tests are appropriate to use for selection purposes.
In terms of employee and team development, these tests can be harmful insofar as they put a focus on the wrong variables, in isolation. In many cases when organizations use personality and style tests, it might have been worthwhile to first consider whether roles and responsibilities need to be clarified, the quantity and quality of performance feedback needs to increase and/or whether new strategies and systems for the recruitment, retention and development of employees need to be created and implemented.
Q: What's the proper way for business owners to use these tests and weight the results? A: The tests can help provide a framework for assessing the ways that different individual personalities and styles contribute to the behaviors that impact performance in the workplace. Tests can also be useful to the extent that they serve as starting points for candid and constructive discussions of individual behavior and performance in the workplace and create an environment where candid and constructive feedback can become the rule and not the exception.
However, like any other kind of organizational intervention, expectations should be realistic. It is not realistic to assume that getting back the results of a personality- or managerial-style test will lead to sustained personal insight and growth. And personality tests should be only one tool among many that can be used to assess and improve the performance of an individual, team or entire organization.
If personality and style tests are used in the workplace, they should be used as part of a larger, integrated human-capital assessment-and-development system, and should be a point of departure rather than a point of arrival.
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