Psy 250 - Psychological Personality Assessments Used in the Workplace

Psychological Personality Assessments Used in the Workplace

PSY250

Abstract

Psychological and Personality Assessments are used by many small employers, Fortune 100 or even Fortune 500 companies. These companies have instilled these tests in their company policies with all new hires or promotional employees. These assessments are used to help all human resources personnel in the decision of hiring or promoting employees. These tests are used as tools to improve personal image, promote or hire compatible employees that will put the company into a more positive direction. Employers feel that by using and implementing these assessments they help with building good employee teams and to allow different types of personalities to work together no matter what his or her position level many be with the company. There are also many employers that feel that by using these assessments a more positive employee or new hire will be ignored because of the results of these tests. There are many reported cases where employees or their representatives have taken companies to court or even through the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because they felt that these tests were used incorrectly and therefore overlooked for a promotion or even a hired position.

Psychological Personality Assessments Used in the Workplace

In today's world many employers have elected to implement as part of their company's policy the use of Psychological or Personality Assessment tests. It is my assessment that these tests should not discriminate against new hires or promotional employees. The tests are used among small business companies all the way to Fortune 100 or even the larger Fortune 500 companies. All upper management and human resources personnel feel that these tests are important in helping them make what they consider to be the right decision with the prospective employee.

There are many Psychological and Personality Assessments used in today's society. The most common used today is the Myers-Briggs and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. The test are different but employers use them for the same reasons. They help in the decision-making of hiring the right employee.

The Myer-Briggs Assessment was developed by a two ladies named Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Cook Briggs. They wanted to create a tool that would indicate and validate and put the practical use of C.G. Jung's prior work of the psychological types. These was used by Jung back in 1923. C.G. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who wrote the book Psychological Types and was a used by many people in helping understand the individual differences among people. Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Cook Briggs began what they considered to be the "type watching" among people and carried on through two full decades. They were intrigued with the results of psychological changes found in men who served in World War II. Isabel Myers developing the indicator that would help people to understand the differences of such values. The researched continued for 50 years from the time that Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Cook Briggs started such mission. This assessment has been the most widely used in today's world of employment. The factors that help in using these test many be for the following reasons: career development, organizational development, team building, management and leadership training, problem-solving, relationship counseling, education and curriculum development, self-understanding and developments,, academic counseling and the diversity and multicultural training within a company or everyday life. There are 16 different types of results in this type of assessment. Many vary from the simple ISTJ type to the more difficult type of ENTJ. The basic characteristics of an ISTJ type are quiet, serious, responsible, practical and they earn their success by thoroughness and dependability. ISTJ types also takes pleasure in making everything in a more orderly and organized. They are very loyal to their employers. On the, other hand, the ENTJ type characteristics are basically very frank, decisive, organizational and their assume leadership readily. They also see logic and implement with the more comprehensive systems within a company. These employees are usually very informed and enjoy expanding their knowledge.

The second most commonly used assessment is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter which which is used among employers and school officials for the same purpose of hiring or promoting employees. Many schools use this assessment to help the school therapists or counselors with teaching methods.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter helps in the dysfunctional behavior of a person either children or adults. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is used for the following reasons: team building, conflict resolution, career exploration, guidance counseling, relationship counseling or self understanding. This assessment was developed by clinical psychologists by the name of Dr. David Keirsey. He had worked for 20 years in the public school systems and had seen many types of behaviors among the students. He had worked and experienced the interventional ways of behavior and focused in training therapists for over 10 years. He specialized in pragmatics of coaching children, parents and spouses to decrease conflict and to help them to increase cooperation. He wrote a best selling book "Please Understand Me". He wrote an expanded version for this book "Please Understand Me II" that focused on temperament, character and intelligence. His work helps in understanding the human personality and assists in what he has studied and researched while writing these books. The sorter part of the assessment helps in categorizing each candidate that takes his assessment as expressive versus attentive, observant versus introspective, tough minded versus friendly and scheduling versus probing. There are 4 temperaments categories in his assessment that include artisan, guardian, rationals and idealists. The Artisan is a person who would prefer jobs that are trouble shooting, respond to crises identify opportunities. A Guardian prefers jobs that are demanding in responsibilities, enjoy improving and setting up procedures. The Rationals enjoys a high demand job with high-levels of responsibilities and standards. They enjoy designing and understanding the systems. The last is the Idealists which enjoys jobs that allow them to support and encourage others. Their enthusiastic personality helps in motivating and improving moral among others.

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