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Introduction

Individuals always try to discover who they are. The ancients figured the stars or bodily fluids ascribed personality traits. Today, we figure personality is a combination of biology, culture, and experience. While some still look to the stars, most people use personality tests for fun and self-discovery. Organizations are also interested in personality tests to screen potential employees.

That does not mean the business world has a unified stance and perfect implementation of these tests. There are various stances on various questions, like what kinds of personality tests to use and if HR departments should use personality tests at all. A meaningful discussion about personality testing is occurring, and it is far more consequential than Saturn being in retrograde.

What is the issue?

The most basic question in personality research: what is a personality? A personality is "a person's unique and enduring pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving" (MentalHelp.Net). One might argue personality is too complex to measure, but science has been trying for decades. Many personality tests are in use, but for the sake of focus, this paper will mention two popular tests: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big 5 (Berke).

Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabella Briggs Myers created the MBTI. The MBTI asks 100 questions and creates one of sixteen personality archetypes based on the test-taker's answers by matching them to four dichotomies: extraversion/introversion, sensing/intuiting, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving (Cherry, 2020). Extraversion/Introversion is about how one gets energy (Cherry, 2020). Extraverts get energy from having lots of social interaction, while introverts prefer less alone time with occasional deep social interaction. Sensing/intuiting is about how one gathers information (Cherry, 2020). Sensors pay attention to empirical facts and details, while intuitives think about patterns, possibilities, and abstractions. Thinking/feeling is about decision-making (Cherry, 2020). Thinkers consider logic and strive for impartiality in a decision, while feelers consider emotions and worry about other people in the process. Judging/perceiving is one's orientation to the "outer world" (Cherry, 2020). Judgers need structure and planning in their lives, while perceivers are flexible and prefer to go with the flow.

Various psychologists created what today is known as the Big 5 by forming a list of words related to personality and narrowing the extensive list down to five traits with a statical method called factor analysis (Lim, 2020). The test itself measures where one lands on five trait spectrums for extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Extraversion in the Big 5 also relates to how one gets energy, but it also measures the tendency towards dominance and sensation seeking (Lim, 2020). Therefore, those high in extraversion are sociable because they are after stimulation and outgoing due to a desire to dominate. Also, those low in extraversion are reserved because they crave less stimulation on average. Openness to experience, or simply openness, is interest in novelty, imagination, and intellectual pursuits (Lim, 2020). High openness people tend to be curious and unconventional, while those with low openness prefer routine and tradition. Conscientiousness is about goal-orientation impulse control (Lim, 2020). High conscientiousness individuals are organized and dutiful, while those low in conscientiousness are careless and undisciplined. Agreeableness is how one gets along with others (Lim, 2020). High agreeableness is marked by altruism, modesty, and empathy, while low agreeableness is noted for manipulativeness, frankness, and stubbornness. Neuroticism is the negative emotion dimension (Lim, 2020). Those with high neuroticism likely struggle more with moodiness, anxiety, and self-consciousness, while those with low neuroticism are more serene and emotionally resilient.

The MBTI is popular. According to author Merve Emre, it became popular in the 1980s to fit people in white-collar jobs and remains popular in the business world ever since (Knowledge@Wharton, 2018). According to the Myers-Briggs Company, about 90% of Fortune 500 companies in over 100 countries use the test (The Myers-Briggs Company). But popularity and being scientifically sound are not the same.

The biggest concerns are validity and reliability. In statistics, validity is if something measures what it attempts to, and reliability is when a method produces consistent results. The Meyers & Briggs Foundation claims the MBTI has validity and reliability but does not cite any studies (The Myers & Briggs Foundation). A 2019 Live Science article does cite actual research seriously doubting the reliability and validity of Myers-Briggs, but those sources are from the 20th century (Gholipour). It appears while the MBTI is popular in the business world, the scientific community is skeptical and uninterested.

However, the MBTI is not irredeemable. Emre thinks people gravitate towards the MBTI because of its language and offers of insight and connection (Nguyen, 2018). The MBTI uses simple language most people know to describe people (Nguyen, 2018). Also, it offers people a chance to discover their nature and think about aligning their lives and relationships with those insights (Nguyen, 2018). Even without being scientifically valid or reliable, the MBTI can be personally useful.

What about the Big 5? There are plenty of reasons to cheer it on. Conscientiousness is a strong predictor of job performance in various occupations, with neuroticism in second place (Kumar, 2018). That makes sense because diligence and mental clarity improve productivity. Extraversion is also for employee success for jobs requiring interpersonal skills (Kumar, 2018). Agreeableness tends to be helpful with interpersonal interaction, so agreeable people will make for great team members, and openness to experience predicts how well a candidate can be trained (Kumar, 2018).

Of course, the Big 5 has its criticisms. Outside of Western cultures, there is difficulty gathering valid and reliable Big 5 results. Using the same factor analysis technique in different countries can provide other traits underpinning personality in these cultures (Laajaj et al., 2019). That poses some issues for how functional the test can be for more diverse organizations. Beck et al. found the Big 5 accurately measures personality for people 38 and under but less so for those 39 and above (2019). Those findings suggest Big 5 results will reveal less meaningful results of an older candidate and be less informative about an employee as they age.

Even more important than these individual tests, the legality of personality testing needs consideration. Testing candidates is legal, but employers must be mindful of discrimination. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the critical laws regulating personality tests to screen employees are the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (2007). Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits disparate impact, which is the disproportionate exclusion of a protected class with neutral procedures, and the ADA prohibits screening out individuals with disabilities (EEOC, 2007). The potential issue is ensuring personality tests do not discriminate against those with mental disabilities who may have extreme personalities, such as people that struggle with depression having high neuroticism.

Why is this issue important for organizations?

There are several reasons why organizations use personality tests in the hiring process: the cost of training, role fit, and cultural fit (Manatal, 2020). Recall that conscientiousness and neuroticism are strong predictors of general job performance while openness predicts trainability. Knowing how a prospective candidate measures on these traits allows organizations to know if a candidate will be a worthy investment to train. Training people is expensive, so candidates that are easier to train would be less costly (Youngman, 2017).

Role fit is another valid concern because, ideally, a candidate is adequately suited for their job (Manatal 2020). With Extraversion predicting employee success for jobs requiring interpersonal skills, one can infer a more extroverted candidate is better suited to be a sales associate than a less extroverted candidate.

If one thinks of culture as the aggregate personality of an organization, the utility of personality testing is obvious. High agreeableness predicting someone to be a team player and low agreeableness and extraversion predicting a competitive nature would reveal whether someone fits with a more cooperative or competitive culture. Research has also shown a negative association between agreeableness and conscientiousness regarding unethical behavior (Koodamara 2020).

If it comes across as banal to read how these personality traits link to these performances, that strengthens the point. With these associations so clear, an HR department should search for efficient tools to match a candidate well.

How are managers currently addressing the issue in organizations?

The three most significant concerns with using personality tests as pre-employment tests are limits of the tests themselves, potential dishonesty, and preventing discrimination. Relying solely on the Big 5 or MBTI alone may have insufficient predictive power, but using them together and with other measures can better predict performance (Test Gorilla). I lack personal experience with being tested for a job but using multiple measures to assess whether one is right for an organization is part of the college applicant experience. Stockton looked at my high school performance and required a reference letter and SAT score to assess me.

According to Test Gorilla, people answer personality tests honestly, but there are ways to mitigate lying anyway. The concern about dishonesty makes sense as a candidate could learn about a company's culture and answer questions to appear to fit the culture. They could respond in a way suggesting high conscientiousness, knowing how valuable employers find that trait. Many tools such as Idiosyncratic Item Responding, Blatant Extreme Responding, Communal Impression Management have been designed for use along with personality tests if a manager is concerned applicants may misrepresent themselves (Feeney, 2018).

Again, discrimination is the only legal concern, and tailoring questions, offering accommodations, and fair testing are methods to prevent it (Youngman 2017). That means questions should focus on attributes of specific jobs, those with disabilities should receive accommodations, and there should not be any changes to scoring based on protected class characteristics.

Conclusion

Testing will not go away. Criticisms of specific tests and legal concerns of discrimination are real, but so are the reasons that personality tests are helpful in pre-employment testing. While the current use of personality tests seems to be about blind faith in their official nature and seeming scientific backing, future managers' outlook will be more mature because paying attention to literature on these tools will be more common.

Perhaps organizations will pay for studies on the MBTI to see the reliability and validity of the test's modern incarnations. Some large organizations may develop tests for specific jobs in their company. Future entrepreneurs with a heightened interest in and more sophisticated understanding of personality testing could try growing cultures from the ground up. Whether any of these science experiments will payoff is unknown, but the science of personality will have a place in the business world.

References

Beck, E. D., Condon, D. M., & Jackson, J. J. (2019). Interindividual age differences in personality structure. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/857ev

Berke (n.d.). Pre-employment personality assessments. https://www.berkeassessment.com/solutions/personality-testing

Cherry, K. (2020). An overview of the Myers-Briggs type indicator. Verywell Mind.https://www.verywellmind.com/the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-2795583

Feeney, J., (2018). Assessing and preventing applicant faking on personality tests. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5424. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5424

Gholipour, B. (2019). How Accurate Is the Myers-Briggs Personality Test? Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/65513-does-myers-briggs-personality-test-work.html

Knowledge@Wharton (2018). What’s your type? How the Myers-Briggs became a business favorite. TLNT https://www.tlnt.com/whats-your-type-how-the-myers-briggs-became-a-business-favorite/

Koodamara, N. K., Prabhu, N., Suhan M., & Narayanan, S. L. (2020). Big five personality traits and ethical climate: A test of antecedents of unethical behavior. Journal of Education for Business, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2020.1812487 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08832323.2020.1812487

Kumar, R. (2019). The use of personality testing in personnel selection. CMC Senior Theses. 2038.https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2038

Laajaj, R., Macours, K., Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., Arias, O., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., Rubio-Codina, M., & Vakis, R. (2019). Challenges to capture the big five personality traits in non-WEIRD populations. Science Advances, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaaw5226

Lim, A. G. Y. (2020). The big five personality traits. Simply Psychology https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html

Manatal (2020). How personality tests became a recruitment trend. https://www.manatal.com/2020/06/09/personality-tests-in-recruitment-2020/

MentalHelp.Net (n.d.). What is personality? https://www.mentalhelp.net/personality-disorders/what-is-personality/

Nguyen J. (2018). How companies use the Myers-Briggs system to evaluate employees. Marketplace. https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/30/myers-briggs-system-evaluate-employees/

Test Gorilla (n.d.) How to use personality tests in the hiring process. https://www.testgorilla.com/blog/how-to-use-personality-tests/#why-you-should-use-personality-tests-when-hiring

The Myers & Briggs Foundation (n.d.) Reliability and validity. https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/reliability-and-validity.htm

The Myers-Briggs Company (n.d.). A positive framework for life-long people development. https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-US/Products-and-Services/Myers-Briggs

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2007) Employment tests and selection procedures. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/employment-tests-and-selection-procedures

Youngman, J. F. (2017). The use and abuse of pre-employment personality tests. Business Horizons, 60(3), 261–269. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2016.11.010