- Psychometric testing, based on Jung's theories of personality, remains widely used in business to help with hiring and employee development decisions, though some experts argue the theoretical foundations are outdated. - At a conference on the challenges of psychometric testing, delegates discussed encouraging validation of tests and their effectiveness for roles. Some businesses over-rely on tests without measuring their impact. - While personality tests can provide insight, results alone are insufficient for determining job suitability - they should be used alongside interviews, references, and experience.

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Psychometric testing stays forever Jung
By Lindsay Clark
FT.com site; Jun 19, 2003
Carl Jung could be working for your company. The Swiss psychoanalyst may not be
on the payroll but his theories are still current, helping managers decide who to hire
and how staff should be developed.
Jung's theory on personality underlies the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, a
popular psychometric test in the £150m British testing industry.
But some experts claim that the theoretical premise for tests lags behind current
thinking. Jung's personality theory, for example, is no longer taught on many
psychology degree courses. Critics also claim that some businesses rely too much
on tests without measuring their effectiveness for particular roles.
Last week, about 200 psychologists, test publishers and human resources
professionals met in Oxford to discuss the challenges facing psychometric testing in
business at the annual British Psychological Society's test users' conference.
"We are trying to encourage delegates to ask questions about validation and
reliability," says Maura Kerrin, conference chairman and senior research fellow at
the Institute for Employment Studies.
Test publishers estimate that 70 per cent of large companies use psychometrics,
while a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey this year showed
that 13 per cent of businesses use tests as a recruitment tool.
Psychometric tests measure various attributes including personality, intelligence and
aptitude. (Elvin note: B822 focuses on Style (KAI), Personality (MBTI) and
Learning (Kolb & Bassedeur) and Goldberg’s ‘Big 5’, the one that basically
over-archs all of them. See note just below…)
Intelligence tests focus on faculties such as verbal reasoning, while tests for aptitude
assess skills specific to a job - though test company literature often blurs this
distinction. Personality tests measure the "big five": extraversion, neuroticism,
agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.
In a multiple choice questionnaire, candidates indicate their preferred response to
how they would act in a situation or how they would describe themselves. The
answers are set against a vast body of previous data to see where a candidate sits
relative to the population as a whole.

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Test publishers claim to offer an insight - but not an answer. The results of
personality tests may help focus a discussion with the candidate and aid human
resources strategy. But used alone the findings are insufficient to judge an
individual's suitability for a job.
The big five personality traits are an amalgamation of psychology theories.
Test supporters argue that although these concepts pre-date recent developments in
neuroscience and cognitive psychology, they remain valid because of tests' statistical
underpinnings. "Factor analysis" is a statistical technique used to demonstrate
significant links between test answers and personality traits, developed over a
number of years. The analysis shows which questions point to a particular trait, such
as the level of extraversion, and group those answers together.
But not all psychologists agree. (Elvin note: Well, there’s a thing! Basically
guys and gals, the science of the brain is still scratching at the surface. But
the cool thing for your Exam and overall understanding of B822, this comment
is in agreement with the course! The link here is to appreciate and use your
‘intuition’, a big part of B822 Book 1, plus the work by the likes of Wieck and
Mintzberg on ‘Management as a craft’.
‘Intution’ because something’s you just cannot measure 100%, i.e. the human
personality! Man’ it’s just too complex! So you have to go with your gut feel.
MBTI et al give you a very good starting point, but they cannot predict without
failure, not possible.
Also, Wieck and ‘whiny ‘ol Henry, our man Mintzberg, bang on about a ‘craft’
knowledge of your ‘Domain’, i.e. about 10 years experience before you get a
feel, like a ‘craftsman’ for your field of ‘Domain specific knowledge’. Hence, do
an array of Personality Inventories by all means, but never forget your intuition
on how you know what people do in any given situation. Then consider both
sets of results; the Inventories and your experience. If you are an ‘S’ type, this
could be harder to accept than those who are ‘N’s. ‘S’ gather there information
on fact, whilst ‘N’s heavily rely on intuition. OK?)
"At best, they are valid within limited cultural contexts; at worst, they are just one
possible way of looking at personality," says Jonathan Elcock, senior lecturer in
psychology at the University of Gloucestershire. "Factor analysis has a lot to do with
interpretation and the statistics make it seem more scientific; it covers up the
interpretative process." (Elvin note: See, ‘yer man Elcock is on the B822 money!)
Worse, he says, Jungian psychoanalysis is no longer part of current thinking on
psychology. Relying on statistical analysis alone, as some tests do, may even be
discriminatory, he says. In western cultures, for example, people are proud of their
individuality and display it in test results. In some other cultures, such as in China,
contributing to a group is more highly regarded, Dr Elcock says.

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Trade unions share the concern that poorly designed or administered tests can be
damaging. Sarah Veale, head of equality and employment rights at the Trades Union
Congress, says: "There is nothing intrinsically wrong with [testing] but there is an
over-reliance on it to the exclusion of other means of assessment.
"Lots of employers are not very good - they're quite sloppy, particularly smaller
businesses. Periodically we have complaints from unions about employers relying on
tests - using them to justify not taking somebody on -and they worry the real reason
was potentially discriminatory."
Concerns about discrimination and the currency of psychological thought have been
neglected because of the cost of developing a new test: between £100,000 and
£200,000. Time is also a factor. Fiona Patterson, professor of organisational
psychology at City University, took nearly eight years to get her Innovation Potential
Indicator on to the market.
This time lag is compounded by the intransigence of some employers, says Prof
Patterson. "If you have been trained [in a particular test] and taken time and money
away from your organisation, you may find it difficult to learn a variety of other
instruments.
"It could be a cost decision in the HR department, plus people get used to an
instrument and become comfortable with it."
Aware that poor perceptions are eroding the industry's reputation, in April this year a
group of test publishers formed an association in an effort to raise testing standards.
Ian Florance, chairman of the Business Test Publishers Association, comments:
"There is some bad test development but there are also some very good ones. We
have agreed on a group of standards and are challenging each other to match those
standards."
There is also a push within the test industry to update the theory underpinning the
process. As well as testing for IQ and personality, psychologists believe they
can throw light on other human abilities that are valuable in business, such as
innovation. (Elvin note: good example is KAI, from Michael J. Kirton. It
measures your ‘creative’ style and informs how people grapple with
innovation, i.e. seek to ADAPT the existing, or INNOVATE from a fresh piece of
work)
In spite of all the scepticism, some companies have used psychometric testing to
good effect. British Airways, for example, used an internet-based selection test for its
graduate recruitment programme last year and cut the cost by 42 per cent.
The airline's approach focuses on the job requirement and checks suggest the tests
have successfully predicted performance in the job. When recruiting pilots, BA
retains the test data and compares them with interview information, group exercises,
training feedback and performance in the job to see whether the initial test was an
effective predictor.

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BA also strives to mitigate any discriminatory effect by checking for bias against
ethnic minorities, says Julie Langridge, BA resourcing manager. The scheme cut the
cost of recruitment by 42 per cent last year, compared with the previous year.
The airline is regarded as an example of best practice in psychometric testing. But for
all test providers and users to follow suit would require a higher regard for current
theory, funding to develop new tests and a business drive to adopt new processes.
Until that happens, Jung's job looks safe.
Methods of measuring personality and motivation
MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)
A personality questionnaire used worldwide for individual, team, and
organisational development. Based on more than 50 years of research, the
MBTI promotes understanding of an individual's personality, their motivations
and their preferred behaviours and an appreciation of differences between
people. It has many applications, including team-building and management
and leadership development.
16PF
The 16PF, developed in 1949, is a personality questionnaire that predicts the
way someone is likely to behave in a given situation. It captures the underlying
traits that influence behaviour, and categorises them into 16 personality
factors. The 16PF is one of the most reliable predictors of human behaviour,
widely used in selection and development.
ABLE (Aptitude for Business Learning Exercises)
The ABLE series is used for testing in recruitment and assessment. Through a
series of simulations it measures the potential of a candidate to learn a given
job, to succeed quickly in it and to adapt to a changing environment. It
overcomes the adverse impact associated with many traditional ability
measures, which can unfairly discriminate against candidates on the basis of
factors such as gender and ethnic background.
Benchmarks
The Benchmarks questionnaire is a 360-degree feedback instrument used for
management development. It allows an individual to compare their self-
perceptions with those of their peers, subordinates, superiors, immediate boss
and others on key skills and perspectives considered important for success in
a managerial position.
Source: OPP