1. Using Personality Test for
Personnel Selection
Cornelius J. König
Saarland University
with some slides from Neil Christiansen, Central Michigan University, USA
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3. What are personality tests?
Self-report measures of preferences, general
dispositions, and behavioral patterns
Sample items
• I tend to shy away from crowds of people.
• I try to be courteous to everyone I meet.
• My work is likely to be slow but steady.
• I often crave excitement.
• I work hard to accomplish my goals.
Often: “Please answer on a scale from 1 =
completely disagree to 5 = completely agree”
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4. Which aspects of the personality
of applicants can be measured?
One answer:
• The “Big Five”
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional stability
• Extraversion
• Openness for experience
• Agreeableness
• An answer given by many scientists
Another answer:
• Whatever you like to measure
• “We customize the test to your needs”
• e.g., management of emotions, self-confidence, risk-averseness
etc.
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5. Which aspects of the personality
of applicants can be measured? (II)
A third answer:
• Another model proposed by a consultancy
• e.g., 4 dimensions resulting in 16 combinations in the Myers-Brigg
Type Indicator (MBTI)
• e.g., 16 dimensions in the 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire
(16PF)
• e.g., 32 dimensions in the Occupational Personality Questionnaire
(OPQ32)
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6. Which aspects of the personality
of applicants can be measured? (III)
A fourth answer:
• Some honesty or integrity related scales
• “Overt” version: direct questions about integrity-related
attitudes and past dishonest behaviors
• “Personality-based” version: items measuring a mixture of
constructs all thought to be precursors of dishonesty (e.g.,
impulse control)
• Integrity tests have received substantial research
attention
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7. Do personality tests work?
Can we predict performance?
The “Big Five” (Salgado, 1997)
• Conscientiousness ρ = .25
• Emotional stability ρ = .19
• Extraversion ρ = .12
• Openness for experience ρ = .09
• Agreeableness ρ = .02
For comparison
• Mental ability tests (Salgado et al., 2003) ρ = .62
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8. Do personality tests work? (II)
What about customized tests?
• The negative side
• You often don’t know whether they work unless you test it
• You need a good job analysis to figure out how to customize it
• The positive side
• You need a good job analysis anyway!
• If you don’t customize, you will likely assess many aspects that are
irrelevant!
Actually a common error (Christiansen et al., 2011)
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9. Do personality tests work? (III)
Tests sold by consultancy
• Again, assess only the aspects you need to assess!
• Go and ask whether they have data that their test works!
• And be critical…
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10. Do personality tests work? (IV)
Honesty tests
• Very recent meta-analysis by van Iddekinge et al. (in
press, Journal of Applied Psychology)
• Test publishers
• As computed by van Iddekinge et al. ρ = .21
• As reported by the test publishers ρ = .27
• Non-publishers
• Developed integrity test ρ = .20
• Did not develop integrity test ρ = .10
• Compare this with the medical research literature: We are
all humans with vested interests
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11. For what decision may you use
personality tests?
My advice:
Use personality test as a tool to screen out applicant in
the early stages of your hiring process
Why this advice?
• Why early? Because administering personality tests is
easy and fairly cheap
• Why screen out? Because applicants who don’t get at
least mediocre scores in your personality tests …
a) don’t have the right personality AND
b) don’t know that they should have it
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12. Should you worry that applicants fake?
Some research findings
1. People can easily fake if instructed to do so
2. A considerable number of applicant will fake
• But not all
• Maybe a bit less in Europe than in the US and in China
3. Empirically, faking doesn’t seem to be very problematic
• “Faking” = actually appropriate self-presentation? Or maybe
even a skill?
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13. Might you encounter problems if
you use personality tests?
Applicant reactions
• Nikolaou & Judge (2007): personality tests are perceived
as “okay”
• Other selection tools are better, other tools are worse
Legal problems
• Especially likely if the items are work-related
• Work-related items also work better
• Plus: participants like them better
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14. Common traps
Beware of forced-choice measures!
Example Most Least
DISC question Prefer Prefer
Receiving attention from other people
Working together with others to
achieve an aim
Standing up for your rights
Showing affection in personal
relationships
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15. What’s the problem with
forced-choice tests?
Because of dependency
in response options,
cannot be high on all
traits
One exception: the
forced-choice version of
the OPQ32
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16. Common traps (II)
Establish cut-off scores and don’t rely on narratives!
Nanos’ Basic Character
“Nanos is extremely stable, sympathetic and reliable, inspiring trust in
others easily. He is approachable and friendly, although he is unlikely
to give his trust easily and will tend to remain suspicious until satisfied
his security is not threatened.
Deliberate in thought and action, Nanos is careful and cautious in his
approach to problem. He has a deep dislike of change and the
unexpected.”
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17. What’s the problem test with using
narratives?
Often with no reference to scores or norms
Often based on putting people in a “high on aspect
A” vs. “low on aspect A” tray
• Sometimes, there are more 4 trays
Judgments are subjective: “Do I like this person”?
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18. Common traps (III)
Never assume that there could be something like
„too much of a good thing“!
• Although this makes intuitively sense…
• … researcher haven’t been able to find it for years
• Maybe the measurement of personality tests isn’t accurate
enough…
• … but this will also apply to the test you will use!
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19. Take home message
Should you use it personality tests or shouldn’t you?
• My personal answer: Screening tool
If you use them:
• Base the use on a careful job analysis
• Customize
• Beware of forced-choice measures
• Use cut-off scores
• Be critical before you buy
• And: keep track of recent research!
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20. Thank you
for your attention
Cornelius König
ckoenig@mx.uni-saarland.de
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