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Examples of tasks might be:
• Agreeing a method to pass a message around the group without speaking or using written notes and successfully using it to transfer messages.
• Making a video to promote a health and safety message.
• Finding materials and making a collage to decorate the staff room.
• Creating a training programme for new staff.
• Using simple equipment to get the team to the other side of the room without touching the floor.
• Building a raft and using it to cross a pond.
• Using planks and ropes to transport some heavy barrels over a high wall.
Objective personality testing
Some personality traits can be measured by looking at the way people complete simple paper and pencil exercises or computer-based tasks. For instance, a person’s attention to detail can be determined through a task requiring use of this trait, such as colouring in all the o’s in a piece of text. Someone with low attention to detail is likely to miss some of the o’s. This approach to measuring personality is sometimes used in providing careers advice, and it can be useful for measuring a limited range of personality traits. It is called ‘objective’ because rather than asking people to tell you about their personality from their subjective view, the personality information is taken from observing the way they complete a task, and in that sense it is completely objective.
Situational judgement tests
Another type of exercise that is used to elicit a person’s behavioural style is called a situational judgement test. In this type of exercise the candidate is presented with a hypothetical situation and asked to choose the option that best reflects how they would respond. These exercises are quite versatile and can be used to measure many things apart from personality traits, but they provide some indication of how a person might behave in a particular situation or how they think it would be appropriate to behave. Situational judgement tests are more likely to be used to measure competencies (see Chapter 4) than pure personality.
These questions may ask you what you would do in a particular situation. Some situational judgement test questions focus on what you should do – that is, what is the right thing to do in a particular situation – and they are, therefore, less about how you would behave and more about your understanding of what is the correct thing to do. Some questions ask you to choose one best answer. Other formats might ask you to mark the best and worst answers or to rank all the answers from best to worst. Alternatively, you might be asked to rate the answers according to how effective they are.
Some situational judgement test questions have a clear correct answer. More often the best answer will depend on the context. For instance, in the first example below some organizations might prefer people who would speak to John directly. A more hierarchical organization might prefer someone who would refer the matter to a manager. Some situational judgement tests measure personality using options that reflect different personality styles. The third example below is like this. Options 1 and 2 suggest a more people-focused management style, whereas 3 and 4 are typical of a more task-focused one.
Example situational judgement test questions
You could try responding to these questions in the different ways described above, such as rating and ranking the items.
1. You have noticed that John, one of the people who works in your team, is not pulling his weight. He always says he is busy with his own work when anyone asks for his help with a team assignment. How should you deal with this situation?
1. Explain to John that his behaviour is not fair to the rest of the team.
2. Speak to your manager about John’s attitude.
3. Take John aside and try to find out why he behaves as he does.
4. Ignore the situation; it is for your manager to deal with if necessary.
2. A colleague asks you to review a report she has written. It has to be ready tomorrow. You think that although it has some merits it is poorly written and misses out several important topics. How would you deal with this?
1. Tell her that the report is fine and praise the best parts.
2. Point out a few errors that need correcting.
3. Tell her honestly the problems that you see in the report.
4. Offer to help her correct the report after work.
3. You are appointed as manager of a new department. It is your first day in a new role. Which of the following would you do first?
1. Call a meeting of the whole team to introduce yourself.
2. Walk around the department and introduce yourself informally to all the team members you meet.
3. Ask to be briefed on the main activities and structure of the department.
4. Arrange a meeting with your manager to hear what is expected from you.
4 What questionnaires measure
In Chapter 2 we looked at what personality is, and it is rather obviously personality that personality questionnaires are designed to measure. However, personality can be interpreted quite broadly to include all those factors that make us different from others. This includes those things that are typically thought of as the core or personality – the way we think, feel and behave, and how we relate to others. More peripheral, but still sometimes included as part of personality, are interests motivations and values. In addition, questionnaires are used to measure emotional intelligence, competencies, leadership style, team types and many other things. Questionnaires measuring these different things can be surprisingly similar, but they can also be very different in style. In this chapter we look at the different areas to be measured, starting with the more mainstream parts of personality and then looking at more specific measurement focuses.
Personality
The core elements of personality can be thought of as a person’s behavioural style: how a person interacts with the world. There are hundreds of characteristics that can be listed under this heading, but research suggests that these can be grouped under five broad headings. These are sometimes called the ‘big five’ personality factors or traits. Some personality questionnaires are designed to measure at this broad level, others look at more specific traits.
Each of the big five traits is conceived as a continuum from one extreme of the trait to the other extreme, and measurements suggest that many people have an intermediate position on the scale between the two extremes. The title of the trait will reflect one of the extremes. Although it could equally be described by an adjective describing the other extreme, a conventional description has developed for four of the five, with descriptors usually at one end. For instance, the extroversion trait is actually the continuum between extreme introversion and extreme extroversion. Most people are somewhere in between the two extremes. The trait could be described as introversion, but convention is to use the term extroversion. We talk about people being high on the trait – that is, they have a behavioural style that is typical of the end of the scale used to describe it. Someone who is low on the trait will be best described by the opposite of the scale name.
This language is purely conventional. There is no suggestion that it is better to be high on a trait than low. They are purely descriptive of the person’s behavioural style. There are no good or bad personality traits. What is true is that certain behavioural styles will be more suitable for certain types of activities – for example, extroverts are better suited to interacting with lots of people, whereas introverts are better at work where there is little opportunity to interact with others.
The descriptions of each of the big five personality traits that follow explain the typical behavioural style of people at the two extremes of each trait, as well as describing what the average person, who is moderate on the trait, may be like. Remember that there are actually very few people who are extreme on any trait and far more who are in the middle or moderately towards one end or the other. As well as a description of the trait there is a short discussion of the types of work that might suit people at di
fferent positions on the trait and how they might approach the task of applying for a new job.
You might find that you can place yourself on each of these traits from the descriptions in this chapter. However, you might sometimes find that although some of the description applies to you, some of it does not. This may be because you have a middle position on the trait – you are neither strongly at one extreme nor the other, and so your behaviour is intermediate. Because these are broad traits it could be that you are at one end of a scale for some aspects of the trait and at the other for different aspects. There are some questions at the end of each section to help you decide where you are on the trait.
Openness to experience
High openness
This trait reflects the person’s attitude to experiencing and learning about their environment. People who are high on this trait – open to experience – like having new experiences, they are curious about their environment and want to learn more about things. These people tend to be more positive about change. They are often more intellectual and conceptual in their approach to things, wanting to understand and enjoying learning. They may enjoy thinking about abstract concepts or considering hypothetical situations. They tend to be imaginative, have artistic tendencies and be sensitive to beauty. They are likely to be innovative and creative in the way they think and do things. People who are open to experience may easily become bored with routine and crave constant novelty. They may prefer the theoretical over the pragmatic, and this can make them rather impractical.
This sort of behavioural style is appropriate for artistic, creative and intellectual pursuits. It can also be desirable in those involved in research and development. People who are open to experience may be better at coming up with solutions to problems and dealing with constantly changing environments. This style is not suited to performing repetitive or recurring tasks, where things must always be done the same way. People with this personality style may also find it difficult to work in ugly or unattractive situations.
A job seeker with this personality style might be quite creative at finding job opportunities or moulding a CV to particular job requirements. Artistic tendencies could help a person create an attractive CV. Curiosity might spur action to find out more about the employing organization, which could impress an interviewer and help understand what sort of person the organization is looking for.
Someone who is open to experience might be used to thinking about how they approach tasks and be able to give good reflective answers to an interviewer’s questions. Creativity could be helpful in providing imaginative responses that are likely to make the candidate more memorable to the interviewer. However, the dull, repetitive side of searching for a job, reading through hundreds of job adverts or filling in yet another similar application form might not appeal to this sort of person, and some interviewers might find unusual responses wacky and unrealistic rather than creative.
Low openness
People who are low on this trait, closed to experience or conformist, take a more straightforward view of things. They prefer the familiar to innovations. They will tend to take things at face value rather than engaging in a lot of analysis or considering alternative possibilities. They may not have a great interest in art or science and will be more concerned with what is happening in the here and now. They tend to be conservative in their approach and may find dealing with change quite difficult. They are often practical and ready to get on with things rather than engaging in a great deal of analysis or searching for alternative approaches.
This behavioural style is suited to coping well with jobs with little in the way of novelty, where the day-to-day tasks may be quite repetitive or where there is little change or variety in the situation or the way things are done. On the other hand, people who are low on openness to experience may be less suited to work requiring the generation of new ideas, where there is a great deal of change and reorganization and where there are no familiar patterns to return to. As a job seeker, someone like this would be less likely to be put off by the dullness of searching through situations vacant listings or filling in yet another similar application form. The lack of curiosity typical of someone low on openness may mean that they neglect to research the company’s background because they do not see it as an interesting activity. Answers to the interviewer’s questions are likely to be practical and matter of fact rather than creative and original, and people who are low on openness to experience may struggle to analyse their own behaviour for the interviewer.
Moderate openness
People who are intermediate on openness to experience may have a moderate, rather than all-consuming liking for intellectual or creative pursuits, and they may be able to cope with and even welcome some change and variety but find too much change difficult to deal with. They will have a reasonable tolerance of repetition and sameness in aspects of a job and like a balance between the new and the familiar. They may have a degree of imagination and creativity and be able to come up with some new ideas and approaches to problems, but they find it difficult to be creative all the time. They may be better at adapting existing ideas than developing new ones. This balance can mean that they cope well with work that has some elements that do suit those who are open to experience but some elements that suit those with low openness to experience. For instance, copywriters may need to be creative in some parts of their role but may also have to spend much of their time rewriting and checking copy, which can be quite dull.
However, some people who are intermediate on openness to experience may have some of the traits associated with openness but some related to a more closed approach. For example, a person may be very imaginative and creative in their thinking but prefer working in familiar surroundings and dislike dealing with change.
Assess yourself on openness to experience
Circle your answers to the questions below. Are they mostly in the High or Low column? If it is a mixture of both or you find it difficult to decide between the answers you are likely to be moderately open to experience.
HIGH LOW
Do you prefer to do something new or something familiar? New Familiar
Are you good at coming up with ideas to solve a problem? Usually Rarely
Do you prefer the practical or the abstract? Abstract Practical
If you don’t understand something are you curious to know more or do you tend to let it pass? Curious Let it pass
Conscientiousness
High conscientiousness
People who are high on conscientiousness tend to get on with their work well; they are self-disciplined and will keep their word if they say they will do something. They like to finish what they have taken on. They pay attention to details and check the quality and accuracy of their work. They prefer to work in a structured manner and will generally follow rules and guidelines where they exist. This sort of person can be relied on to get on with the job, even when they are not being monitored. They like to plan what they are going to do before embarking on it and may be uncomfortable if this is not possible or if plans are constantly changed. People who are strongly conscientious tend to dislike working in unstructured environments; they may find it frustrating when others do not keep to the rules, put things back in their place and so on or where there is little guidance on how things should be done. They may also dislike working where it is difficult to do things properly, perhaps because of a lack of time or resources. They will feel uncomfortable cutting corners or producing work that is not of the best quality. They dislike working in messy or disorganized environments. They may be quite cautious in their approach and uncomfortable taking risks either in the decisions they take or in the way they do things, and this can mean that they can miss some good opportunities.
It may seem that this sort of behavioural style would be positive for any kind of work, and certainly there is much research that shows that people who are high on conscientiousness will tend to be good employees across many different roles. They will usuall
y get on with their work on their own, and they can be trusted to follow rules and guidelines and to meet deadlines. They generally produce careful, error-free work. A person with this behavioural style is likely to use safety equipment when it is required and to treat an employer’s machinery with respect. Because they are focused on their work and they take their responsibilities seriously they are likely to be among the more productive members of a team, making the most of their working time.
However, because of their structured approach to working there are some types of work for which they are less suited. In some jobs a structured approach is less helpful because circumstances are constantly changing and plans become out of date before they are implemented. There are situations where it is necessary to extemporize, to cut corners or to do something quickly, even if it is not perfect. They may find multi-tasking difficult because they have to move from one thing to another without being able to finish anything properly or tie up loose ends.
A highly conscientious person can become caught up in minor details and lose sight of the main priorities. While it is the role of managers to make sure that other staff are following procedures, they often have to decide when procedures should be abandoned or ignored to meet new priorities. For example, a manager might decide not to check a new delivery according to procedures in order to get the raw materials on to the production line to keep it running or to meet an urgent order. Someone high on conscientiousness might find this kind of decision difficult. People working in sales often need to capitalize on opportunities as they arise, and this may mean abandoning a lead that does not look very promising. This kind of behaviour can make a conscientious person feel uncomfortable.