Problem: Management Decision

Company of INTJs Seeks ESFP Employee Every business magazine you've picked up recently has had some kind of article on personality testing in the workplace.163 You've read about the Caliper, used by FedEx, the Chicago Cubs, and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury. Anne Mariucci, part-owner of the Mercury, uses the test to evaluate potential draft picks and make coaching assignments. With the help of a consultant, venerable retailer Neiman Marcus designed a test to identify the characteristics needed to be a successful sales associate; as a result, it has increased sales per associate by 42 percent and reduced staff turnover by 18 percent. Today, you're reading about a personality test originally designed for Olympic teams and military units (small groups in high-pressure situations with a single, focused goal). As you close your magazine, you can't help thinking about diversity. As the manager in a medium-sized candy company, you have always made sure that your work force was diverse with respect to minorities and women, but until now you've never considered managing based on personalities.

Even though personality tests sound like a good idea (lots of reputable companies are using them), you wonder about the drawbacks. There must be some, in addition to the several hundred dollars it would cost to test each of your 75 employees, or you would have started testing a long time ago. The stack of articles you've read, however, is prompting you to think that personality testing might be a good idea. It looks like the only way to ensure deep-level diversity. The new wave of tests, like the NEO Personality Inventory (Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Openness) and the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, make less sweeping generalizations than their predecessors. By using narrower indicators, the NEO and OPQ can identify how people will behave in certain situations and, ultimately, how well an employee's personality is suited to the tasks his or her job requires. Testing is already a $400 million industry in the United States, and it's growing at 8 percent a year. The amount spent on personality testing alone has increased 10 to 15 percent each of the last 3 years. Most Fortune 500 companies use the venerable MyersBriggs test. A recent study found that poorly performing employees cost U.S. employers $100 billion a year, so perhaps it's time to jump on the bandwagon.

Questions: 1. If you knew the personality profiles of your workers, how would you actually use the information to benefit the company? Can personality testing help you achieve the company's goal of becoming one of the largest candy makers in North America?

2. Does personality testing help cultivate deep-level diversity, or does it do the opposite, ensuring a company staffed with people who are the same? Is there another way to cultivate deep-level diversity besides personality testing?

3. Do you see any drawbacks to personality testing? In addition to a diverse work force, what benefits could a manager derive from personality testing?

4. Do you begin personality testing? Explain your answer.