Recent changes within the work place of a colleague has resulted in their being required to take a personality test. Is this allowed? Can their line manager force them to do this? I know they can subvert it if they wish, but it seems rather intrusive.

anyone know?

I doubt it very much.

Does seem odd – what’s the justification?

To find out a bit about their personality types to help with team building and role-allocation

ie some manager has swallowed some bit of psychobabble management bollox.

Tell ’em to get stuffed

yeah, I think they want to, but they need to know that they can

consult your union rep. 🙂

If the manager is getting one to and will get appropriate training to fdeal with any deficiences, or find a new role if unsuitable, then sounds fine 😎

FWIW, it can actually be very useful – it doesn’t have to be “some bit of psychobabble management bollox” but then it all depends how it’s done and whether everyone is as narrow minded as to write it off as such 🙄

The useful ones aren’t trying to identify who is good or not at their job but rather what type of person the person is and from that how best to manage them in understanding their likely strengths and weaknesses. Properly shared it also allows the person to do the same for themself, potentially allowing them to be better at their job. You know, trying to actually improve working relationships rather than just blindly going along with what you know best as an absolute fact.

We’ve done it here. All voluntary but then being clear on what it was to be used for, only an idiot would have refused. YMMV.

The useful ones aren’t trying to identify who is good or not at their job

And would you [as an employee] know it was a good one?

I would simply refuse TBH

Now that bit is up to management to explain properly….

I just hate this idiotic ‘I’m not going to do it because it must be bad’ stance.

clubber – any evidence for any usefulness of them? I doubt it personally that there is any evidence at all of anything like that having any use.

I’m with clubber. These things are usually pretty adept at identifying what sort of personality you are and how that can be used within the workplace/team situation.

really? any evidence? Personally I have never seen a paper personality test worth the paper it was printed on.

I’ve done one. Lots of people here did them. We all (yes, all – 50ish people) thought they were useful for making us think about our own personalities (and resultant likely strengths/weaknesses) and how to deal with other people and/or get the best from them based on their personality types. Lots of positive responses back from those being managed after this work. This coming after a largely sceptical group on the subject before we did it.

If you’re narrow-minded and want to write it off as psychobabble, ultimately that’s your loss. To me it sounds like just the sort of thing you’re always moaning about UK business having a them/us management/workers relationship – this is one of many things that helps break that down.

Sorry, no studies that I’m going to google for though I’m sure they’re out there. It’s good because in a sense it’s common sense but it summarises it in a way that allows you to make better decisions because you think things through more logically than through gut instinct alone.

I worked at a place where they tried to make people sit psychological profiling tests to “ensure their fitness for their jobs”. It was pointed out the average time in their jobs was about 8 years and if the company hadn’t worked it out by then they could sod off.

thought they were useful for making us thing about our own personalities (and likely strengths/weaknesses) and how to deal with other people and/or get the best from them

So did you get to see each others so that you knew what sort of ‘personality’ they were?
Otherwise how would you know how to deal with them?

We used to do psychometric tests for prospective new employees, when that age discrimination thing kicked in a couple or so years ago we stopped asking for the DOBs on the forms
The company that interpreted them claimed they absolutely must have the DOB, I never really got a satisfactory answer why, Something to do with how they filed them – they said

Yes, we got to see the overall personality types of people. There was no secrecy about it because all four categories are equal – stengths and weaknesses. As I said, it wasn’t about identifying who to get rid of or allocate crap jobs – quite the opposite.

Well clubber – I like evidence based practice. I have seen some of these things and they are completely useless IMO as they have no real evidence base.

Personality types? really. 🙄

Personality types? really.

I….
agree….with T……..
…J.

🙁

psychobabble codswollop is what it is. What next; a rectal exam to make sure you’re not going to be off work for prostate cancer in the near future!? tell em to get stuffed

EDIT:

Politely

TJ – I’ve got an Insights profile on my desk here, you’re welcome to have a look at it sometime. While you may be dismissive of it, I found it insightful (haha) and incredibly useful in both understanding myself and how I can better interact with other people.

Some of us value our interpersonal relationships and try to ensure that we work better with others as teamworking is an essential part of many jobs. I would much rather be able to work better within a team than be a quiet loner who nobody can get on with, and for many people this type of personality test is a helpful tool.

Personality types: I take it you disagree with Myers-Briggs?

Personality types: I take it you disagree with Myers-Briggs?

Oh yes certainly. Very oldfashioned theory. with no valid evidence base of effectiveness.

I value interpersonal relationships and team working – however I like stuff to have an evidence base not to be based on outdated musings. Its my healthcare background and liking for rigourous and valid data.

sighs

OK TJ because you’ve not seen something work well it’s all rubbish.

Good job not everyone is so narrowminded. I know of a holiday for young offenders that descended into drugs, alcohol, violence and near sexual assault. guess all holidays for offenders are pointless and it wasn’t just an instance of one that was badly run.

OK TJ because you’ve not seen something work well it’s all rubbish

to be fair i think he’s saying he’s not seen the evidence, not necessarily first hand. I know other folks are saying they have seen its effectiveness, but ‘evidence’ is not the plural of ‘anecdote’.

No clubber – its because I know there is no valid evidence base for this having any usefulness.

Its rubbish – discredited tripe.

Nothing to do with being narrowmided – everything to do with a liking for evidence based practice.

Its a pointless waste of time. actually – its worse than that as it leads to erroneous conclusions.

Dammit! Leave the forum for a week and I end up on TJ’s side!!! how he hell did this happen???

irrespective it doesn’t make management psychobabble nonsense any more than saying than holidays for.young offenders are soft and that caning would be better.

I’ll duck out thanks. between this and the capital punishment thread I’ve had my fill of stw ignorance for a bit. Think I’ll head out for a ride.

clubber – its not ignorant to say something is nonsense because its discredited and has no real valid rigorous evidence base.

Its ignorant to think this remains a useful tool when it has been debunked.

I can’t provide any evidence saying they are useful but would be interested if TJ could provide actual “discreditation”.

For what it’s worth I have an insights profile done and it was useful. Firstly it described me to a T (scarily accurate); secondly it told my manager how to get the best out of me – “Be allowed to call a spade a spade; after an hour end the meetings etc, etc” and thirdly it provided some feedback on what I could do to improve how I worked with others. Being honest none of it was rocket science or stuff I wasn’t at least partly aware of but it was useful having it all written down.

I have had collegues moved teams because their style did not match well with their previous managers and they have liked the new role much better.

I’m sure they can’t make you take the test but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to go along with management….pick you battles and all that.

How about this piece of discussion? Plenty of references to follow
http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/HRMWebsite/hrm/articles/develop/mbti.pdf

Follow the links on here perhpas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#cite_note-9

You will find that very few reputable acedemics will give this any validity.

Its a very old fashioned theory that any time its actually tested properly is shown to have no validity

back from a brilliant ride 🙂

read your links TJ. they’re not the referring to the same thing I am.

drop me an email. Happy to discuss your views on it all.

Really? Thats the basics of testing for personality types and its a completely discredited theory with no valid evidence base.

TJ…. Are there any creditable team working problem, solving methods literature out there that you would recommend?
MrsT has an issue with one of her team. She has formed the impression that his “issues” may be something to do with his ex military background.
Trying to keep a team of 20 odd, mainly female(3 male)data inputers happy and motivated sometimes has it`s interesting moments shall we say 🙄
btw.. she has had a right giggle at this thread…………