Operational Behaviour
Supervision one essay plan “How is personality used to select people for jobs, and what are the major issues involved?” - Ben Brebner , bb443.
Introduction
Begin with history of personality measurement MBTI, introduced 1920s. Introduce five factor model, explain importance of distilling very large numbers of possible personality facets into small number of factors for ease of analysis. Also introduce 16FP test as an example of “primary traits” Mention that personality measures have not always been considered a good measure of job success – Guion & Gottier 1965 “There is no generalizable evidence that personality measures can be recommended as good or practical tools for employee selection”. State that personality tests are often utilised by employers as a method of employee selection. “This essay aims to examine the ways in which personality is used to differentiate prospective employees and the effectiveness and issues involved with such methods”
Literature review *I’ve never really come across a literature review before as an engineering student and google is a little vague on what is expected in one. Could we discuss this in the supervision?*
Barick (2001) – Amalgamates a large number of previous studies and analyses the data collectively. Finds links between conscientiousness and performance and tenuous links between 2 other factors and specific role performance.
Digman (1990) – Review of the five factor model
John et al (1999) (The big five trait taxonomy)
Hogan (2004) In defence of personality measurement – interesting article, simple and effective use of data, ie comparing conscientiousness correlations to medical procedure correlations.
Salgado, 1997 – “The five factor model of personality and job performance in the European Community.” – finds links between both  conscientiousness and emotional stability and job performance  (rc  = 0.15, 0.13)
Discussion
Most data seems to suggest that when the five factor model is used, there is often a correlation between conscientiousness and job performance (Barick, Hogan, salgado). This makes sense as organised and driven employees are likely to perform well. Salgado found links between the other 3 factors and specific employments – extraversion was found useful in two employments and openness and agreeableness were found to be correlated with training proficiency.
Mention Hough 1992 which used similar methods to Salgado but concluded against the FFM citing “inedaquate taxonomy of personality variables for I-O psychology to build knowledge and understand the determinants of work behaviour and performance”
	Clear disagreement in the effectiveness of personality in selection for jobs – major issue.
Second major issue is the concept of “cheating” – covered by Hogan et al (2007). Unsuccessful job applicants completed 2 personality tests 6 months apart and their results were examined for change or inconsistency. Less than 6 percent of applicants improved their scores on the tests, and for those candidates whose scores changed beyond standard error of measurement the changes were systematic and predictable. – suggest that cheating is not an issue for personality tests.
Conclusion
Personality tests are a valid way of predicting job performance, with conscientiousness and emotional stability being 2 of the FFM factors which are correlated with job performance. However, not all studies agree with this conclusion and further conclusive research is required.
Cheating is not an issue on personality tests as doctored tests are often easy to detect. Personality tests are also consistent over time suggesting it is difficult to prepare or train for or improve at personality tests.