The Use of Personal Assessment Tests

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Introduction

The use of personal assessment tests has increased significantly over time, despite the controversies associated with them. The major reason for its popularity is that the process can withstand legal challenges. Increased tests are evidently a self-protective strategy, put in place in response to regulation and legislation.

Another reason for their popularity is the ease with which organizations can administer the tests online. This approach has distinct advantages over paper-and-pencil tests. Because they are administered online, there is no need to print the tests and distribute them to the candidates. This significantly lowers the cost of administering these tests (Ted 1995).

The results of these tests are immediately processed and do not require human input. The administering software can give out very detailed and accurate results. The candidates can also complete these tests at their own convenient times and outside the recruitment process. Many suppliers produce different varieties of these tests. This increases the choice of tests made available to the recruiting institutions. This, therefore, increases their reliability, as employers will only go for those tests that are perceivably reliable (Susan 1999).

Statement of the Problem

The approach taken by personality assessment assumes that most of the observable differences in individual behaviors, from one individual to another, are because of the differences in personal traits. This study therefore, aims at defining these characteristics, evaluating them objectively, and relating them to generally significant aspects of behaviors.

Related Literature

This section first deal with literature related to, definitions of personality and personality tests. It also looks at other things like how personality measures are developed, the relationship between personality and performance in ones job and the importance of personality tests to employers. It also deals with issues related to reaction time during these tests, the methodology used to collect data and data analysis.

Personality by definition is the desires, feelings, thoughts, actions and intentions, which contribute to ones individuality. According to Blinkhom, Johnson & Wood (2000) it is also the specific pattern of behavior and thinking that exists across time and contexts differentiating one person from another.

Personality consists of the psychological orientations of a person, temperaments and susceptibilities, which in part motivates and controls how a person behaves. Though other factors like social setting affects how a person behaves, personality is arguably the major factor behind individual differences in terms of behaviors.

A personality test on the other hand is a psychological tool which is used to help in determining which part of a person’s personality will remain the same throughout his/her life (Porter 1999). People are always changing, but this test will help in identifying which traits of an individual remain the same. It usually involves a series of questions or tasks, which describe or assess an individual’s personal characteristics.

How Personality Measures Are Developed

Different personality assessments measure different personality traits. Because each assessment is formulated according to the author’s unique needs, each assessment therefore gives a different approach to the assessments.

Rather, psychologists depend on self-reports of individual’s feelings, thoughts, behaviors and preferences to assess an individual’s personality i.e., they ask people questions concerning themselves, appoint numerical values to their responses and use those values to create a description of the person (David & Virginia 2009). The aim of these assessments is to describe people as other people see them.

Personality and Job Performance

There is a great relation between an individual’s personality and his /her performance on a job. The duties and obligations f different jobs require that the people involved in them, act or behave in certain ways to ensure high performance. For instance, sales person are seen to be more outgoing, assertive and enterprising. Accountants on the other hand, arguably conform to set norms and exhibit more self-control (Bagby & Marshall, 2005).

Since personality helps to evaluate people’s temperaments, preferences and behaviors, personality therefore influences an individual’s performance by determining whether he/she can fit well into the job and whether he / she will enjoy or feel comfortable in i.e. an individual who is reserved like an accountant, may not feel comfortable performing responsibilities typically related with those of a sales person. Likewise, an outgoing person like a sales person may feel caged if he/she performs accounting duties coercively.

In general, research shows that employees are more comfortable and effective if their personalities match with the requirements of the job in question (Michael, Murray & Barrick 1999).

Personality assessment tests also help to know which candidate will enjoy undertaking a particular job. People like being themselves. Therefore, people feel more comfortable in working environments, which allow them to be their real selves, and not jobs, which make them feel restricted.

Personality tests can therefore help employers to choose the right people for a given work environment. In part, personality tests help to determine who has a natural tendency to a certain job or working environment (Edward 2001). This is important to employers and employees. The following part assesses the use of personality test to employers.

Importance of Personality Test to Employers

Personality tests are very important to employers. Apart from helping in recruitment, they are also usable in helping the employers come up with a development plan for its employees, identifying their strengths and weaknesses in their abilities (Brent 2006).

Personal assessments tests have many advantages as compared to other methods of selecting employees. Unlike the other methods like cognitive ability, personality assessments shows little or no adverse effects I.e. they do not discriminate against people of a certain group or class.

They can therefore be incorporated into selection processes as a way of increasing predictive validity and reducing the chances of biasness or discrimination. Moreover, if the tests are well configured to identify individuals who will be highly qualified for the job, then hiring such people significantly reduces the rate of turnover of employees (Anne & McFarland, 2000).

Personality assessment can determine how a prospective employee will perform on his/her job. They are in most cases preferred to job interviews. Properly validated personality assessments are useful in assisting employers to choose the best workers. This is because they give a non-subjective data-based method of identifying workers.

These employees have high potentials of performing well fit well in the work environment (McCare & Paul 2003). Some of these tests, according to some critics, lack accuracy. This makes them to be less reliable. The following part looks at the factors that make a personality test accurate.

Accuracy of Personal Assessments in Predicting Job Performance

Before using any personality test in selecting employees it must be acceptable and reliable.

Reliability: A given test measures some traits consistently to this level. Personal assessment tests can be said to be reliable if the results remain consistent over time I.e. when a person completes the test on many occasions, his/her results should be more or less the same each time.

If a test does not show reliable and continuous results of characteristics being measured, it cannot be valid and thus affecting its usability. Reliability of a test is different and widely vary. It is therefore important for recruiting agencies to ensure that whatever personality tests are administered, they are reliable and thus able to give accurate results (Brent 2006).

Validity: A good assessment test should be valid. A test is valid if it relates to other essential factors like job performance. This ensures that the results got from such results are true and reliable. However, such things like, faking answers, responding carelessly to questions and socially acceptable responding (Porter 2000), can hinder the validity of a test.

Acceptability: the job applicant carries out this assessment. Their reaction to going through a test may a negative effect on their motivation or their attitude towards the hiring organization. If the applicant therefore feels that the question asked are not acceptable, e.g. they are very intrusive; he/she might decide not to go on with the test. In formulating their tests, organizations should therefore make sure that the questions asked are generally acceptable (McGhee, Ehrler & Buckhalt 2008).

Reaction Timing in Personality Tests

Most of the personality tests only work if the participants answer them honestly, and are easy to cheat if we answer the questions in a way that we perceive ourselves to be. Different experiments can be carried out to test people’s implicit biases, which in time affect our reaction time. According to Edward (2001), most of these experiments look into thoughts that are either outside of conscious awareness or beyond our conscious control.

Different experiments can be carried out to determine people’s reaction time to personality tests. One of the common method involves, showing off different kinds of words in a computer, and asking the participant to push a certain key in the keyboard if the word is related to side A or B.

Side A in this case could be dealing with family issues while the other side could be dealing with career issues. Based on ones cognitive differences, provided by one’s own mental bias, the results therefore shows what kind of hidden biases one holds by looking at the reaction time.

Those with slower reaction times, shows that they are more biased than those who have higher reaction times. By not answering spontaneously, there is a belief that one was considering the answers to give, and therefore, the chances of being dishonest are high. However, those that are fast at answering are consider to be telling the truth. This is because they do not have to think what they say, but the answers come naturally because they know themselves well.

The average personality test should take between 5 and 8 minutes. The time which a person takes to answer questions, especially oral questions tells a lot about the person. By deliberating too, long or getting hesitating upon each question might give the impression that you were not well prepared for the test. By trying to second guess what the question means, shows that you are unsure of what you are saying.

This might therefore influence your results negatively. According to James (2010), the best way to answer such questions is by being spontaneous. By answering the questions spontaneously, and not meditating on every nuance of the question, leads to better results, which show your true characters.

The presence of timers in such tests tends to intimidate the participants. Most people feel pressured and tend to panic especially when time seems to be running out on them. It is therefore advisable for employers not to display timers when interviewing. They should instead leave the applicants to time themselves, but within the allocated time (Annie 2005).

Due to this, many people tend to memorize answers to the questions that they think they will be asked. This is very risky as different questions can be asked, which might make one to panic more since he/she had not anticipated them. Memorizing answers also shows lack of preparedness and confidence in oneself. In order to overcome this, candidates should prepare themselves well before interviews and know what to answer as opposed to memorizing what to say (Harris 2006).

Most tests have been designed in a way that makes it possible for them to be answered within a given time. Most of the personality test questions have been designed in such a manner that, how one answers them provides the interviewer or employer with the measurement required to determine ones results.

The tests are also designed in such a way that, very few people complete them on time. Speed is therefore very important in such tests. The results of the participants are then compared with those of other participants. This helps the selectors to asses reasoning skills in relation to other skills and to judge on one’s ability to cope with tasks involved in the given job (Anne & George 2007).

In most personal tests, applicants are timed. This helps the employer to test the applicant’s ability to make rational judgments within a given time this is more so during emergencies where there are time restraints on how long you have to make a good and informative. How well an organization performs mostly depends on how its key employees make crucial decisions.

In timing applicants, the recruiter is therefore able to know how long a person can take to make such decisions. Timing also helps employers to know whether you will take into consideration all the information given to you and be able to make good judgment in the shortest time possible. It also enables him/ her to know what important aspects you will skip in order to make important decisions within a given period (Adrian 2000).

Methodology

This research made use of the five-factor model, which measures, emotional strength, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion and openness to experience. Many researchers agree that there are more than five dimensions of traits in humans. However, there are more than that. They say that almost all of them can be categorized within the five. Materials that are more supplementary from academic papers, books and journals with information relating to personality tests were profoundly reliable.

Data Analysis

From the five-factor model, the following factors contributed greatly to determining ones personality type.

Emotional Strength: this involves the ability of a person to remain steady and balanced. A person with a high emotional stability level is arguably calm and less irritable. The opposite is true for a person with low emotional stability level (Houston, 2000). In most jobs therefore, people with a high emotional strength are preferred against those with lower stability.

This is because those with high levels of emotional instability are highly probable to be distracted from work. This is because of pressure, deadlines or other issues in their personal lives. This is a contrast to those with a higher emotional control. They find it simple to control their feelings and emotions while in a work environment (Jim & James 2004).

Conscientiousness: This is an individual’s ability to be organized, punctual, and dependable and the ability to persevere in times of difficulties. Different researches show that this is the personality trait that is most sought after in most job applicants. Hence, in most cases, those people with a high level of conscientiousness are at a higher pedestal to undertake a given task.

Those individuals with a low level of conscientiousness do not pay much attention to details and are therefore most likely not to give the best results or keep to deadlines. Moreover, such people are most likely to give up when faced with difficulties or challenges in their jobs. On the other hand, those with a high level of meticulousness keep trying (Netle 2009).

Agreeableness: A high level of amicability shows that a person is thoughtful, friendly and affectionate towards everyone. This is not true for employees who do not compromise neither do they show any friendliness towards others. It is easier to work with the former category since they are easy to talk to and interact.

However, the level of agreeableness is highly dependent upon the nature of the job and level of interaction between employees. Some jobs like sales or customer care require that one be friendlier and compromising. On the other hands, being too friendly or warm in such jobs like collection agents might be disadvantageous (Louis 2010).

Extraversion: This is the level interactive nature of an individual by definition. An individual who is more outgoing and social feels comfortable in crowds and always enjoys working with other people. On the other hand, a person who is low in extraversion likes solitude and is less social or interactive.

Just like agreeableness, the level of extraversion depends on the kind of job that one is undertaking. Such jobs like public relations may require one to be more social and outgoing while others like computer programming, requires individuals work and solitude (De fruyt, De clercq & Van heeringen 2006).

Willingness to Experience: This refers to the level of open-mindedness of a person. An open-minded person is always imaginatively curious. The other characteristic is that the person enjoys experimenting on new ideas and adventures. Thos who are low in willingness to experience are on the other hand, close minded, keeps to their routines and do not try on new things.

High levels of openness are critical in jobs that require one to be creative and highly innovative. These jobs also need flexibility and are different every time. For example advertising jobs. However, other jobs prefer routine work or individuals with low levels of creativity (Lambert, Mariam & Susan 2010).

In summing up, almost all jobs require people with high levels of emotional stability and conscientiousness. On the other hand, the levels of creativity, agreeableness and extraversion are dependent on a job. It is also important to note that, personal assessment is not usable as the only source of information in determining the best candidate for a certain job. Incorporating other sources of information increases the chances of hiring the best candidate. These include interviews and simulations among others.

Conclusion

Personality plays a significant role in determining the success of an organization. In most working environments, the personalities of fellow workers and managers can affect the success of an organization. If the employees do not work well as a team, and if the managers do not motivate their employees well, then the performance of the company will be affected (Landy & Conte, 2010).

Knowing ones personality type and those of your co-workers is very important in a working environment. This is because it helps one know what motivates him/ her and his fellow workers. Each personality type has its own distinctive characteristics, which influence how we view the world and other people and their actions. Being aware of the kind of people that you are interacting with helps you to see different situations from their perspective.

It also helps one to understand which things are most important and pertinent to them as stakeholders in a given situation. It can also help one to understand why he/ she finds some people frustrating while others enjoyable to be with. It is also crucial to note that, personal assessment is not effective as the only source of information in determining the best candidate for a certain job. Using other sources increases the chances of getting the best employee (Loius, 2010).

References

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