Question

Concepts of personality and values congruence in the context of an employee's personality and values with the organization's values. Do you believe that an organization should administer a personality test to potential employees? What personality traits would be most valued at Pixar? Bank of America? Hospital administator? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Although personality tests can be a helpful aid during the process of recruiting prospective employees, I do not believe that they are necessary and essential. In my view, personality is not a fixed construct that can be measured by assessing an individual’s response to a set of questions or statements. Rather it is dynamic and emergent, and is determined by the interaction between the individual and the environment. For instance, Pixar is a computer animation film studio and would therefore value employees who are creatively inclined but considering that it is a well-functioning organisation, different roles and positions would require different desirable traits. The same principle would apply to the Bank of America as well. While the bankers themselves should be highly organised and methodological, the employees in the marketing department should possess creative attributes.