Running head: Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias?

Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias?

Tawain Kelly

SU_MGT7100 Seminar in Group and Team Behavior

Dr. Ethel Chiles

South University
 Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias? 2

Abstract

Personality places a large part in someone’s behavior on and off the job, a person behavior can

affect their relationships with their employees and co-worker. How we respond to someone can

truly make a difference on whether an individual get that job promotion or even if they get an

increase in pay. Several human resource departments conduct personality traits assessments

before they hire individual to see whether they will be a good fit for a position. Predictive Index

(PI) Behavioral Assessment and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are two personality

assessments that employers use but the issue with both assessments is that need to be updated to

fit the demands of the workplace and should involve more diversity questions that with for

people with personality disorders and well those that may have social interaction issues.
 Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias? 3

Add Title Here, up to 12 Words, on One to Two Lines

In the article “The Conscientious Responders Scale Helps Researchers Verify the

Integrity of Personality Questionnaire Data”, the article looked at five-item embeddable validity

scale that differentiates between conscientious and indiscriminate responding in personality-

questionnaire data (Bajkov, L., MacDonald, J., & Marjanovic, Z. 2019) to question the fairness

of personality assessment and whether the test was discriminating. Personality assessments can

be considered biased if they result in disparate treatment of or have a disparate effect on a

protected group.

In the article “In Search of Sustainable Behavior: The Role of Core Values and

Personality Traits” the authors stated that individual-level factors associated with sustainable

behavior within the work environment is vital to advance corporate morals and sustainability

efforts (Marcus, J., & Roy, J. 2019), and personality play an important part in employee

behavior. Personality plays a key part in organizational behavior because of the way that

individuals think, feel, and behave impacts numerous viewpoints of the work environment.

People’s personalities impact their behavior in groups, their attitudes, and the way they make

choices. By looking at values and personality, the authors determined that values are

motivational while personality characteristics are descriptive, and both must be accounted for to

create an integrator view of the individual. The authors used cross-sectional survey methodology

to collect their data, the authors determined that cross-sectional survey plan limited their ability

to evaluate how individual differences influence sustainability activities within the work

environment, but how personality influences such things as motivation, administration,

performance, and conflict.

In the article “Personality traits of entrepreneurial top management team members and

new venture performance”, management professionals and leadership experts regard personality

traits as imperative qualities of person, group, and organizational performance (Shengli Dai,

Yingchun Li, & Wei Zhang 2019) and should better understand their role as leaders and dealing

with people with different personalities. The more that management understands how personality

in organizational behavior works, the better prepared they are to be successful and accomplish

their objectives. One factor which decides the significance of personality in organizational

behavior is the workplace where personality of a person is being examined; after all,

personality’s impact on an organization is relative and depends on how the organization has been

organized. Individuals have many diverse views of the world that influence their identities.

When a situation arises, an individual will handle it based upon their individual values, beliefs,

and personality characteristics. These characteristics are created all through a person’s lifetime

and sometimes cannot be changed, so it is more accommodating for supervisors to attempt to

understand their employee personal values, beliefs, and personality characteristics but also take

in part the values, beliefs, and goals of the organization.

In the article “Narcissism personality trait and performance: task-oriented leadership and

authoritarian styles as mediators “, found that narcissism personality trait in leadership that can

be manifested in some behavioral styles/leadership style, like any other personality trait which

would ultimately lead to organizational outcomes (Sudha, K. S., & M, G. S. 2020). The authors

looked at 273 senior-level managers and used Sinha's leadership scale (Sinha, 2008) to measure

task-oriented and authoritarian leadership styles. When managers understand the role of

personality within the work environment, they can utilize it to develop the organizations to help

the organization grow. Appealing to an employee's individual personality can help an

organization increase work fulfillment and reduce employee turnover. Recognizing employee

personality characteristics is the first step in successfully accomplishing organizational

objectives. Being able to capitalize on representative qualities additionally understanding how to

strengthen their shortcomings is the foundation to achieving the organizations goals.

In the article “Measuring self-confidence in workplace settings: A conceptual and

methodological review of measures of self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem’, the authors

used a systematic review to identify and evaluate measures of self-confidence reasonable for

utilize in coaching, the study points to unequivocally look to understand the empirical and

conceptual overlap between self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem (Kane, A., Yarker, J.,

& Lewis, R. 2021). The authors review measures of self-confidence, counting measures of self-

esteem and self-efficacy, which are outlined for the adult population and potentially important

for utilize in coaching; and take a more thorough approach than past reviews through embracing

a systematic process and the consideration of a quality survey. The significance of personality

and how it complements an organization, changes by the role within an organization. For

managers and business leaders, having the ability to persuade and energize your colleagues

whereas too understanding their inadequacies, is critical to an organization. For managers,

having the ability to communicate successfully with staff and stay flexible toward change is

imperative to driving an organization. A manager’s ability to construct and maintain connections

with colleagues is necessary for the organization to grow and succeed. Often, personality dictates

how organizations can construct and maintain connections and is an important component to any

organization. Workplaces are dictated not only by policies but also the personalities of

representatives. Attempting to smother personality can result in disgruntled and baffled workers.

Numerous lists of personality characteristics persevering characteristics depicting an individual’s

behavior have been created and utilized in Organizational Behavior research. A key starting

point is to consider the identity measurements known as the “Big Five Model”; they include:

 Extraversions are workers are active, friendly, and self-assured. An extravert is

comfortable and confident in interpersonal connections; an introvert is more

pulled back and reserved.

 Agreeableness employees are good-natured, agreeable, and trusting.

 Conscientiousness workers is dependable, reliable, and cautious.

 Emotional stability are representatives that are relaxed, secure, and unworried.

 Openness to experience are representatives that are inquisitive, open to new ideas,

and creative (Osborn, M.U.J.R.S.R. N. 2013).

The issue with personality assessments is that do not give an accurate depiction of an

individual personality or how well they will do their job. Personality assessments over-

emphasize a few viewpoints of people’s personality and under-emphasize, misplace, or exclude

other perspectives. Personality assessments do not give a precise portrayal of part of a person’s

personality, they give a mutilated, deceiving adaptation of the complete picture. There are

several research designs that can used to understand workers personality, the main two are

quantitative and qualitative. In the article “A Study to Investigate the Relationship between the

Perfectionist Level and Self –Esteem Level of Academicians Working at Universities” the author

studied the relationship between the perfectionism levels of academicians working at colleges

and their self-esteem and while this may not be considering a workplace, personality still effects

students on how well they will do in college. The author used quantitative and qualitative, a

mix-method design to conduct the study. Quantitative research methods are strategies will

deliver generalizable results, make comparisons between diverse groups and benefit from
 Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias? 7

looking at the connections within a certain structure (GÖRKEM, A. 2020). Qualitative research

will provide data obtained by the analyst from first-hand observation, interviews, surveys, center

groups, participant-observation, recordings made in normal settings, records, and artifacts. The

study will use mixed-method research to look at individual differences in characteristics, their

thought processes, abilities, and life stories that make each person unique using a quantitative

research design.

There are a few trends and regularities of behavioral designs in people which determine

their personality traits (Hashmi, A., & Naz, Q. (2020). This study will determine the impact of

big five personality traits on employees as well as students. Big Five Model is generally

considered the most comprehensive and accepted framework, particularly used for applied

research. The five dimensions include: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness,

Neuroticism/Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience (KAPUSUZ, A. G., & ÇAVUŞ,

M. F. 2018). will be used. One of issues that personality psychology has had was providing

comprehensive descriptions of individual differences in behavior in a broad sense. The reason

why observation will be great for this study is because research will be able to watch how

individuals behave, refining theories, and allowing for observation of behavior that cannot be

created in a manufactured environment for moral or practical reasons. The drawbacks of

observation are that these studies do not produce quantitative information, do not allow for

cause-and-effect explanations, time consuming, and can be inclined to researcher bias but also

observational research which is descriptive. Questionnaire surveys also will collect and that will

be used to not to test individual’s ability to comprehend but also provides bits of knowledge into

a human-being and the decision-making process as well as the method of reasoning behind that

process. It basically helps to understand how individuals relate with others when it comes to
 Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias? 8

emotions, how they approach issues, deal with emotions and understand their own personality.

The questionnaire will as basic demographic questions and then go into behavioral questions:

• Do you like meeting new people?

• Do you like helping individuals’ people?

• What do you on the off chance that you have got been unjustly accused of

something you did not do?

• Are you easily to angry or are you a calm person?

• Do you set long term goals?

It is important to define the study objective before making the survey and sending it out.

The “why” and “how” is important to be put in put some time recently starting the think about.

This guarantees that actionable insights can be determined from the information collection.

Participants will be chosen arbitrarily, and the data will be sent to their e-mail because that will

give an exact account of data that will sent out and sent back and based on that amount certain

people will be asked to join a focus group to conduct the observation study.
 Are Personality Assessments Fair or Bias? 9

References

Bajkov, L., MacDonald, J., & Marjanovic, Z. (2019). The Conscientious Responders

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Shengli Dai, Yingchun Li, & Wei Zhang. (2019). Personality traits of entrepreneurial top

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0399

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and self-esteem. International Coaching Psychology Review, 16(1), 67–89.

Osborn, M.U.J.R.S.R. N. (2013). Organizational Behavior. [South University]. Retrieved

from https://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/#/books/9781119033110/

GÖRKEM, A. (2020). A Study to Investigate the Relationship between the Perfectionist

Level and Self -Esteem Level of Academicians Working at Universities. Sakarya University

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