How do organizations use psychological tests as an assessment tool?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Organizations with sophisticated development systems use psychological tests to measure employees' skills, personality types, and communication styles. Two psychological tests popular among organizations are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the DiSC assessment. These are questionnaires in which employees answer questions about themselves or select words or statements they agree describe themselves. From the answers, a testing service creates an inventory or profile describing the person's traits or the way the person tends to behave. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) identifies individuals' preferences for source of energy, means of information gathering, way of decision making, and lifestyle, and describes them in terms of four dichotomies: (1) energy dichotomy, or introversion versus extroversion; (2) information-gathering dichotomy, or sensing versus intuition; (3) decision-making dichotomy, or aspects of thinking versus feeling; and (4) lifestyle dichotomy, or judging versus perceiving. Research on the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of the MBTI is inconclusive. Still, the MBTI is a valuable tool for understanding communication styles and the ways people prefer to interact with others. It is not appropriate for measuring job performance, however, or as the only means of evaluating promotion potential. The DiSC assessment tool is an inventory of behavioral styles. An employee receives a profile report describing his or her behavioral style, preferred environment, and strategies for effectiveness. The style is described in terms of dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. There are variations in these inventories, so employers should be careful to use a version that has been tested and shown to be valid and reliable.