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Essay on Personality in the Workplace

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An individual’s personality is the basis of who they are and generates how they react to and behave in different situations. Personality testing is used in workplaces to identify whom to hire, promote and even put into teams. Personality testing is efficient in being able to determine which employees will perform best in certain roles, and this can remove some stress from employers. Personal testing has been shown to help improve the quality of employees who are in the workplace. The method of assessing personalities that will be examined in this essay is the Big Five taxonomy method. The two main questionnaires, which are used to determine these traits, are the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire and the NEO personality test. …show more content…

386). In most workplaces personality testing is used to determine potential recruitment. The aim of personality testing is to differentiate groups of people who share a similar structure of knowledge and behaviours, and to recognise patterns of behaviour in groups while still maintaining the wholeness of the individual (Allinson, Sutton, & Williams, 2013, p. 234). The most widely accepted and used method of assessing personalities is the Big Five taxonomy. The Big Five taxonomy method is described as “a well-defined measurement model for assessing personality across five broad dimensions” (Higgins, Lee, Peterson, & Robert, 2007, p. 300). The five dimensions of personality traits that the Big Five uses are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness (Mak, & Vearing, 2007, p. 1745). Each of these personality traits is considered to be a substantially reliable measurement model cross-culturally and across the life span also (Higgins, Lee, Peterson, & Robert, 2007, p. 300). Looking at the traits individually, they all focus on an entirely different aspect of personalities, yet are considered the most relevant personality traits for the workplace. It is believed extraverted individuals often look to engage in challenge appraisal in particularly stressful situations and also tend to adopt and approach orientation (Huang, Palmer,

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