Personality Tests

From Tom bandy

I am coming to this question from an organizational development point of view ... not simply a staff development point of view. From that point of view, the helpfulness of psychological testing depends on what kind of organization you are shaping.

A committee based, and hierarchical organization, finds psychological testing the most valuable, particularly if it helps committees and task groups work through personality conflicts. Their primary goal is to work harmoniously together so that they can implement an agenda that has already be given to them. Duty, or product delivery, not creativity, is the most important goal.

On the other hand, a cell based, team organization, may find pyschological testing less useful (I do NOT say irrelevant ... just less useful). The reason is that they are an entrepreneurial partnership dedicated to creativity ... R&D ... research and development. They actually value the disharmony created by personalities that jar one another or interact with one another, because they are not simply implementing an agenda already provided, but they are creating a new agenda.

This is why some form of gifts inventory has become so helpful in developing teams, alongside forms of personality inventory