1
Instrument Assessments
Bob Ludwig
Bellevue University
MSM 500; Portfolio Paper
2
Instrument: Myers-Briggs
Results and Description: ENTJ.
Frank, decisive, assume leadership readily. Quickly see illogical and inefficient
procedures and policies, develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational
problems. Enjoy long-term planning and goal setting. Usually well informed, well read, enjoy
expanding their knowledge and passing it on to others. These individuals are forceful in
presenting their ideas.
Personal Usefulness
I found the Myers-Briggs test more useful in taking a look at the questions themselves
and what they were intended to unveil as opposed to just being influenced by my results. There
were questions that forced me to look into not only the true intent of the question, but more
importantly, my reluctance to be honest in my answer. In other words, I found it useful that
many of the questions, oddly enough, exposed my insecurities. For instance, I found it difficult
to answer yes or no to tough statements such as “Your actions are frequently influenced by
emotions,” as well as “You enjoy being at the center of events in which other people are directly
involved.” It wasn’t easy for me to admit that my actions were frequently influenced by my
emotions. In my professional life, as a coach, I preach mental toughness to my players on almost
a daily basis. However, acting emotionally (yet hopefully never irrationally) is part of that big
picture that we want the young men to understand. If I was to name the characteristics that
3
embody a “mentally tough” individual, I would say that acting emotionally is on the opposite
side of that spectrum. I think that is a good eye opener of sorts for me. It was also interesting to
try and view objectively that I do like, or at least feel comfortable with, being the center of
events in which other people are directly involved. I don’t think this is an arrogant or conceded
mindset in my personality, but rather that it hopefully displays my desire to lead. Going off of
that, my results suggest that I am “forceful” in presenting ideas. Viewing these results and
thinking about them throughout the semester, I hope that I can be more assertive and less “frank”
in my communication with others. It is that type of first impression exchange that could scare
off a co-worker, or even a potential basketball recruit. Being conscious of these results, although
I might not always agree with them, will help me to gain a better understanding of how to adjust
my communication methods as well as positively maneuver the way that I react to emotional
situations.
Manager Usage in Relation to Staff
I can definitely see how this test can be an effective tool for a manager in determining not
just the labeled personality type of their employee, but more importantly, how to better go about
dealing with them as people, especially in important situations. Whether it be conflict, or
perhaps how an employee might react to praise, these results can give managers a feel for their
employees before actually having the hands on experience needed to determine how to deal with
their personality. A personality inventory like this can be used directly by management or in HR
to assess incoming employees’ personality types, sometimes to see if they are indeed a good fit
4
for the job in which they are applying. Other times these tests help to guide a company in
putting a potential or even current employee in a position that fits their personality strengths. It
can also assist a manager when assigning work stations and offices, because you can at least
attempt to surround employees with individuals that you feel they'll get along with.
Example of Usage in Industrial and/or Educational Applications
In 2005, medical staff at Royal Hobart Hospital in South Australia did a study using the
personality test on senior medical staff to examine what trends, if any, existed within the
specialty. 68 of 82 returned completed questionnaires for a response rate of 83%. The results
determined that the staff tested suggested variation from that of the general public (Boyd and
Brown, 2005).
In another study, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln did research in attempting to find a
way to make teams more effective by gathering information from senior engineering design
students who were completing a team term project. The training they received on the type of
personalities their team members had helped them to improve their communication, trust, and
interdependence. They concluded that the understanding and tolerance of the team members’
individual behaviors was the largest benefit of the Myers-Briggs test (Varvel, 2004).
Instrument: Learning Styles Questionnaire
Results
5
Auditory 17, Visual 13, Kinetic 12, Left Brain Dominant. According to my results, the
following should hold true: I prefer verbal instruction, can often be distracted by sound, and
prefer talking through problems step by step. I tend to talk out the pros and cons of a given
situation, and while I enjoy listening, I can’t wait to talk myself!
Personal Usefulness
While I believe that the learning styles questionnaire was a useful tool, it only reinforced
what I had already believed my primary learning style to be. I think that I’ve been able to assess
these things by the feedback I’ve received from my co-workers as well as friends and family, all
which reinforce that while I am a good listener, I often interrupt and have a tendency to rant.
This is vital information for me in my personal and professional life. I could easily make a
negative first impression if I put myself in a situation where I was overtly talkative when
someone was trying to express something. This is something that I’ve taken steps to fix, mainly
by using facial and hand gestures to ensure the person that I am communicating with that I am on
track, while being sure not to communicate verbally until the individual has completed their
thoughts. I think that I am already doing a better job of making sure that the people I am
communicating with feel valued in their opinions.
Manager Usage in Relation to Staff
6
Learning style awareness is very important for managers because it allows them to more
effectively prepare themselves in how they deliver information of various types. Whether it be
training, assigning tasks, or designating roles, managers who are more aware of the learning
styles of their employees are not only going to communicate more effectively, but they’ll also put
their employees in a position to learn more effectively. If a manager finds that the learning style
the questionnaire associated with the employee doesn’t coincide with their experiences with the
individual going forward, it is an easy adjustment to make to switch from one way of delivering
information to another.
Example of Usage in Industrial and/or Educational Applications
A study done in partner with National Central University and the School of Computing
and Information systems was performed in 2009 in an attempt to determine on-line students’
learning styles through an automatic, systematic approach. The learning styles were grouped
using a different system, placing the students under one of the following categories: Active or
reflective, sensing or intuitive, visual or verbal, and sequential or global. We see some of the
same terms in this research as were used in Myers-Briggs personality tests. They concluded that
the DeLes (short for ‘detecting learning styles’) was a useful tool in recognizing behavioral
patterns with their group of online students (Graf, 2009).
Instrument: Emotional Intelligence Test
Results and Description
7
Subscale IQ Score: 92. Subscale Percentile: 32. According to my self-report answers,
my emotional intelligence is not extremely good. People who score like me feel that their ability
to understand and deal with their own emotions and those of others is just barely acceptable.
Personal Usefulness
This is definitely a result that I was uncomfortable with, yet believe might be somewhat
accurate. I certainly do not feel that I am in any way “emotionally unstable,” yet my results
suggest that I need to make progress in some areas. I can definitely say that this test isn’t my
first encounter with this type of feedback. In my personal life, I’ve often times heard that I make
emotional decisions without thoroughly thinking things through. However, upon hearing this
many years ago, I believe I’ve been successful in making the adjustment to make certain that this
is not a problem in my professional life. I have not had one manager, head coach, supervisor, or
co-worker express to me that I make rash decisions or that I’ve put myself in a situation
professionally where my emotions get the best of me. From my own assessment, and from an
“in-game coaching” standpoint, I think that I occasionally allow my emotions to take hold
whether it be an officiating situation or disciplinary situation with a player. The general
awareness of my tendency to be emotionally hard on myself and others is a great thing to have.
It will make it so that I can take a step back when encountering emotional obstacles and get a
better grasp on how to communicate when tough situations arise both in my personal life and in
the workplace.
Manager Usage in Relation to Staff
8
Managers will walk a fine line if they equate the results of this test to how they should
communicate with their employees. You could easily run into a situation where a manager feels
as if he needs to tread on ice to avoid an “overly emotional” employee as decided by an on-line
test. I think this tool, while useful for a manager, is best used to assess one’s self. If the
instrument is indeed used by a manager, it will be crucial that they hold the information they’ve
obtained in the results objectively. After all, many of the questions asked in this instrument are
quite personal. While the manager might have access to only the results and not the exact
answers of these personal questions, he’ll still have an idea of what the answers were based on
the results, which is discomforting as an employee. Personally, I would not want my boss to
know how I answered many of these questions, a big portion of which deal with in-depth
personal relationships. That would hinder both my manager’s confidence in approaching me on
certain topics, as well as make me insecure on how I communicated with he or she on any
matters that brought about emotion.
Example of Usage in Industrial and/or Educational Applications
Emotional intelligence is crucial in the mental health field. Doctors and nurses in this field are
dealing regularly with situations that require them to be emotionally strong and act intelligently,
quickly. In recent research done on mental health nurses in the Netherlands, results for surveys
on 98 Dutch nurses caring for psychiatric patients were calculated. The results showed that
female nurses scored significantly higher than men on the subscales of empathy, social
9
responsibility, interpersonal relationships, emotional self-awareness, self-actualization and
assertiveness (Van Dusseldorp, 2011).
Instrument: Locus of Control
Results
Score: 70. The results stated that I have a fairly internal attribution style when it comes
to success. In general, it said that I interpret my success as a result of my skills, intelligence, nice
personality, etc. It said that I might think it takes a bit of luck as well. As a result, I am usually
able to accept the credit I deserve. My self-esteem, motivation, and general well-being certainly
benefit from this orientation.
Personal Usefulness
I believe that the results of this instrument are accurate. However, I think it is important
to note that those close to me feel otherwise. I’ve been told many times that I attribute my
successes based upon what others think and that I far too much weigh-in outside opinion when
making decisions in the workplace. I couldn’t disagree more with these assessments, but I think
it is important to note that others close to me, both personally and in the workplace, have told me
that I care “too much about what other people think” and “need to be in control.” I’ve tried to
keep this criticism in mind both in my day to day work as well as when reflecting on this
10
instrument. I’ve also been told that I seek approval of my superiors when unneeded. I’ve had
managers and head coaches tell me that I ask too many questions, and need to trust my gut. I
think all of this is great criticism for me to take in, because at the end of the day, I want to
attribute my successes to myself, and want to still feel like I have control when I am not having
success. These concepts have been very relevant in my coaching, because as an assistant coach,
it is very important to recognize your role and know your limits in communicating with your
head coach as well as your players. Many times you need to “take a back seat” for the good of
the team. This will continue to be very important in my career the next several years, as I now
work for a head coach with over a decade of head coaching experience.
Manager Usage in Relating to Staff
It is extremely important that managers be able to identify what it means to an employee
to be successful. No matter whether you are running a large or small company, the acceptance of
roles is universally important in business. This instrument can be key in determining which of
your employees will serve best in what roles, and more importantly, under what type of role
they'll determine their success. This can be a great way for managers to determine how much, if
any, they will need to change their approach in giving instruction, implementing discipline, and
deciding how much freedom to allow in the workplace. It can be very valuable in determining
what employees do and do not need to be micromanaged. With all of this said, I think it is very
important to note that this is a tool that is more important for the employee to individually
identify how they view themselves and their level of success than it is a tool to for managers.
11
Example of Usage in Industrial and/or Educational Applications
In a study that attempted to make a connection with locust of control and knowledge
management, 155 individuals working in middle class Lebanese organizations were analyzed
using regression analysis. Results indicated that internal locust of control was positively related
to knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization (Karkoulian 2009).
Therefore, individuals that had an internal locust of control were able to better acquire, share,
and utilize both new information they had learned as well as continued concepts relevant in their
work environment.
Instrument: Tolerance of Ambiguity
Results: As far as the tolerance of ambiguity quiz, I graded out as follows: Novelty 17,
Complexity 26, Insolubility 6, Total = 49.
Personal Usefulness
I’ve always found myself to be a very factual person, meaning that I like to be able to
explain things and don't really like “grey areas,” or ambiguity at all. I'm not so sure the test
affirmed my thoughts. If my complexity score was so high, that would directly go against what
I've been told by my co-workers and girlfriend. By no means was this unsettling, but I found it
interesting that the results weren't quite in line with what I thought they'd be. The insolubility
results weren't what I imagined they'd be either, because I am usually someone that likes
challenges, and will seek out the answers or as they say in the presentation, “alternate solutions.”
12
It is very interesting to see how these quizzes spark conversation about how my girlfriend and I
viewed one another as far as the ability to tolerate ambiguity and whether or not we felt we
needed to be in control of our own destiny. You hear things from your significant other that your
co-worker is unlikely to tell you. I think that it would be interesting to do this with a co-worker
you had a lot of experience with to see if it would yield the results that you would expect it to. I
think that the tolerance and control ideas themselves are very closely related and very important
in the workplace. How someone operates in these two areas says a lot about how productive they
could be and whether or not they would let something stand in their way of their success.
Manager Usage in Relation to Staff
The ability to deal with change is a key attribute that managers look for in employees.
This instrument is a useful tool in determining an employee's ability to deal with change.
However, relying on this to determine an incoming employee's tolerance of ambiguity is going to
be far less effective than actually having experience with someone in adverse situations where
change is prevalent. If management and/or an HR department decide that this instrument alone
is an effective enough tool to not hire an individual, it could be a drastic mistake. Management,
HR, and a potential training department should all have the ability to communicate effectively
enough to anticipate how an employee will be able to deal with change. Yet, it is very difficult to
determine exactly how that employee will react in those type of difficult, adverse situations until
they actually have enough experience in the work environment to have faced those situations
hands on. With this aside, managers can still benefit in using this instrument when designating
13
tasks that require a certain level of tolerance to ambiguity for employees that have scored high as
far as being tolerant of change. For example, if a certain job is going to cause an employee to be
on the road with odd hours and in diverse locations, you'd want to rely on your employee that
scored well on the instrument if you do not have a tenured employee available.
Example of Usage in Industrial and/or Educational Applications
Studies in educational leadership have suggested that educational administration is a great field
to examine tolerance of ambiguity due to its ability to effect leadership skills and important
decisions that educators so often have to make. A large finding was that the principals' results
suggested that they were more concerned with philosophy over public image and perception.
14
References
Boyd, Russel., & Brown, Terry. (2005) Pilot Study of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality.
Profiling in Emergency Department Senior Medical Staff. Emergency Medicine Australasia.
17, 200-203.
Graf, S., Kinshuk, & Liu, T.-C. (2009). Supporting Teachers in Identifying Students' Learning
Styles in Learning Management Systems: An Automatic Student Modeling Approach.
Educational Technology & Society, 12 (4), 3–14.
Kajs, Lawrence., & McCollum, Daniel L. (2010) Dealing with Ambiguity: Assessment of
Tolerance for Ambihuity in the context of school leadership. Academy of Educational
Leadership Journal. 14, 77-99.
Karkoulian, Silva., & Mahseredjian, Jaisy-Angela. (2009) Prediction of Knowledge
Acquisition, Knowledge Sharing, and Knowledge Utilization from Locus of Control: An
Empirical Investigation. Allied Academies Internation Conference: Proceedings of the
Academy of Information & Management Sciences. 13 (2) 36-49.
Van Dusseldop, Loes., & Van Meijiel, Berno., & Derksen, Jan J. (2011) Emotional Intelligence
of Mental Health Nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, 555-562.
15
Varvel, Tricia., & Adams, Stephanie., & Pridie, Shelly J., & Ruiz-Ulloa, Bianey. (2004) Team
Effectiveness and Individual Myers Briggs Personality Dimensions. Journal of Management in
Engineering. 141-146