ABSTRACT

Coverage of the Big Five personality factors is regarded as the gold standard for a good general personality test. However, for the best of reasons, some computer-generated reports designed for non-psychometrically-trained managers, make use of alternative labels. These reports were probably intended to be more user-friendly, but they could make it difficult for the reader to make use of the findings reported in this book. For instance, the computer-generated ‘Manager Feedback’ for the 16PF5 1 uses the following alternative labels:

extraversion (Relating to others)

neuroticism/anxiety (Management of Pressure)

conscientiousness (Structure and Flexibility)

agreeableness (Influence and collaboration)

openness (Thinking style)

If you are not the qualified tester, you might ask whoever is advising you to relate the labels in the report which you have received to the Big Five factors and to comment on the suitability of any candidate in relation to the findings of this section. This should provide the decision-maker with much more focused advice than was included in the computerised report. By way of example, the tester might relate each candidate’s scores to the averages from the large sample of UK managerial applicants 2 and also the SME findings as to which of the IQ and Big Five approximations correlated with managerial effectiveness generally and for various core managerial roles. 3 Table 14.1 illustrates how this was done with a candidate for an appointment as operations manager using 16PF5.