ABSTRACT
The history of personality testing within organizations is as fascinating as it is important. Review of this history is particularly valuable given that this area is marked by cycles and phases, more so than other topics within organizational research. As will be seen, concerns at one point of time seem to fade for several years or decades, only to reappear, often with researchers at the later date only vaguely aware that their predecessors grappled with similar issues. Therefore, we think it is fruitful to review the history of personality testing for contemporary researchers to put their efforts into a broader context that they might not get if they only read current research articles. There are lots of interesting events, mistakes, and episodes in this history. We have written elsewhere in more detail about some of these episodes (see Gibby & Zickar, 2008; Zickar, 2001b; Zickar & Gibby, 2006), but in this chapter we put together a broader history of this important topic. We briefly review the origins of personality theory and then focus on the developments of personality testing within the field during the 20th Century. Finally, we summarize this history and identify some lessons learned.
