MyersBriggs

How Does PEP Compare with Myers-Briggs?

Two of the questions we are most often asked is "How does the Personality
Evaluation Program compare with (this or that) system?". Often mentioned is the widely-
known Myers-Briggs evaluation. Also asked is, "Can PEP be used as a hiring tool?" One
quick answer to both of these questions is: "Wherever Myers-Briggs can be used, PEP
can be used-- in our opinion and the opinion of our clients... to an even more
successful degree."

Myers-Briggs is a time-established, respected system that is used by thousands of
businesses to assist them in employee management. It is natural that people would compare
this system with the Personality Evaluation Program. What is the difference?

Apples and oranges:

* PEP was designed from the beginning for use specifically in the employee and
applicant evaluation and job-matching areas. Myers-Briggs was never intended nor
designed for use in employee / job matching (see the following article and cautionary note).

* PEP is a positive evaluation system. Myers-Briggs is not. PEP does not pull
skeletons out of the closet or dwell on negative personality aspects. PEP emphasizes
strengths and shows how to turn potential negative personality traits into assets.

* PEP is fast and easy to use. The entire response time and report can be completed
in five or ten minutes. Myers-Briggs can take up to an hour for the response process and
another hour or longer to perform the evaluation, per evaluation. Many businesses simply
do not have the time and manpower to implement the Myers-Briggs system. The Personality
Evaluation Program does not present this problem.

* People sometimes feel uncomfortable with the results of Myers-Briggs due to the
negative connotations of some results. Having seen other reports, they are sometimes
hesitant to have their own flaws revealed. PEP does not present this drawback. Once
people see a PEP report, they tend to be very eager to see their own results.

* Opinions regarding the accuracy of the Myers-Briggs reports vary widely. PEP is
considered by our clients to be 'amazingly and consistently accurate'.

* The categories and criteria of PEP are very different from the Myers-Briggs system
and are designed specifically for application in the business environment (while still remaining
of great value to the home user).

Cautionary note: No single tool (including PEP and Myers-Briggs) should be used
by itself to determine whether an applicant is hired or not hired. Doing so may be
considered unethical. Local laws may be pertinent to this subject. However, PEP may be
properly used if applied with ethical standards and common sense. For example, to look at
a person's personality report and say, "This doesn't match. You're not hired," would be
highly questionable (and in some areas, unlawful). However, it would be acceptable to
present the PEP report to the applicant, grant the applicant time to examine the report-- and
observe the applicant's responses. Asking the simple question, "Do you feel this accurately
describes you as a person?" can quickly verify whether (a) the applicant has filled out the
response form properly (sometimes instructions are misunderstood) and (b) that PEP actually
did perform an accurate analysis of this person (which of course, is usually the case, to an
amazing degree). Once the accuracy of PEP has been verified, you may be comfortable in
ascertaining whether this person's training, experience and personality fit the job you have
in mind.

It may be your decision (based on other factors) to hire a person despite an apparent
personality mismatch. In such a case, PEP can assist you in keeping communications open
with this person and perhaps even altering the work environment to better suit the personality
of your new employee. By taking these simple steps, you assure your company is using the
best tools and information available in the hiring process.

Once you examine the freeware PEP system yourself, read the following reprint
from Workforce Management, December 2003, pp. 72-74. This impartial third-party
analysis of the Myers-Briggs report should help you discern the tremendous difference
between the Personality Evaluation Program and the Myers-Briggs system and emphasize
the benefits of using PEP in matching people to the right jobs.

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At 60, Myers-Briggs is Still Sorting Out

and Identifying People's Types

Demand for the venerable personality test remains strong, even though the world has
changed.

By Douglas P. Shuit

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Anyone who has worked in an office knows that certain personality stereotypes stand out.
There are the friendly, outgoing people and the quiet, serious people who hate small talk.
There are big-picture people and hands-on number crunchers. Caricatures though they may
be, they are accurate enough in describing extroverts and introverts to have kept
psychologists, trainers and human resources executives enthusiastically using personality tests
in the workplace for decades. And it is the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator that
has been the standard-bearer of testing for generations.

Myers-Briggs celebrated its 60th anniversary in October, a noteworthy achievement for a
test that has been sorting out quirky personality types since 1943. After all those years, it's
said to be still the most popular and widely used personality-assessment tool of its kind in the
world, with about 2.5 million tests given each year. Both critics and supporters say that the
Indicator endures because it does a good job of pointing up differences between people,
offers individuals a revealing glimpse of themselves and is a valuable asset in team-building,
improving communication and resolving personality-based conflict. Many consider it an
essential tool for career planning and development.

Calling it a test will spark an argument because ideally no one can fail Myers-Briggs.
There are no right or wrong answers to the basic 93-question "test." It can identify introverts,
extroverts and other personality types in 15 or 20 minutes, though analysis and interpretation
of the results can take at least an hour if done correctly.

Begun by Isabel Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, and based on the
theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the questionnaire successfully nailed down personality
types in World War II such as GI Joes and Rosie the Riveters, then '50s conformists, '60s
rebels and on to Gen X types. Attitudes, styles and cultures may change, but the eight basic
personality types that Myers-Briggs identifies don't.

Logic over sentiment

Myers-Briggs distinguishes personality types from four sets of opposites. Establishing
differences comes from questions like: Are you inclined to value sentiment more than logic, or
value logic more than sentiment? After the answers have been completed, the responses are
dropped into broad categories of opposites, the best known of which are the
introverts/extroverts. Other categories are judging/perceiving, sensing/intuitive and
thinking/feeling. At the end of the process, four initials identify people, say ISTP (introvert,
with strong sensing, thinking and perceiving traits). Although there are some of the different
characteristics in just about everyone, the test is about discovering dominant personality traits
and recognizing strengths or areas of potential weakness, such as things that can produce
stress. A "thinking" person, for example, who likes organizing and structuring information in
logical, objective ways, might work on organizing in a more personal way. An introvert who
likes to work quietly should be aware that others might interpret that as a lack of interest.

Today, most Fortune 500 companies use the test in some form or another, including 89 of
the Fortune 100, says CPP Inc., publishers of Myers-Briggs. General Motors Corp. has put
its workforce through thousands of the tests. Myers-Briggs was a key part of an executive
training program between 1997 and 2000, when every GM executive was given the test. It is
still widely used by the company. Robert Minton, GM's manager of global human resources
communications, recently took it for the first time and came away impressed. "It was
uncannily accurate," he says. But it does have its critics, who say that Myers-Briggs has
limited value, has not been validated by solid science and is subject to manipulation
by test-takers who want to present a certain picture of themselves to employers.
Myers-Briggs, they note, is not an indicator of success and does not measure intelligence or
skills. Detractors also argue that test results can change over time.

"It's accurate the way a $5 wristwatch is accurate," says John Binning, associate professor
of psychology at Illinois State University, who specializes in industrial and organizational
psychology. "It is not the most sophisticated measurement instrument, but it does what it
purports to do in a useful way."

Wendell Williams, managing director of ScientificSelection.com, a consulting and test-
developing firm, points out that it isn't like a blood test that is backed by solid science.
"People who take the test may find they are characterized as one kind of person today and if
they take it tomorrow, they will find they are characterized significantly differently," he says.

A major concern of critics and supporters alike is that Myers-Briggs will be used by hiring
managers for selection or promotion purposes, a practice that is widely condemned by both
supporters and critics. Many companies do use psychological tests to determine
whether job applicants are suited for a job, but Myers-Briggs was not intended for
that. "In most cases, scores on a personality test have little or nothing to do with how well
you perform on the job," Williams says.

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"It is not the most sophisticated measurement instrument, but it does what it purports to do in
a useful way."

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A Canadian client called him in because he had a workforce of "highly sensitive, team-
oriented folks" who couldn't get anything done together. The company had opened up a new
branch and built the workforce largely with new hires, bringing in people who were team
oriented and people friendly. "They ended up with a workforce that would not meet unless
everyone was there, and wouldn't make a decision unless everyone agreed," he says. "They
never ever wanted to leave each other, to the point that they liked to have a few drinks with
each other after work. This was highly irritating to their spouses." The proposed solution was
just as bad. "Their answer was that they wanted to use another cheap personality test to
bring in anti-team members." Williams bailed out.

Agrees up to a point

Michael Segovia, director of business development at CPP Inc. agrees with some of the
concerns, but only up to a point. He says that Myers-Briggs is not intended for hiring
or job-candidate selection, and that its use as a hiring tool is unethical. "The MBTI is
meant for inclusion, not exclusion," Segovia says. "It is used most often for team-building. Its
purpose is not to move people in and out of the team, but to help people work more happily,
more successfully, as team members."

Segovia says the biggest misconceptions about Myers-Briggs are generalizations about
personality types. "It doesn't mean a person is loud or shy," he says, referring to two
common stereotypes of extroverts and introverts. The terms apply to how people absorb
and process information. Segovia says that misinterpretations of Myers-Briggs stem in part
from people who imitate the test, which keeps CPP's legal department busy. He
recommends one-on-one analysis of the test results to ensure that test-takers do not walk
away with misconceptions about who they are or what the conclusions mean.

Over the years, Segovia says, the basic ideas on personality assessment presented by the
two women in 1943 have been researched extensively. "It continues to be studied, continues
to be evaluated," he says. "It's amazing how much it holds up."

Rebecca Tilley, a team-building facilitator with Adventure Associates, says her firm uses
Myers-Briggs as a core team-building device. She takes groups of executives, administers
Myers-Briggs and then explores the individual differences and approaches of team members.
The premium here is problem solving. People have different ways of dealing with stress and
problem solving, and one benefit of the exercise is to bridge differences between managers
and show that there are several ways to tackle a problem. There are group activities, such as
writing ad copy for a product, that indicate how different personality types approach
problems differently. Each group learns where its strength is, and where it might be closed off
to possibilities, she says.

Tilley says that sometimes extroverts have trouble understanding an introvert, who
processes information internally and likes to think about things before acting. Common
misconceptions might be that the person doesn't have anything to say or is not interested in
the topic being discussed. One solution, she says, would be to give information to
participants the night before a meeting so that they have time to study it.

She describes a conflict between two companies that Myers-Briggs helped to resolve. A
manufacturing company was working with an advertising firm on a campaign. The ad agency
sent the manufacturer sketches of a proposed advertising campaign, and wanted a quick
answer about the approach being taken. Tensions developed. "They didn't feel that their
relationships were solid," Tilley says. "They did the Myers-Briggs to find out more about
themselves." Turns out the client who received the storyboards was a strong introvert who
wanted a longer time to think about the ads before giving his feedback. A light went on.
"They said, Aha!" and a dialogue opened up, Tilley says.

She acknowledges that corporate managers are tempted to use Myers-Briggs for
hiring, but says she will have nothing to do with it. "We do have people who call us
who want to use it as a screening process for hiring," she says. "But Myers-Briggs
has strict ethical guidelines that it can't be used that way, and we won't do it that
way."

Minton will buy that. "We use it to help leaders figure out their own personal style and
how they are perceived by their peers as well as the people who work for them," he says.
"Leaders are encouraged to share their [personality] type with their staffs. It doesn't mean
you are that way all the time, just that you have a natural preference. We are all kind of wired
a certain way, and this helps us see that."

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