Research Paper: Use of Profiling Tools

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Name: Balakrishna ShenoyDate: 23rd July 2012Student ID: Balakrishna ShenoyEmail: [email protected]

Complete your 2000 word research paper and insert it in the space below. Then email this document as an attachment to [email protected]

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Effectiveness of

Personality Assessment Tools

and

Its application in Coaching

By Balakrishna Shenoy

Word Count

Body : Approximately 1900 words

Cover Page, Appendix etc. Approximately 1000 words

© Copyright 2006 International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd.Use is governed by the Terms and Conditions at http://www.icoachacademy.com

Last updated Feb 2006

2

http://www.icoachacademy.com/terms.html

Table of Contents

1. Research Objective

2. Part 1- Research Summary

a. Research Methodology Summary

b. Research Findings Summary

3. Part 2 – Relevance to Coaching

a. Application in Coaching

b. Recommended Use Cases for Coaching

4. Part 3 – Research in Detail

a. Research methodology

b. Research Findings

i. Awareness Section

ii. Application and Use Section

iii. Factors Influencing Effectiveness Section

iv. Respondent Details Section

5. Works Cited

6. Appendix

a. Questionnaire



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Research Objective

The use of psychometrics tools to assess personality types and traits is of recent

origin and less than 150 years old. Francis Galton, often referred to as “the father of

psychometrics”, pioneered the use of questionnaires. While the first psychometrics

instruments were used to measure the concept of intelligence subsequently, one of the

major focus area in psychometrics has been on personality testing.

The objective of this research is to find out the effectiveness of such Personality

Assessment Tools in the workplace and outside workplace, and its application in the

coaching context i.e. how a coach can enhance the effective use of the Personality

Assessment tools.

Part 1 – Research Summary

Research Methodology Summary

An online survey was created and a total of 40 responses were recorded.

The survey is divided into four parts. Part 1 - Awareness, Part 2 -Application and

Use, Part 3- Factors Influencing Effectiveness and Part 4- Respondent details. Each of

these is detailed later in this paper.

Research Findings Summary

Part 1 – Awareness: The awareness about the personality assessment tools was

widespread i.e., 100% of respondents were aware of at least one personality

assessment tool out of which 87.5% of respondents knew more than one tool. The use

of assessment tool was again widespread. 39 out of the 40 respondent had been

assessed at least on one of the tools. From the 8 tools listed in the survey, MBTI was the

most popular tool with 31 respondents having been assessed on this tool. DISC and

Gallop or Clifton Strengths Finder came at second place with 16 respondents and



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Tetramap stood third with 14 respondents having been assessed on the respective tool.

Amongst these four tools, the Tetramap tool obtained a high score of 95% for practical

relevance, and followed by the Gallop or Clifton Strengths Finder tool which obtained the

second highest score of 75% for practical relevance.

Part 2 -Application and Use: This section had five statements and respondents

who slightly agree or strongly agree with the statement are considered. For the

statement “I feel my self-awareness has improved”, 35% of the respondents strongly

agreed, and 58% slightly agreed. This indicates a mixed response to impact of the

personality assessments on self awareness. To the statement “I felt that the profile

results reflected my personality fairly well”, 28% of the respondents strongly agreed and

68% slightly agreed indicating a mixed response with regard to the reliability of the

personality assessment tool result.

To the statement “I feel the tool helped me in dealing with interpersonal

situations”, 8% people strongly agreed and 68% slightly agreed. To the statement “I

have used the knowledge gained from the tools in my daily life at work”, 15% strongly

agreed and 58% slightly agreed. To the statement “I have used the knowledge gained

from the tools in my daily life at home and outside of work”, 5% strongly agreed and

48% slightly agreed. The above three responses indicate a low level of practical

application of the knowledge gained from the tool. There was a strong preference for use

of the knowledge at workplace as compared to strong disagreements for statements on

using the knowledge in interpersonal situations and outside of work situations.

Part 3- Factors Influencing Effectiveness: This section had two statements “I

found the following factors influenced in a positive manner in the effective use of tool”

and “I found the following factors influenced in a negative manner in the effective use of



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tool”. More than 50% of the respondents felt that personal debriefing and ease of use of

the tool would positively influence the effectiveness of the tool. Exactly 50% of the

respondents felt that Lack of follow through hampered effective use of the tool.

Part 4 – Respondent details: The respondent profile was predominantly male

(80%), from banking and financial services industry (68%) with a significant set of

respondents holding senior management positions (60%). Only 13% of the respondents

were self employed or had own business or were free lance consultants.

Part 2 - Relevance To Coaching

Application in Coaching

The survey summary findings provide key insights and opportunities to the

fraternity of Coaches. These insights and opportunities are limited to the respondent

profile surveyed.

The key insight here is that the administration of the personality assessment tool

sans debriefing, follow through and guidance indicate low return on investment i.e.

valuable resources spent (time and money) without obtaining the corresponding benefits

in terms of knowledge being applied at work or home. It indicates the need for a

structure that goes beyond mere administration of the personality test.

A coach or mentor is best placed to create this structure. The relevance to

coaching can be found in three aspects of coaching (a) Awareness creation (b) strong

action orientation combined with accountability (c) debriefing where the coach is certified

to administer the tool.

The coach could partner with institutions who administer the test as a value

added service. The coach could pitch directly to the corporate to market the support

structure as a niche offering. The coach could as part of their existing engagement



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provide the follow through, action orientation and accountability and significantly

enhance the value derived from the personality assessment tools. These are elaborated

further as use cases.

Recommended Use cases for Coaching

Case 1 – Coach partners with the institution administering the personality tests

and provides the support structure to the clients of the institution.

Case 2 – Coach pitches for specialized niche service of providing support

structure for Corporates who are sponsors of personality tests for their employees.

Case 3 – As part of an existing client engagement:

(a)The client is ready and keen to derive benefits of personality assessment

profile results. Coach can provide action planning and accountability structures. Coach

can provide guidance and debriefing if certified/qualified.

(b) Client has specific issues and is ready to take a relevant personality

assessment tool. Coach can recommend the relevant tool. Coach can provide action

planning and accountability structures. Coach can provide guidance and debriefing if

certified/qualified.

(c) Client has shared personality assessment results. Coach can use the result

to validate the conclusion reached based on other inputs received during the coaching

engagement. Coach can provide action planning and accountability structures. Coach

can provide guidance and debriefing if certified/qualified.

In short, though there is a widespread use of personality assessment tool, there

is a significant gap in terms of the utility of the tool in its impact. The coaching framework

is a powerful framework that readily lends itself to improve the effectiveness of the use of

the tool.

Part 3 – Research in Detail



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Research Methodology

A questionnaire was used as the sole instrument to gather the data. For this

purpose, an online survey was created (see appendix for the questionnaire) and the link

to the survey was sent out to more than 100 people via email. In addition, a few

respondents were requested to fill up a paper copy of the online survey. These

responses were manually added into the online tool. In total more than 125 persons

were requested to participate in the survey during the period 27th Jun 2012 to 20th July

2012 and 40 responses were received. The survey respondents were selected from

three main sources (a) LinkedIn network, (b) office network and (c) the ICA student

network. On 20th July, the survey response was downloaded and data used in this paper.

The questionnaire had the following sections:

Awareness

Application And Use

Factors Contributing to effectiveness

Respondent Details

The awareness section listed 8 personality assessment tools and an others

column. This section had questions on awareness, use, recall and utility of the

personality types listed. Multiple selections were allowed when responding to the

question. The second section “Application and Use” had statements on reliability,

improvement in self awareness, usefulness, and application of personality test tools.

Responses were collected on a graded scale of 0 to 5, where zero stood for Don’t

Know/Can’t Say, 1 stood for Strong Disagreement and 5 stood for strong agreement.

The respondent is allowed to choose only one value. The third section was on factors

that contributed to effective use of the personality test tools. This section listed a few

factors and an others column. Respondents could choose multiple factors when



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responding or add new factors not listed in the questionnaire. The first question was on

factors that aided effectiveness and the second question was on factors that hindered

the effectiveness. The final section was on the respondent detail. All questions were

mandatory except the name and contact details.

Research Findings

Awareness Section

100% of the respondents were aware of personality assessment tools and more

than 99% have been assessed on at least one of the tool. Using assessment as a key

criteria, four tools make up the three most popular tools. Please see the table below for

the results against the four popular tools.

Personality Assessment

Tool Name

Question on

MBTI DISC Clifton

Strengths

Finder

Tetramap

a. Awareness 93% 65% 53% 38%

b. Assessed 78% 40% 40% 35%

c. Recall of Profile

Result (% of b)

81% 63% 69% 100%

d. Practically Relevant

(% of b)

68% 60% 75% 93%

Considering the above data, MBTI is very popular with high recall value but scores third

on practical relevance. DISC is second in both awareness and use, though scores

lowest on recall and practical relevance. Clifton Strengths Finder scores third on

awareness, second on use and scores higher on recall and practical relevance.



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Tetramap scores fourth on awareness and use and it is the tool with highest recall and

highest practical value.

Application and Use Section

I felt that the profile results reflected my personality fairly well.

I feel that my self awareness improved.

I feel that the tool helped me in dealing with interpersonal situations.

I have used the knowledge gained from the tools in my daily life at work

I have used the knowledge gained from the tools in my daily life at home and outside of work.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

3%

3%

5%

8%

5%

3%

5%

15%

20%

35%

68%

58%

68%

58%

48%

28%

35%

8%

15%

5%

5%

8%

Application and Use- Profiling tools

Don't Know/Cant Say Strongly Disagree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Strongly agree

The second section on application and use consisted of 5 statements (as shown

in the graph). Overall, taking strong agreement/disagreement to indicate definiteness,

and slight agreement/disagreement to indicate tentativeness we see a bulk of

respondents are tentative in their response. The range of tentative response (adding

together both agreement and disagreement) is between 63% and 83% while definite

response the range is 8% to 35%.

Taking into account only the definite responses, we see that the awareness and

reliability statements had strong agreements and no strong disagreements. The practical

application statements on interpersonal situations and situations outside of work show

close scores on both agreement and disagreement – indicating that the use of

personality assessment tools outside of workplace evokes strong sentiments and needs



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to be used with greater care. However, the respondents seem to be more favorable

using knowledge gained from personality assessment tool at work and there is no strong

disagreement for this statement. The reason for this is unknown and would require

further study.

Factors Influencing Effectiveness section

The section on factors influencing effectiveness of the tools, a list of factors that

had a positive or negative impact on the effectiveness of the personality test tools were

explored. More than 50% of the respondents feel that a tool that is easy to use and one-

on-one debriefing sessions would have helped improve effectiveness. Lack of follow

through sessions and lack of one to one debriefing sessions come as the top two

deterrent factors that impede the effectiveness.

Executive or Life Coach

Firm or Organisation wide use of the tool

Follow Through sessions

Mentor

Expertise of the person who administered the profile test

Group De-briefing session

Individual one to one debriefing session

Ease of use of the tool

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

13%

25%

30%

35%

38%

38%

53%

53%

Positively influencing Factors



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Tool was difficult to use or recollect

Lack of Debriefing

No one to one session

Lack of Follow Through sessions

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

8%

20%

30%

35%

50%

Negatively influencing Factors

Respondent Profile Section

The respondent profile was predominantly male, from banking and financial

services industry with a significant set of respondent holding senior management

positions.

20%

80%

Respondents - Gender profile

FemaleMale

3%25%

13%

60%

Respondents-Pro-fessional status

Junior cadre

Middle Management

Self Employed/Own business/Free Lance

Senior Management (VP, Director, Managing Director, Partner, General Manager etc.,)



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23%

63%

13%3%

Respondents-Age pro-file

25 to 35 years 35 to 50 years50 to 60 years above 60 years

68%

26%

3%

3%

Respondents - Industry profile

Banking and Financial ServicesHuman Resources and Training RelatedCoaching , Consulting ITES



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Works Cited

Wikipedia Pages on :

Psychometrics

Personality Psychology



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APPENDIX



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Research On Use of Assessment ToolsThank you for taking time out to fill up this survey. The purpose of this survey is to find

out the effectiveness of people profile assessment tools and its application in the

coaching context. Please rest assured the details will be kept confidential and only

summary results will be published. If you wish receive the final report summary, please

indicate the same in the appropriate column in the questionnaire below.

* Required

Awareness

I have heard about this tool * Please tick even if you just know but have not used the tool.

MBTI

DISC

BELBIN

Tetramap

Gallup or Clifton Strengths Finder

Via Character Strengths Finder

FIRO B

IPNI

Other:

I have been assessed on this tool * Please tick ONLY If you have taken an sefl assessment

on this Tool.

MBTI

DISC

BELBIN

Tetramap



FIRO B



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IPNI

Other:

I recall my profile type of my assessment * If you recall your profile type, then tick the

box.

MBTI

DISC

BELBIN

Tetramap



FIRO B

IPNI

Other:

I find the following tools easy to use and of practical value. * Please tick ONLY If you have

taken an sefl assessment on this Tool.

MBTI

DISC

BELBIN

Tetramap



FIRO B

IPNI

Other:

APPLICATION and USE

In this section, please answer the following questions keeping in mind the assessment

tools you were administered. Please use the below as a guide 0 - Don't Know/ Can't Say. 1

- Strongly disagree 2 - Slightly disagree 3 - Slightly Agree 4 - Strongly agree



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I felt that the profile results reflected my personality fairly well. * From the tools you have

used and recall, please select an option that best describes your response. 0 1 2 3 4

Don't Know / Can't say

Strongly Agree

I feel that my self awareness improved. * From the tools you have used and recall, please

select an option that best describes your response. 0 1 2 3 4

Don't Know / Can't Say

Strongly Agree

I feel that the tool helped me in dealing with interpersonal situations. * From the tools you

have used and recall, please select an option that best describes your response. 0 1 2 3 4

Don't Know/Can't Say

Strongly Agree

I have used the knowledge gained from the tools in my daily life at work * From the tools

you have used and recall, please select an option that best describes your response. 0 1 2 3 4


Strongly Agree

I have used the knowledge gained from the tools in my daily life at home and outside of

work. * From the tools you have used and recall, please select an option that best

describes your response. 0 1 2 3 4


Strongly Agree

Factors contributing to Effectiveness

In this section, please list down the factors that you felt helped you use the tools

effectively and factors that hindered the use.



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I found the following factors influenced in a positive manner in the effective use of the

tool Tick as many as you feel that have actually helped you. Please remember this

question needs to be answered with regard to the use of the profiling tool.

Group De-briefing session

Individual one to one debriefing session

Executive or Life Coach

Mentor

Follow Through sessions

Firm or Organisation wide use of the tool

Ease of use of the tool


Other:

I found the following factors influenced in a Negative manner in the effective use of the

tool Tick as many as you feel that have actually helped you. Please remember this

question needs to be answered with regard to the use of the profiling tool.

Lack of Debriefing

No one to one session


Lack of Follow Through sessions

Tool was difficult to use or recollect

Other:

RESPONDENT DETAILS

This is the last part of the survey and we need a few details about yourself. I thank you

once again for your valuable input.

Your Gender

Male

Female

Your Age Group © Copyright 2006 International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd.

Use is governed by the Terms and Conditions at http://www.icoachacademy.comLast updated Feb 2006

19


Below 18 years

18 to 24 years

25 to 35 years

35 to 50 years

50 to 60 years

above 60 years

Please specify your professional status

CxO level

Senior Management (VP, Director, Managing Director, Partner, General Manager etc.,)

Middle Management

Junior cadre

Self Employed/Own business/Free Lance

Other:

Please specific your Industry

Human Resources and Training Related

Banking and Financial Services

Manufacturing and Core Industry

Other:

Your name (Optional)

Should you wish to receive this report please fill in your email id The report should be

ready in about 6 to 8 weeks time - by mid to end Aug 2012

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Research Paper: Use of Profiling Tools