Personality and Fit in Organizations

Objective

The objective of this exercise is to learn how the Big 5 factors of personality are measured and to use them to elaborate on issues of Person-Environment Fit.

Procedure

Find a friend or co-worker who is willing to have his/her personality measured. Both of you complete the Short Form of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-NEO). It takes about 15-20 minutes to complete the survey. (Note that access to the survey requires agreement (check marks) with two statements before you can click "Send" and complete the items.) When you get the results, print them (Important!). Create a table showing the scores for each facet and subfacet (rows) for you and your friend (columns) to include in your paper.

Product

Begin your 3-5 page paper by discussing Person-Environment Fit. Briefly describe the job of each person and relate his or her personality scores to issues related to types of fit (complementary & supplementary) and dimensions of fit (supplies-values & demands-abilities). Make sure you include the table (see above) in your paper.

If you do not currently work, you may consider your fit with a former job or, alternatively, find two other people who are employed and willing to complete the survey. It can be interesting to have two people performing the same type of work do the survey or to have two people you think are completely different do the survey.