Employee takes issue with personality testing

Q: My employer is a non-governmental organization. The managers have recently announced that they want all staff to undergo Myers-Briggs personality assessments. I strongly oppose undergoing this testing. While I might do it personally, doing it at the workplace and having the results shared with colleagues crosses a big privacy line for me. (They say results will be shared only in aggregate, but given that our teams are small, it will be easy to see who's who, and I don't trust that they will be confidential at all.) I fear it could harm me in terms of projects I am considered for. And basically, I'd just rather not be defined by a label. Do I have any rights to refuse this testing?

A: You have aptly identified the two primary concerns of employees who are asked to participate in workplace personality assessments: invasion of privacy and the imposition of reductive labels.

The fear of being typecast is another major issue that arises in the context of workplace testing. And it is not an illegitimate one. Once your co-workers learn your "type," they may tend to make unfair assumptions about you on that basis — regarding your motivations, your capabilities, your tolerance for certain workplace stressors.

Then again, sharing test results in the aggregate can also facilitate understanding of diverse personality types and collaborative working relationships. This is the main benefit of a team personality-assessment exercise. It is rarely a bad idea to bring a team together to discuss members' work styles and how they can improve upon their results. The process also allows individual insight into work preferences and issues that may be interfering with productivity and enjoyment.

According to information posted on the Myers & Briggs Foundation's Web site, www.myersbriggs.org, it's unethical to use the results of the MBTI to make decisions about work assignments. Qualified MBTI administrators, furthermore, will insist that taking the assessment be entirely voluntary and that the individual results be shared with individuals only. The results may be presented to groups in the aggregate, as your organization has informed you. Yet, once you have taken the assessment, you are not bound to the results and you are free to choose a different "best-fit type" to describe yourself.

The leaders of your organization who organized the MBTI exercise should be prepared for concerns of the sort you have raised. No employee should be coerced into taking a personality assessment, especially when it is to be shared with others in such a way that confidentiality is not guaranteed. Ask specifically whether the assessment is being administered by a qualified MBTI administrator. If so, you can rest assured that you will not be required to take the assessment and that certain other ethical norms will be followed. If the assessment is not being administered by a qualified MBTI administrator, probe further about the qualifications of the person. In either case, ask whether you may pose your questions to the administrator.