Essay on MBTI: From the Origins of Jung to Business Applications

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of today's most widely used personality assessment tools. Used properly, it can provide system administrators a framework for understanding themselves, their co-workers, and the user community. There are 16 personality types in the Myers-Briggs taxonomy. Types are not right or wrong: they are simply different from one another. Type theory provides a non-judgmental way to describe and discuss differences. Once there is a language to describe differences, more effective communication can result (Doyle, Straus, 1976).

The MBTI is based on the premise that each person has a preferred style of operating. This is critical: The MBTI is not based on skills or aptitudes. The same skills can be exhibited in different styles, and people can occasionally exhibit a style other than the one they prefer. Since the MBTI is strictly a self-assessment, a person taking the inventory is essentially categorizing his or her own preferences (Fulford, 1986).

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI, provides a useful method for understanding people by looking at eight personality preferences that all people use at different times. These eight preferences are organized into four dichotomies, each made up of a pair of opposite preferences. The four dichotomies describes four activities: v Energizing-how a person is energized-either Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I). v Perceiving-what a person pays attention to-either Sensing (S) or Intuition (N) v Deciding-how a person decides-either Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) v Living-the lifestyle of a person adopts- either Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). In understanding the MBTI results, a person must remember that the MBTI: v describes rather than prescribes, and therefore is used to open possibilities, not to limit options, v identifies preferences, not skills, abilities, or competencies, v is well documented with thousands of scientific studies conducted during a fifty year period, v has ongoing research to support its applications (Mayers, McCaulley, 1985)..................

ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY