Truth 8. Match Personalities and Jobs
Want to increase the satisfaction of new employees and decrease the likelihood that they’ll resign? There is a substantial amount of evidence that demonstrates this can be achieved by selecting job applicants whose personality matches the job you’re trying to fill.
Six personality types have been identified, and evidence strongly supports that people are happiest when they are put in jobs that align with their personality. Those six personalities are realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising, and artistic.
People are happiest when they are put in jobs that align with their personality.
• Realistic people prefer physical activities that require skill, strength, and coordination. Their personality traits: shy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming, and practical. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include mechanic, drill press operator, assembly-line worker, and farmer.
• Investigative people prefer activities that involve thinking, organizing, and understanding. Their personality traits: analytical, original, curious, and independent. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include biologist, economist, software programmer, mathematician, and news reporter.
• Social people prefer activities that involve helping and developing others. Their personality traits: sociable, friendly, cooperative, and understanding. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include social worker, teacher, counselor, and clinical psychologist.
• Conventional people prefer rule-regulated, orderly, and unambiguous activities. Their personality traits: conforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative, and inflexible. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include accountant, corporate manager, bank teller, and file clerk.
• Enterprising people prefer verbal activities in which there are opportunities to influence others and attain power. Their personality traits: self-confident, ambitious, energetic, and domineering. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include lawyer, real estate agent, public-relations specialist, and small-business manager.
• Artistic people prefer ambiguous and unsystematic activities that allow creative expression. Their personality traits: imaginative, disorderly, idealistic, emotional, and impractical. Examples of jobs that align with their personality include painter, musician, writer, and interior decorator.
The evidence indicates that people in jobs congruent with their personality tend to be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than people in incongruent jobs. Social individuals, for instance, should be in social jobs, conventional people in conventional jobs, and so forth. In addition, personalities can be conceptualized in a circle. Points on that circle would be in this order: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional, and back to realistic. Findings support that the closer two personalities are in that circle, the more compatible they are. And adjacent categories are most similar. So a realistic person in an investigative job is more congruent—and should be more content—than if he or she were in a social job.
Managers should assess vocational interests in the hiring process.
Our conclusion is that managers should assess vocational interests in the hiring process. And when interests and job requirements are matched successfully, there is an increased likelihood that hirees will perform well on the job and stay with the organization.