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ALL CHANGE
By Raymond Walley
One of the golden rules drummed into me when I first began to learn about psychometrics was "THOU SHALT NOT CHANGE THE PERSON, CHANGE THE JOB".
Now I have no argument with that rule generally. Personality Survey, or any other psychometric evaluation tool of its type, is not a clinical tool. It is an objective and analytical measurement of an individual in his or her work environment. The last thing we want is for our analysts to believe that they can go about merrily changing people to fit the job.
BUT
A recent article in the New Scientist (Issue No: 1732 1st September 1990) has given me cause to think deeply on this matter because it identified an area for which this comfortable dictum does not make allowances, let me explain...
Teaching children that the world is round when they manifestly see that it is flat presents a problem to educators. Great discoverers, such as Galileo, experienced tremendous problems trying to convince their peers of the truth of their discoveries. Some, like Bruno, died for their attempts to convince a disbelieving world that things we now take for granted were true.
In general, children's misconceptions are quite forcibly pointed out to be fallacious with a consequent trauma to the child whose belief system is thereby, seriously dented. In the world of adults this trauma, as we have seen in Bruno's case, can lead to the demise of people who fly in the face of “common sense” and yet today, few adults would deny that the earth circles the sun or that the earth is round, not flat.
The missing element in each case is empathy. If one would change another man's beliefs, then it is necessary to approach the task with caution and empathy.
Exactly the same applies to changing people’s perceptions of their own or another person’s job and it is here that we can use Personality Survey to (and I use the phrase advisedly) “change another human being”.
Let us take the following example set of psychometric charts of an imaginary senior manager - we will call Mr A - and one of the junior managers whom he manages - we will call him Mr B.
Let us also put into the equation the following Job Scan charts. One is Mr A's perception of Mr B's job function, the other is Mr B's self-perception of the job function.
Clearly, there is a problem here and you the analyst will normally have the task of reconciling the misconceptions so that these two can work together in harmony. What are you going to do?
The only way this problem can be resolved is by changing one or both individual's perception of the job.
Since people's perceptions are an integral part of their persona, then it follows that it is necessary to change the person.
Michael Argyle (in The Psychology of Interpersonal behaviour, Pelican 1967) makes the point that a good supervisor "... should be able to adjust his style through the operation of translation processes.”
Mr A lacks empathy and appears to have a poor understanding of the job function of his junior manager. You as the analyst need first of all to look at the job description, actual practice and the ideal Job Scan shape produced in the normal manner and discuss it with A and B. Often you will find that Mr A has an excellent theoretical understanding of the job's requirements in terms of technical qualifications and experience, but a poor understanding of the type of person whose behaviour would best be suited to both do the job and fit into the team comfortably.
Mr A is demanding a non-antagonistic technocrat who - like him -has no empathy but who - unlike him - avoids problems by getting things right. It suggests that the job has a considerable requirement for accuracy or attention detail. However, Mr B is also a manager of others and so must by definition, be able to act as a buffer and influencer between Mr A and the rest of the workforce. Someone who fits Mr A's perception of Mr B's job function would have difficulty in being an effective buffer and influencer. The real Mr B in fact has excellent potential as a manger. He is an integrative leader with a capability to be quite tough if necessary.
First published in “Analyst” Volume 1 No: 2 September 1990.