MBTI-ployment
Characters representing several MBTI personalities. Courtesy of 16 Personalities.
MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) is often discussed in conversations as an icebreaker. Its popularity is no question, including its recent surge in South Korea. For those unfamiliar with the test, MBTI evaluates an individual’s personality in 16 types through a 60-question quiz.
However, the extent to which MBTI is used in society has extended to employment, where controversy is rampant. For example, the personality test is used actively in job applications in places like South Korea and China by filtering out preferred and undesired personality traits. However, using MBTI in the process of job applications is detrimental to workers and to society as a whole.
Courtesy of 16 Personalities.
The categorization of individuals is an issue of morality. The Myers-Briggs test classifies personalities into four spectrums where different ends exist (Introvert/Extrovert, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving). However, as shown above, the main result only shows the primary attribute from each spectrum, which overlooks the complicated aspects of personality for the sake of effective organization into 16 categories. Even the official website for MBTI directly states that it is “not ethical to use the MBTI instrument for hiring or for deciding job assignments.”
Categorizing people has taken many forms in history, where certain races, genders, classes, and more, were systematically discriminated against. There is no guarantee that selection based on personality types would be any different since it is also part of an individual’s identity. Depending on MBTI for essential areas in society, such as jobs, can magnify the limitations of the personality test. South Koreans, especially, have shown tendencies to categorize people and form prejudice solely through blood types and the Chinese Zodiac. This means that incorporating MBTI into occupations can cause employers to ignore their workers’ identities in detail.
Job applicants will also be pressured to acquire the desired personality in certain jobs if MBTI is widely integrated into employment. Personalities are extremely difficult to change in a short period. Companies would reject people with certain personality types from an occupation or even a whole field of jobs simply because of one unchanging aspect of their identity.
Unemployment for a specific MBTI will rise, causing a “personality inequality.” It also causes applicants to fake their personalities to conform to the employers' preferences. Despite this shortcut method to acquire a job, employers will demand the personality their workers must follow, limiting freedom of expression and continuing the burden to conform to one of the 16 personalities they are.
Proponents of MBTI may argue that matching factors between traits lead to more workplace compatibility and efficiency. As a result, it leads to a lack of diversity of personalities. People with different backgrounds and beliefs lead to more perspectives that can provide solutions for a company. It further devalues human qualities, but labor rights will suffer from ignorance of human character.