Companies Prioritizing 'MBTI' Over Specs... Approaching a 3 Trillion Won Market Despite Controversy

100 Million Workers Worldwide Take Personality Tests Annually
Companies Use Them to Predict Work Styles and Human Relationships

As more companies have recently started using personality tests like MBTI in new hires, the personality type testing market has grown to $2 billion (about 2.6 trillion KRW), with 100 million workers worldwide taking such tests annually.

On the 5th (local time), the US daily The New York Times (NYT) reported on the use of personality tests in companies and their pros and cons in an article titled "The $2 Billion Question of Who You Are at Work."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

NYT introduced the case of Scotiabank, based in Toronto, Canada, which has actively used personality type tests in hiring since 2020. Scotiabank, employing 90,000 people, decided at the end of 2020 not to look at resumes of new applicants and instead required them to take a personality test called "Plum."

This was because they valued diversity among new employees more than obvious "specs." The results were satisfactory. The proportion of Black employees increased from 1% to 6%, and more than half of the employees are women.

The personality test market exploded from the late 1990s into the 2000s thanks to the advent of computer and online personality tests. COVID-19 also played a significant role in expanding this market. As the "hybrid work" style mixing commuting and working from home increased, there was a growing demand to understand employees' personality types in advance and manage relationships accordingly.

However, personality tests are not万能. NYT cited the MBTI test as an example.

According to NYT, many personality tests originated from World War I. At that time, the US military created the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet test to screen soldiers who were psychologically fragile and more vulnerable to shell shock.

Shortly after, in 1943, housewife Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers, followers of psychologist Carl Jung, developed and distributed a personality inventory, which became the MBTI test still popular today. Moreover, it is known that they did not professionally study psychology.

"Over 2,000 Personality Tests...Lack of Research Basis"

This has made them targets of critics. Critics argue that the MBTI test lacks professionalism and is outdated. Brian Little, a personality test expert and author of "Who Are You? The Science of Personality," said, "Today, there are over 2,000 types of personality assessments, but few of the test creators have a research foundation."

Nevertheless, NYT viewed that companies have no choice but to turn to new methods like personality tests, moving away from traditional HR evaluations, because they need to predict employees' work styles and interpersonal relationships before hiring.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.