MEASURES OF PERSONALITY: BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss two measures of personality that are often used in business. The first measure to be discussed is the Personality Adjective Checklist (PACL) which, according to Wood and Payne (1998) has been used for at least three decades as part of an overall test battery used for purposes of personnel selection and recruitment. The test, developed by Gough and Heilbrun (1983) is a 153 item self-reported instrument that uses summated rating scales to assess eight basic personality patterns (Introversive, Inhibited, Cooperative, Sociable, Confident, Forceful, Respectful and Sensitive). The PACL takes approximately ten minutes to compete. According to Strack (1991, 1997), the instrument has been used in numerous studies of both normal and abnormal personalities.
In terms of reliability, studies conducted by Strack (1987) yielded satisfactory internal consistency and temporal reliability. Alpha coefficients ranged from .76 to .89, while test-retest correlations over a three-month period ranged from .60 to .85. Further, additional data were said to show the scales to be relatively free of social desirability bias which is often a concern in personality testing.
Since the development of the test, it has been repeatedly shown, in psychometric testing, to have content validity (e.g., Durff, 1994; Retzalaff & Gibertini, 1987). The primary limitation concerning the use of this test is that there is really nothing in the test that assesses each personality dimension in terms of actual job performance. Thus, it merely provides employers with a general feeling for the nature of the employee or job candidate's personality without actual linkage to performance measures or outcomes. It is for this reason that the test must be considered only moderately useful in that it must be administered as part of an extensive battery used for personnel selection a...