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The Workplace Big 5 Profile™
What is the Big Five Model?
In 1936, Gordon Allport threw out a challenge to the community
of personality researchers: find the smallest number of synonym
clusters to account for the 4,500 words in the English language
that describe normal everyday differences in personality.
While several notable solutions appeared during the next 50
years, it was not until the mid-1980’s and the advent
of the personal computer that researchers from around the world
began to affirm a common solution: The Five-Factor Model or
The Big Five. The Big Five or the Five-Factor Model of Personality
is the most current, most valid, most reliable means of assessing
personality available today. Psychologists use it as the primary
means of understanding and interpreting personality. From the
mid-1980’s to the mid-1990’s, the Five-Factor Model
of Personality was primarily tested and re-tested in the academic
and research communities world-wide and was found to be a superior
model to earlier means of explaining and describing personality.
To date, the model has shown remarkable stability across languages
and cultures. The model is unique as it is the result of a collaboration
within the psychology community, unlike other “man-made”
models.
As a result, the Five-Factor Model is:
| Reliable: |
Extremely reliable compared to available
personality inventories |
| Acceptable: |
High acceptance of personal results by those tested
|
| Respected: |
Currently the most widely respected personality model
in the personality research community |
| Valid: |
Established predictive validity across a variety of
jobs |
| Uncomplicated: |
No theory to understand, a clear vocabulary of individual
similarities and differences |
| Compatible: |
Serves as a road map to major theories of personality |
Until recently, the most acclaimed measurement tool for the
model has been the NEO series of tests developed by Paul Costa
and Jeff McCrae (1992 & 1997) of the National Institute
on Aging’s Laboratory of Personality and Cognition in
Maryland, U.S.A. However, the NEO test was developed for an
academic and clinical population. There was a need to
apply the knowledge to the workplace.
The Workplace Big 5 Profile™ (WorkPlace)
In 2001, Pierce J. Howard and Jane Mitchell
Howard introduced the WorkPlace Big Five Profile (Howard &
Howard, 2001a), a 107-item Big Five survey with language oriented
towards the world of work that measures the Big Five.
Organizations that want to be up-to-date and remove biases from
the workplace are using the Big Five as their model of choice
since it offers so much depth and understanding for employees
and program participants in all aspects of human resource development.
Some key components to the Five-Factor-Model include:
Today, the WorkPlace Big Five ProFile™ (WorkPlace) version
4.0, is a personality assessment based on the Five Factor Model
of Personality which has become the standard for psychologists.
The WorkPlace was specifically written in workplace terminology
to be used for business applications such as:
Team Building, Leadership Development, Performance Coaching,
Job Selection and Hiring, Succession Planning, Management/ Supervisory
Training, Career Development, Sales Training, Conflict Management,
OD Intervention.
The WorkPlace is a normative test and can be used for Job Selection;
while many commercially well-known assessments should not be
used for Job Selection. The WorkPlace questionnaire and reports
have been recognized by the U.S.’s PAR (Psychological
Assessment Resources) as the training resource for the NEO training
approved by an EEOC lawyer. Busy executives find it fast and
easy to complete online in 10 – 15 minutes. The coefficient
alpha of .83 is among the highest of all other assessments.
We are the exclusive licensee and master trainer
for the Workplace Big 5 Profile developed by the Center for
Applied Cognitive Studies (CentACS) based in North Carolina,
U.S.A. since 1993.
The 5 traits and 23 sub-traits of the WorkPlace Big Five ProFile
are
| Need for Stability: |
Worry, Intensity, Interpretation, Rebound
Time |
| Extraversion: |
Warmth, Sociability, Activity Mode, Taking Charge, Trust
of Others, Tact |
| Originality: |
Imagination, Complexity, Change, Scope |
| Accommodation: |
Others’ Needs, Agreement, Humility, Reserve |
| Consolidation: |
Perfectionism, Organization, Drive, Concentration, Methodicalness |
The Workplace consists of a series of reports:
| • Trait Profile – scores of
the 5 traits and 23 sub-traits. Sample
report |
|
| • Narrator – descriptive interpretation
based on scores from the Trait Profile. Sample
report |
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| • Consultant Report – additional
information for use in coaching/consulting. Sample
report |
|
| • Trait Capacitor – optional
(see below). Sample
report |
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Human
Resource Optimization (Trait Capacitor)
Companies and organizations spend millions of dollars
every year training people. It has long been assumed that
anyone can be trained to do anything if they work hard
enough at it. In terms of the Nature-Nurture debate, people
mistakenly assumed that nurture rules and that anyone
could be trained if given proper methods and technology.
We now understand that all workers do not take equally
well to all training.
It is time to rethink the existing “human resource
development paradigm.” CentACS’ approach is
called “Human Resource Optimization” (HRO).
It means understanding the skills required for a job,
understanding an employee’s strengths and weaknesses,
and then finding a way to leverage the strengths and minimize
the weaknesses to get the job done effectively.
When an employee’s performance must be improved,
the informed manager puts Human Resource Optimization
to work:
| • |
Define the competencies required for
the job. For example, competencies associated
with sales are: competitiveness, presentation skills,
self-confidence, and optimism. |
| • |
From research studies, the Center for Applied
Cognitive Studies knows which traits support each
competency. |
| • |
Assess the employee’s performance on these
competencies using a 360° or other appraisal
tool. |
| • |
Use the WorkPlace Big Five Profile to assess the
employee’s traits. |
| • |
Identify the gap between the ideal trait infrastructure
for each competency and the person’s actual
trait infrastructure (capacity). |
| • |
For each combination of Performance and Trait
Capacity per Competency, Human Resource Optimization
has strategies to employ: Develop, Develop with
Support, Caution, Capitalize and Compensate strategies.
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What differentiates the Workplace assessment
from others is its ability to link the Big Five scores
to selected competencies. Relevant competencies
for successful performance in your work or job can be
pre-selected from a list of 54 competencies. The Trait
Capacitor Report estimates an individual’s energy
capacity for various competencies. Once an individual’s
basic traits are analyzed, the Big 5 scores go through
another level of analysis to estimate capacity to perform
competencies. These estimates are based on research
studies. In addition to a score, the estimates
of capacity are also described along a continuum: Energizing,
Natural, Somewhat Natural, Draining to Outside Comfort
Zone.
Important Note: These capacity scores do
not reflect performance. The WorkPlace does not
measure performance. It only measures the trait
energy one has to support a competency. It is
possible to perform a competency very well and still
have a capacity score of Draining or Outside Comfort
Zone. What the capacity score reflects is one’s
natural trait energy for that competency only.
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Workplace Big 5 Profile – Master Trainer
 Introduction
Frequently
Asked Q & As
Certification
Catalogue
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