Using personality tests to evaluate or assess employee job performance has social and ethical implications. Personality tests involve assessment of individual character or performance hence; every individual must be assessed while all ethical issues are fully met (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Personal tests can be done using methods such as interviews or questionnaires. There is a probability that some of the employees may give wrong information intentionally with the objective of improving their results of the evaluation. Employees must be informed about the need to be honest. This will help in the evaluation process giving accurate outcomes. Bias is an unethical practice that must be discouraged when carrying out personality tests for job performance assessment (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
There is also likely to be discrimination during personality tests when some employees are given lenient assessment by supervisors. Discrimination causes inaccuracy in the whole process of job performance evaluation. This is because employees are assessed on double standards causing wrong outcomes, which is unethical (Schultz & Schultz, 2005).
Privacy
The personality tests are aimed at revealing an employee’s character and behavior through the manner in which they respond to the test queries. However, some of the test queries could be touching on employee privacy. It is ethical to respect employee privacy by formulating personality tests that solely focus on the job the employee does (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Motivation
Personality tests can result in motivation to employees during job performance evaluation. If the employees are convinced that the personality tests are aimed at helping them improve, they will take the process positively. Therefore, the process must focus on identifying employee strengths and weaknesses and the results used to strengthen the weak sections each employee. This is a social implication which can lead to good results or make employees dissatisfied and unhappy. It must be conducted in the best manner possible (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Therefore, when using personality tests in job performance evaluation, the organization’s management must address ethical and social issues such as privacy, motivation, discrimination and bias.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2010). Psychology and Work Today. An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: Pearson Education.
References
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2005). Theories of Personality (8, illustrated ed.). London: Cengage Learning.
