Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

Exercise Overview

Interpersonal skills refer to the ability to communi-

cate with, understand, and motivate individuals and

groups. This exercise introduces you to a widely used

tool for personality assessment and shows how an

understanding of personality can be of use in devel-

oping effective interpersonal relationships within

organizations.

Exercise Background

Of the many different ways of interpreting personality,

the widely used MBTI categorizes individual personal-

ity types along four dimensions, which were discussed

earlier.

Using the MBTI, researchers use survey answers to

classify individuals into 16 personality types—all the

possible combinations of the four Myers–Briggs

Chapter 9: Basic Elements of Individual Behavior in Organizations

2 8 5

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dimensions. The resulting personality type is then

expressed as a four-character code, such as ESTP

for extravert, sensing, thinking, and perceiving. These

four-character codes are then used to describe an

individual’s

preferred

way

of

interacting

with

others.