Conference presentations

Facilitation of confident leaders in the face of constant change with Celesio AG

Alice King & Catherine Ellwood    *Shortlisted for a workforce experience award for excellence talent development

Celesio AG is the top pharmaceutical distributor in Europe and set to become the leading European pharmacy brand. In this presentation, the authors provided an overview of the nature and impact of the leadership development programme that they designed specifically for the retail area manager population aimed at improving business performance and creating a future talent pipeline at this middle management level. This is an example of how business psychology based approaches can prevent constant and pervasive change negatively impacting business performance. This session demonstrated how the authors worked as partners with Celesio’s UK development team and was accompanied by interactive exercises and useful tips to take away.

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Driving business performance through talent development

Claire Bremner    *Shortlisted for a workforce experience award for excellence in performance improvement

Pension Insurance Corporation plc ('PIC') provides tailored pension insurance buyouts and buy-ins to the trustees and sponsors of UK defined benefit pension funds. PIC brings safety and security to scheme members’ benefits through innovative, bespoke insurance solutions. Now with over 100 employees, several years of outstanding performance in the sector and some of the largest deals in the market, the senior leadership wanted to seize the moment to articulate what differentiates PIC both internally and externally within the sector. 

They approached OPP to work with them to create a values and capability framework through which they could demonstrate, who they are and what they want and expect from their people. They wanted this to be the foundation of their talent management process and be used as a recruitment and development tool to assure their future talent pipeline.

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Building team resilience for coping with change with Macmillan Cancer Support

Alice King & Catherine Ellwood    *Shortlisted for a workforce experience award for excellence in employee experience

This session gave an overview of the team development programme that we created specifically for the East of England Macmillan Patch team. A key role for business psychology is to find ways to help people manage the uncertainty that accompanies constant change and build resilience in the face of limited control and information. This session demonstrated how the authors did this working with this team and is accompanied by interactive exercises and useful tips to take away.

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Competency validation: getting the right data

Rob Bailey and John Hackston

Evidence based practice is at the forefront of occupational psychology; but gathering the right evidence can be challenging. This paper looked at a variety of issues encountered by the authors when attempting to demonstrate the validity of competency assessment: specifically assessing competencies via personality and aptitude measures. It explored several stages of research, development and refinement including: 

1. The creation of a competency model, with 20 competencies designed for general-purpose use across a range of different jobs.
2. Creating links from the 16PF personality questionnaire and different types of aptitude to the competency model, based on pre-existing research studies.
3. Collecting self-reported demographic data, to serve as criteria (such as occupational role, number of promotions, hobbies).
4. Collecting self-reported personality competency data and personality data, then collecting manager ratings of competency.

The outcome of this research was equations that use personality and aptitude data to calculate a score showing the likely fit between a candidate’s traits and the demands of each competency. Following this, the model has been refined to increase validity, decrease gender bias and establish the right balance of cognitive aptitude vs. personality data in each equation. This process was shared experience with practitioners and test publishers, to help inform their own practice.

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What is normal? Selecting and developing personality norm groups

Rob Bailey and John Hackston

A feature that differentiates psychometric assessments from many others is the use of a norm group. By using an appropriate norm group, the results of an assessment can be compared against an understood standard, thereby allowing a meaningful interpretation. However, an interpretation can easily be swayed by which norm group has been chosen. This session shared research findings from four separate studies into norm groups, encourage debate and to put questions to researchers and publishers of psychometrics. We examined job specific norms, international norms, general population vs. applicant norms, and the stability of norm groups over time.

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Personality and the work environment: how well do we fit the modern office?

John Hackston

Many workers are office-based, with open-plan offices the norm; hot-desking and similar shared workspace arrangements have become increasingly common. Such office layouts do not typically take into account the different personality preferences of employees, and it has been suggested that such layouts may have a negative impact on introverts in particular. The purpose of the study was to explore personality differences in attitudes to the office environment. As predicted, Extraverts showed a significantly higher degree of both job satisfaction and happiness at work than did Introverts in open-plan offices but not in other layouts, and those who were allowed to personalise their workspace were more satisfied with their work environment than those who were not (although here there was no significant difference in job satisfaction or happiness at work). Other personality differences in likes and dislikes in the office environment were also presented and discussed. The findings were used to present recommendations for office design and layout in order to best accommodate people of all personality types.

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Putting the evidence into practice: applying the results of a validation study

John Hackston, OPP Ltd and Andrea Olseski, BGL

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to implement evidence-based practice in occupational psychology and HR. This paper described a case study where the practice of selection had been based on evidence. The client, a large financial services and consumer insurance group, wanted to enhance the way in which it selected Customer Service Representatives for its contact centres. 110 representatives completed a personality questionnaire, the 16PF 5th edition. This gave scores on 16 scales or “factors” of personality and was also used to predict each person’s potentiality against a range of 20 competences. Results showed specific personality factors were linked to certain job roles and performance in those roles. For example, compared with the general population, the Customer Experience Representatives were on average less “self-reliant” (more group-oriented) and more “socially bold” (confident and liking a challenge). The client now uses the 16PF in selection of new representatives, based on the evidence from the validity study and from further research. The presentation concluded with a checklist for organisations seeking to base their practice on the evidence.

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Personality, engagement and the office environment

John Hackston

Many workers are office-based, with open-plan offices the norm; hot-desking and similar shared workspace arrangements have become increasingly common. Such office layouts do not typically take into account the different personality preferences of employees, and it has been suggested that such layouts may have a negative impact on introverts in particular. The purpose of the study was to explore personality differences in attitudes to the office environment. As predicted, Extraverts showed a significantly higher degree of both job satisfaction and happiness at work than did Introverts in open-plan offices but not in other layouts, and those who were allowed to personalise their workspace were more satisfied with their work environment than those who were not (although here there was no significant difference in job satisfaction or happiness at work). Other personality differences in likes and dislikes in the office environment were also presented and discussed. The findings were used to present recommendations for office design and layout in order to best accommodate people of all personality types.

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Emotional Intelligence: is it more relevant than we think?

Nikhita Dost

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Emotional intelligence (EQ) training at Tesco UK. 361 leaders took part emotional intelligence training using the Emotional Judgement Inventory tool. Their change in Emotional Intelligence levels was measured, as well as their MBTI Type, happiness, resilience, Emotional Labour, Authentic Leadership and customer focus. Results showed that Emotional Intelligence levels were higher after training than before and that Emotional Intelligence was linked to the above factors. Findings demonstrated the effectiveness and relevance of training emotional intelligence for developing leaders. They also had implications for Human Resource Development: If Emotional intelligence can be trained and linked to wider organisational goals, perhaps there should be an emphasis on development of staff in other roles, such as customer service roles, not just leaders.

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Authentic Leadership and Happiness at Work

Richard Stockill and Gaby Walker

Authentic leaders (leaders who understand their own drivers and values and are able to lead using these) are likely to be happier in their work. The paper summarised a research project carried out with 169 line managers, looking at how leadership style influenced positive mental states. The study also investigated possible mediating links in this relationship. Findings suggested that the link between authentic leadership and happiness at work was partly due to highly self-aware managers being able to find roles that had more meaning for them. This research is important because authentic leadership can be developed, and happiness at work has been linked to a number of health and performance outcomes.  

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Birthplace or where you live - less important than personality 

John Hackston

In the past, national stereotypes may have performed a useful function at work, helping teams to bond and differentiate themselves from, say a neighbouring region or country. However, in a world where multinational teams are common, assumptions based on stereotypes can disrupt the functioning of a team. This study investigated the influence of country of origin, country of residence, gender, age, level of seniority and personality on cultural orientation. It was found that personality had the largest effect, and that country of residence had a larger effect than country of origin.  

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Closing the academic-practitioner-nonexpert gap: automated selection in SMEs  

John Hackston

Increasingly, ‘non-experts’ are making selection decisions, raising questions about quality standards. The issue is particularly relevant to smaller organisations (SMEs). Although these account for 99.9% of UK private sector businesses, many will not have access to more powerful selection tools. One solution may be to incorporate the expertise needed for good selection decisions into an automated system. This presentation gave an outline of OPP’s journey in developing such a system, Sirius, including the ethical, commercial and professional issues raised.

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From Baby Boomers to Generation Y: Motivation across the Ages 

Tatiana Gulko

Increased life expectancy, abolition of mandatory retirement age and a trend for more flexible career paths creates an increasingly age-diverse workforce. With this comes the challenge of motivating such a group, comprising people from as many as five different generations, working together. So where do we look for clues on how to motivate different age groups? We proposed that Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory (SST), in combination with personality, could help to explain motivational drivers in different age groups.  

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Local or general? – informing the norms debate 

Paul Deakin

To allow meaningful interpretation, scores on trait-based personality questionnaires are typically compared against those of a ‘norm’ group. These can range from being representative of the general population, to being representative of a very specialised sub-group. This paper used empirical data to highlight some of the challenges facing practitioners when choosing norms, and provides guidance about how to ensure appropriate interpretation of scores. Key messages from this paper were that there is no single size fits all solutions, and that norms based on very narrow, homogeneous samples may not be as desirable as practitioners are led to believe.  

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Personality without borders: do questionnaire languages and smart-phones bias results? 

Rob Bailey

With increased globalisation and use of internet technology affecting workforce mobility and online access to psychometrics, there is greater demand upon psychologists and test-providers to perform multinational and multilingual personality assessment. It is not enough to assume that assessment in one language will be equivalent to another: there are linguistic, cultural and psychological reasons why results might differ. Similarly, as mobile devices become a major route to internet services, it would be risky to assume that putting a personality instrument on a smart phone app will yield personality measurement equivalent to administration of the same assessment over a website. This presentation examined these issues.  

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The practice of running validation studies in client organisations: sharing learning and insights 

Tatiana Gulko and Richard Stockill

Evidence-based practice is at the forefront of most professions, including occupational psychology. This paper focused on presenting practical insights on delivering validation with clients. Using the medium of storytelling, it discussed the successes and lessons learned - for example, why following best practice doesn’t always lead to the best outcomes!

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Exploring learner reactions to E-learning 

Paul Deakin

The global growth of electronic learning has been dramatic. There are clear benefits, largely in terms of costs and accessibility. What is less clear, however, is the extent to which it is effective. Our research uncovered differences in how people with different personalities and learning styles react to online learning. The extent to which online learning is viewed as being a preferred learning environment showed links with personality and learning style. However, learner reactions to a specific online learning experience itself seem less linked to their personality. Learning points for online training designers were discussed. 

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Computer based testing (Panel Discussion) 

Rob Bailey

This presentation focused on issues arising from translating the International Test Commission’s computer-based testing guidelines into practice. Examples were drawn from two different online implementations of psychological assessment: 1) a free, direct to consumer personality assessment delivered online and via smart-phone apps; 2) a website helping line managers to select staff by incorporating personality and cognitive ability assessment data into their selection process.

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Improving personality-based selection decisions

Rob Bailey

Although personality assessments are widely used in selection situations, their interpretation can often be unstructured and subjective. This session offered practical tips, based on empirical evidence, for tightening up interpretation, applying the personality information to the needs of a job, and making decisions as objective and valid as possible. Theory and research was accompanied by practical exercises to enable practitioners to practice creating danger-zone profiles, and experiment with matching job requirements to personality traits.

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Differences in culture and personality across four countries

John Hackston

With increasing numbers of people working across countries, it is important to understand how other cultures differ from our own and how individuals work in cross-cultural teams. This presentation reported on differences and similarities in how personality dimensions and cultural factors related differentially to job level (seniority) across six countries (Australia, France, India, South Africa, the UK and USA). 

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Applying an automated approach to the use of personality assessment in large-scale recruitment

Paul Deakin, John Hackston and Rob Bailey

Competencies are a combination of the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform a job. The extent to which individuals exhibit particular competencies varies from person to person, and has a direct influence on their ability to perform a job well. Many organisations now use competency models to underpin their HR practices. In recruitment situations, organisations often use personality questionnaires to help predict which applicants are most suitable for a role. However, the outputs of personality questionnaires can be very difficult for inexperienced users to apply – even more so when they need to integrate them with comprehensive competency models. In reality, most managers care less about every nuance of an applicant’s personality than whether they represent a ‘good-fit, low-risk’ decision. This can be very difficult to establish when the merits of each applicant are being assessed against several, often competing, competencies. The burden on busy recruiting managers is further increased when they are faced with quickly having to sift the best applicants from very large applicant pools. As a result, the quality of their decision-making may be reduced. This session discussed how organisations can identify the most important competencies for particular roles, and then use the results from trait-based personality questionnaires to establish the predicted ‘fit’ of each individual against key competencies, before producing an ‘overall fit’ score’. 

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Are we just whistling in the wind? Demonstrating the impact and return on investment of development interventions

John Hackston, Richard Stockill and Rob Bailey

Training and personal development activities have long been seen as central to an organisation’s success, and the evaluation of these interventions is widely accepted as good practice. A large range of methods and taxonomies for evaluation exists, but often the most straightforward models are used, most typically that of Kirkpatrick (1967). A number of limitations have however been noted in this model. For example, few links have been found between the four levels of the Kirkpatrick model, and measurements are often taken only after training or development have been completed; this contrasts unfavourably with research in many other areas of organizational psychology, which will typically use a pre- and post- intervention design. This study used the Kirkpatrick model to measure the impact of development workshops in a commercial organisation. The research did show some links between the levels of the Kirkpatrick model; for example, belief in the impact of the training correlated with improvements in quality and revenue. The use of a pre- and post- intervention design did allow a more clear picture of individual change and development, and hence of the impact of the workshops on organisational performance. In particular, both manager- and self-ratings of teamwork showed a significant positive change.  

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Life may not be linear, so what about selection?

John Hackston

Practitioners often assume nonlinear relationships between personality and job performance; this underlies many recruitment techniques, from ‘ideal profiles’ to danger-zones, qualification grids, and profile matching. Yet research has frequently failed to find evidence of curvilinear relationships between job performance and personality or has found only very slight effects. This study investigated the extent to which nonlinear models offer advantages over linear, using the relationship of personality scales to performance ratings. Much existing literature has been theory based, and we attempted to close the practice-theory gap.

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Culture or personality? Individual differences in cultural orientation across countries

John Hackston

This study examined questions around culture, identity and personality. Does our cultural orientation relate to ability?  How does the cultural orientation, as measured by the Cultural Orientations Framework relate to personality, as measured by the MBTI, and what is the effect of country of origin? 

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International differences in personality: smaller than occupational differences

Rob Bailey, Tatiana Gulko, Marie Wendel

When a questionnaire is translated into another language, a number of factors make it difficult to judge whether it measures constructs equivalent to the original. Differences could arise from the translation process, cultural differences and different samples. These issues can be complicated further if the questionnaire includes questions designed to obscure their target from the questionnaire taker. This paper investigated these issues with regards to the 16PF personality questionnaire.

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Single Factor of Personality 

Rob Bailey, Tatiana Gulko

The Single Factor of Personality (SFP) is the idea that personality can be summarised most simply not by 5 big factors, but by just one. Supporters of the SFP claim it predicts overall work performance (e.g. Musek, 2007; van der Linden, Nijenhuis, & Bakker, 2010). This work investigated SFP claims, particularly whether the SFP, a 5 Factor model, or a 16 Factor model would be a better predictor of work engagement, work performance, salary and promotion. 

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Time to Show the Impact

Richard Stockill & Alice King

With continued budget pressures and the increasing need for an efficient and productive workforce, the time for effective development work has never been greater. But how to demonstrate development work that is effective - that is the question! This interactive session explored a case study on evaluating the impact of the MBTI tool; provided two short practical sessions looking at how practitioners can evaluate their work; and proposed a model of evaluation. 

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Type in Time and Space

John Hackston

Time is often the missing dimension in our understanding of type. In this interactive session the participants mapped and explored their own development over time, drawing on our recent research to see how understanding of time itself is filtered through our type and our cultural space. The results of OPP’s own research into the relationship between type, culture, and our experience of time were presented, using the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF). 

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Perceiving function and orientation in relation to time

Ingrid Manning

As we considered the theme of time for type, this session offered an exploration of the relationship to time of different type preferences, with a particular focus on S and N in their introverted and extraverted forms. After establishing the orientation of their preferred perceiving function and working with this individually and in pairs, delegates were be able to explore this theme in a living dynamic type table format, and to consider their findings and the implications of them.

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Measuring the Impact of Training & Development Workshops: An Action Orientated Approach

Richard Stockill

The evaluation of training and development is widely accepted as good practice. Evidence suggests that evaluation methodologies in common use do provide insight to the impact of training and development, but also that the choice of method can provide greater or lesser insight. Based on a review of current literature on training evaluation this study takes an action orientated approach to examine the value of the most common practices, and to propose insights for future practice. 

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The Goldilocks Principle – Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right? 

John Hackston

Often personality is applied nonlinearly in selection, using ideal profiles, danger-zones, qualification grids or profile matching, yet the evidence for nonlinear relationships between personality and job performance is slight and the literature often technical. This paper examined evidence for nonlinearity in a managerial sample and showed how the findings could be used in selection. 

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What Maketh a Manager? Differences in Culture & Personality Across Four Countries

John Hackston

With increasing numbers of people working across countries, it is important to understand how other cultures differ from our own and how individuals work in cross-cultural teams. This paper reported on differences and similarities in the factors related to job level (seniority) across four countries (Australia, India, the UK and USA), drawing on dimensions of both culture (as measured by the Cultural Orientations Framework) and personality (as measured by the MBTI model). The implications for practitioners working cross-culturally are explored. 

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Predicting Performance from Personality: Fewer Factors Produce Feebler Forecasts

Rob Bailey

The Single Factor of Personality (SFP) is the idea that personality can be summarised most parsimoniously not by five big factors, but by the smallest possible number: just one factor. Supporters of the SFP claim it predicts overall work performance. This paper presented thorough analyses to see if the SFP lives up to its claims. We investigated whether the SFP, a Five Factor model or a 16 Factor model turned out to be a better predictor of work engagement, work performance, salary and promotion. 

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Emotionally unstable? It spells trouble for Work, Relationships & Life

Rob Bailey

This presentation explored a range of studies of resilience using the 16PF questionnaire, focusing on Anxiety and its subscales. To show the wide-ranging implications of high Anxiety and low Emotional Stability, the outcomes relate to both work life and home life. This is to remind occupational experts that emotional concerns are unlikely to stay at home. Outcomes included engagement, promotion, tenure, happiness, satisfaction with romantic relationships, and self-perceptions of luckiness. 

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Age and Work Characteristics: The Role of Personality 

Tatiana Gulko

Given our growing life expectancy and the recent increase in mandatory retirement age, it is more important than ever to evaluate the effect of age on organisational outcomes. This study had found that age is a pertinent factor in influencing how comfortable people are with certain characteristics of the workplace. Furthermore, the association of age with certain personality traits may partly explain this relationship. Implications, theories and research developments are discussed. 

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The Five-Factor Model of Personality - All we Need?

Paul Deakin

The five-factor model (FFM) of personality is widely accepted amongst contemporary researchers. Evidence suggests there is considerable convergence between measures of the FFM and the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality inventory based on Jungian theory. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) we examined whether, in addition to having shared variance, the MBTI and NEO-Five Factor Inventory (a FFM questionnaire) can provide insights about individuals incremental to those offered by the other instrument. 

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Is the "Big One" too big to be useful? 

This presentation argued the case against the fashionable "Big One" theory of personality – the notion that, as opposed to the popular "Big Five" personality traits, personality can be summarised using a single, highly desirable factor (with one scale: "good" vs "bad" personality). Our researchers found that this theory could not be replicated using the 16PF questionnaire, and also questioned the utility of the single-factor model in practical, occupational contexts (we examined how well the different personality models could predict employee engagement at work). 

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Evaluating training effectiveness and Return on Investment – a practical guide. 

Aimed at practitioners who need to defend the utility of their training services, this poster is a practical guide to evaluating ROI from training programmes. It is a blend of three different evaluation approaches, which gives a comprehensive, but concise set of steps. 

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Free online psychometric tests: are they a disruptive technology for the assessment industry?

This presentation explored the emerging market of free online psychometric tests, and discussed the implications for psychologists, psychometric test publishers and test users. Important topics were discussed, such as privacy of test users and social media; novel modes of testing; and potential future directions of the free online psychometric test market. 

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An exploration of preferred organisational culture characteristics across UK, French and Dutch managers.

Building on previous research into cross-cultural differences, this study explored differences between managers from the UK, France and The Netherlands in terms of their preferred working environments and how they like to be led. Meaningful differences were found at the national level, suggesting that organisational culture preferences do vary across countries. Interestingly, however, the actual work environment experienced by managers varied considerably less across countries. 

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Single factor of personality: Is the Big One too big to be useful?

This presentation covered attempts to replicate the Big One, aka the General Factor of Personality (Musek 2007, van der Linden 2011) from the 16PF questionnaire. It reported the lack of a clear one-factor solution and described the two-factor model found instead. However, this presentation did not focus solely on attempts to replicate the GFP, but also the utility of this concept. It was argued that specific, granular personality characteristics give a more accurate prediction for a variety of discrete areas of work performance and job satisfaction. 

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You didn’t hire me because of my Facebook profile?

This presentation explored the presence of social media in our professional lives, and its implications for the way in which we are perceived by our employers. Topics that were discussed include the interplay of personality traits and social media; preferred use of different media types; online privacy of social media users; and the various concerns raised by social media users. Implications of social media on employment practices were also discussed, including recommendations for employees on managing their social media accounts.

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Predicting entrepreneurial activity in Europe during the recession.

Given the recent economic downturn that gripped Europe in 2011, this study explored the interplay between personality and entrepreneurial activity of individuals during the recession, focusing on three European counties: United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands. Meaningful differences were observed, with higher Openness to Change, Social Boldness and Abstractedness associated with higher entrepreneurship for all three countries. Interestingly, other personality traits important for entrepreneurship varied by country. 

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Personality Traits and Career Choice among Early Career Entrants.

This study looked at the role of personality and motivation in the course choices of 113 university students. Overall, the results suggested that personality and motivation influence both the choice of courses and course satisfaction. 

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Ambition and Personality – How important are they for career success?

This study explored the extent to which ambition and personality predict career success, defined by the achievement of promotion to a more senior role in the last three years. Results showed the best overall prediction came from a combination of three predictors: high ambition, younger age and the tendency to trust others (low on the 16PF Primary Factor of Vigilance). 

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Do learning strategies mediate the relationship between personality and stress?

This study looked at whether or not coping strategies influence how well an individual deals with stress. Starting with the hypothesis that concerted learning strategies could help buffer people from stress, the study concluded that personality was in fact the biggest predictor of stress. Learning style did not have a mediation effect on the relationship between personality and stress – so understanding the personality of employees is likely to help identify who will experience most stress. 

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Quality versus quantity: why the Big One is not enough.

This presentation argued the case against the fashionable “Big One” theory of personality – the notion that, as opposed to the popular “Big Five” personality traits, personality can be summarised using a single, highly desirable factor (with one scale: ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ personality). Our researchers found that this theory could not be replicated using the 16PF questionnaire, and also questioned the utility of the single-factor model in practical, occupational contexts. 

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MBTI Global research project

Betsy Kendall    

OPP’s COO and Head of Professional Services, presented on the MBTI global research project. This is a multi-year effort by the MBTI assessment’s publisher and its international partners to develop, translate, and validate a revised form of the MBTI assessment for use around the world. This revised form will succeed forms M and Q in the United States and Step 1 and Step 2 in Europe, and will available in dozens of languages. In this session, Betsy Kendall discussed the project, including translation processes, data collection and the many new representative samples, and the statistical model underlying the new form, latent class analysis (LCA). LCA offers two major advantages over the current models. First, it is more consistent with type theory, because the theory assumes categories as the underlying structure, rather than a continuum. Second, LCA offers the opportunity to replace preference clarity indexes with posterior membership probabilities, which will be more intuitive for practitioners and clients. 

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A Match Made in Heaven: The Importance of Person-Environment Fit in Selection.

This study looked at the role of personality and its relationship to the culture in which the people worked in. Overall, results suggested that participants working in cultures congruent with their preferences reported being significantly higher on job satisfactionn and job enjoyment. They were less likely to think about resigning or changing their jobs, and reported experiencing significantly less stress at work

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Will You Look At My CV, or My Pictures On Facebook? How Using Social Networking Sites For Recruitment Could Land Applicants, Employees, and Employers in Big Trouble.

This poster looked at research into the personality of people using social networks, attitudes towards privacy, who is more likely to be dishonest online, and the likelihood of managers using social networking websites for pre-employment screening. The poster also considered best practice and legal issues, as well as considering fairness, validity and discrimination.

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The National Personality – What’s Changed Over the Last 18 Years?

This poster described the extent to which personality characteristics of the general population in the UK and Ireland were found to change over time. It discussed the implications of the findings for psychometric test publishers and the practitioners who will use these instruments.

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How to Make the Most of Online Data Collection Technology.

This presentation explored the topical issue of online data collection, the costs and benefits of using this technology, best practice guidelines, along with some personal insights from the experts themselves.

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The Practical Application of The Links Between Personality and Self-Awareness in a Coaching Situation.

This presentation shared insights and experiences of the benefits of using different types of instruments to support client needs, and to explain how clients may benefit when practitioners adopt a toolkit of various instruments. Insights were also provided into some empirical research, aimed at understanding the relationship between managerial self-awareness and personality.

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Senior Executives: A Unique Personality Profile?

This study revealed the unique personality profiles of senior executives. It was found that senior executives scored highest on global independence, dominance, liveliness, social boldness and openness to change. This group also displayed lower levels of sensitivity and apprehension.

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