Occupational psychology conference

Join The Myers-Briggs Company at the DOP Annual Conference in January for three talks and three poster sessions. See below for details.

• Thriving in the gig economy: Does personality matter?
  Gig workers are essential to many organisations and form a significant part of the workforce. There has, however, been little systematic research into gig workers’ personalities. This research looks at the reasons for joining the gig economy, the characteristics of gig jobs, the best/worst things about being a gig worker, and presents checklists for gig workers and their employers.

• Optimising the ‘always-on’ culture: The role of personality
  The ‘always on’ culture is when email, phones and other technology makes us available 24/7. Our research indicates that whilst access to work emails and phone calls outside of work interferes with family life and makes it hard to switch off, it is also linked positively to work engagement. Why?

• Choosing personality assessments for employee development: Forget (almost) everything they told you! 
  Personality assessments are frequently used to help employees thrive, yet the instruments most often used are much criticised by academics, who typically focus on selection applications. This session emphasises the centrality of the test taker to the validity of development interventions, and introduces a new concept of ‘experiential validity’.

• Has the personality of the working population changed over the last ten years? (poster session)
  How has the profile of the managerial and professional population changed over the last ten years? Research suggests that it may have become more acceptable to behave in an introverted way, and less acceptable to focus on ideas and possibilities. This session explores these and other findings, and the implications for HR.

• Understand your personality, improve your well-being (poster session)
  This paper presents the latest research from an ongoing project into personality and predictors of well-being worldwide. With the findings we can develop evidence-based, tailored guidelines depending on personality type.

• The relationship between MBA students' MBTI, TKI, HPI and HDS results (poster session)
  This study explores the relationships between four personality questionnaires used to aid individual development and learning. Practitioners using personality questionnaires in combination will find this study useful.

The DOP conference runs from 9–11 January 2019 in Chester. Full details are on the BPS website.

Well-being research published in ADM
We’re also delighted to announce that a write-up of the well-being presentation at the 2018 DOP conference by our consultant and presenter, Nikhita Blackburn (née Dost), has been published! 

It’s in the Winter 2018 edition of Assessment & Development Matters (ADM, Volume 10, No.4) by the British Psychological Society. Nikhita also presents the 2019 poster session described above, which is an update with the latest findings.