Read the reading listed below and then answer the questions in the following sentences listed below the reading:

Sky Energy (often referred to as just Sky) is a large technology company with 45,000 employees located in San Jose, California. The company focuses on developing clean energy, primarily manufacturing electric vehicles as well as solar and wind technology. Sky was founded in 2003 by two engineers, one of whom is the current CEO, Eduardo Malaga. Malaga is known for his innovative thinking and is continually seeking to develop new products that promote clean energy.

Malagas entrepreneurial spirit has a strong influence not only on the products that the company develops but also on the organizational structure of Sky Energy. Malaga has a vision for creating more of a team structure with less hierarchy and more collaboration on projects. As Malaga considers strategies for developing effective teams, he thinks about the potential obstacles that employees may face as they are frequently required to work closely with others. From personal experience, he knows that managing and working with different personalities can be challenging. One day he remembers a nifty personality test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), that he took earlier in his career. Malaga found learning about his type really enjoyable and useful in understanding how he interacted with others at work. His belief that he has stumbled on the perfect tool to facilitate the team structure is further reinforced as he does some more research on the MBTI. For instance, the company that sells the MBTI suggests that the assessment is valid and reliable based on data it has collected. Furthermore, Malaga is confident that it would not create division in the work teams even though the assessment would classify each team member as belonging to a certain type. As the MBTI website says, All types are equal.

Although Sky Energy is by most standards remarkably successful, Malaga knows that the companies that sustain long-term success are those that continue to innovate. He remembers how Facebook overtook Myspace, and that is just one of many examples. After doing his research, Malaga is ready to hit the ground running using the MBTI at Sky. He plans to administer the MBTI to all current employees and have project managers use the data to create project teams. Malaga also plans to use it as a pre-employment assessment. Sky is focused on selecting individuals who can be developed and will stay with the company long-term. As such, Malaga believes it is more important to find coachable people who fit with the companys values and philosophy rather than those with specific qualifications or experience. Soon hiring managers and recruiters are trained in administering and evaluating the MBTI.

For example, as the hiring team is deciding between two final candidates (Carson and Zara) for a software engineer position, they are faced with a difficult decision as to which candidate to hire. While Zara has less experience than Carson, during the interview, Zara was more enthusiastic about the companys mission. She emphatically highlighted how a previous internship at an organization dedicated to environmental activism would make her a great candidate for the position. Furthermore, Zaras MBTI type was an ENTJ ( ), while Carson was an ISFJ ( ). From Carsons interview, it was clear that he was reliable, hardworking, and practical, as his type indicated. Although the hiring staff believed these traits would be beneficial, they noted that a slight majority of the current employees types included introversion. Not only was Zara an extrovert, but her type also indicated that she was vision-focused and would assume leadership without hesitation. Carson (as an ISFJ) would most likely lack the leadership qualities Sky was looking for in its new hires. In the end, the hiring staff decided that Zara would bring diversity to the teams she would be working on. Given her prior experience and MBTI type, she would be a better match to carry out the companys vision.

Malaga also noted how the MBTI could strengthen teams by ensuring they were diverse in their MBTI types. One of the hiring managers noted that the Big Five Model could be used instead because it also measures extroversion and introversion. While a few of the managers agreed, the team ultimately decided to stick with the MBTI as the tools use was clearly part of Malagas vision for the company.''

Questions:

1. After reading the case, what are your thoughts on the MBTI? Why do you think management at Sky responded so favorably to the MBTI? Do you think they would respond differently or change their ways if they knew the lack of empirical evidence for the MBTI? Why or why not?

2. Is there another personality framework that would have been more effective in achieving Malagas goals? If so, why do you think this framework would have been more effective? If you were a hiring manager on the team at Sky, what would you suggest to the rest of your team, and how would you convince them to go with your idea?

3. Evaluate the hiring staffs decision-making process for hiring a new software engineer. To what extent should the individuals personality traits factor into the decision-making process? How should the organization use the personality data to make decisions?