[thechat] predictive indexing - is it evil ?

[Madhu Menon]

At 08:04 PM 03-09-02, Ashok at MagicalKenya.com wrote:
>my company's HR dept. has got hold of a 'predictive-performance-index'
>consultant
>- this bloke is gonna 'profile' individual employees.

My arse!

It's voodoo psychology man. Being the skeptic that I am, I can tell you
that I could fake my answers to give them any "profile" I want. All those
Myers-Briggs, Keirsey, etc. tests are one big bunch of bull.

I'll simply point you to the Skeptic's dictionary entry for the
Myers-Briggs test: http://www.skepdic.com/myersb.html

If you're being subject to those "Rorschach ink blot" tests, read this:
http://www.skepdic.com/inkblot.html

The problem with any of such profiling questions is that situations are
never black and white. Without context, you have no way of predicting
behaviour. If you asked me, "do you get along with people", I'd say "yes".
Does that mean I'll get along with everyone? Of course not. Another such
question is "do you prefer to work in a team or by yourself". Again, no
reliable answer to this one. My answer would be "who's in the team and what
are they doing?". There have been situations in my work where I've got
things done faster by doing it solo, but there are other times when I've
worked with great people to produce great work. Unfortunately, the
"profiling" test don't allow "it depends" as an answer. You're either here
or there.

Bah!

If you're like me, you'll probably enjoying reading all the entries in the
Skeptic's dictionary at:
http://www.skepdic.com/contents.html

Regards,

Madhu

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Madhu Menon
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