University Leadership Development Case Study: MBTI Personality Types

This case study analyzes the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and its application to leadership development. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction to the MBTI, its use, and reliability. A case study focuses on an individual with an ENFJ personality type, examining their characteristics, strengths, and potential in leadership roles. The study also discusses the MBTI's popularity, criticisms from experts, and comparisons to other personality assessment tools like the NEO-PI. The conclusion highlights the ENFJ personality's suitability for leadership and the MBTI's widespread use, despite existing debates about its accuracy. References to key sources are also included.

Running head: CASE STUDY
leadership Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
The report will be providing brief information of the MBTI test and its reliability. Notion of
different critiques is also highlighted in the report. A case study is presented in of an individual
with ENFJ type personality and discussion has been drawn surrounding the case.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Summary of the Result....................................................................................................................3
MBTI test and its reliability.............................................................................................................5
Is it widely used and by whom?......................................................................................................5
What do experts say about mbti test?..............................................................................................6
Similar test alongside or its place....................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator of widely known as MBTI is a personality type test tools
widely used to determine the personality of a person. The tool is commonly used by the business
organizations to get a proper knowledge of their employee’s personality to handle them
accordingly or to know them before employing. The tool has many limitations and is criticized
by many scholars. The first part of the report will be discussing a case study of an individual.
The second part will be explaining the MBTI and various factors surrounding it (Tananchai
2017; Furnham and Crump 2015).
Summary of the Result
A case has been taken, where the individual had to answer 93 forced choice questions.
There are four dichotomies of the tool and all the sixteen types are put in these four and
represented by four initials of these dichotomies. The result of the case is given bellow.
The type of personality of the subject is ENFJ. The person who fall into this category is
primarily live a external focused life, where the individual deals with things based on how they

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feel about them and the extent things fit into their personal value system. Moreover, the
secondary mode of living is internal, where the individual takes things based on their intuition.
People under this category are people-focused. In means, they possess an excellent
people skills and ability to understand and care about people. They seek to find the best in others.
This kind of people devotes themselves for the betterment of others. More to it, they have special
ability to manipulate people and make them do whatever they want them to do. Their
motivations are mostly unselfish in nature; however, they can also use it for other purposes.
On the other hand, it is found that, the ENFJ people do not have their personal time and
also find it difficult to spend time alone which is important for them. They have a tendency to
turn to dark thoughts when alone which shall be avoided with utmost priority.
Another side of ENFJ people is they are likely to be reserved. It does not means that they
don’t have strongly-felt beliefs, but they like to refrain expressing them. On the other hand, they
are clear and succinct in expressing their opinions to others. This type of people is loved by all
and is also well organized people. This means, they can perform well in positions where they
have to deal with people.
Any individual who have not developed their feeling side faces many difficulties making
good decisions and depends upon other people in decision making process. They also might
judge quickly based on the value or rules without having a proper understanding of the situation,
if they fail to develop the intuition.
In short, these people are charming, warm, creative and diverse with rich developed
insights. There is no competition with ENFJ in giving and caring.

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From the test results, it can be said that the ENFJ people are likely to show good
performance in managing human in any field which shows potential of a good leader and
leadership. Though there are strengths and weaknesses of ENFJ leadership, but they likely to
recover from their weaknesses and show potential development as they are the best to handle
people in any situation, which is required to become a good leader.
MBTI test and its reliability
Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers are the developer of the MBTI
test. Katherine was influenced from Carl Jung’s book, Psychological Type which made her
daughter to create the MBTI in the early 1940. Educational Testing Service started the
distribution of the MBTI in 1957 and adopted is as a part of the library. Due to some unfavorable
reviews from the internal members, it was put to a stop by ETS and Consulting Psychologist
Press acquired its right to sell in 1975 (indiana.edu 2017). MBTI recognizes 16 types of
personality based on four dimensions and puts every person’s personality into these. They are
Extroversion vs. Introversion, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling and Judgment vs.
Perception (Rice 2015).
The reliability of MBTI is doubtful as it uses two letter categories which are not as sharp
and clear as it appears. Hence, it is possible for MBTI to show similar result scores with much
different personalities.

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Is it widely used and by whom?
The type test is extremely popular worldwide. It is also a profitable tool for many
certified consultants who use them and also for the publisher. It is also used by the large
organizations and corporations including 89 of Fortune 100 companies (forbes.com 2017).
What do experts say about MBTI test?
There are many who scholars who criticize the merits of the MBTI. For instance, the
psychometric properties were of the test were criticized by McCrae and Costa in the year 1989
(indiana.edu 2017). They pointed out numerous limitations of the test. Attention was also drawn
by Mattare to a high degree of skepticism in the research of the MBTI. It is due to overuse and
misuse of the test. Many argue that the test has shortcomings as a standalone measure
(businessinsider.com.au 2017; Pearson and DeFrank-Cole 2017).
Similar test alongside or its place
Many also compare it with NEO-PI five factor models which is greatly know as Big Five.
NEO-PI is often used in the academic literature whereas the MBIT is commonly used in the
business and team oriented settings. Though the academics always prefer NEO-PI over MBTI,
both the research shows a consistent overlap (indiana.edu 2017).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion, that the ENFJ type of personality can deal
with people in any situation and provide great motivation to their followers. This is a true
leadership personality that is needed in any organization for growth and productivity. Though the
MBTI type test that is used for the purpose of the report is not completely accurate and different

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critiques have different views regarding the matter, it is widely used and preferred by business
organizations around the globe.

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Reference
businessinsider.com.au. 2017. MBTI misleading. [online] Available at:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/myers-briggs-personality-test-is-misleading-2014-6
[Accessed 10 Aug. 2017].
forbes.com. 2017. MBTI popularity. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddessig/2014/09/29/the-mysterious-popularity-of-the-
meaningless-myers-briggs-mbti/#15ed93091c79 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2017].
Furnham, A. and Crump, J., 2015. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Promotion at
Work. Psychology, 6(12), p.1510.
indiana.edu. 2017. Measuring the MBTI. [online] Available at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf [Accessed 10 Aug. 2017].
Pearson, N.G. and DeFrank-Cole, L., 2017. Who is Taking our Classes? A Single-Institution
Study of Leadership Student Personality Types. Journal of Leadership Education, 16(3).
Rashid, G.J. and Duys, D.K., 2015. Counselor Cognitive Complexity: Correlating and
Comparing the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator With the Role Category Questionnaire. Journal of
Employment Counseling, 52(2), pp.77-86.
Rice, J.W., 2015. Using Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicators to Predict High School
Student Performance in an Educational Video Game. University of North Texas.
Tananchai, A. 2017. The Personality of Students Studying the Social Etiquette and Personality
Development Course by Myers Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) Theory. AJE, 3(2).

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