Craft Personality Questionnaire

Transcription

1 Craft Personality Questionnaire Development TalentLens.com Copyright 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

2 Copyright 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Pearson and TalentLens logos, and CPQ are trademarks, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). Portions of this work were previously published. Printed in the United States of America.

3 Introduction The Craft Personality Questionnaire (CPQ ) is a 75-item, factor-analytically derived assessment of eight job-related personality traits. These traits have been proven to predict job performance and employee retention in a wide variety of industries and in dozens of positions, with a particular emphasis on sales, management, customer service, call center, and related positions. Thousands of managers, recruiters, and consultants across a wide variety of organizations (in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia) utilize the CPQ for employee selection and development purposes. Origin of the CPQ The CPQ was developed by Dr. Larry Craft, a behavioral scientist who had extensive experience in sales management prior to becoming a leader in the employment assessment industry. Dr. Craft s research on drive and motivation, and that of his associates Dr. Doug Waldo, Dr. Amanda Evans, and others, has been featured in numerous articles, books, conferences, and other publications. The CPQ was developed through thirty years of exhaustive applied research and is made available to managers across the globe through the most advanced technology in the assessment industry. The CPQ provides an assessment of eight work-related personality traits (reported by what are referred to as the Basic Eight traits). These traits include: Goal-orientation (Go) This trait measures an individual s goal-oriented drive and intensity level. Using the Goal-orientation (Go) trait, the CPQ helps managers to determine whether an individual primarily focuses efforts in pursuit of identifiable goals or on proceeding through incremental steps in well-defined processes. Dr. Craft s specific interest in this trait began as he noticed that employees displayed differing levels of drive and focus, much like the processing speed of a computer. Some employees were intense and goaloriented, while others were much more even-paced. Dr. Craft conducted extensive research into the psychology of drive and motivation and concluded that the behavior he witnessed involved a sense of urgency and a focus on outcomes. He found that, while many assessments measured social drive and 1

4 activity levels, few measured the internal dynamics associated with drive and motivation. Out of necessity, Dr. Craft developed his own measure of Goal-orientation (Go) to help hiring managers distinguish between candidates with varying levels of drive to achieve immediate results. Need for Control (Nc) This trait measures an individual s need for control and independence. Through the Need for Control (Nc) trait, the CPQ helps managers to identify whether individuals prefer to make decisions independently (working alone) or through collaboration (in a team). The Need for Control (Nc) trait resulted from Dr. Craft s research in the areas of confidence, independence, and control. His findings became quite relevant when it came to supervising and coaching employees. Dr. Craft s research found that the more independent the employee, the more difficult it was to closely supervise their actions. The more independent employees preferred working in smaller businesses with less formal job descriptions and with less direct supervision. In essence, they were the entrepreneurs who would rather work for themselves (or by themselves) in order to maintain control of their situation. In contrast, other employees were more interested in peace, harmony, and working as a member of a team. They were relatively easy to supervise and typically had a desire to please their manager. As he isolated the factors contributing to both types of behavior, Dr. Craft formed the Need for Control (Nc) trait. Social Confidence (Sc) This trait measures an individual s confidence to take social initiatives and to be assertive when necessary. Through the Social Confidence (Sc) trait, the CPQ helps managers to identify whether an individual will confidently assert themselves or remain timid when dealing with coworkers, customers, and others. The Social Confidence (Sc) trait originated as a result of Dr. Craft s desire to assess the degree to which individuals approached others confidently in their work. Dr. Craft found that individuals with higher self-assuredness initiated and even dominated conversations. They seemed to be a natural fit for job duties requiring assertive behaviors (such as sales, management, and law). On the other hand, some individuals would avoid duties such as those requiring public speaking, negotiations, and selling. Dr. Craft developed the Social Confidence (Sc) trait to objectively measure the degree to which individuals would take social initiatives when required. Social Drive (Sd) This trait measures an individual s social drive or desire for acknowledgement. Through the Social Drive (Sd) trait, the CPQ helps managers to understand whether an individual is motivated by external and publicized rewards or by private and more personal forms of recognition. During his research, Dr. Craft found that the intensity he studied and observed in employees could be either internalized toward nonsocial pursuits or externalized toward social activities based upon the individual s desire to be around people. Dr. Craft noted that while some individuals had a tendency to collect many casual, superficial relationships, other individuals had only a few close friends and did not enjoy the schmoozing process necessary to influence others. Dr. Craft also found that while some 2

5 individuals were motivated by contests, awards, and other forms of public recognition, others preferred to work on their own and were not motivated by contests or public recognition. Dr. Craft separated these two extremes of behavior and created the Social Drive (Sd) trait. Detail-orientation (Do) This trait measures how individuals receive, interpret, and apply information in making decisions. Using the Detail-orientation (Do) trait, the CPQ helps managers to identify whether an individual relies upon detailed analysis, or intuition and experience, in making most decisions. As Dr. Craft conducted research on workplace behavior, he noticed that some employees had a preference for analyzing facts, figures, and details. They spent significant time on activities relating to planning, organizing, and analysis in their decision-making processes. On the other hand, Dr. Craft discovered that other employees avoided these activities, preferring to render decisions more quickly using their feelings, experience, and gut instinct. Good Impression (Gi) This trait measures the motivation to manage the impression left on others. Through the Good Impression (Gi) trait, the CPQ helps managers to identify whether an individual will strive to leave a good impression by exaggerating strengths and downplaying weaknesses, or if they will be open and receptive when coached, criticized, or rejected. Dr. Craft first recognized the significance of ego defenses and impression management while managing some employees who were reluctant to admit their mistakes. These individuals typically were very defensive and were prone to exaggerate their strengths and downplay their weaknesses. On the other hand, Dr. Craft found that other employees were quite open and honest about disclosing their faults and fears. While some employees easily admitted their mistakes and worked toward improvement, others became defensive and avoided any admission of fault or failure. Need to Nurture (Nn) This trait measures an individual s desire to nurture and care for others. Through the Need to Nurture (Nn) trait, the CPQ helps managers to understand whether an individual is motivated by opportunities to help and serve others, or to remain formal and on task. Through his interactions as a manager, Dr. Craft recognized that some employees were expressively warm and emotive, and enjoyed building personal relationships. On the other hand, there were those who were much more serious and professional, who remained detached and more businesslike in the workplace. After he developed and named the trait, Need to Nurture (Nn), Dr. Craft discovered that the trait measured other important behaviors as well. Individuals with lower Nn were much more taskoriented and disciplined in their use of time. They seldom were emotionally dependent upon others who needed them and, as a result, they were more efficient in prioritizing their time. On the other hand, individuals with higher Nn were more concerned with organizational relationships (coworkers and teammates), providing the glue that holds the team together. 3

6 Skepticism (Sk) This trait measures an individual s skepticism and trust of fellow employees, managers, and others. Through the Skepticism (Sk) trait, the CPQ helps managers to identify whether individuals are open and trusting, or guarded and skeptical, in workplace interactions. The Skepticism (Sk) trait originated as a result of Dr. Craft s specific management and coaching experiences. Dr. Craft found that some employees were quite open to training and development while others questioned or challenged everything communicated to them. While some individuals prejudged their managers and second guessed them whenever a difficult decision was made, others accepted everyone openly and gave the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. More importantly, however, was their openness to being coached or supervised by management. Realizing that this behavior significantly impacted both working relationships and employee development, Dr. Craft formed the Skepticism (Sk) trait. Development Process The development of the CPQ traits took place after exhaustive research involving a team of psychologists, social scientists, and statistical experts. Over 300,000 participants were assessed at various stages of the CPQ s development cycle, providing sufficient data to ensure that the tool is fair, valid, reliable, and job-related for use in employment testing. Throughout the test development process every effort was made to meet the requirements of the American Psychological Association s Standards for Education and Psychological Testing and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology s Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures. Trait development was based on numerous construct-related analyses, factor analyses, and concurrent administration of other widely used assessments. Internal consistency exceeds acceptable standards and assures users that results will be reliable over time. The CPQ construction process consisted of dozens of analyses of drive and motivation assessment questions over a two-year period. Initially, a heavy emphasis was placed on discovering the factors that represented the general domain of trait behavior. It was believed that the complexity of personality could be reduced to its most basic common denominators. Once these factors were identified, a minimal number of questions were constructed around each factor and a brief questionnaire produced comprehensive results. After determining personality factors (traits), the emphasis shifted to an analysis of each item to make sure it loaded on a unique factor and was not statistically sharing excessive variance with two or more factors. If an item was significantly sharing variance with multiple factors, it was either modified or eliminated. Repeated reliability analyses were conducted to ensure that resulting factors were consistent in their measurement of personality traits. The final step of the construction process was to norm the questionnaire on a representative population. Participants from a variety of occupations and industries provided scores for the CPQ normative database during the initial construction phase. 4

7 Descriptive Statistics Thousands of users from around the world have utilized the CPQ for selection and development purposes. Based on this utilization, the following norms have been reported for the CPQ traits: CPQ Norms (n=308,868) Trait Mean SD Minimum Maximum Goal-orientation 51% 28% 0% 100% Need for Control 54% 29% 0% 100% Social Confidence 60% 32% 0% 100% Social Drive 56% 29% 0% 100% Detail-orientation 62% 28% 0% 100% Good Impression 64% 29% 0% 100% Need to Nurture 58% 29% 0% 100% Skepticism 55% 28% 0% 100% The CPQ underwent numerous reviews by experts to ensure that items, phrases, and reports were not intrusive or offensive to candidates or employees, and that scores resulting from the CPQ were not discriminatory against any segment of the population. In numerous criterion-related validity studies, the CPQ scores have been proven to predict performance, while not causing disparate outcomes for members of any protected class. Readability The CPQ s reading level is reported using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Flesch Reading Ease method. The table indicates that the CPQ items are written at an eighth grade reading level. The most difficult trait (Detail-orientation) is written at a tenth-eleventh grade reading level, while the easiest trait (Need to Nurture) is written at a seventh grade reading level. This indicates that minimal high school education is required in order to understand the CPQ items. Reading Level of CPQ Trait Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Reading Ease Goal-orientation Need for Control Social Confidence Social Drive Detail-orientation Good Impression Need to Nurture Skepticism Overall CPQ