Local is not always better when it comes to using personality tests to hire or upskill workers in Asia, particularly China.
Personality tests are used mostly to predict the work performance and character of potential staff.
Some Chinese researchers have criticized Western-developed personality tests used in China and throughout Asia because they may have "blind-spots" which do not account for cultural differences such as face, family-orientation and harmony.
But research by UQ-trained psychologist Dr Graham Tyler has shown that translated tests from the West such as Britain and the United States can be more reliable and accurate.
“Western tests predicted performance, but locally-developed Chinese tests did not,” Dr Tyler said.
“Local researchers claimed a blind-spot in Western tests that would threaten their validity in China and other parts of Asia.
“Even if that blind-spot exists, our research indicates that a lot of work needs to be carried out to make local tests both reliable and valid in the local context."
Dr Tyler is Executive Director of PsyAsia International, a psychological testing and human resource training consultancy with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. He also teaches Masters of Science in human resource management at a Hong Kong university.
He said his research showed that country-specific personality tests may have no advantage, provided the wording and cultural concepts were accurately translated in Western-developed tests that are based on a well researched and validated model.
His research involved 1040 workers and students throughout Asia and Australia, working in nine organizations including universities, a private hospital, transport companies and a luxury hotel.
Additionally, pre-existing data from thousands of test respondents in Australia, New Zealand and the UK was analyzed.
After participants sat the Western-developed personality tests and the local Chinese version test, Dr Tyler compared and analysed the results between 2002 and 2005.
Dr Tyler said that this research has implications not only in Asia, but throughout the world given the large numbers of Asians, particularly Chinese, who have and who are continuing to emigrate all over the world.
The research for his PhD was done on a double UQ scholarship through the School of Psychology with help from UQ’s Dr Peter Newcombe and the University of Auckland`s Professor Paul Barrett.
More details and published articles can be downloaded at www.hrm.hk and www.personality.cn.
MEDIA: Dr. Tyler (+852 2251 8888, ed@hrm.hk) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (+61 7 3365 2619, m.holland@uq.edu.au)
