This is a study of personality types of adults undertaking workplace leadership training in relation to perceived training outcomes. Training programs to facilitate adult learning in the workplace are a logical and necessary extension of formal education. Leadership training programs are gaining importance in management education. From another perspective, personality characteristics of adult learners have been related to leadership effectiveness, but there is a lack of studies relating training outcomes to personality. Based on these considerations, this study addresses the following question: After subjects attend a values-based leadership training seminar in the workplace, is their expressed commitment to implement its content a function of their personality types? The sample consists of one thousand managers of a large North American corporation. The subjects participated in a leadership seminar focusing on personal needs and values. Subjects self-administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Three weeks after the seminar, ratings of commitment to the implementation of the seminar were obtained, using a scale developed by the writer, the Perceived Implementation Rating Scale (PIRS). Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, item analyses, reliability estimates, and multivariate analyses of variance. The key results of this study may be summarized as follows: An overall comparison of the MBTI types yielded significant differences in perceived outcomes. More specifically, the combined group classified as TJ (Thinking-Judging) yielded lower scores than their non-TJ counterparts, and the Feeling group reported higher scores than the Thinking group. An exploratory comparison of men and women showed that women reported higher scores than did the nudes. These results imply that learning theories or models such as Andragogy and the Characteristics of the Adult Learner might do well to consider individual differences in personality as potentially relevant to learning outcomes and to the design of pedagogical strategies for adults.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8785 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Wyspianski, Judy Frances. |
| Contributors | Rancourt, Richard, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 196 p. |
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