July 2003 - Information Systems Types vs. General Public

July 2003 - Understanding Personality Differences

Differences between "Computer" folks and the general population; Chart showing the differences; Comparison of the 4 personality preference pairs; Putting it all together - Tips for using this information; Resources (links, books, articles, humor)
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Differences between "Computer" folks and the general population

This month we use the Myers-Briggs model to look at the differences in people who tend to cluster in the computer-related industry. These are called Information Services, Information Systems, Information Technology or Data Processing in corporate environments.

A few years ago, we read an article that compared �Information Systems Types� to the general public. It started out, �Computer literacy isn�t enough. IS managers and pros need emotional literacy to build teams and work well with users. The Myers-Briggs method of deciphering personality types can help IS and users achieve a mutual understanding.�

What struck us at the time is that looking at personality differences may really help explain why many business customers are frustrated with their corporate IS/IT folks. And it may help explain why systems are built that end-users say do not meet their needs. In our work with many IS/IT folks over many years, we see this conflict played out in organization after organization, in both the public sector and the private sector.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) organizes people according to 4 groupings, resulting in 16 categories. Since the MBTI is very well known, there is a great deal of information about its use and application. David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates greatly popularized their version of the system in their book, Please Understand Me in the 1980s. That best-selling book was extensively updated in 1998 as Please Understand Me II.

The particular study quoted for this article differs from Isabel Myers� estimates of Temperament Preferences as quoted by David Keirsey. He quotes the general population as Extroversion with 75%, Introversion 25%; Sensing as 75% and Intuitive as 25%. He quotes the Thinking/Feeling pair and the Judging/Perceiving pair as 50%/50% in the general public (see chart and graph below).

What we can see is that for the Computer Professionals / Managers category, which is composed primarily of Managers, there is a significant difference compared to the general population in several of the groupings.

Computer Professionals / Managers � on average according to this study � tend to be much more introverted than extroverted, slightly more intuitive, much more thinking-oriented than feeling-oriented, and somewhat more judging than perceiving.

These differences might help explain why business people complain that their IS/IT department is not listening to their viewpoint or doesn�t understand their needs. The Thinking/Feeling component means that most of the IS folks want hard facts and logical arguments. The general population is much more comfortable making decisions based on their own sense of what is right and their feelings about the situation, not on rigid facts or strict logic.

This difference means that the 2 groups probably aren�t hearing each other or understanding the other�s perspective on the situation. This is a recipe for disaster when one type of person is responsible for creating systems that the other type of person must use to do their job. It's no surprise when friction and blaming result.

The stereotype of a computer person working long hours alone fascinated by the inner workings of a computer clearly point to the introversion aspect. They may be very uncomfortable working on a team with many business customers who love to brainstorm ideas. These are people who are energized by group interaction. The computer person will become exhausted and drained by such meetings and find excuses not to participate.

The Computerworld article noted that computer managers may be even more introverted than their staff, which could help explain their reluctance to find out why their business customers are really complaining.

This chart shows the differences:

Chart: I.S., CAPT study and Computer Professionals/Managers. See table below.

*I.S. Types vs. General Public (see note 2)*
*Temperament Preferences*	General Population (CAPT study)	*General Population (Keirsey / Myers)*	*Computer Professionals (Management)*
Extroversion (E)	54%	75%	33%
Introversion (I)	46%	25%	67%
Sensing (S)	54%	75%	46%
Intuition (N)	46%	25%	54%
Thinking (T)	41%	50%	81%
Feeling (F)	59%	50%	19%
Judging (J)	54%	50%	66%
Perceiving (P)	44%	50%	34%

A comparison of the 4 pairs is given below.

Extroverted (E)	Introverted (I)
Need for sociability	Territorial � need their own private space
Energized by people and contact with lots of people	Drained by a lot of people contact
Lonely when not around people	May feel lonely even in a crowd
Prefers to work with other people (teams, parties, gatherings, working groups)	Prefers working alone (reading, writing, studying) or working with a limited number of people
Prefers breadth over depth	Prefers depth over breadth
About 54% according to CAPT study (see note 2)	About 46% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)
About 75% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)	About 25% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)
Sensing (S)	Intuitive (N)
Practical; realistic	Innovative; seeks a better way
Wants facts, trusts facts and remembers facts	Wants ideas; likes metaphors and vivid imagery
Focus on details and may miss the big picture	Focus on the big picture and may miss details
Writes fact-based reports and historical summaries	May write poetry and fiction
Believes in experience (own and global); interested in the past history of a person or situation	Trusts in possibilities and the future; interested in how things might be done differently in the future
Focuses on the external (what is observed); Does not use intuition or trust intuition	Focuses on the internal (their own inner voice); May find entire ideas coming to them with no idea where they came from
Usually stays focused on the task at hand, moving step-by step	May skip from one idea or project to the next without finishing
More concerned about what someone said than what they meant	More concerned about what someone meant than what they said
About 54% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)	About 46% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)
About 75% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)	About 25% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)
Thinking (T)	Feeling (F)
More comfortable with impersonal, objective judgments	More comfortable with value judgments, may be put off by rule-governed choices
Make decisions based on logic and objectively	Make decisions based on personal preferences
Prefers and follows rules, principles, laws, criteria	Prefers and follows values, situational ethics, intimacy and persuasion
Likes words such as justice, categories, standards, critique, analysis, allocation	Like words like humane, harmony, good or bad, appreciate, sympathy, devotion
Good at logical arguments	Good at persuasion
About 41% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)	About 59% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)
About 50% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)	About 50% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)
Judging (J)	Perceiving (P)
Like closure and solid plans, goals and timetables	Like open and fluid options
Work comes before play	More playful and less serious; work does not always come first; work must be enjoyable
Likes to make decisions and move on	Likes to keep options open and explore; resists making final decisions
About 54% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)	About 46% according to a CAPT study (see note 2)
About 50% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)	About 50% of the population (Keirsey/Myers)

Putting It All Together

IS/IT folks are often confused and perplexed at why their customers are unhappy. They have followed what they believe are the facts, made logical decisions and methodically created a system that works the way they want it to work. They may have used their intuition to make decisions rather than actually hearing what their customer said, instead thinking they understood what the customer meant.

Their customers, however, are probably making decisions based on their values and their feelings. A new system may perform perfectly according to the designer�s logic. The customer trying to use it may not understand that logic nor care if it doesn�t get them the results they want easily. They become especially frustrated when they believe they had told their computer folks many times what they wanted.

So, what does all this mean? Simply that in order to understand another person�s viewpoint, you have recognize that they may be different from you and that there is nothing wrong with either of you. Also, neither of you is absolutely right.

Rather, you are both just fine and must learn to work through your differences, really listen to each other and learn to get out of your narrow viewpoint if you want to be successful.

It is important to also note that the "average" does not mean all IS/IT/computer folks fit the pattern described in this article. There are always a variety of people in any department or work group. The differences may help explain why there are often internal conflicts with co-workers as well as external conflicts with customers.

Tips for Using this Information

Learn about your own Myers-Briggs or Keirsey personality preferences (see Resources section). There are many other personality systems that will work as well as these two for team-building.
Learn about your customer's personality preferences.
Have a meaningful dialog session where you share with each other what you have learned about each person.
Create some definitive ways to improve communication, trust and interaction with each other.
Use tools such as Customer Satisfaction Surveys and 360-degree feedback formats to help measure the results.
Monitor the relationship to see if and how it improves. Periodically, make adjustments as needed.
Use a professional facilitator or someone trained in team-building if you are unable to work through this on your own.

In our experience, most people and organizations are able to bring new understandings to their workplaces, adjust their behavior, change the way they communicate and make good progress toward better teamwork and productivity if they are committed to making their situation better.

Notes:
(1) Source of article mentioned: Computerworld. May 1, 1995, "A Mutual Understanding" by David Weldon (Pages 103-111).

(2) Chart figures are from "IS Types vs. General Public" (Page 108 of the same article). Source quoted was: Research of 230,000 personality type profiles by the Center for Application of Psychological Type (CAPT) www.capt.org. The chart notes, "The general population figures are based on study of U.S. and Canadian personality profiles. It generally represents individuals with higher education and professional backgrounds."

(3) Chart figures for "General Population (Keirsey/Myers)" from Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types, (page25-26), which quotes figures from Isabel Myers.

Internet Resources

Keirsey Temperament Website (from David Keirsey, author of the Please Understand Me books) - http://www.keirsey.com/ (includes a link to the online test)
Statistics from the online Keirsey test (constantly updated) - http://keirsey.com/cgi-bin/stats.cgi
Resource website about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/web-mbti.html
Descriptions of the 16 MBTI types - http://www.santafecoach.com/Ptest/enfp.htm
The Personality Page (has a self-scoring test) - http://www.personalitypage.com/
Google Directory of related websites
An adaptation of the MBTI personality test in only 4 questions - http://haleonline.com/psych/noframe.htm

Books - Disclosure: We get a small commission for purchases made via links to Amazon.

Companies are People Too: Discover, Develop & Grow Your Organization's True Personality, Sandra Fekete with LeeAnna Keith. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. May 2003. ISBN: 0-471-23610-1
Please Understand Me II, David Keirsey. Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, 1998. ISBN: 1-885-70502-6
Please Understand Me, David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates. Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, 1984. ISBN: 0-960-69540-0
The Character of Organizations: Using Personality Type in Organization Development, William Bridges, Sandra Krebs Hirsh. Davies-Black Publishing, 2000. ISBN: 0-891-06149-5

Articles

Related newsletter articles:
June 2003 - Companies are People, Too
March 2002 - New Models of Education

Study of Computer Science majors - http://www.csun.edu/~renzo/cs485/notes/personality.pdf
Lecture notes for Engineering students - http://www.ece.mcmaster.ca/~djones/4hi3/pdf/lecture1.pdf
The Effects of Personality Type on Engineering Student Performance and Attitudes - http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/longmbti.pdf
The Role of Personality Temperament and Student Learning in Principles of Economics: Further Evidence - http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/pdffiles/fall00/Ziegert.pdf
How to Survive as a Corporate Innovation Champion - http://www.innovation-triz.com/papers/champion.ppt and http://www.innovation-triz.com/papers/corporatepresent.ppt
Learning Styles - http://www.floridatechnet.org/inservice/vpi/assess/modules/Learning.pdf
For skeptics - http://skepdic.com/comments/mbcom2.html
Difference between the Myers-Briggs model the Keirsey model - http://users.viawest.net/~keirsey/difference.html

The Lighter Side

A funny look at the MBTI types - http://www.relationships911.org/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=2966
Welcome to the Greenbelt - http://users.erols.com/kmdavis/gb1.html
MBTI Prayers - http://merryrose.atlantia.sca.org/archive/1996-01jan/msg00103.html
A Light Look at Psychological Type - http://soli.inav.net/~catalyst/Type/type.htm

About our resource links: We do not endorse or agree with all the beliefs in these links. We do keep an open mind about different viewpoints and respect the ability of our readers to decide for themselves what is useful.

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