The influence of personality preferences on openness to learning/change following a leadership development program

This study examined the influence of psychological preferences upon ratings of behavior change following a leadership development program (LDP). The study considered: (1) which of the of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) preferences demonstrated more positive change; (2) the effectiveness of type and trait MBTI scores in detecting change; (3) the differences between residual and gain scores in detecting change; and (4) whether any of the MBTI preferences interacted with each other to influence ratings of change. An archival database of 600 managers who attended a week-long leadership development program was obtained from the Center for Creative Leadership. Managers were asked to complete the MBTI before attending the LDP as well as the REFLECTIONS 360-degree survey three months after attending the program. Feeling preferences were associated with higher change ratings in workplace relationships and task effectiveness than Thinking preferences. Individuals who reported higher MBTI preference scores on Introversion than Extroversion, higher scores on Sensing than Intuition, and higher scores on Perceiving than Judging were found to have higher change score ratings. MBTI trait scores were found to be a better predictor of change than type scores. Gain scores were found to be a better predictor of change than residual scores for both MBTI dichotomous and continuous scores. There were many instances of statistically significant mean differences of gain scores for ratings of change between rater groups (i.e., self, peers, and direct reports) for all MBTI preferences, with self ratings demonstrating larger change sores than peer and direct report ratings. ISTP types were found to have higher peer ratings of workplace relationship change than ENTJ types when using gain scores. Feedback involving the MBTI and REFLECTIONS could enable managers to become more aware of individual and organizational strengths and weaknesses associated with their personality type.