Instructions

Sky Energy

Sky Energy (often referred to as just Sky) is a large technology company with forty-five thousand employees located in San Jose, California. The company focuses on developing clean energy, primarily manufacturing electric vehicles, as well as solar and wind technology. Sky was founded in 2003 by two engineers, one of whom is the current CEO, Eduardo Malaga. Malaga is known for his innovative thinking and is continually seeking to develop new products that promote clean energy. Many attribute the astounding growth and success of the company (its current market capitalization is $180 billion) to Malagas pioneering spirit. It is this thinking that often persuades those who work at Sky to go along with Malagas ideas, even though they can be unconventional at times. As one employee said, To say he thinks outside the box is an understatement. Hes also always about ten steps ahead of you and pushes you to think more courageously.

Malagas entrepreneurial spirit has a strong influence not only on the products that the company develops but also on the organizational structure of Sky Energy. Malaga has a vision for creating more of a team structure with less hierarchy and more collaboration on projects. Although some might say Malaga is too hands-on, he believes some may overlook the seemingly basic structures that impact the long-term success of the company. As Malaga considers strategies for developing effective teams, he thinks about the potential obstacles that employees may face as they are required to work closely with others frequently. From personal experience, he knows that managing and working with different personalities can be challenging. One day he remembers a nifty personality test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), that he took earlier in his career. Malaga found learning about his Type really enjoyable and useful in understanding how he interacted with others at work. His belief that he has stumbled on the perfect tool to facilitate the team structure is further reinforced as he does some more research on the MBTI. For instance, the company that sells the MBTI suggests that the assessment is valid and reliable, based on data they have collected. Furthermore, Malaga is confident that it wouldnt create division in the work teams even though the assessment would classify each team member as belonging to a certain type. As the MBTI website says, all types are equal.

Malaga also finds that it is used by more than 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies in 115 countries.1 Across the Internet, numerous sources describe the MBTIs ability to build stronger companies with productive teams, effective communication, efficiency, and motivated employees. Although Sky Energy is by most standards remarkably successful, Malaga knows that the companies that sustain long-term success are those that continue to innovate. He remembers how Myspace was overtaken by Facebook, and that is just one of many examples. After doing his research, Malaga is ready to hit the ground running using the MBTI at Sky. His plan is to administer the MBTI to all current employees and have project managers use the data to help them create project teams. Malaga also plans to use it as a pre-employment assessment.

Sky is focused on selecting individuals who can be developed and will stay with the company long term. As such, Malaga believes it is more important to find people who are coachable and fit with the values and philosophy of the company, rather than those with specific qualifications or experience. Soon hiring managers and recruiters are trained in administering and evaluating the MBTI. For example, as the hiring team is deciding between two final candidates (Carson and Zara) for a software engineer position, they are faced with a difficult decision as to which candidate to hire. While Zara has less experience than Carson, during the interview, she was more enthusiastic about the mission of the company. She emphatically highlighted how a previous internship at an organization dedicated to environmental activism would make her a great candidate for the position. Furthermore, Zaras MBTI type was an ENTJ (Extraversion + Intuition + Thinking + Judging), while Carson was an ISFJ (Introversion + Sensing + Feeling + Judging). From Carsons interview, it was clear that he was reliable, hard-working, and practical, as his type indicated. Although the hiring staff believed these traits would be beneficial, they noted that a slight majority of the current employees types included introversion. The hiring staff also recalled that Malaga noted how the MBTI could be used to strengthen teams by ensuring they were diverse in terms of their MBTI types. One of the hiring managers notes that the Big Five Inventory (BFI) could be used instead because it also measures extroversion and introversion. While a few of the managers agreed, the team ultimately decided to stick with the MBTI as the use of the tool was clearly part of Malagas vision for the company. Not only was Zara an extravert, but her type also indicated that she was vision-focused and would assume leadership without hesitation. Carson (as an ISFJ) would most likely lack the leadership qualities Sky was looking for in its new hires. In the end, the hiring staff decided that Zara would bring diversity to the teams she would be working on. Given her prior experience and MBTI type, she would be a better match to carry out the companys vision.

As a part of the implementation process of the MBTI, program managers were also trained in interpreting the MBTI and using it to construct project teams. In one case, Darian, a program manager for Core Technology, set up a team to develop a new version of solar roofing. He used the MBTI to select a team leader and other members from a group of various engineers that would be spending a significant amount of time working with one another. Afterward, he called an initial team meeting to set structure and for the members to get to know one another better. To start the discussion, he had everyone go around and say their name and their MBTI type. As people declared their types, some of the team members gave each other knowing nods. They have also received training on recognizing and interpreting the different types. Then, Darian had them brainstorm what conflicts might arise, given their different MBTI types, and how they could prevent or resolve these conflicts. For example, some members on the team were classified as Judging and others Perceiving. One of the members, Kevin, noted that it would be necessary for Perceiving types to balance gathering information with making decisions on time, while Judging types should be careful to tolerate the needs of Perceiving types to experiment with different ideas because this experimentation also has value. Afterward, one of the members, Laura, stated, Wow, I feel like I already know you all a lot better, and all you told me was your names and types. This is pretty cool!

During the first few weeks on the project, the team of five worked well together. It is clear that Eric, the team lead, thoroughly enjoyed being the leader of the group. Although he can be a dominant personality at times, the other team members overlooked this because he is proactive in making sure the team is meeting their weekly goals.

One day, Sadia, one of the team members, overhears Eric saying to another employee (not on the team) in the break room, Its pretty clear why they made me the team lead on the project. I basically have to hold their hands all the time, and Im clearly the only one with a take-charge personality who can get the job done. Thank God they have me, or theyd be totally lost. Sadia rolls her eyes, but tries to brush it off, even though she feels that extroverts always end up dominating the projects she works on. The extroverts seem to overlook the introverts as potential leaders. After work hours the next day, Sadia received a text message from Eric.

She thought this was strange because they dont really interact outside of work and typically use e-mail or Slack to communicate about work.

Sadia is taken aback. First, she cant believe that Eric had such an issue with the model she created. She spent a lot of time working on it, even consulting with Eric throughout the process. During those times, Eric indicated that he approved of her work. Laura, another member of the team who has been at the company for many years, helped her with the model, so shes not really sure why shes the one being singled out. Shes never been very friendly with Eric. Usually, she ignores the weird jokes he makes and tries to not interact socially with him. Still, Sadia doesnt think he would take it out on her work. She can hardly sleep that night, thinking about how Eric threatened to talk to Darian. Now she is worried she could get pulled off the team.

The next day Sadia waits for Eric to pull her aside to talk about the model. Instead, during their morning team meeting, he announces to the team, Okay, all, so it looks like Sadias model needs a lot of work, so Kennedy and I are going to help her out. No shame in recognizing when you are in over your head. This should serve as an example to everyone that we need to be bringing our A-game and not turning in sloppy work to me. He chuckles as he says this, and Kennedy nervously laughs. Sadia is shocked that Laura, who helped her out with the model, just looks down and doesnt even speak up. Afterward, Sadia pulls Laura aside. Laura, I cant believe Eric. Hes so full of himself, and Ive had enough of him demeaning and threatening me just so he can get that big bonus. It seems like he can get away with anything, and Darian barely bats an eye. Do you think the model was really that bad? Laura responds, Oh, Sadia, dont be so dramatic. Thats just the way he is. I mean, hes an ESTJ after all. You know some of the best bosses and leaders Ive had are those that have pushed me. Sometimes you have to be like that to get the best out of people. I mean, I thought the model was excellent work, but we can always do better. Sadia starts to think that maybe Laura is right. Perhaps she is just overreacting, even though she is confused as to why Eric seemed to single her out. Is this really about her work, or is it personal? Just the other week, she remembers Laura telling her that Eric had promised he would put in a good word for her with Darian, hinting that she would be promoted soon. Sadia did find it a little strange, though, that Laura was frequently doing Eric small favors like getting him coffee or copying things for him. After all, Laura was an engineer, not an assistant to Eric. Despite the lack of accountability or norms at Sky, Sadia decides to just put her head down and get the job done. She cant really see herself staying at Sky for much longer, but she hopes that shell at least gain more experience that will help her to get another job.

Questions

1. The MBTI is the most widely used personality-assessment tool in the world. After reading this chapter, you have learned more about how researchers evaluate its effectiveness. After reading the case above, what are your thoughts on the MBTIs effectiveness in the workplace?

2. Is there another personality framework that would have been more effective in achieving Malagas goals? If so, why do you think this framework would have been more effective?

3. Using situational strength theory, is this a strong or weak situation? How might the situation constrain behavior? How might the situation allow, or even promote, certain behaviors?

4. Evaluate the hiring staffs decision-making process for hiring a new software engineer. To what extent should the individuals prior experience and personality traits factor into the decision-making process?

5. In what way may Erics behavior be interpreted in terms of the Dark Triad framework?