Scenario Summary
Students are asked to assume that after working for several years, they returned to graduate school to take some advanced courses and earn a master’s degree as a way of improving both their specific job skills and their overall prospects for career management. They also took a course in industrial psychology and one of the topics covered was personality testing and measurement. They thoroughly studied and reviewed the most popular personality tests used by companies as selection techniques.
Students are then asked to assume that they are now applying for a job within a company they particularly want to work for. The company’s selection process includes a personality test. The student as a job applicant knows that he or she can answer the questions well enough to seem a near-perfect candidate for the job. However, these answers would not reflect the job applicant’s true personality.
Questions
1. What are the ethical issues in this situation?
2. What are the basic arguments for and against “cheating” on the personality tests?
3. What do you think most job seekers would do? What would you do?