Instructions Sky Energy Sky Energy (often referred to as just “Sky”) is a large technology company with forty-five thous

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Instructions
Sky Energy
Sky Energy (often referred to as just“Sky”) is a large technology company with forty-five thousandemployees located in San Jose, California. The company focuses ondeveloping clean energy, primarily manufacturing electric vehicles,as well as solar and wind technology. Sky was founded in 2003 bytwo engineers, one of whom is the current CEO, Eduardo Malaga.Malaga is known for his innovative thinking and is continuallyseeking to develop new products that promote clean energy. Manyattribute the astounding growth and success of the company (itscurrent market capitalization is $180 billion) to Malaga’spioneering spirit. It is this thinking that often persuades thosewho work at Sky to go along with Malaga’s ideas, even though theycan be unconventional at times. As one employee said, “To say hethinks outside the box is an understatement. He’s also always aboutten steps ahead of you and pushes you to think morecourageously.”
Malaga’s entrepreneurial spirit has astrong influence not only on the products that the company developsbut also on the organizational structure of Sky Energy. Malaga hasa vision for creating more of a team structure with less hierarchyand more collaboration on projects. Although some might say Malagais too “hands-on,” he believes some may overlook the seeminglybasic structures that impact the long-term success of the company.As Malaga considers strategies for developing effective teams, hethinks about the potential obstacles that employees may face asthey are required to work closely with others frequently. Frompersonal experience, he knows that managing and working withdifferent personalities can be challenging. One day he remembers anifty 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 heinteracted with others at work. His belief that he has stumbled onthe perfect tool to facilitate the team structure is furtherreinforced as he does some more research on the MBTI. For instance,the company that sells the MBTI suggests that the assessment isvalid and reliable, based on data they have collected. Furthermore,Malaga is confident that it wouldn’t create division in the workteams even though the assessment would classify each team member asbelonging to a certain type. As the MBTI website says, “all typesare equal.”
Malaga also finds that it is “used bymore than 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies in 115countries.”1 Across the Internet, numeroussources describe the MBTI’s ability to build stronger companieswith productive teams, effective communication, efficiency, andmotivated employees. Although Sky Energy is by most standardsremarkably successful, Malaga knows that the companies that sustainlong-term success are those that continue to innovate. He remembershow Myspace was overtaken by Facebook, and that is just one of manyexamples. After doing his research, Malaga is ready to hit theground running using the MBTI at Sky. His plan is to administer theMBTI to all current employees and have project managers use thedata to help them create project teams. Malaga also plans to use itas a pre-employment assessment.
Sky is focused on selecting individualswho can be developed and will stay with the company long term. Assuch, 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. Soonhiring managers and recruiters are trained in administering andevaluating the MBTI. For example, as the hiring team is decidingbetween two final candidates (Carson and Zara) for a softwareengineer position, they are faced with a difficult decision as towhich candidate to hire. While Zara has less experience thanCarson, during the interview, she was more enthusiastic about themission of the company. She emphatically highlighted how a previousinternship at an organization dedicated to environmental activismwould make her a great candidate for the position. Furthermore,Zara’s MBTI type was an ENTJ (Extraversion + Intuition + Thinking +Judging), while Carson was an ISFJ (Introversion + Sensing +Feeling + Judging). From Carson’s interview, it was clear that hewas reliable, hard-working, and practical, as his type indicated.Although the hiring staff believed these traits would bebeneficial, they noted that a slight majority of the currentemployees’ types included introversion. The hiring staff alsorecalled that Malaga noted how the MBTI could be used to strengthenteams 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 andintroversion. While a few of the managers agreed, the teamultimately decided to stick with the MBTI as the use of the toolwas clearly part of Malaga’s vision for the company. Not only wasZara an extravert, but her type also indicated that she wasvision-focused and would assume leadership without hesitation.Carson (as an ISFJ) would most likely lack the leadership qualitiesSky was looking for in its new hires. In the end, the hiring staffdecided that Zara would bring diversity to the teams she would beworking on. Given her prior experience and MBTI type, she would bea better match to carry out the company’s vision.
As a part of the implementation processof the MBTI, program managers were also trained in interpreting theMBTI and using it to construct project teams. In one case, Darian,a program manager for Core Technology, set up a team to develop anew version of solar roofing. He used the MBTI to select a teamleader and other members from a group of various engineers thatwould be spending a significant amount of time working with oneanother. Afterward, he called an initial team meeting to setstructure and for the members to get to know one another better. Tostart the discussion, he had everyone go around and say their nameand their MBTI type. As people declared their types, some of theteam members gave each other knowing nods. They have also receivedtraining on recognizing and interpreting the different types. Then,Darian had them brainstorm what conflicts might arise, given theirdifferent MBTI types, and how they could prevent or resolve theseconflicts. For example, some members on the team were classified as“Judging” and others “Perceiving.” One of the members, Kevin, notedthat it would be necessary for Perceiving types to balancegathering information with making decisions on time, while Judgingtypes should be careful to tolerate the needs of Perceiving typesto experiment with different ideas because this experimentationalso has value. Afterward, one of the members, Laura, stated, “Wow,I feel like I already know you all a lot better, and all you toldme was your names and types. This is pretty cool!”
During the first few weeks on theproject, the team of five worked well together. It is clear thatEric, the team lead, thoroughly enjoyed being the leader of thegroup. Although he can be a dominant personality at times, theother team members overlooked this because he is proactive inmaking sure the team is meeting their weekly goals.
One day, Sadia, one of the teammembers, overhears Eric saying to another employee (not on theteam) in the break room, “It’s pretty clear why they made me theteam lead on the project. I basically have to hold their hands allthe time, and I’m clearly the only one with a ‘take-charge’personality who can get the job done. Thank God they have me, orthey’d be totally lost.” Sadia rolls her eyes, but tries to brushit off, even though she feels that extroverts always end updominating the projects she works on. The extroverts seem tooverlook the introverts as potential leaders. After work hours thenext day, Sadia received a text message from Eric.
She thought this was strange becausethey don’t really interact outside of work and typically use e-mailor Slack to communicate about work.
Sadia is taken aback. First, she can’t believe that Eric hadsuch an issue with the model she created. She spent a lot of timeworking 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 formany years, helped her with the model, so she’s not really sure whyshe’s the one being singled out. She’s never been very friendlywith Eric. Usually, she ignores the weird jokes he makes and triesto not interact socially with him. Still, Sadia doesn’t think hewould take it out on her work. She can hardly sleep that night,thinking about how Eric threatened to talk to Darian. Now she isworried she could get pulled off the team.
The next day Sadia waits for Eric topull her aside to talk about the model. Instead, during theirmorning team meeting, he announces to the team, “Okay, all, so itlooks like Sadia’s model needs a lot of work, so Kennedy and I aregoing to help her out. No shame in recognizing when you are in overyour head. This should serve as an example to everyone that we needto be bringing our A-game and not turning in sloppy work to me.” Hechuckles as he says this, and Kennedy nervously laughs. Sadia isshocked that Laura, who helped her out with the model, just looksdown and doesn’t even speak up. Afterward, Sadia pulls Laura aside.“Laura, I can’t believe Eric. He’s so full of himself, and I’ve hadenough of him demeaning and threatening me just so he can get thatbig bonus. It seems like he can get away with anything, and Darianbarely bats an eye. Do you think the model was really that bad?”Laura responds, “Oh, Sadia, don’t be so dramatic. That’s just theway he is. I mean, he’s an ESTJ after all. You know some of thebest bosses and leaders I’ve had are those that have pushed me.Sometimes you have to be like that to get the best out of people. Imean, I thought the model was excellent work, but we can always dobetter.” Sadia starts to think that maybe Laura is right. Perhapsshe is just overreacting, even though she is confused as to whyEric seemed to single her out. Is this really about her work, or isit personal? Just the other week, she remembers Laura telling herthat Eric had promised he would put in a good word for her withDarian, hinting that she would be promoted soon. Sadia did find ita little strange, though, that Laura was frequently doing Ericsmall favors like getting him coffee or copying things for him.After all, Laura was an engineer, not an assistant to Eric. Despitethe lack of accountability or norms at Sky, Sadia decides to justput her head down and get the job done. She can’t really seeherself staying at Sky for much longer, but she hopes that she’llat least gain more experience that will help her to get anotherjob.
Questions
1. The MBTI is the most widely usedpersonality-assessment tool in the world. After reading thischapter, you have learned more about how researchers evaluate itseffectiveness. After reading the case above, what are your thoughtson the MBTI’s effectiveness in the workplace?
2. Is there another personality frameworkthat would have been more effective in achieving Malaga’s goals? Ifso, why do you think this framework would have been moreeffective?
3. Using situational strength theory, isthis a strong or weak situation? How might the situation constrainbehavior? How might the situation allow, or even promote, certainbehaviors?
4. Evaluate the hiring staff’sdecision-making process for hiring a new software engineer. To whatextent should the individual’s prior experience and personalitytraits factor into the decision-making process?
5. In what way may Eric’s behavior beinterpreted in terms of the Dark Triad framework?