Industrial psychology & HR

Recently I started talking with one of the people in the HR department of our company.
I have been really intrigued by some of the tools they have been using. It was impressing that practical psychology plays a major role in the HR department.

Ok most of the tools might look like pseudo science to some, but the fact is that every little piece of information about a person's character and behavior will help in putting him in a situation to get the best out of him.

First tool I got exposed to is the 16 Personality factors (PF)
these are warmth, reasoning, Emotional Stability, dominance, Liveliness, Rule-Consciousness, Social Boldness, Sensitivity, Vigilance, and so on.
Through a questionnaire type of test you will get a scale score on those traits plus the Big five traits Score. Also there is a CP & CN score that helps give an idea if the person is honest with them self or they see themselves in a different way which is not close to the reality.

This test is a helpful tool when hiring a new employee, since if you already have a profile of all the employees, you can stipulate how this person will behave in the current environment, or if any clashes might occur with any superiors.
Now some might react that its bias to accept or refuse a person depending on a single test, that is true but this will give a candidate an edge when all the technical experience between candidates are closely matched.

With current employees it helps makes sense of some of the behavior they were exhibiting, and helps the management deal with their employees in a better way.

The other tool, tool as in an assessment test, that is used sometimes is the enneagram, which is a classification of 9 character types that people fall under. Each character type exhibits traits of other characters depending on whether he is relaxed or stressed.

What is amusing about this to me is how it seemed to be an extension to my interest is zodiac profiles, and it certainly sparked my interest in getting my hands on some data of the employees and seeing how closely it would match to their zodiac profile.
that is after I translate the zodiac profile to a 16 PF profile.

I certainly just started learning about this side of HR. Although this nothing new, what i have experienced so far from that department is personal administration. I even was envious of a secretary type of employee holding a manager tag to her/his (reason they took precedence is that they are mostly females).
So I hope to keep on learning :D

ENJOY
ps. the image is from http://www.enneagram.gb.com/ and If asked to remove it I will promptly do that, but since I found it to be expressive I liked to use it


EDIT: a Couple of tests to try out

• 16 PF Test
  
• Enneagram Test
  

Homecoming - Delayed

Well I made it back to Jordan, and just got nailed by so many tasks that were due in the past week that I couldn't breathe. Also getting down with a cold didn't help.
So this is my Homecoming post a week delayed.

Coming back from Bahrain I had to draw comparison with Jordan, so here it goes.
Bare in mind that this is the first time that I been to an Arabic country with a non-tourist intent so my Point of View (PV) was drastically different.
Bahrain was actually a pleasant surprise, when i went there i expected the normal khaliji attitude which utterly disgusts me (offense intended in hope of them noticing). I knew its a small place so i expected to be bored off my wits, and with all that Shiite Sunni crap i expected some tension (come on my name is enough for me to expect that).

I was proved wrong on all those, Bahrainis are definitely the most pleasant people of the gulf that i interacted with, they are peaceful. regardless of what they would think of you they will give you your space, they don't have the same arrogance of other people in the gulf. For the most part they want to live and let live.
The amount of diversity that is tolerated there is astounding, you have a lively american, english, phillipino, thai, and indian crowd. plus the normal amalgam of arabic nations the palestinian the lebanese, some syrians, bahrainis, Saudi's (mostly on weekends to get trashed and watch movies) some kuwietis, and even persians (according to one of them their sin is being narcistic and I would have to agree).
all those people seem to be living on their own, though its a small country they still managed to divide the pie nicely.
While in Jordan that seems so hard, or maybe am drawing my conclusions too hastily since the majority in Bahrain don't quite like the ruling minority, although it being known to be more liberal than other countries around new movements in the parliament are trying to change that too.

One thing i noticed is that some areas will be too loud to raise kids and have family, but on the other hand for single expats like me those places were a blast to live it (Juffeir is kinda of a middle ground, Seef was certainly a blast, and some of the older neighborhoods, Adliya comes to mind, is pretty nice too). The nightlife is varied and fun, alot of scenes to check out. A healthy live band scene, nice wine and dine places, and very fresh cultural scene too.
what i think is different than jordan is the fact that to me much of the scenes here are either prothsetic (cultural, night) or stale (wine and dine, cafe's). the people that hit those places are mostly too dimensional to keep anything for chance on any given night, every night you'll hang out with the same crowd and end up talking about the same thing or hear others talking about the same thing. THAT LEAVES ALOT TO BE DESIRED WHEN GOING OUT IN JORDAN.

I was flabbergasted by the way people drive there, they recognize lanes, they use signals, you won't hear a horn for days, the roads are comfortable to drive on even when you are drunk, and best of all you don't see many cops around.

So in my conclusion if you had to stay for a couple of years in a country and the choice was between jordan and bahrain i think bahrain would be a much more satisfying experience.

Did mention that the people there are friendly, they smile, and in a good mood in general.

Ya Baby GROW GROW

Hmm I should be about to head and have some fun ! it is the weekend after all
but for some odd reason here I am posting this.
A friend of mine got me itthose lil games on a website where the objective is simple MAX OUT EVERYTHING ! and the reward see the quirkiest animations i seen in a while
its really fun just playin along, and pretty addictive.

here is the website do enjoy !
http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/cube/index.html

Time to go out and have some fun
EnJoY

A gem on earth that am glad I came acroos

been a while since I posted here, and I apologize (summer). lately life has been really buzzing along, and either working, over exhausted or out partying. so its easy to say that I missed my quite evenings at home messing around with the PC.
Bahrain is treating me well so far, the place is small but its packed with excellent restaurents and some really exquisite fish markets, that part i enjoyed. Tho one thing I learned is to not cook fish when am lazy, cause it will stink up the whole house if u dont take out the garbage imidiately.
On the other hand I have been enjoying the fact that am living away from home again, I am relishing the moment.
I didn't have much time to even check my email, so the other day I came across this link in one of them. It was so moving that I had to Put it out here!
This sister lays it down, and punctures some ears doing so. I have to note, I felt so glad that she said the arabic words in arabic.
I'll double her words " I don't give a fuck about Bin Laden!"
without further ado ....

and here is her website if you want to learn more www.suheirhammad.com