Assessing Leadership, Motivation, and Conflict Resolution - Essay Example

Its applicability is most especially important in understanding behavior among individuals in a business group or organization, wherein interactions are professional and activities are data- and information-based in nature.

Developed by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, the MBTI is now used as an instrument that measures the cognitive styles of individuals.  The MBTI is determined based on seven (7) human mental underlying performances: verbal comprehension, word fluency, numerical, spatial, memory, perceptual speed, and inductive reasoning.  These performances are generally grouped and classified into four (4) cognitive styles: (1) sensation/thinking; (2) intuition/thinking; (3) sensation/feeling; and (4) intuition/feeling.

These cognitive styles help assess the individual’s leadership potential and skills, motivations as part of an organization and group, and abilities to resolve conflicts.  The sensation/thinking or ST cognitive style individual utilizes perception and rational thinking in decision-making tasks.  An intuition/thinking (NT) makes use of impersonal analysis based not on facts, but on “possibilities” or what the individual perceives as the proper basis for his/her assessment/judgment.  A sensation/feeling (SF) individual combines both personal judgment and perception based on facts in assessing a particular task or developing decisions for the group.  Lastly, the intuition/feeling (NF) person would most likely use personal judgment and personal perception when analyzing a problem or undertaking within a group or organization.

Given these kinds of characteristics for each cognitive style, the MBTI helps assess leadership based on the manner in which the individual develops his/her judgment (by thinking or feeling) and perceptions (whether through sensation or intuition). 

Individuals with ST or NT cognitive styles are appropriate in the field of hard sciences, wherein there is a great premium put on judgments based on the factual basis or objective observation.  These people are more likely to adopt an objective style when dealing with a work-related conflict, wherein all decisions and resolutions must be based on empirical evidence or findings.  Thus, their motivations as members of a group and skills as potential leader is based on the foundation that they rely more on their ability to see situations or events objectively.

NF individuals, meanwhile, rely heavily on both self-based judgment and perception, which is why they are most likely to excel in the field of human expression, the arts, or humanities.