Disc Assessment for Job "Fit"

In the financial climate of “today” employers are faced with pressure to hire the right person, promote the best employee and avoid cost of turnover by retaining strong team members. Thus, job profiling - by way of personality assessment - has emerged to address staffing concerns. A job profile is an analysis of personality criteria that define top performers in a specific job, allowing the employer to prescreen applicants for their “fit” to the role (Furlow, 2000). The DISC Model continues to be one of the most popular and trusted four quadrant behavioral and personality job-profiling model.

DISC profiles are based on the research of William Moulton Marston Ph. D. (1893-1947). Marston, who was influenced by such colleagues as Carl Jung, sought to find theory to explain the behavior of people within a specific situation or environment (Goodman, n.d.). Marston introduced his theory of DISC in 1928 with his “Emotions of Normal People” (Goodman, n.d.).

English: Hand-colored photograph of Carl Jung in U...

Deutsch: Carl Gustav Jung

(l to r) William Moulton Marston, H. G. Peter, She...

He classified four categories of human behavioural type, style or temperament-- Dominance, Inducement (Later changed to “influence”), Submission (Currently known as “steadiness or stability”) and Compliance (Now to include “conscientious and cautious”) (Goodman, n.d.). Over the past 40 years DISC has continued to evolve from Marston's original development to the research conducted by the University of Minnesota's Dr. John Geier and other researchers (Goodman, n.d.). The DISC model is one of the oldest and most researched of the behavioural models (Furlow, 2000).

DISC uses a measurement technique referred to as a “forced-choice” (“Disc validation and research report,” 2005) The respondent is presented with 28 sets of four adjectives (for example: enthusiastic, daring, diplomatic, satisfied) and must choose the one that is most like them and the one that is least like them. One benefit of this format is that it reduces the effect of...