TL;DR: The Enneagram and MBTI are reference tools that help with self-understanding and career direction, not measures of ability or criteria for screening candidates. Academic overviews by Gardner and Martinko (1996) and Pittenger (1993) show that MBTI lacks evidence for practical utility, while Furnham (1996) found it largely overlaps with the four dimensions of the Big Five. The three regions of North, Central, and South have different levels of familiarity and ways of applying personality tests, but available references do not yet have enough data to fully describe each region.
How reliable are personality tests: Enneagram, MBTI and why employers should not use them to screen people out, a comparative perspective on the North, Central and South
Background: how widely are personality tests being used?
In recent years, personality tests such as MBTI, Enneagram and Holland have become increasingly popular in Vietnam, especially in career guidance for high school students. According to an article on Tuổi Trẻ Online, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City launched a specialised page called "Hiểu về bạn" (Understanding Yourself) in March 2022, offering free personality testing and career orientation tools to students nationwide, using two methods: Holland and MBTI.
Alongside that, the Enneagram was also introduced in Vietnam through the book "Hướng nghiệp cùng Enneagram" (Career Guidance with the Enneagram) by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, reviewed by Dr Lê Thẩm Dương and supported in media by Sinh Viên Việt Nam newspaper, according to Znews.
This popularity raises an important question: how reliable are personality tests, and should employers use them to screen candidates?
What is the Enneagram and how does it work?
Origin and structure of the Enneagram
The Enneagram is a personality classification system with Greek origins, in which "Ennea" means the number 9 and "Gram" means "a drawing of a graph". It is a circular diagram with 9 points corresponding to 9 different personality types; these 9 points are evenly spaced, forming a triangle and a hexagon inside. The circle symbolises the harmonious unity of the aspects of human nature, while the interwoven triangle and hexagon express the conflict between them.
According to Enneagram theory, a person's innate nature is a synthesis of all 9 of these personality types. However, over time, depending on their educational environment and the events and upheavals they experience in life, each person gradually leans towards one personality type by the time they reach adulthood. The Enneagram also indicates that within each person some traits of the other 8 personality types still exist, and these may surface depending on external circumstances and particular psychological states.
How is the Enneagram applied in career guidance?
According to Dr Lê Thẩm Dương, the book on the Enneagram is suitable for all ages, helping readers clearly identify their personal characteristics, career, interests, passions, strengths and weaknesses, thereby providing a basis for choosing a suitable career. Readers can understand others in order to build effective relationships, and grasp the Enneagram tool to set goals, plan their lives, and find motivation and commitment to build their own future.
This tool uses accurate descriptions of the personalities of 9 types of people, and shows each individual specific ways to move beyond old patterns, heading towards ever more complete development of emotion, thought and behaviour.
What is MBTI and how does it work?
The structure of MBTI's 4 pairs of traits
According to Tuổi Trẻ Online, the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) personality test is a method that uses questionnaire items to analyse human personality, showing how people perceive the world around them, with particular emphasis on the natural differences between individuals.
The MBTI assessment questionnaire helps respondents begin to orient themselves more clearly, to explore their own personality based on MBTI theory, and to explain how behavioural characteristics differ from person to person in different situations, thus leading to different personality types.
The test consists of 4 opposing pairs of traits:
- Extraversion versus Introversion
- iNtuition versus Sensing
- Thinking versus Feeling
- Judging versus Perceiving
Through 50 questions, respondents can identify the 4 letters representing their specific personality traits or tendencies in a short time. This result gives respondents additional information to assess how well their personality fits a job as well as a company's working environment, and from there to explore and choose a suitable career.
How is MBTI applied in career guidance?
Personality tests have been and are being widely applied around the world, especially for career planning for students at the secondary school stage. The "Hiểu về bạn" page of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City is a typical example, providing an integrated, comprehensive and completely free career guidance tool that helps high school students and the younger generation understand themselves in order to develop their future careers in the right direction and with a long-term view.
After completing the career aptitude questionnaire using one of the two testing methods, the result identifies which personality group the participant belongs to, provides detailed descriptive information about that personality group, and supplies images and information about notable famous people who share the same personality group. Next, the tool offers suggestions for occupations or groups of occupations that suit that personality group.
Why should employers not use personality tests to screen people out?
What are the limits of a self-assessment tool?
Both the Enneagram and MBTI are self-assessment tools, based on the subjective answers of the participant. The results depend on the mood, circumstances and level of honesty of the respondent at the moment of taking the test. They therefore cannot measure actual ability, professional skills or work performance.
Are personality test results stable?
According to Enneagram theory, each person may lean towards one personality type but still carries traits of the other 8, which may surface depending on external circumstances and psychological state. This shows that test results are not fixed but can change over time and with circumstances. Similarly, MBTI points to the natural differences between individuals, but does not assert that personality is unchanging.
What are the risks of labelling and exclusion?
When employers use personality tests as a criterion for eliminating candidates, they may overlook candidates who genuinely have ability but do not belong to the desired personality group. This is not only unfair but also reduces diversity within the organisation and limits the development opportunities of people with different working styles.
What is the proper purpose of personality tests?
Tools such as the Enneagram and MBTI should be used as reference means for understanding oneself, orienting a career and improving relationships between people. They should not be used as rigid screening tools in recruitment.
What does scientific research say about MBTI?
Academic reviews generally do not support using MBTI as a sufficiently reliable measure for deciding about people. In a systematic review in the Journal of Management, William L. Gardner and Mark J. Martinko (1996) examined studies using MBTI to research managers, and found many studies were methodologically weak, while results linking it to managerial effectiveness were inconsistent. In another review in the Review of Educational Research, David J. Pittenger (1993), through the lens of Messick's view on construct validity, examined MBTI and concluded that the available evidence was not sufficient to support MBTI's underlying assumptions (that people fall into discrete types) or its claims of practical usefulness.
In terms of structure, research findings also call into question the way MBTI divides types. Adrian Furnham (1996) compared MBTI with the NEO-PI on an adult sample and found that the MBTI scales correlated strongly with four dimensions of the Big Five model, namely extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, thereby reinforcing the observation that MBTI resembles a "Big Four" missing the emotional instability dimension. In other words, much of what MBTI measures is already contained within more common personality models, rather than being a separate type system.
A comparative perspective on the three regions of the North, Central and South
This section needs to be presented neutrally, describing only the differences in familiarity and in how personality tests are applied in each region, based on what the reference sources mention. However, it should be noted that the available reference sources (Tuổi Trẻ Online and Znews) mainly address the general context of Vietnam, focusing on a few specific locations such as Ho Chi Minh City, and do not provide detailed, complete data to compare each region separately on this topic.
The North
The available reference sources do not yet cover full information on how personality tests are received and applied in the North. This section therefore cannot be described in detail.
The Central region
Similarly, the available reference sources do not yet cover full information on how personality tests are received and applied in the Central region. This section cannot be described in detail.
The South
The reference sources mention some activities related to personality tests in Ho Chi Minh City, such as the "Hiểu về bạn" page of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City launched in 2022, and the book "Hướng nghiệp cùng Enneagram" reviewed by Dr Lê Thẩm Dương, head of the Faculty of Finance at the University of Banking Ho Chi Minh City. However, this information reflects only part of the context in the South, and is not enough to generalise about the whole region.
Comparative summary table
| Criterion | The North | The Central region | The South |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information on how widespread personality tests are | No data in the reference sources | No data in the reference sources | Some activities recorded in Ho Chi Minh City |
| Tools mentioned | No data | No data | MBTI, Holland, Enneagram |
| Context of application | No data | No data | Career guidance for high school students, book introduction |
| Reference sources | None | None | Tuổi Trẻ Online, Znews |
Note: The table above reflects only what the reference sources mention. Information on the North and the Central region is incomplete, providing an insufficient basis for detailed comparison.
