cover image Worktypes: Understand Your Work Personality-...

Worktypes: Understand Your Work Personality-...

Jean Kummerow. Grand Central Publishing, $14.99 (250pp) ISBN 978-0-446-67217-7

By recognizing that everyone has a unique personality and communication style, employees can adjust their work habits, skills and conversation to be more productive in the office. To understand these various manifestations, this book presents a summary of the 16 personalities identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the personality test used by psychologists, career counselors and others. All the types fall into four broader spectra--Extravert /Introvert, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perceiving. To vividly demonstrate the differences among these types and how they interact at work, many examples of office dialogue and situations are included. These sections are the most helpful and enable readers to see exactly how the inevitable clash of personalities is counterproductive. However, unless readers are already familiar with the Myers-Briggs categories, it is difficult to keep track of the many types. Sections list people along with their identifying Myers-Briggs initials--ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFP, etc.--and readers may not remember which characteristics are associated with each personality. The descriptions are included in various sections, but a one-page, main reference would have been helpful. While readers will gain some insights into their own work styles and colleagues' behavior, this book is too daunting for the average reader. (Mar.)