Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job [Paperback]

Otto Kroeger (Author), Janet M. Thuesen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0440506999 | ISBN-13: 978-0440506997

With this revolutionayry look at understanding the workplace and thriving in it, you can learn to be more effective on the job and get the most out of your employees--and employers--using the authors' renowned system of typography.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The authors have followed up their Type Talk (Delacorte, 1988), an introduction to the study of personality types, with this handy explanation of how we can better understand personalities in the workplace. Based on C.G. Jung's classic 1923 Psychological Types and the famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), this useful work makes common sense out of a complex idea, and the pragmatic workplace meaning of "typewatching" should strongly appeal to managers and human resource professionals. The 16 types are explained and are then related to real workplace issues such as problem solving, managing time, setting goals, managing stress, and other understandable applications in business. Millions of people have completed Myers-Briggs, and now we have a very accessible application in business of this fascinating field of study. Recommended for all libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/91.
- Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

With this revolutionayry look at understanding the workplace and thriving in it, you can learn to be more effective on the job and get the most out of your employees--and employers--using the authors' renowned system of typography.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Dell (June 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440506999
• ISBN-13: 978-0440506997
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars USEFUL MATERIAL CONNECTING TYPE WITH WORK, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job (Hardcover)

This is just one of the books that shows you how to use personality/psychological type at work and is worth reading. It covers nearly all issues we face in the modern workplace like communicating with co-workers, handling stress in the workplace, ethics, time management etc. all from a Type perspective. Kroger and Thuesen do a good job at explaining how Extroverts handle things differently from Introverts, Sesates from iNtuitives, Feelers from Thinkers, & Judgers from Perceivers. Apart from this, in between it gives various tips on how people with different preferences can better understand and work with each other. It also tells interesting tales about the happenings in the workshops they conduct and how they explain to people that its because of their personality differences that conflicts arise and what they could do to prevent them. It even has some jokes at the end of the book.

I thought that the cream of the book was the descriptions of the 16 personality types. My type description was extremely accurate and insightful and three or four of the points mentioned in that seemed shocking to me because they described what went on in my mind and its something only I knew about.

But beware - It isn't so good on finding out what your type is.

Overall, a good read!

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better tool for self understanding than controlling others, May 26, 2005

By 

econdude "econdude" (Omaha, NE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Type Talk at Work (Revised): How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job (Paperback)

Kroeger and Thuesen are not my favorite MBTI authors, but the Type Talk books are a decent reference for those who consider themselves beginner and intermediate level in the personality theory world. The explanations of the four preferences and how to look for them in one's own self or in others is reasonably well done. I particularly liked how they borrowed from Keirsey's theory and delineated the NT/NF/SP/SJ categories. They do not delve far into the dominant/auxilary/tertiary/inferior functions.

Type Talk at Work explains how people of different types set goals, manage time, hire and fire, resolve conflict, solve problems, and deal with other workplace issues. The range of topics was pretty comprehensive, although by necessity a bit superficial. Given the length of the book the explanation of how different types interact was well done, and had some case studies also. I was not very impressed with the 'Z Problem Solving Model', but it may benefit someone else. The best part of the book is the last part, entitled 'The Sixteen Profiles At Work'. The Sixteen Profiles section details how all of the types tend to think and behave in a workplace setting. I'm sure many people will be amazed at how accurate it can be for them. Type Talk at Work is defintely meant to promote self knowledge, which the authors stress is the first duty of the reader: know yourself well, then try to figure other people out.

I have two criticisms: firstly, the authors are NFs, and in my view did not altogether avoid unconsciously writing the book for other NFs. That is a minor criticism, as the book overall is well done. I also believe that Kroeger and Thuesen did not warn readers to properly use type theory, in other words use it in a very careful, ethical way. The book is very dangerous in the wrong hands and misuse of knowledge and information about someone can and does happen in the business world. The reader needs to know that sharing this type of information can be very risky.

I don't mind recommending the book, particularly because a type book regarding the workplace is badly needed and I'm not aware of any others. econ

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't we all just get along!, August 19, 2005

By 

A. J. Valasek (Clemmons, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Type Talk at Work (Revised): How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job (Paperback)

This book with mainly two things in mind: communication and understanding. The author's adopt their longstanding research about the world of typewatching into an intelligible book about the main areas of the work environment such as problem solving, conflict resolution, time management, etc.

Any manager that has direct reports would do themselves a favor by reading this book. This book will also provide support for a subordinate that doesn't quite "fit in." For those hurried types, each chapter ends with guidlines in a charted format for working with those of other preferences. Although this is somewhat useful, what I don't like about the approach is that they focus on the four preferences instead of focusing on the four major groupings, forcing the reader to combine and study the effects. For example, the charts will explain how an E should lead an I, etc. I believe that it would be much more useful to categorize the charts by the four major groups (e.g. NF's, NT's, SJ's, SP's) and how to interact with other types in each subject area.

To the author's credit, the book does provide an overview on the major strengths and potential weaknesses of each of the 16 types in the workplace, for those who aren't familiar with the MBTI. However, it does not really provide a concrete method of determining type, leaving the reader somewhat guessing with the use of anecdotal phrases.

Overall, I find this book well worth the investment. However, I would not recommend this book as an introduction to typewatching. If you are familiar with type, the specific chapters will be meaningful, if not, pick up either the precursor to this book by the same author's or one of David Keirsey's works prior to reading this.