Correlation of Prominent Intelligence Type & Coworker Relations

When most individuals think of learning types, they think of three categories: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. However, in the mid-1980s, researchers expanded on the idea of how humans discover and process information with the Multiple Intelligence Theory. At first, the theory only contained six categories (Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Visual-Spatial, Body-Kinesthetic, Linguistic, and Logical) but has now grown to nine categories with the addition of Existential, Naturalistic, and Musical. In practice, the Multiple Intelligence Theory has proven to be controversial in its acceptance, with many scholars citing its lack of empirical support while others note its efficacy for modern educational settings and the workplace. In this study, we focused on further discovering whether there is a correlation between the intelligence types most prominent in an individual and the intelligence types most prominent in the coworker they find they work with most efficiently. To do so, data was collected from a variety of businesses (restaurants, bookstores, etc.) in the cities of Okemos and Williamston, Michigan in two steps. First, we performed an assessment that determines which intelligence type is most prominent in the participant, and second, we used an anonymous survey for the individual to express the three people they feel they work with best. With fifty-six total participants, and using the chi-square goodness of fit test, we found that there may not actually be a correlation between these categorical types when it comes to workplace atmosphere and project efficiency.