Category: Personality

COVID-19 continues to upend our daily lives. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people die daily, millions of jobs are lost weekly, and people continue to adjust to a new world. So much has changed within the past few months. It is fair to ask if people are changing too. We examined this question empirically using personality and values assessment data collected over the past 15 months.

Working from home is a not a new experience for many employees. In the United States, 50% to 70% of jobs can be done from home, but the number of remote workers is actually much lower. This trend is mirrored around the globe. That is, the actual number of remote workers trails the number of jobs that can be done remotely. At least, this was the trend before the current situation we find ourselves in with the COVID-19 crisis. What we have seen recently is that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many workers and organizations to officially make the shift to a remote working environment.

Feeling the Sunday scaries? At the start of each workweek, we prepare ourselves for the stressful situations we are likely to face throughout the week. With the recent pandemic, the stress we are feeling is unprecedented. As we try to go about the workday facing new challenges in an abruptly virtual world, the way that we manage our stress might not be at the forefront of our minds. Nevertheless, strategic self-awareness is a critical concept when facing daily uncertainty.

Crises tend to bring out both the best and the worst in people. On one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has people picking up groceries for their elderly neighbors, sewing masks, and sending hand sanitizer to those in need. At the same time, others are hoarding toilet paper, spreading conspiracy theories on social media, and failing to follow health directives from authorities.

In the past few weeks, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has escalated exponentially, with cases now reported in more than 150 countries. Rightly so, governments around the world have been implementing response strategies to tackle the pandemic. With measures ranging from partial or full lockdowns that are currently affecting one-third of humanity to aggressive virus testing and contact tracing in countries such as South Korea and Singapore, we can see that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Nevertheless, a closer look at the situation reveals to us that it is fundamentally driven by human behaviour. For governments, the challenge thus lies in managing people, who have differences in personality and motivation.

Over the past several weeks, Hogan Chief Science Officer Ryne Sherman took us on an in-depth tour of the eight most common personality types found via the Hogan suite of assessments. Using the data of 332,935 individuals who completed the Hogan Personality Inventory, Hogan Development Survey, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory, Hogan consultants identified these eight different types: Rebels, Marketers, Proletarians, Congenials, Overachievers, Networkers, Misfits, and Preppers. 

In this interview, Ryne discusses the each of the eight types:

Welcome back to our series on the eight most common personality types found in the Hogan suite of assessments. Over the past seven weeks, we took an in-depth look at Rebels, Marketers, Proletarians, Congenials, Overachievers, Networkers, and Misfits. In our eighth and final week, we take a deep dive into the Preppers personality profile.

Preppers personality profiles are rare, only making up approximately 6% of the working population. Their Hogan profile is highlighted by very low scores on Affiliation, Recognition, and Power with above average scores on Tradition and Security on the MVPI; low scores across most of the HPI scales with the exception of an average score on Prudence; and high scores on Excitable, Skeptical, Cautious, Reserved, Leisurely, and Dutiful on the HDS, with an exceptionally high score on Cautious. See Figure 1 below for the full profile.

This week, we continue our dive into these personality types with a close examination of the Misfits personality profile. Find out more!