New Research Reveals Key Differences in Leadership Styles of Chinese and Western Managers

  In a recent book chapter, Hogan's Jarrett Shalhoop and Michael Sanger explore the nature of Chinese leadership through the lens of personality and values and explain how these differ from leadership styles of three countries with large trade interests in China -- the U.S., Germany and Australia. For organizations that must select managers for cross-cultural assignments, recognizing the divergent traits and behaviors inherent in Chinese managers, and how they play out with their manager, direct reports and colleagues at a similar level, is needed to ensure that individuals are placed into the right management roles. Read More »

Word of the New Year: Resiliency

In the mid-1950’s, a Hungarian endocrinologist, Dr. Hans Selye, wrote a seminal book called The Stress of Life, in which he conceptualized the physiology of stress. One of the many findings that intrigued him involved individual differences in the reaction to, and coping adaptations to stressors. In one of his anecdotes, he relates the story of twin sons who grew up with a raging alcoholic father — one son was also a chronic alcoholic, but the other twin was a complete tee-totaler. He asked both sons a question, “Why did you turn out the way you did?” They both gave a virtually identical answer, “With an old man like that, what do you expect!”

Read More »

Hot HR Issues of 2012

Over the past 12 months, Hogan has discussed a number of hot topics in the talent management arena. We’ve introduced you to an interesting, entertaining, and derailing cast of characters with howdoyouderail.com, and we’ve provided insight about engagement, team building, and organizational culture with our series on The Rocket Model. After reviewing the blog entries for this year, I compiled a list of Hogan’s Hottest, Hot Topics in 2012. Read More »

Leave the White Flag at Home

When thinking about personality, one thing that we know is there is no such thing as a good or bad personality. It really depends on the job and situation. This is a point that we regularly emphasize to individuals and organizations. Along these same lines, we know that high scores on personality assessments do not inherently mean good things, and low scores do not always mean bad things – there are positives and negatives to both ends of the continuum. Having stated that, our scores do represent our reputations. Over the course of time people come to expect certain behaviors from us based on our past performances.

Read More »

Meet the Procrastinator

He’s the passive aggressor, the one with the tight-jawed smile. Sure, he’s a great guy when he gets his way, but give him an unpleasant task and he’ll drag his feet. Need him to fill out that insurance paperwork? Yeah. He’ll get right on that.

Read More »

Why Personality?

  Say you apply for a job. You take an assessment to see if you’re the right fit for the company and the role. After you join the company, you take another assessment to gauge your managerial skills. Later you may be part of a team-building exercise, which requires an entirely different assessment. Pretty soon, you’re feeling like this: Read More »