KPederson

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Mythbusters Series: Right-Brained vs. Left-Brained

Posted by KPederson on Sun, Feb 08, 2015

hogan-mythbustersSorry folks, there is no such thing as being right-brained or left-brained. The myth that people’s personalities and skills are based on the dominant side of their brain has been the darling of the pop psychology world for years, spurring on the creation of numerous internet quizzes and facebook posts. But contrary to popular belief, there are not two archetype personalities based on which side of your brain is dominant.

According to research from the University of Utah, individuals do not show a more dominant functioning side of the brain. There indeed are specific functions that occur in separate hemispheres and areas of the brain, however research did not find any evidence for people being right or left-brained, or any other evidence that suggests personality stems from brain hemisphere dominance.

What does this mean? Well, it means we can finally break free from commonly accepted stereotypes surrounding the left-right brain theory. People postulating that “men tend to be left-brained and thus more analytical” and “women tend to be right-brained and thus more creative” are simply wrong. The excuse that you don’t understand math because you are “right-brained” is as preposterous as the excuse of the claiming you don’t understand modern art because you are “left-brained”.  If you think about it, this makes sense. The greatest composers must have a deep understanding of math in order to be able to make music. Likewise it would be difficult to deny the artistic qualities of the mathematical Fibonacci sequence in nature and art.

People seem to like classifying things into simple categories because it is easy. The dichotomy of the “artsy, creative right-brained type” versus the “analytical, data driven left-brained type” is simple and easy to digest. But life is rarely that simple. Research shows that there are more than just two types of personalities in the world, and that the differences between personalities do not change based on gender or ethnically/racially differences. Fortunately, you can use the Hogan assessments to accurately assess personality and paint a vibrant and nuanced picture of an individual’s personality in a fair and unbiased way.

Now, let’s go bust some other myths! Stay tuned for the next post in our Mythbusters series.

Global Norms: A Global Solution for the Global Economy

Posted by KPederson on Thu, Jul 10, 2014

flags resized 600At Hogan we say that reputation is everything. In the workplace the way others view your behavior is much more meaningful than how you view yourself. But this begs the question, who are these “others” that are viewing me, and does my reputation change if the group of “others” change? The answers lie in the norms. 

When you take our assessments your individual score is compared to a relative group that we call a norm. Norms determine the group by whose lens you are viewed. This means your assessment results indeed do change based on on who is viewing you. Just like you get a different picture when the camera lens changes, you will get a different picture of someone’s reputation in an assessment when the norm changes.   

We create our norm groups based on different languages because we feel this offers the best and simplest way to define a cultural group. If someone takes an assessment using the Thai norm, their results will be scored based on how people who speak Thai view that person’s reputation. If the same person takes the assessment using Swedish norms, that person’s results will change based on the Swedish speaking population.

We offer over 50 different single language-based norms including Simplified Chinese norms, Polish norms, US English norms, Australian English norms, etc. But with the growing presence of companies doing business across borders and cultures and with multinational companies spanning multiple countries, this creates a dilenma; with which cultural lens should we view the assessment results of a country director in China who reports to an Indian boss in France? Or, for that matter, of any person working in a multinational or multicultural context?

Our solution is an all encompassing multi-lingual global norm. Our research team used data from over 40 different languages and multiple geographic regions to create a global norm that allows us to view assessment results from a global perspective.

Our global norm is a great solution for organizations with any cross-cultural or international business. In fact because in today’s global economy most companies work in a global context, we actually recommend the global norm as our preferred default norm.

Reputation is everything, and our global norm provides you with the opportunity to measure an individual’s reputation using a truly global perspective.

Topics: global

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