From the beginning of personality psychology as an academic discipline in the 1930s, the conventional wisdom has maintained that reputation is an epiphenomenon of no real psychological significance or interest. Instead, according to Gordon Allport, personality psychology concerns the factors that make each person distinctive and unique. This was a mistake for two reasons: (1) it is impossible to generalize from uniqueness; and (2) reputation is easy to study and is a powerful predictor of behavior.

Another suspect topic is gossip. Conventional wisdom has maintained that gossip is little more than character assassination, and is something that right minded people will avoid. In the 1970s researchers began studying normal conversations and discovered that when real people (as opposed to academic psychologists) talk, they mostly (about 70% of the time) engage in gossip—they talk about other people.

That which reputation and gossip have in common is language. Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, is credited with the view that language evolved as a mechanism to organize and smooth social interaction. Dunbar thinks conversation among humans takes the place of social grooming in chimpanzees (our nearest relative); he thinks conversation serves to create social bonds.

I have argued for a long time that much conversation is actually about gossip and gossip is mostly about coming to a common agreement about another person’s reputation—hence the link between gossip and reputation. Knowing another person’s reputation is quite helpful in deciding how to deal with that person in future interactions. Gossip tells us who we can trust; conversely, the prospects of acquiring a bad reputation serves to control people’s otherwise selfish tendencies—gossip functions as a mechanism of social control.

Ralf Summerfield and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that is an interesting contribution to this line of thinking. They used the standard game theoretical paradigm in which two people interact, and each has the option of competing or cooperating. If both cooperate, both win; if one competes while the other cooperates, the selfish person wins even bigger. In this study, participants were provided information regarding the other person’s reputation as either selfish or cooperative. As expected, they found that if a person expected to interact with someone with a reputation for selfishness, he/she would behave selfishly, but if a person expected to interact with someone with a reputation for cooperation, he/she would tend to cooperate.

The real news in the study, however, concerned a particular wrinkle. In some cases they would provide the participants with both data regarding other person’s performance and a description that person’s reputation. Participants invariably believed the gossip rather than the data. As Sommerfeld noted: “It could be that we are just more adapted to listen to other information than to observe people, because most of the time we’re not able to observe how other people behave. Thus we might believe we have missed something.”

There are two points about this that are worth remembering. First, people believe gossip over actual data regarding a person’s performance. And second, smart people will try to keep their reputations in good shape.

-- Dr. Robert Hogan

From the beginning of personality psychology as an academic discipline in the 1930s, the conventional wisdom has maintained that reputation is an epiphenomenon of no real psychological significance or interest. Instead, according to Gordon Allport, personality psychology concerns the factors that make each person distinctive and unique. This was a mistake for two reasons: (1) it is impossible to generalize from uniqueness; and (2) reputation is easy to study and is a powerful predictor of behavior.

Another suspect topic is gossip. Conventional wisdom has maintained that gossip is little more than character assassination, and is something that right minded people will avoid. In the 1970s researchers began studying normal conversations and discovered that when real people (as opposed to academic psychologists) talk, they mostly (about 70% of the time) engage in gossip—they talk about other people.

That which reputation and gossip have in common is language. Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, is credited with the view that language evolved as a mechanism to organize and smooth social interaction. Dunbar thinks conversation among humans takes the place of social grooming in chimpanzees (our nearest relative); he thinks conversation serves to create social bonds.

I have argued for a long time that much conversation is actually about gossip and gossip is mostly about coming to a common agreement about another person’s reputation—hence the link between gossip and reputation. Knowing another person’s reputation is quite helpful in deciding how to deal with that person in future interactions. Gossip tells us who we can trust; conversely, the prospects of acquiring a bad reputation serves to control people’s otherwise selfish tendencies—gossip functions as a mechanism of social control.

Ralf Summerfield and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that is an interesting contribution to this line of thinking. They used the standard game theoretical paradigm in which two people interact, and each has the option of competing or cooperating. If both cooperate, both win; if one competes while the other cooperates, the selfish person wins even bigger. In this study, participants were provided information regarding the other person’s reputation as either selfish or cooperative. As expected, they found that if a person expected to interact with someone with a reputation for selfishness, he/she would behave selfishly, but if a person expected to interact with someone with a reputation for cooperation, he/she would tend to cooperate.

The real news in the study, however, concerned a particular wrinkle. In some cases they would provide the participants with both data regarding other person’s performance and a description that person’s reputation. Participants invariably believed the gossip rather than the data. As Sommerfeld noted: “It could be that we are just more adapted to listen to other information than to observe people, because most of the time we’re not able to observe how other people behave. Thus we might believe we have missed something.”

There are two points about this that are worth remembering. First, people believe gossip over actual data regarding a person’s performance. And second, smart people will try to keep their reputations in good shape.

— Dr. Robert Hogan

In 1982 I undertook a self-taught crash course in I/O psychology, with a special emphasis on leadership. At that time, I concluded that LMX theory was the only model of leadership that made any sense; the alternatives seemed hopelessly academic. I have recently had the opportunity to meet George Graen, the author of LMX theory and to confirm my initial reactions. George is smart, productive, perceptive, and an artist— which means that he is constantly fiddling with his ideas. At its core, however, LMX theory is, in my judgment, exactly right. I would like to summarize the highlights of the theory, as I understand it.

First, LMX stands for “leadership motivated excellence”, although Graen has changed the meaning of the term three times. Nonetheless, leadership motivated excellence is the “real” definition of the term.

Second, and in contrast with most discussions of leadership, Graen understands that it is not about the person in the role, leadership is about the performance of the team or business unit of which the “leader” is in charge. Graen evaluates leadership in terms of the team’s performance, and this is rarely done in the academic literature.

Third, Graen makes a crucial distinction between leadership models that concern between group performance, and models that concern within group performance. Between group models evaluate managers using ratings by a few members of the manager’s team (e.g., the typical 360 subordinate evaluation). Managers of successful teams are compared with managers of less successful teams, based on these averaged ratings, and those data are used to identify the characteristics of successful managers. This methodology has led to inconsistent results over time. In contrast, LMX theory uses ratings from everyone on the team to evaluate a manager, and the evaluations concern the relationship between each team member and the manager. These dyadic relationships tend to be very stable over time, and lead to convergent research findings.

Fourth, consistent with best practices of managers of real teams, Graen says leadership is not about how a manager treats his/her team in general or on average. Leadership is about building relationships between each member of the team, one person at a time. This is the key insight of Red Auerbach, the legendary coach of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association—you motivate a team one player at a time. Rob Kaiser points out that the principle source of variance in 360 ratings is the ratings provided by single individuals—exactly as LMX theory would predict.

LMX theory is rooted in social exchange theory—the leader and the member each get something from the relationship, otherwise defections will occur. Thus, followers can influence leaders as much as the reverse. Each dyadic relationship (between the leader and an individual member of the team) is unique and determined by the personalities of the two people involved. The quality of the dyadic relationship is the key factor affecting the member’s motivation. Inevitably, the members who are in a leader’s “in-group” contribute more to the team than those who are not.

Fifth, Graen has a standardized rating form that can be used to evaluate the quality of the LMX dyads that make up any team. Higher scores on this rating form are associated with more effective teams that communicate, cooperate, and coordinate better, and have lower turnover intentions.

Sixth, Graen has standardized (and proprietary) protocols for training managers in the kind of relationship building that LMX theory spotlights. Furthermore, he says that he has data showing that managers who are trained on this LMX model do better, in the sense that their teams perform better after they have undergone training.

Seventh, the standard criticism of LMX theory in the I/O literature is that LMX is all about likability, that subordinates give higher ratings to supervisors that they like, so that LMX theory only concerns “halo or nuisance variance”. But Graen is quite clear that the LMX relationship depends on three elements: (1) the subordinate trusts his/her manager; (2) the subordinate respects the competence of his/her manager; and (3) the subordinate believes his/her manager is concerned about the welfare and performance of the team. These elements might result in likeability, but likeability is not necessarily entailed by these elements. As Graen notes, many aspects of a successful manager’s behavior make that person likeable, but the three criteria listed above are what predict team performance.

Finally, as far as I can tell, every aspect of LMX theory is supported by data, and every aspect of LMX theory is consistent with the way I think about leadership, starting with speculations about the role of leadership in the evolution of our species, and ending with what is wrong with modern corporate leadership.

In 1982 I undertook a self-taught crash course in I/O psychology, with a special emphasis on leadership. At that time, I concluded that LMX theory was the only model of leadership that made any sense; the alternatives seemed hopelessly academic. I have recently had the opportunity to meet George Graen, the author of LMX theory and to confirm my initial reactions. George is smart, productive, perceptive, and an artist— which means that he is constantly fiddling with his ideas. At its core, however, LMX theory is, in my judgment, exactly right. I would like to summarize the highlights of the theory, as I understand it.

First, LMX stands for “leadership motivated excellence”, although Graen has changed the meaning of the term three times. Nonetheless, leadership motivated excellence is the “real” definition of the term.

Second, and in contrast with most discussions of leadership, Graen understands that it is not about the person in the role, leadership is about the performance of the team or business unit of which the “leader” is in charge. Graen evaluates leadership in terms of the team’s performance, and this is rarely done in the academic literature.

Third, Graen makes a crucial distinction between leadership models that concern between group performance, and models that concern within group performance. Between group models evaluate managers using ratings by a few members of the manager’s team (e.g., the typical 360 subordinate evaluation). Managers of successful teams are compared with managers of less successful teams, based on these averaged ratings, and those data are used to identify the characteristics of successful managers. This methodology has led to inconsistent results over time. In contrast, LMX theory uses ratings from everyone on the team to evaluate a manager, and the evaluations concern the relationship between each team member and the manager. These dyadic relationships tend to be very stable over time, and lead to convergent research findings.

Fourth, consistent with best practices of managers of real teams, Graen says leadership is not about how a manager treats his/her team in general or on average. Leadership is about building relationships between each member of the team, one person at a time. This is the key insight of Red Auerbach, the legendary coach of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association—you motivate a team one player at a time. Rob Kaiser points out that the principle source of variance in 360 ratings is the ratings provided by single individuals—exactly as LMX theory would predict.

LMX theory is rooted in social exchange theory—the leader and the member each get something from the relationship, otherwise defections will occur. Thus, followers can influence leaders as much as the reverse. Each dyadic relationship (between the leader and an individual member of the team) is unique and determined by the personalities of the two people involved. The quality of the dyadic relationship is the key factor affecting the member’s motivation. Inevitably, the members who are in a leader’s “in-group” contribute more to the team than those who are not.

Fifth, Graen has a standardized rating form that can be used to evaluate the quality of the LMX dyads that make up any team. Higher scores on this rating form are associated with more effective teams that communicate, cooperate, and coordinate better, and have lower turnover intentions.

Sixth, Graen has standardized (and proprietary) protocols for training managers in the kind of relationship building that LMX theory spotlights. Furthermore, he says that he has data showing that managers who are trained on this LMX model do better, in the sense that their teams perform better after they have undergone training.

Seventh, the standard criticism of LMX theory in the I/O literature is that LMX is all about likability, that subordinates give higher ratings to supervisors that they like, so that LMX theory only concerns “halo or nuisance variance”. But Graen is quite clear that the LMX relationship depends on three elements: (1) the subordinate trusts his/her manager; (2) the subordinate respects the competence of his/her manager; and (3) the subordinate believes his/her manager is concerned about the welfare and performance of the team. These elements might result in likeability, but likeability is not necessarily entailed by these elements. As Graen notes, many aspects of a successful manager’s behavior make that person likeable, but the three criteria listed above are what predict team performance.

Finally, as far as I can tell, every aspect of LMX theory is supported by data, and every aspect of LMX theory is consistent with the way I think about leadership, starting with speculations about the role of leadership in the evolution of our species, and ending with what is wrong with modern corporate leadership.

About 10 years ago, academic researchers rediscovered personality and its relationship to job performance. More recently, after the events symbolized by the collapse of Enron and MCI, the business community seems to have rediscovered the importance of character as a determinant of job performance—especially in the senior ranks. These represent different insights in the popular literature, because personality and character are usually considered separately. Nonetheless, the concepts of “character” and “personality” are closely linked; for example, Aristotle defined character in dispositional terms that are synonymous with the contemporary concept of personality. Moreover, the first academic journal devoted to personality research, established in 1932, was called Character and Personality. Gordon Allport, one of the founders of personality psychology in the U.S., remarked in his influential 1937 book that “character is personality evaluated, personality is character devaluated.”

Personality psychology has always been outside the mainstream of academic psychology because it explicitly assumes that values are an inherent part of social life, and that character is part of personality. Lee J. Cronbach, grand arbiter of psychological fashion for 50 years, denounced personality and personality assessment in his 1960 textbook because some of the concepts (i.e., integrity) are “value laden.” Like all good behaviorists, Cronbach wanted psychology to be like the physical sciences—values free. Poor old Cronbach never understood that the physical sciences, like the human sciences, are shot through with value considerations. Values are about preferences, they concern rules that people use to make choices in ambiguous circumstances. Tycho Brahe, Copernicus’ teacher, was a religious nut who thought the sun was God, and therefore belonged at the center of the universe. His arbitrary value system set Copernicus on his quest to demonstrate that our universe revolves around the sun.

Character is a term that summarizes a set of values. Values are indispensable for navigating social life. The only question concerns how to justify one’s values. Most people justify their values by appealing to authority—legal or religious. The framers of the U.S. Constitution justified their value choices in terms of the welfare of society, a pragmatic decision that informs our thinking as well.

The most fundamental requirement for a functioning society is order—a system in which people comply with the established rules and customs of the group. However, in any functioning group, cheaters inevitably emerge and take advantage of those who are more compliant—this is an important principle in evolutionary theory: cheaters inevitably emerge. Cheaters threaten the integrity of their groups with varying degrees of severity. People of good character, people with integrity, people who support the rules and customs of their group, are the foundation of a viable community.

Psychoanalysis argues that the fundamentals of character are set by about age five. And, as Freud noted, character is fate. Specifically, by about age five, a child’s core self-esteem—guilt and self-doubt versus self-confidence and optimism—is largely settled. In addition, by about age five, a child’s orientation toward rules and authority—rebellion and defiance versus effortless compliance—is largely set. Measures of self-esteem and attitudes toward authority powerfully predict job performance in adulthood. More importantly for a discussion of character, low scores on these measures powerfully predict delinquent conduct in adulthood. Poor self-esteem and defiance of rules and authority also predict some white collar crime. However, white collar crime is better predicted by adding values—specifically measures of selfishness and greed.

Finally, to put a practical end to this abstract discussion, researchers at Hogan have been studying crime and delinquency for over 30 years. They have accumulated solid data showing that the HPI and the HDS are robust predictors of both blue collar and white collar crime and delinquency. The MVPI can be used to evaluate selfishness and greed. Personality, character, and personality assessment come together to predict important life outcomes with an accuracy that rivals the best in medical diagnosis, an outcome that would have given Cronbach fits.

About 10 years ago, academic researchers rediscovered personality and its relationship to job performance. More recently, after the events symbolized by the collapse of Enron and MCI, the business community seems to have rediscovered the importance of character as a determinant of job performance—especially in the senior ranks. These represent different insights in the popular literature, because personality and character are usually considered separately. Nonetheless, the concepts of “character” and “personality” are closely linked; for example, Aristotle defined character in dispositional terms that are synonymous with the contemporary concept of personality. Moreover, the first academic journal devoted to personality research, established in 1932, was called Character and Personality. Gordon Allport, one of the founders of personality psychology in the U.S., remarked in his influential 1937 book that “character is personality evaluated, personality is character devaluated.”

Personality psychology has always been outside the mainstream of academic psychology because it explicitly assumes that values are an inherent part of social life, and that character is part of personality. Lee J. Cronbach, grand arbiter of psychological fashion for 50 years, denounced personality and personality assessment in his 1960 textbook because some of the concepts (i.e., integrity) are “value laden.” Like all good behaviorists, Cronbach wanted psychology to be like the physical sciences—values free. Poor old Cronbach never understood that the physical sciences, like the human sciences, are shot through with value considerations. Values are about preferences, they concern rules that people use to make choices in ambiguous circumstances. Tycho Brahe, Copernicus’ teacher, was a religious nut who thought the sun was God, and therefore belonged at the center of the universe. His arbitrary value system set Copernicus on his quest to demonstrate that our universe revolves around the sun.

Character is a term that summarizes a set of values. Values are indispensable for navigating social life. The only question concerns how to justify one’s values. Most people justify their values by appealing to authority—legal or religious. The framers of the U.S. Constitution justified their value choices in terms of the welfare of society, a pragmatic decision that informs our thinking as well.

The most fundamental requirement for a functioning society is order—a system in which people comply with the established rules and customs of the group. However, in any functioning group, cheaters inevitably emerge and take advantage of those who are more compliant—this is an important principle in evolutionary theory: cheaters inevitably emerge. Cheaters threaten the integrity of their groups with varying degrees of severity. People of good character, people with integrity, people who support the rules and customs of their group, are the foundation of a viable community.

Psychoanalysis argues that the fundamentals of character are set by about age five. And, as Freud noted, character is fate. Specifically, by about age five, a child’s core self-esteem—guilt and self-doubt versus self-confidence and optimism—is largely settled. In addition, by about age five, a child’s orientation toward rules and authority—rebellion and defiance versus effortless compliance—is largely set. Measures of self-esteem and attitudes toward authority powerfully predict job performance in adulthood. More importantly for a discussion of character, low scores on these measures powerfully predict delinquent conduct in adulthood. Poor self-esteem and defiance of rules and authority also predict some white collar crime. However, white collar crime is better predicted by adding values—specifically measures of selfishness and greed.

Finally, to put a practical end to this abstract discussion, researchers at Hogan have been studying crime and delinquency for over 30 years. They have accumulated solid data showing that the HPI and the HDS are robust predictors of both blue collar and white collar crime and delinquency. The MVPI can be used to evaluate selfishness and greed. Personality, character, and personality assessment come together to predict important life outcomes with an accuracy that rivals the best in medical diagnosis, an outcome that would have given Cronbach fits.

The talented and charismatic Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach published Psychodiagnostik in 1921. Rorschach’s inkblots soon attracted a cult-like following and became the most widely used projective test in the world. The theory behind projective tests is that, when people are asked to describe an ambiguous stimulus, their descriptions will reveal their private thoughts and fantasies—a theory that seems plausible on its face.

In the summer of 2009, Wikipedia published Rorschach’s ten inkblots and the most common responses to them. In the July 30th, 2009 issue of Newsweek, Wray Herbert describes the firestorm that resulted. His article raises a number of issues that are worth additional comment; I will mention four. Click here to read the article.

First, the article confuses personality measurement with the assessment of psychopathology. This is a common mistake because, from the beginning of personality measurement in the late 19th century until after World War II, every major measure of personality was also a measure of psychopathology; these measures included the Rorschach and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)—the most widely used objective measure of personality in the world. Research on performance in combat during the war showed that the absence of psychopathology does not predict effective performance—many people with problematic MMPI profiles perform well under pressure and many people with normal profiles perform poorly. Realizing that psychopathology is not necessarily related to effectiveness, pioneers such as Harrison Gough (author of the California Psychological Inventory in 1954) developed measures of normal personality to predict competent and effective performance. The point is, it is possible to assess personality without assessing psychopathology; and it is necessary to do so if one wants to predict effectiveness.

Second, along with many professional psychologists, the Newsweek article misrepresents the concept of test reliability. The reliability of any measure is a key issue in science. In the physical sciences, the reliability of a score is estimated by taking the same measure two or more times and comparing the scores. In contrast, many psychologists think that reliability should be estimated by how closely the items on a test cohere in a statistical fashion—but this has nothing to do with the reliability as defined in the physical sciences. The Newsweek article defines reliability in terms of the degree to which two people who score the same responses on the same test, get the same results. Although this definition is mistaken—because it concerns the reliability of the scoring method not the test scores—it is still closer to the scientific meaning of reliability than the definition used in academic psychology.

Third, there is nothing wrong, in principle, with the Rorschach. Like any test, it is a collection of (10) test stimuli, which by themselves mean nothing. The utility of any test depends on its scoring key. More specifically, the utility of a test depends on validity—the degree to which scores on the test predict real world outcomes. It is possible to develop scoring keys for the Rorschach that predict outcomes, but first it is necessary to understand what the purpose of assessment is. Assessment has a job to do, and that is to predict significant non-test behavior.

Finally, unlike many psychologists, Wray Herbert (the Newsweek writer) understands the importance of validity. At the close of his essay he notes that “This dust-up over the Rorschach could be just the beginning of a major intellectual housecleaning in a field that has drifted from its scientific roots.” As this comment indicates, validity is the scientific raison d’etre for assessment, but it is something that many test publishers ignore. This fact is a public scandal and one that will ultimately come to haunt the entire test publishing enterprise.

The talented and charismatic Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach published Psychodiagnostik in 1921. Rorschach’s inkblots soon attracted a cult-like following and became the most widely used projective test in the world. The theory behind projective tests is that, when people are asked to describe an ambiguous stimulus, their descriptions will reveal their private thoughts and fantasies—a theory that seems plausible on its face.

In the summer of 2009, Wikipedia published Rorschach’s ten inkblots and the most common responses to them. In the July 30th, 2009 issue of Newsweek, Wray Herbert describes the firestorm that resulted. His article raises a number of issues that are worth additional comment; I will mention four. Click here to read the article.

First, the article confuses personality measurement with the assessment of psychopathology. This is a common mistake because, from the beginning of personality measurement in the late 19th century until after World War II, every major measure of personality was also a measure of psychopathology; these measures included the Rorschach and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)—the most widely used objective measure of personality in the world. Research on performance in combat during the war showed that the absence of psychopathology does not predict effective performance—many people with problematic MMPI profiles perform well under pressure and many people with normal profiles perform poorly. Realizing that psychopathology is not necessarily related to effectiveness, pioneers such as Harrison Gough (author of the California Psychological Inventory in 1954) developed measures of normal personality to predict competent and effective performance. The point is, it is possible to assess personality without assessing psychopathology; and it is necessary to do so if one wants to predict effectiveness.

Second, along with many professional psychologists, the Newsweek article misrepresents the concept of test reliability. The reliability of any measure is a key issue in science. In the physical sciences, the reliability of a score is estimated by taking the same measure two or more times and comparing the scores. In contrast, many psychologists think that reliability should be estimated by how closely the items on a test cohere in a statistical fashion—but this has nothing to do with the reliability as defined in the physical sciences. The Newsweek article defines reliability in terms of the degree to which two people who score the same responses on the same test, get the same results. Although this definition is mistaken—because it concerns the reliability of the scoring method not the test scores—it is still closer to the scientific meaning of reliability than the definition used in academic psychology.

Third, there is nothing wrong, in principle, with the Rorschach. Like any test, it is a collection of (10) test stimuli, which by themselves mean nothing. The utility of any test depends on its scoring key. More specifically, the utility of a test depends on validity—the degree to which scores on the test predict real world outcomes. It is possible to develop scoring keys for the Rorschach that predict outcomes, but first it is necessary to understand what the purpose of assessment is. Assessment has a job to do, and that is to predict significant non-test behavior.

Finally, unlike many psychologists, Wray Herbert (the Newsweek writer) understands the importance of validity. At the close of his essay he notes that “This dust-up over the Rorschach could be just the beginning of a major intellectual housecleaning in a field that has drifted from its scientific roots.” As this comment indicates, validity is the scientific raison d’etre for assessment, but it is something that many test publishers ignore. This fact is a public scandal and one that will ultimately come to haunt the entire test publishing enterprise.

Why does personality matter? To answer this question, we need to resolve two prior issues:

1. What is personality?
2. Who wants to know why personality matters?

The answer to the question, “What is personality?” is that there are two answers. There is what we call “personality from the inside” and there is what we call “personality from the outside”. Personality from the inside concerns your view of you, it concerns the person you think you are—it concerns your hopes, your dreams, your values, your goals, your aspirations, your fears, and the things you think you need to do to realize your goals and avoid your fears. We refer to personality from the inside as your identity.

Personality from the outside concerns our view of you, the person we think you are, and we refer to this as your reputation. It concerns the things we need to know in order to be able to deal with you effectively. So, there is the you that you know, personality from the inside, or your identity. Then there is the you that we know, personality from the outside, or your reputation.

These two forms of personality are different in very important ways. Consider the you that you know—your identity. Freud would say that it is hardly worth knowing—because you made it up. Everyone has to be someone, and you are the hero or heroine in your own life’s drama, but that doesn’t mean that your identity is necessarily closely related to reality. The way people think about and describe themselves is only modestly related to how others describe them—people don’t really know themselves all that well. Even worse, about 100 years of research on identity shows that it is very hard—almost impossible—to study in a rigorous and empirical way. As a result, we psychologists don’t know very much about identity that is interesting or useful.

Consider the you that we know—your reputation. Reputation is quite interesting for several reasons. First, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior; your reputation reflects your past behavior, therefore your reputation is the best information we have regarding what you are likely to do in the future. Second, reputations are easy to study—we need only ask other people to describe you. And third, there is a well-defined and widely accepted taxonomy of reputations that has been used to study occupational performance, and as a result, we psychologists know a lot about the kinds of people who do well or poorly in different kinds of jobs. That is, we know a lot about the links between reputation and occupational performance.

As for the question of who wants to know why personality matters, it matters to two categories of people: (a) people who are interested in their own career development; and (b) potential employers. People who are interested in their own career development need to know about their own strengths and shortcomings relative to the demands of various occupations. More precisely, people who want to approach the topic of career development in a strategic manner will want to know: (1) How their strengths match the demands of various careers; and
(2) how other people will perceive them during job interviews and while working.

Personality matters to potential employers in at least three ways. First, they need to know what kind of employee you will be—will you be cranky, difficult, and hard to manage or will you be a world-class organizational citizen? Second, they need to know if your personality fits the demands of the job for which you are applying—do you have the drive to succeed in sales, the social skills to succeed in customer service, the good judgment to succeed as a manager? And third, they need to know if your values (your identity) are consistent with the corporate culture—it doesn’t matter how talented you are, if your values are inconsistent with the corporate culture, you will not succeed in that organization.

The bottom line is that personality matters to individuals because self-understanding allows a person to be strategic about his/her career choices and career development. Personality matters to employers because knowledge about a job applicant’s personality allows them to be strategic about the hiring process.