At 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.
At 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. 
