When psychologists talk about the Dark Triad, they mean narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. But that list doesn’t cover all the dark-side personality characteristics.

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, spoke with Peter Harms, PhD, professor of management at the University of Alabama, about dark-side behaviors not covered by the Dark Triad.

Peter has studied the dark side of personality for more than 20 years. He started his career working with Dr. Delroy Paulhus, who coined the phrase “Dark Triad” in 2002.

Let’s dive in and explore what the Dark Triad misses and dark-side tendencies in leadership.

What Is the Dark Triad?

The Dark Triad refers to three personality-based syndromes or behaviors: (1) narcissism, (2) Machiavellianism, and (3) psychopathy. The syndromes in this triad are considered subclinical, meaning not a clinical disorder but lying right on the edge of legality.

• Narcissism – Toxic self-esteem that combines believing you are great and wanting to be admired to the extent that you compete with or exploit others
• Machiavellianism – Pleasure in manipulating others with chronic, habitual lying
• Psychopathy – Impulsivity, recklessness, and lack of ability to experience emotions, especially empathy

A common element shared among the Dark Triad is being willing to exploit or hurt other people to pursue one’s agenda. A narcissist typically seems energetic and confident in the short term but may become aggressive or competitive in the long term. A Machiavellian tends to seem politically savvy but uses lies to stay ahead. A psychopath can be curious about others but also act vicious or brutal toward them. “They’ve all got this common hostility towards others or an ambivalence towards the feelings of other people,” Peter said.

The Dark Triad isn’t a theoretical model but a way to think about trends in psychological literature. Social psychologists studied narcissists, personality psychologists and political psychologists studied Machiavellians, and forensic psychologists and clinical psychologists studied psychopaths. These elements of personality and behavior weren’t well represented in the Big Five, or five-factor model (FFM), which categorizes more positive or neutral aspects of personality.

The Dark Triad can be challenging to study for two reasons. The method of study is usually self-report and questionnaires. However, because people who have these characteristics habitually exaggerate, lie, or fail to comprehend emotion, interpreting these measurements is hard. As well, the behaviors associated with each syndrome often overlap, leading to difficulty differentiating them.

Other Dark Personality Characteristics

In 1997, Drs. Robert and Joyce Hogan introduced the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), which measures 11 potentially career-derailing behaviors. The HDS isn’t a clinical assessment and doesn’t diagnose clinical conditions. However, certain HDS scales do align somewhat with the Dark Triad.

• Narcissism corresponds to HDS Bold. Bold has elements of entitlement, overconfidence, and exaggerating one’s abilities, but it doesn’t measure the vanity or exploitative behaviors that characterize narcissism.
• Machiavellianism corresponds to HDS Skeptical. Skeptical has elements of being cynical and mistrusting, but it doesn’t measure the manipulativeness that characterizes Machiavellianism.
• Psychopathy corresponds to HDS Mischievous. Mischievous has elements of risky and impulsive behavior, but it doesn’t measure the inabilities to experience emotion or learn from negative feedback that characterize psychopathy.

A more significant difference between the Dark Triad and the HDS is intent. The HDS measures personality strengths. When overused, these can become obstacles that can derail career success. Fundamentally, though, the scales on the HDS are positive. The characteristics of the Dark Triad are not positive. “They are almost uniformly negative in how they impact other people,” Peter said.

What the Dark Triad Misses

The Dark Triad isn’t a complete taxonomy of dark-side characteristics. Organizational psychologists should recognize that the other characteristics are important too. Seemingly positive characteristics can turn negative depending on the context or degree—such as perfectionism, dependency, and competitiveness. Spitefulness and greed are also becoming newly popular dark characteristics to study.

The Dark Triad misses listing quite a few dark characteristics. Peter specifically called out paranoia as the biggest gap in studying dark characteristics. “It can feed on itself,” he said. “If you treat other people skeptically, then they act in a way that justifies your skepticism.” A need exists for research to understand how this characteristic plays out in the workplace.

Another thing the Dark Triad misses is the moral element of behavior. In addition to unwillingness to trust and engage in emotional intimacy, the three syndromes of the Dark Triad tend not to be concerned with morality. A narcissist isn’t likely to wish they were less arrogant; instead, they would wish others could understand their greatness. Many Machiavellians would agree that they are immoral. They might justify their actions by saying the world is an immoral place and a smart person rises above morality. Some psychopaths would be aware they don’t experience emotions and would feel curiosity and regret about their lack of empathy. But overall, morality just doesn’t interest the Dark Triad: “The people who exhibit these characteristics don’t want to change that much,” Peter said.

The Dark Triad in Leadership

“Pretty much anytime you’ve got a leader, they’re a narcissist,” Peter said, especially national leaders. They tend to believe that they personally are the solution to national or global problems.

Peter described the narcissism of former US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump and the paranoia of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama seemed to view himself as a world-changing leader whose time in office would be an inflection point in global events. Similarly, Trump said he was going to be the best president and get the most done. Getting to the top in politics requires self-confidence, which can easily become overconfidence given the nature of the office itself. President Putin displays many characteristics on the Dark Triad, as well as paranoia. As a former KGB agent, Putin continues to operate in his present role as a spy who is surrounded by spies. Peter said that deceptive behavior has helped Putin get ahead sometimes, but it also causes him problems. “His paranoia has created so much distance that it’s causing his downfall,” he added.

Power can act as a key to opening Dark Triad tendencies, which aren’t always evident when leaders are still striving to reach their goals. Having attained an elite role, leaders may become unguarded. “That’s when the dark side really starts leaking out—when you’re on top,” Peter said.

What Organizations Can Do

Organizations need to understand the nature of dark-side traits. Not all of them are explosive headline grabbers. It’s vital to pay attention to leader behavior, measure dark-side tendencies, and provide coaching and resources for leadership development.

Organizations should also be aware that men tend to score higher on Dark Triad characteristics such as boldness, self-promotion, and excessive risk taking, which can lead to company-destroying news events. Women tend to score higher on dark-side characteristics such as perfectionism, passive aggression, and eagerness to please, which can lead to toxic work environments and decreased retention. These differences may also bias leadership selection in favor of men. Gender inequity issues matter greatly to employee and organizational well-being.

“We can’t just look for the bright red flashing lights. We have to look at all the warning signals,” Peter said.

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 72 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Hogan is proud and pleased to be a platinum sponsor and participant at the 38th annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) conference. Held in Boston, Massachusetts, and online from April 19 through April 22, 2023, the SIOP conference will be another opportunity for Hogan to showcase our thought leadership in personality assessment, leadership development, artificial intelligence, and more. Numerous Hogan employees will attend SIOP 2023, with many of them participating as panelists, presenters, speakers, and session chairs.

We are particularly excited to highlight our tech demo of the Hogan Leadership Experience (HLX), which is redefining leadership with assessment-driven development plans and executive coaching. Hogan’s Director of Global Learning and Development Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm and Learning Solutions Manager Jocelyn Hays will be demonstrating HLX on Friday, April 20. You definitely want to see this (and you definitely don’t want to miss our drawing for an Apple Watch).

Our base of operations will be booth 101. Stop by to see HLX demos in the booth—and we’ll have some swag to give away!

You can also find us day by day at the sessions below. Note that times are given in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Thursday, April 20, 2023

SIOP Intelligence on AI: Legal, Practice, and Ethics Perspectives

Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, panelist | 9:00 a.m., Ballroom C

Bringing together experts from academia, internal and external consulting, and law, this panel comes in the wake of NYC Local Law 144, which stipulates that automated employment decision tools must undergo bias audits. This session aims to synthesize and integrate the existing guidance and to begin to lay the framework for best practices when conducting bias audits. Following a State of the Union address, representatives from their respective fields will briefly cover key considerations, and then the chair will facilitate discussion based on preplanned questions and audience input.

Sounds of Silence: Embracing Introversion in the Hum of the Modern Workplace

Kimberly Nei, PhD, presenter | 2:00 p.m., Ballroom A

This panel provides a diverse and comprehensive discussion about introversion in the workplace. Five panelists who span academia, practice, business, psychology, the US, and Australia answer questions about introversion in the context of teams, assessments, measurement, work success, and mistreatment. The goal of this session is to shine light on the oft-neglected strengths of introversion in successful workplaces and fulfilling careers. Authors hope this discussion inspires deeper conversations on the issue, more research, and organizational initiatives.

Overlap and Differences Between Psychological Safety and DEI Competencies for Leaders

Linda Muller, MS, presenter; Becca Burchette, MS, coauthor; Zayna Hustoft, coauthor; Matt Lemming, MA, coauthor; Kimberly Nei, PhD, coauthor | 4:00 p.m., Exhibit Hall

Literature to date has largely considered diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and psychological safety as separate constructs that uniquely contribute to an organization’s culture, despite their similarities. Authors used several statistical analyses including EFA, LPA, correlation, and regression to determine the degree of overlap and difference between these constructs using an archival dataset of more than 10,000 leaders at nearly 3,000 companies across the globe. Findings have implications for practitioners, consultants, and leaders who wish to foster organizational diversity and inclusion.

A World Without Assessments: Rolling the Dice on Candidates?

Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, panelist; Brandon Ferrell, PhD, panelist | 4:00 p.m., room 202

This session reviews and tries to understand deteriorating organizational, political, and social attitudes toward employment testing. Authors will identify likely causes of this change in attitudes, discuss its effects, and will review similar shifts seen with educational and certification/licensure testing. The final goal for this session is to identify ways test publishers and test users can begin to rehabilitate testing’s reputation, combining what test users in other fields have learned and acknowledging what test critics get right.

Ethical Considerations in Workplace Assessments: An Interactive Discussion

Paige Brown, MBA, MA, presenter | 5:00 p.m., room 209

With limited guidelines or consensus on how leaders should choose, administer, and debrief their employees using workplace assessments, practitioners and academics alike need a code of ethics. However, having a code of ethics in place is not enough. Practitioners and academics need a comprehensive understanding of how to use this code of ethics when using workplace assessments. This session will be an interactive discussion for practitioners and academics in all job levels who are interested in using workplace assessments in an ethical manner.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Ethical Decision-Making: An Interactive Session Using Realistic Scenarios

Paige Brown, MBA, MA, presenter | 8:00 a.m., Ballroom A

Authors propose an interactive session aimed at facilitating ethical decision-making (EDM) using SIOP’s Committee for the Advancement of Professional Ethics’ (CAPE) Ethical Reflection Tool (CERT). Session participants will engage in reading and discussing brief ethical scenarios in small groups. Ultimately, groups will rate the overall ethicality of their proposed responses using an audience engagement platform, such as Mentimeter. At the end, participants will learn about resources available through CAPE (including the CERT) for teaching ethics.

Causes and Outcomes of Self-Other Rating Agreement in 360 Feedback

Ryne Sherman, PhD, presenter; Weiwen Nie, PhD, presenter | 9:00 a.m., room 208

This symposium presents four recent investigations into the causes and outcomes of self–other (dis)agreement in 360-degree assessments. The symposium is appropriate for both scientists and practitioners and requires intermediate understanding of the topic. The four studies explored self-other agreement on personality and behavior reports. A special feature of the symposium is the exploration of the impact of self-other rating (dis)agreement on diverse practical outcomes such as interpersonal behavior, leadership behavior, workplace performance and reputation, and counterproductive behavior. Drs. Sherman and Nie will present “Self-Awareness of Workplace Reputation: A 360-Degree Analysis.”

Humor and Hogan: Examining Humor Styles with the Hogan Personality Inventory

Cody Warren, MA, presenter; Jessie McClure, MA, coauthor; Mark Shoemaker, MA, coauthor | 10:30 a.m., Exhibit Hall

Authors examined four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) using the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and their relationships to personality characteristics measured by a work-based personality assessment (Hogan Personality Inventory; HPI). Significant relationships were found among all humor styles and a number of personality scales, which can assist in providing self-awareness of an individual’s personality and how that related to their humor style.

Redefine Executive Coaching with the Hogan Leadership Experience

Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MS, speaker; Jocelyn Hays, MS, speaker | 2:00 p.m., room 206

Developing and coaching leaders without assessment is akin to allowing a physician to treat elite athletes without conducting any diagnostic medical tests. Yet even when an assessment is used in leadership development, most of the products available today are too generalized and lack impact; abstract, complex, and difficult to action; or fun, flashy, and flimsy.

The Hogan Leadership Experience (HLX) is a new product that reimagines top executives’ experience with assessments, coaching, and development. This bespoke technology reinvents science-driven executive coaching and ultimately redefines leadership itself. Seamlessly integrated into talent management initiatives, HLX will fuel more effective development planning and long-lasting behavior change.

Join our tech demonstration to see how Hogan is using interactive technology and the science of personality to empower leaders to build high-performing teams. People who attend the tech demo and provide us with their information will be entered into a drawing for an Apple Watch. Will you win?

IOs for Social Good: Using Research and Evidence for Police Reform

Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, presenter; Deidre Hall, MS, MA, presenter | 2:00 p.m., room 203

According to The Washington Post, 1,047 people have been shot and killed by police in the last year and, unsurprisingly, Black Americans were killed at a higher rate. Many remember Michael Brown, killed in 2014; Philando Castile, killed in 2016; George Floyd, killed in 2020; and many others. How do we fix this? In this dynamic, action-oriented session, authors will start with a presentation of research on police personality traits followed by an interactive design-thinking session led by an expert facilitator and transition to a presentation around how IO can influence legislation.

Unanswered Questions for Personality-Based Team Interventions

Jessie McClure, MA, panelist | 5:00 p.m., room 312

This panel discussion will explore the current state of knowledge on personality-based developmental interventions for groups and teams. The panelists will draw on the current research literature, as well as their experiences implementing developmental team interventions during their time at companies such as Walmart, PepsiCo, and Hogan Assessments. Specific topics will include purpose and design of personality-based developmental interventions, current state of research on this topic, and next steps for practitioners and scholars to advance this popular yet understudied form of intervention.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Let’s Go, Team! Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Team Effectiveness Interventions

Jessie McClure, MA, primary chair; Jessica McDuffie, MS, secondary chair | 11:30 a.m., room 309

In today’s business world, it is critical for teams to be able to work effectively together quickly. Leaders need to be open to and understand when to introduce team development interventions. This session will present best practices, lessons learned, and advice on team development initiatives to enhance team effectiveness. Topics will include gaining buy-in from business leaders and stakeholders, navigating team initiatives in a changing business world, measuring outcomes of team initiatives, and further research needed on this topic to support practitioners.

Increasing Transparency in the Candidate Experience While Protecting Your Company

Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, panelist | 11:30 a.m., room 209

Enhancing the candidate experience continues to be of critical importance to organizations. To remain competitive in the market, organizations must continue to look for ways to increase transparency throughout the hiring process. However, increasing transparency comes with the responsibility to remain standardized and continue to use a science-based approach to prehire assessments. This panel is intended for introductory to advanced practitioners looking to implement transparent communications and feedback to applicants to elevate the candidate experience.

When Values Align: The Attraction-Selection-Attrition Model Using Machine Learning

Alise Dabdoub, PhD, presenter; Sara Stegemoller, coauthor; Matt Lemming, MA, coauthor | 12:30 p.m., Exhibit Hall

The attraction-selection-attraction model posits that individuals are attracted to, selected by, and stay in organizations that espouse values that align with their own. This multiclass classification study used linear discriminant analysis to examine whether core values could be used to predict the organization or job family an employee belonged to. Findings reveal that core values may be more relevant at the organization level than at the job family level, as prediction accuracy increased above the no-information rate at the organization level but not at job family level.

Advancing Frontiers with AI in IO: Diverse Uses of Natural Language Processing

Weiwen Nie, PhD, presenter | 12:30 p.m., room 304

This symposium will highlight diverse applications of modern natural language processing (NLP) techniques that can innovate organizational processes. Authors demonstrate several examples of how rapidly advancing NLP approaches can be leveraged to facilitate immediate change. NLP provides the opportunity to automate laborious tasks and direct more valid, evidence-based practices. The following IO psychologist’s diverse applications of NLP showcase how it can support job analysis, diversity and inclusion, recruitment and selection, and learning and development.

We are so proud of our presenters and their research. We can’t wait to see you in Boston at SIOP 2023.

Leadership consultants, executive coaches, industrial-organizational psychologists, and artificial intelligence all have the same goal: to help make people better at what they do. Do you agree? Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, spoke with Ted Hayes, PhD, a research psychologist in northern Virginia, about the implications of using AI in consulting psychology.

“AI is where the future is, and we are moving into the future. You can’t avoid AI,” Ted said.

Let’s dive into a comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of AI coaching and human coaching respectively, as well as our guest’s advice for coaches.

AI Transformation Is Inevitable

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning will become part of the fabric of just about every industry, including consulting psychology and leadership coaching. AI will affect our futures—and the outlook is bright. Ted pointed out that effecting successful technological change will draw upon the socioemotional skills of leaders to provide change management and psychological safety. It will also draw upon the expertise of psychologists during a time when every single organizational function is likely to be affected by AI.

Before we start imagining evil AI overlords dictating every minute of our working lives, it’s important to note that humans produce and control the content upon which AI is based. Ted explained AI “creativity” using two terms: generative AI and discriminative AI. Generative AI takes existing content and produces variations, such as ChatGPT inventing a comic book superhero based on Wonder Woman. Discriminative AI is a more predictive tool, which might identify employees who may become high-potential leaders or candidates who merit a second interview.

In the case of discriminative AI, an industry concern is that, while psychologists must follow guidelines, laws, rules, and regulations, AI tools behave the way they’ve been programmed. They don’t have accountability the same way that people do. Instead, AI has guardrails programmed into it by human engineers and data scientists who can choose to limit its access to information and its influence within the organization.

Reiterating that AI is answerable only to its programming, Ted observed, “On the one hand, AI won’t save us from ourselves. On the other hand, it’ll reflect the best of us if that’s how we set up its content, and we are in control of that.”

AI Coaching vs. Human Coaching

In the consulting and coaching realm, AI coaching can offer some benefits that humans cannot. Machines are excellent at providing unrelenting reliability and processing data. In terms of the inability to like or dislike, they lack bias. They can help to train and support leaders and teams with instruction or data analysis. “It could do a lot in terms of developing people—not because it likes people, but because its imperative is to make people better at what they do,” Ted said.

Other benefits are that AI is always awake and accessible. It can’t get tired or distracted. It can learn a lot about you and make recommendations based on the data you provide to it, including how to achieve career goals. The advice is personalized. Even if it can’t contextualize or react to your emotions, it can choose a different option based on your response.

Now, human psychologists, consultants, and coaches currently have and always will have certain advantages over AI. If AI has some tools, a human coach has a wealth of tools, including AI. Humans understand how to leverage those tools relative to client needs.

An AI coach is likely to advise more broadly than a human. A human’s emotions and life experiences will allow greater specificity. Put another way, some scenarios will be so specific that where the AI might rely on data about it, the human has lived it.

Learning to position AI effectively will be a process. “We’re right at the dawn of all this. We just don’t know how good it’s going to get,” said Ted.

The Human Connection

A one-on-one, human-to-human interactive coaching session isn’t possible with an AI-powered coach. Perhaps surprisingly, however, there are some positives to coaching without the human connection. First, AI is without emotion, so how it feels about you cannot affect how it behaves. Second, AI cannot decide to lie to you because it has no metacognition. It is also superior to humans in its capacity to process information as an analytical function and to present information as a pedagogical function.

On the other hand, there are drawbacks to losing that human connection. One drawback is that data are messy, and AI using messy data might discriminate or generate racist, sexist, or homophobic responses. AI-powered systems require constant vigilance to achieve positive outcomes, and this need for oversight can be a downside.

Another drawback to AI coaching is the very absence of emotion. People tend to humanize machines. An AI coach or assistant, however, simply cannot answer many of the questions we might ask it. It could rate the pros and cons of a decision, but it can’t always know what is right.

Data privacy is another negative association with using AI tools. If an AI system construed personality information from an interview, for example, then it would be essential for the human to know how those data might be used for selection. An AI that collects information about organizational citizenship across platforms over time is another potentially privacy-violating example.

The human connection remains essential. Assessment feedback from a coach or psychologist trained in dealing with people and organizations will necessarily be superior to that provided by an AI. An AI system only knows what’s in its database. It can’t notice a reaction from a person and couch information in a certain way to be supportive because it cannot care. “Humans still have the upper hand, especially psychologists, in leveraging their expertise relative to what an AI system can do in terms of working with people,” said Ted.

Advice for Coaches

Ted suggested how coaches and consultants should respond to new technologies with a mindset focused on those they support.

• Challenge your thinking about how to partner with AI in your journey as a consultant, psychologist, or coach. Choose to learn about ways to apply AI.
• Understand the ethical implications of working with AI systems in assessment and leadership development.
• Imagine how you would function inside an organization that valued human behavior enough to understand it through an AI platform.
• Add value to the individuals in organizations and societies that choose to build out their AI function.

“I understand the reasons to be pessimistic, but I don’t share them,” Ted concluded. “We can avoid issues like not accounting for algorithmic bias, for not treating people with dignity and respect as they deal with an AI system, for not understanding the possible environmental consequences of having an AI-based system. Because we are accountable, we can do that, and that sets us apart.”

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 71 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Japan is known for its rich and unique culture. Group harmony (wa), private mind (honne) and public mind (tatemae), and intuition through contemplation (Zen) are some of the core concepts underlying Japanese culture. We also find distinctive HR practices and trends leadership emergence in Japan.

Lifetime employment (shūshin koyō) has traditionally been the foundation of Japanese organizations’ HR systems. Many companies in Japan hire new graduates and employ them until they retire. Organizations provide training support throughout employees’ lifetime careers, as well as cross-functional job rotation opportunities to key talent. This helps people broaden their skillsets and experience in different positions across the company.

Employee retention in Japan has traditionally been quite high, and employees look internally for promotion opportunities. Japanese employees may also expect their organizations to take good care of them and advance their careers if they follow the companies’ policies and procedures. This contrasts with other countries and markets such as the United States, for example, where employees believe they are personally responsible for their career progression and success.

Japanese business leaders have a unique style of leadership that creates different expectations for employees than what may be expected from business leaders in American, European, and other Asian markets. In the US, leaders may tend to exhibit stronger individual drive and push their teams for ambitious results, whereas leaders in Japan are expected to exhibit effective team coordination skills. They also may focus more on consensus building with other leaders and ensuring peace and order with their teammates, rather than competing and driving for results. Charisma, overconfidence, and self-promotion are almost necessary for leaders to get noticed and promoted in the US, but in Japan, these characteristics are frowned upon and could be perceived as a threat to the achievement of collective goals and harmony.

Hogan has been working with distributors in Japan since 2013 to offer assessments and select reports in Japanese to the local market. Over the years, we have collected extensive data on leadership in Japan. Based on a sample of more than 3,000 Japanese leaders, our findings paint a unique portrait of leadership emergence in Japan.

What Do Japanese Leaders Want?

Hogan’s Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) measures the core goals, values, drivers, and interests that determine what people desire and strive to attain. Japanese leaders score, on average, lower on the MVPI Power and Recognition scales. This shows that Japanese leaders value noncompetitive work environments where decision-making, responsibility, and credit are shared collectively rather than spotlighted on a few individuals. On one hand, low scores on MVPI’s Recognition scale suggest leaders may value humility and being low-key about their accomplishments. Leaders with low results on the Recognition scale may not prioritize offering verbal praise or celebrating accomplishments. On the other hand, low scores on the MVPI Power scale indicate Japanese leaders may value a participative and a democratic decision-making style by seeking feedback and input from others.

Japanese leaders also score, on average, lower on the Tradition scale. This suggests they may value flexibility and fluidity in how decisions are made and things are done, as well as a focus on progress and modernity. Interestingly, these trends in personality traits are consistent with the Japanese Zen culture, which emphasizes impermanence, transience, and mindfulness.

How Will Leaders in Japan Get What They Want?

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) measures how we relate to others when we are at our best. It provides valuable insight into how people work, how they lead, and how they achieve success. Japanese leaders tend to score, on average, lower on the HPI Ambition scale, indicating they are supportive, team oriented, and have a flexible agenda to accommodate team, peer, and superior opinions. They may shy away from pressuring direct reports and may avoid engaging in unnecessary rivalries and quarrels with colleagues. In line with the concept of wa, Japanese leaders are expected to promote group harmony, and Japan’s culture tends to promote low scores on HPI’s Ambition scale. This trend is particularly interesting, as we observe that leaders in other markets around the world, such as the US for example, tend to score higher on the HPI Ambition scale.

Japanese leaders also tend to score lower on the HPI’s Learning Approach scale. Leaders who score low on this scale tend to have a pragmatic and purpose-driven approach to learning. They are unlikely to get distracted by extraneous readings or training that is peripheral to what helps them solve problems. Instead, they will prefer to use only what will help them get their work done. We can see how this plays out with Japanese companies tending to foster experiential learning through on-the-job training and job rotation across different functions.

What Will Get in Japanese Leaders’ Way?

The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) measures overused strengths that emerge in times of increased strain, pressure, or boredom. If not managed, these qualities can damage one’s reputation and relationships, derailing one’s career and success. Japanese leaders tend to score higher on the HDS’s Moving Away cluster, especially on the Cautious scale. Leaders that display this pattern are known as careful, thorough, independent, and objective, which facilitates developing root-cause solutions. However, they may tend to shy away from problems, rather than confront them head-on. This may lead others to perceive them as inhibited, aloof, or cold, as well as indecisive and risk averse.

Because Japanese leaders may tend to first build consensus on (a) whether a problem exists, then (b) determining how to solve that problem, these leaders may find themselves naturally sticking to their solutions and decisions. However, under stress, Japanese leaders may easily fall into overanalysis or overreliance on consensus. For fear of being criticized by their peers or superiors, Japanese leaders may feel the need to review all available data, ask for second and third opinions, and gain alignment with all decision-making parties prior to finally making a decision. Instead of sharing their dissatisfaction, unpopular opinions, or worries with others, thereby causing disharmony, these leaders may instead withdraw, feel resentful and disappointed, and deal with these difficult emotions on their own. We find this is consistent with the concepts of honne (i.e., a person’s true feelings and desires) versus tatemae (i.e., the behavior and opinions one displays in public).

What Can We Learn from Japanese Leaders’ Personality Data?

The unique trends of leadership emergence in Japan that we observe in our personality data can offer a deeper understanding of expectations the Japanese workforce may have for leaders. Using personality provides us with a more nuanced and workforce-oriented explanation for the “cultural” differences we see in leadership styles. If we know that Japanese leaders tend to drive purposeful innovation, focus on rigorous problem-solving, and go about this through strong consensus building, we can adapt the ways we interact to plan, strategize, communicate, and lead more effectively.

The average trends we describe are indicative of the emergent leadership style of Japanese leaders. However, the emergent leadership style we see occurring is not necessarily the most effective style of leadership. Indeed, it is imperative to differentiate between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness in Japan. Although Japanese leaders tend to score lower on average on Ambition, higher Ambition scores still predict effectiveness in Japanese leaders. Given the context of the lower Ambition leadership landscape in Japan, however, this energy and drive to succeed must be channeled toward team building and pursuing collective goals. We may conclude that effective Japanese leaders successfully balance getting ahead and getting along.

This blog post was authored by Anne-Marie Paiement, PhD, senior consultant, and Krista Pederson, managing director of Asia-Pacific business development.

Last week, Hogan Assessments had a productive and busy visit to Tokyo, working alongside Optimal Consulting Group and Persol Research and Consulting Co. Ltd., our long-standing distributors for Hogan in Japan. It had been three years since our last in-person visit, and this trip was filled successfully with client and public thought leadership events, as well as business development meetings.

Our founder and president, Robert Hogan, PhD, spoke on “Rethinking Leadership,” Wendy Howell Hogan shared “Why Leadership Development Is Broken and How to Fix It,” and Zsolt Feher and Krista Pederson spoke on “Judgment,” “Global HR Trends,” and “Coaching the Dark Side with Japanese Characteristics.” Anne-Marie Paiement, PhD, supported and shared research on trends in Japanese leaders’ personalities, which clients found relevant to further implementing Hogan in their practices. These topics sparked plenty of questions and interactions with attendees, demonstrating Hogan’s expertise in cross-cultural leadership selection and development.

Tokyo is famous for its incredible food scene, and we took this wonderful opportunity to spend quality time and connect further with our trusted distributors. True to Hogan’s fun-loving culture, we had some wonderful sushi and modern French cuisine to recognize and acknowledge everyone’s hard work.

We look forward to continued collaboration and growth in Japan. Arigato gozaimasu for everyone’s efforts in making this trip a success! 

A&D Resources, Hogan’s Scandinavia and Benelux distributor, now operates under the name Summit.

After A&D Resources merged with Summit Consulting, the two companies continued to operate under their respective names. However, they always had a vision of becoming one unified brand. From January 2023 onward, clients, partners, and prospects will see and experience the new brand, identity, and offices. Summit hopes its clients will appreciate it all as much as they do.

Merging two companies and brands comes with change. But for Summit, it only means a better experience and service for clients. The organization continues to work with the same professionalism and offerings clients are accustomed to—plus more.

“We have been waiting for this exciting opportunity for a long time, and now we can finally present our new company, our new HQ location, and our new name, Summit,” said Karsten Søderberg, CEO of Summit.

“It is a unique combination of business psychologists and expert consultants that we have brought together in one company, under one name,” continued Søderberg. “Our highly experienced consultants complement each other in delivering the best leadership, organizational, and talent development services.”

The new Summit operates in both the private and public sectors across Scandinavia and Benelux. As a Hogan distributor, the company offers the Hogan assessments, leadership development, coaching, 360-degree assessments, team development, competency mapping, Hogan certification, organizational learning, talent acquisition, succession planning, and many tailor-made solutions.

The new headquarters location is Sundkrogsgade 7, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. The HQ phone number is +45 45 85 15 15, and the new general email is support@summitlead.com. Visit summitlead.com to see the new website and branding.

Exhausted? Feeling cynical or negative? Checking out? It’s not just you—especially if you’re an HR professional. As much as burnout today is a global experience, even recognized by the World Health Organization, it has taken an especially serious toll on the very people who are deeply concerned with occupational well-being: human resources professionals.¹ So, what’s led to the widespread HR burnout?

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes to the way we work. The toll of remote and hybrid work, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, layoffs, talent shortage, increased concern for employee wellness, and the global recession have seemed to fall squarely on the shoulders of the HR department. Unsurprisingly, 86% of HR leaders experienced increased stress in 2021, 53% are burned out, and 48% are looking for a new job.² Too much change too quickly with too few resources and security may lie at the root of why 44% of HR leaders say their stress has increased “dramatically” in the past year.

HR burnout impacts companywide well-being. The job duties of HR leaders encompass everything to do with people, including hiring, onboarding, safety, learning and development, firing, and the execution of other operational procedures.³ When HR professionals spend their time trying to boost companywide well-being, they sometimes pay with their own. Reduced professional efficacy in this sphere has a trickle-down effect to other employees, similar to how caregiver burnout affects dependents.

Read on to learn why the personality characteristics that make HR professionals excellent at their work also dispose them to burnout—and how organizations can help protect them.

Characteristics of HR Leaders

Using the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI), we have analyzed the personality characteristics of HR employees and HR leaders, including HR managers and HR executives. Our data tell a fascinating story.

HR Employees

HR employees are responsible for benefits plans, compensation packages, training and development, and other personnel-related duties. They must anticipate problems and manage conflict effectively. Because they also ensure compliance with legal guidelines, they must readily adhere to standards and possess excellent communication skills. Since the role of HR can directly impact employee productivity and well-being, it is essential that HR duties are executed well.

HPI – HR employees tend to be good at listening to others and supporting teams, but they may also struggle with resilience and handling day-to-day stress. These characteristics are reflected in their tendency to score lower on the Adjustment and Ambition scales on average.

HDS – HR employees tend to manage their insecurities through intimidation or avoidance when under stress, though normally they are likely passionate, insightful, and kind. Derailing behavior can emerge when an everyday strength becomes overused during times of burnout. Someone who is typically careful and thorough might become risk-averse and fearful of failure, for example.

MVPI – HR employees tend to be uninterested in competition (lower Power scores), prefer to work alone (lower Affiliation), and prefer stable, predictable, low-risk work environments (lower Security). Their preferences for making decisions democratically, focusing on tasks, and maintaining structure probably have been challenged every workday during the unpredictable recent past.

HR Leaders

HR leaders differ from HR employees in both personality characteristics and job tasks, which have a greater focus on corporate strategy, policy, and compliance. Based on our analysis of more than 1,000 HR leaders, we have identified the characteristics that tend to differentiate HR leaders from other global professionals.⁴

HPI – HR leaders tend to take the lead and push for results, get along with others and avoid conflict, and focus on procedure and implementation. Their HPI personality data suggest they typically show strengths in operational leadership as opposed to strategic leadership.

HDS – HR leaders differ by rank in how they tend to overuse their strengths. When under stress, HR executives may seem arrogant, impulsive, eccentric, or untrustworthy. They might use intimidation or charm to manage their problems. HR managers, on the other hand, may seem perfectionistic, micromanaging, deferential, or ingratiating when under stress. They might tend to avoid directly confronting their problems.⁴

MVPI – HR leaders tend to desire helping others (higher Altruistic) and enjoying both work and life (higher Hedonism). They typically prefer to make decisions based on experience and instinct rather than objective data (lower Science).

HR Professionals and Burnout

The personality characteristics that make HR professionals successful at their jobs make them likely to burn out—regardless of whether they find their work rewarding or meaningful. According to Deloitte research, “87% of professionals surveyed say they have passion for their current job, but 64% say they are frequently stressed, dispelling the myth that passionate employees are immune to stress or burnout.”⁵ That HR professionals may still feel passionate about their role does not shield them from unmanaged chronic workplace stress.

HPI – Of the seven HPI scales, all seven of them are associated with burnout. While high scores and low scores both have positives and negatives, lower HPI scores tend to indicate higher likelihood of burnout. Two scales have particularly strong associations with burnout: lower scores on Adjustment and on Ambition, which data indicate are characteristic of HR professionals. Based on their HPI scores, HR employees may be particularly susceptible to burnout.

HDS – HR employees, managers, and leaders alike can be disposed to burning out depending on their HDS scores. High scores on this inventory show overused strengths and derailing tendencies. Of the 11 scales, eight are closely associated with burnout. Depending on the specific scale, a lower score or a higher score is correlated to burnout. HR employees seem especially likely to experience burnout based on their HDS data.

MVPI – Lower average scores on the Power, Altruistic, and Affiliation scales are associated with burnout for HR professionals. Because HR professionals tend to be uninterested in competition, value tasks and productivity, and prefer to work independently, their preferred professional environment also disposes them to burnout.

The tasks of HR professionals have not only changed dramatically in the last couple of years in response to remote work, but they have also come to the forefront of many companies’ strategy and forecasting. The lack of stability, staff, and supplies all serve to increase the stress of HR professionals, who may worry about productivity or accomplishing tasks. Adding to that the burden of setting new standards, raising morale, complying with changing policies, and addressing culture needs, it is no surprise that the professionals who care for others also need support.

Protecting HR Professionals from Burnout

Individual HR professionals can mitigate burnout by understanding how their personality characteristics might contribute to derailment. Personality assessment is the first step in gaining knowledge and beginning development.

Organizations can protect HR professionals from burnout by providing then with adequate technology, tools, budget, personnel, and executive support. According to Forbes, “HR departments report being underresourced with 73% saying they don’t have the tools and resources they need to do their job well.”⁷ When nearly three-quarters of HR professionals need more resources to perform their essential job functions, it’s unsurprising that they are experiencing ongoing stress at and about work. To a group of people who strongly prefer a stable work environment and dislike ambiguity (according to their higher scores on the MVPI Security scale), the disposition to plan, make careful decisions, minimize risk, and emphasize procedure may feel especially frustrating when they are also ill-equipped and understaffed.

Individuals can also protect themselves from burnout by leveraging strategic self-awareness to cope with stress in ways that will assuage underlying fears, stressors, or insecurities. In general, adequate sleep, moderate daily exercise, outdoor recreation, family activities or hobbies, and setting boundaries for work hours have helped other HR professionals manage stress, who report that their roles have changed significantly since 2020.⁶ Strategic self-awareness comes into play when someone who scores high on Reserved, for example, schedules solitary lunchtime walks to regain emotional balance after mornings full of video calls.

HR burnout is prevalent and serious, but it isn’t an insurmountable challenge. Overcoming burnout among HR professionals starts with understanding the organizational effects of personality.

References

1. World Health Organization. (2019, May 28). Burn-out an “Occupational Phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
2. Mayer, K. (2022, February 24). Burnout and Resignations Are Rampant in HR. What Leaders Need to Know. Human Resources Executive. https://hrexecutive.com/burnout-and-resignations-are-rampant-in-hr-what-leaders-need-to-know/
3. Job Descriptions: Human Resource Manager. SHRM.. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/job-descriptions/pages/human-resource-manager.aspx
4. Sherman, R. A., & Lemming, M. R. (2021, September 17). Who Becomes an HR Leader? Talent Quarterly. https://www.talent-quarterly.com/who-becomes-an-hr-leader/
5. Fisher, J. (2018). Workplace Burnout Survey. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/burnout-survey.html
6. Ladika, S. (2022, March 14). Burnout Is a Problem for HR Professionals. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/spring2022/pages/hr-practitioners-are-coping-with-burnout.aspx
7. Kelly, J. (2022, April 14). 98% of HR Professionals Are Burned Out, Study Shows. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/04/14/98-of-human-resources-professionals-are-burned-out-study-shows/

It was quite a year, wasn’t it? From supply chain issues to quiet quitting, from Will Smith to Elon Musk, it seems as though 2022 was characterized by big events, big personalities, and big derailers.

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, continued their annual tradition of breaking down the top derailers of the year.

As we did for 2020 in episode 16 and 2021 in episode 41, we highlight major events or significant people from this year that represent each of the 11 derailers from the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). The HDS measures ways that people can derail by overusing their personality strengths when under stress.

Let’s get right into the 2022 derailers of the year.

Excitable: Will Smith

Remember when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards? As such an unexpected and dramatic incident, this moment represents the Excitable scale. Excitability is about a volatile outburst while under stress or pressure or when not self-monitoring. That’s exactly happened to Will Smith. In a moment of anger, he allowed an emotional outburst to occur on full public display.

Skeptical: Magnus Carlsen

When one of the greatest players of all time walks away from a game, that creates conspiracy theories galore. The current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has refused to play grandmaster Hans Niemann, alleging that Niemann cheats. This attitude represents the Skeptical scale, which can be characterized as distrustful, cynical, and critical. It shows skepticism to say, “Nope, I think you’re cheating, so I’m not going to play you.”

Cautious: China’s Zero-COVID Policy

China set a goal to reach zero cases of COVID—quite a challenge for a nation with such a huge population. The Cautious scale can describe fear of mistakes and a reluctance to take risks. Excessive caution in response to perceived threats can cost opportunities. The policy likely caused social consequences in China, as well as billions in GDP growth.

Reserved: Quiet Quitting

Quiet quitters may only do the minimum amount of work and actively avoid interaction and engagement. The Reserved scale regards keeping distance when under stress. By a popular definition of quiet quitting, these workers take a reserved approach to their jobs, doing just enough not to get fired and distancing themselves from the rest of the group.

Leisurely: Supply Chain Challenges and Inflation

The Leisurely scale refers to passive-aggressive behavior: publicly avoiding trouble but privately causing trouble. The supply chain may not always be in public view, but it’s always in the background causing problems. Supply chain challenges contributed to this year’s surge in inflation, a perfect depiction of stubborn, contrary, leisurely behavior.

Bold: Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin was our selection to represent the Bold scale because of his overconfidence and arrogance. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine likely has cost more than 100,000 lives. His assertions about the superiority of the Russian military have been belied by the success of the Ukrainian opposition. That overestimation about military competence and sense of entitlement perfectly capture the most extreme characteristics of boldness.

Mischievous: Sam Bankman-Fried

Billionaire entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, is currently facing charges of fraud surrounding his cryptocurrency business. The Mischievous scale concerns manipulating, bending, or breaking the rules—or believing that the rules don’t apply to you. It also has to do with charm and charisma. Bankman-Fried had to be charming and persuasive to get billions of dollars of investments, and he would have had to play fast and loose with the law to treat money in the way he has been charged. Mischief, indeed.

Colorful: Amber Heard v. Johnny Depp Trial

The spectacle of the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial represents the Colorful scale in that it relates to attention-seeking characteristics. The many emotions on display in the public divorce at times seemed self-promoting and intentionally dramatic. Whether followers were pro-Amber or pro-Johnny, the event garnered a lot of attention, emotion, and opinion.

Imaginative: CNN+

The Imaginative scale has to do with being overly creative in ways that are impractical or nonsensical. Despite the decline in viewership of 24-hour news networks, CNN invested hundreds of millions in the CNN+ subscription-only platform for exclusive news content. It took imagination to think subscribers would pay for content instead of consuming it for free on social media and other online news platforms. CNN+ dissolved after just one month.

Diligent: Elon Musk

The Diligent scale relates to micromanaging and obsessing about details. Elon Musk brought that management style from Tesla to Twitter, where it seemed to be less effective in a different corporate culture. His background in technology and past business success shows that his perfectionistic tendencies have worked well for him in the past. Musk’s diligence at Twitter, however, appears to be a classic expression of an overused strength.

Dutiful: The Royal Family

The British royal family represents the Dutiful scale by following the rules and deferring to authority. They demonstrate commitment to tradition that may not align with modern trends, and in doing so, they risk seeming rigid or stagnant. Even while experiencing grief or other strong emotions, the members of the royal family adhere to a prescribed set of rules and uphold the honor of their lineage. Their refusal to deviate from the way things have always been done shows how an excessive sense of duty can lead to derailment.

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 66 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Thanks to our listeners for an amazing 2022. Cheers, everybody!

The first-ever winter FIFA World Cup starts in a matter of days. The anticipation for kickoff is heightening around the globe. But who will prevail as winners?

At Hogan, we recommend using science to predict performance. However, we wanted to explore other methods that people use to forecast the performance of World Cup teams. One method that stood out was the use of “oracle” animals, who supposedly prophesy the winners of World Cup matches.

This is certainly a cute and amusing way to choose the winners of games. But how often does it work? Because we recommend using scientific methods to predict performance, we decided to assess the animals’ accuracy.

Using Oracle Animals to Predict World Cup Winners

Let’s explore just how often the oracle animals made accurate predictions.

Paul the Octopus (Germany)

During the 2010 World Cup, this Germany-based octopus would predict the outcome of football/soccer matches by choosing between two boxes containing flags that were positioned in his tank.¹

Accuracy: 85.7%

Nelly the Elephant (Germany)

Another Germany-based animal demonstrated the ability to take penalties (with more success than the English national team). She made predictions by shooting into one of two empty nets in which hung the flags of the competing countries.¹

Accuracy: 90%

Ying Mei the Giant Panda (China)

China had a panda who was intended to predict the outcome of matches by choosing food from boxes draped in national flags. However, Ying Mei’s keepers decided the spectacle might lead to overcrowding and endangerment of the animals, so they promptly retired her.¹

Accuracy: N/A

Neymar-Mite the Hamster (Singapore)

This Singaporean rodent, aptly named after the skillful Brazilian football/soccer player, would use his own psychic tricks to predict outcomes. His guardians would place him would place him in a hamster ball on a mini field with goalposts marked with country flags. Neymar-Mite would predict the winning country by rolling his hamster ball into the net of the goal he preferred. Unfortunately, he had low success rates.²

Accuracy: 36%

Aochan the Penguin (Japan)

Aochan, a Tokyo-based penguin, would predict winners of the 2014 World Cup matches by spinning a wheel that had various outcomes written on it. Regrettably, his optimism for Japan against Ivory Coast was unfulfilled.¹

Accuracy: 0% (0 out of 1)

Using Personality to Predict Professional Athlete Performance

Given the limited accuracy of oracle animal predictions, we (obviously) would not recommend using these to predict performance in any serious scenario. Although some psychometric tools claim to predict occupational performance with similar rigor as the oracle animals, Hogan Assessments has decades’ worth of evidence to demonstrate how our personality assessments can predict performance.

We have studied job performance across multiple job families and industries, and this research has enabled us to predict the likelihood of success for people in nearly any job, including professional athletes.

Here are some scales from the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) related to the success of professional athletes.

High Ambition (HPI) and High Power (MVPI)

The athletes performing in the World Cup clearly have a goal—to win! They are competitive and driven to achieve impossible-seeming goals.

High Prudence (HPI), High Dutiful (HDS), and Low Mischevious (HDS)

Athletes need to be dependable and conscientious. An athlete’s reliability and self-discipline can make a difference in whether a game is won or lost. How much coaches influence team success during the World Cup is a matter of debate. However, athletes should be disciplined and believe in the coach’s philosophy to improve the chances of winning.

High Inquisitive (HPI)

The best of the best meet at the World Cup, so teams must remain curious in seeking to understand and defend against the opposition’s tactics. This includes having a well-practiced strategy that the team can adapt during the game.

Accuracy of Personality Assessment

Hogan has researched and created a performance profile for professional athletes based on these personality characteristics. What we found was that 88% of players who scored high on the profile were top or middle performers.

Who Will Win the World Cup?

We do not yet know who will triumph in the World Cup this time around. We will pay attention to who the oracle animals predict will win because we love animals. From a more scientific perspective, however, we are confident that the teams whose athletes have more of the personality characteristics outlined here will be most likely to succeed.

At Hogan, we wish all the teams who are competing in the World Cup the best of luck!

This blog post was authored by Krista Pederson, Hogan’s managing director of Asia Pacific, and Nathan Cornwell, a senior consultant on Hogan’s international distributors team.

References

1. Pallagud, C. (2022, August 29). 15 Animals That Predicted World Cup Match Outcomes. ILoveQatar.Net. https://www.iloveqatar.net/qatar2022/guide/oracle-animals-predicted-world-cup-match-outcomes
2. Chooi, T. L. (2018, June 29). Meet the FIFA World Cup 2018 Animal Oracles. ActiveSG. https://www.myactivesg.com/read/2018/6/meet-the-fifa-world-cup-2018-animal-oracles

I spent two years as a probation officer in Southern California. Fascinated with the psychology of criminal behavior, I became a psychologist to learn more about it. I studied delinquency for 15 years before turning to leadership—and the two topics have a lot in common. Consensus exists among researchers regarding the psychology of prison inmates, but little is known about successful criminals. People such as Pablo Escobar and Joaquín Guzmán have little in common with burglars and car thieves. In the movie The Godfather: Part II, when Michael Corleone, the head of a New York crime family, negotiates with Pat Geary, the US senator from Nevada, they appear to have a lot in common. The movie reflects our conventional wisdom, but some real data would be instructive. Recent Aarhus University research on personality in organized crime may provide some answers.

The Research: Personality in Organized Crime

To examine the role of personality in organized crime, Danish researchers Oluf Gøtzsche-Astrup, Bjarke Overgaard, and Lasse Lindekilde tested a sample of 57 verified members of organized criminal groups (e.g., the Hell’s Angels) in Denmark, none of whom were incarcerated, using a comprehensive assessment battery: the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI).¹

These well-validated inventories have been used to assess more than one million managers and executives in some of the best-known corporations in the world. The HPI concerns personality characteristics that are associated with career success, the HDS concerns personality characteristics that tend to damage careers when overused, and the MVPI concerns values and career aspirations.

Research shows that organized criminal groups, like other human collectives, provide a sense of shared social identity and belonging to people who are unable or unwilling to join more mainstream groups. Furthermore, qualitative research on criminal careers points to the role of status attainment in drawing young men into criminal groups. Such groups seem to serve the same psychological functions as other politically extreme organizations and may attract similar individuals. Belonging to extreme groups provides members with a sense of meaning and identity and opportunities for status attainment that might not be available in mainstream society. This is the context in terms of which the assessment data should be interpreted.

The Personality Data: Who Are Gang Members?

The MVPI evaluates values and interests associated with career aspirations. The sample of members of organized Danish criminal groups received high scores for the Security, Hedonism, Commerce, and Power scales, indicating that, as a group, they value money, status, and fun delivered on a predictable basis. In terms of core values, they resemble any group of middle managers or venture capitalists in their desire for “the good life.”

The scales of the HDS concern behavioral tendencies that promote career success at moderate levels but can be dysfunctional when overused. The sample of Danish gang members have high scores for all the HDS scales. I would interpret their overall profile as highly adaptive in the context of their career choice: they are wary and alert for threats and signs of betrayal (cynical and not naïve), and they are willing to act if such threats materialize. In addition, they have good social skills and a colorful interpersonal style. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of their HDS profile are their high scores for Diligent (attention to detail and high standards of performance) and Dutiful (respect for authority). In terms of their action orientation and respect for hierarchy, the sample resembles special forces military or mercenary soldiers. In terms of their interpersonal style, they resemble politicians or venture capitalists.

The MVPI and HDS scores for this sample suggest the group has a lot of career potential that is not being realized in conventional terms. Their scores on the HPI suggest an explanation. The overall HPI profile is low, with the average score at the 28th percentile. By themselves, these low HPI scores would indicate social incompetence, but the HDS shows that the sample has substantial social skill. I interpret the low HPI profile as indicating that the members of the group feel alienated and estranged from the normal roles and rules of mainstream society. They want the same career outcomes—money, status, and fun—but they reject the socially accepted means for attaining those outcomes. Among the socially accepted means they reject is education; they have no interest in education and may lack the talent to pursue it. Finally, the members of this group have adopted a self-presentation style intended to signal their chosen lifestyle, and their rejection of normative social roles and behavior, which are in fact arbitrary.

The Connection to Leadership

People evolved as group-living animals. The three big goals in life concern finding social support, acquiring status, and developing a sense of meaning and purpose. People satisfy these needs through their membership in groups: families, communities, churches, political parties, etc. For many poor working-class boys, membership in an organized crime group is a rational choice. But successful performance in those groups requires many of the same characteristics as successful performance at organizations like Apple or Amazon.

This blog post was authored by Hogan’s founder and president, Robert Hogan, PhD.

Reference

1. Gøtzsche-Astrupa, O., Overgaard, B., & Lindekilde, L. (2022). Vulnerable and dominant: Bright and dark side personality traits and values of individuals in organized crime in Denmark.