Hogan Assessments Explores Common Disparity Between Identity and Reputation in New Study

Company's Latest Research Shows How Lack of Self-Awareness Can Ruin an Individual's Reputation and Damage His or Her Career


TULSA, OK--(Marketwired - Oct 9, 2013) - For most people, there is a clear disparity between self-perception and how others view them in both the workplace and in their personal lives. This disconnect can have a serious impact on an individual's career, causing him or her to overestimate personal strengths, ignore helpful feedback, deny shortcomings and, ultimately, damage his or her reputation.

In its latest research, Hogan Assessment Systems explored the link between two perspectives of personality: identity, or how people think of themselves, and reputation, or how others see them. Hogan asked 668 participants whether they think they are a different person at work compared to at home. They also asked participants to rank how well their friends, spouses, co-workers, bosses and other individuals know them.

Key highlights from Hogan's research on identity and reputation include:

  • Impact of Low Self-awareness: Although most people tend to rate themselves favorably, their colleagues and peers can have a different view. This lack of self-awareness can have a serious impact on an individual's reputation and negatively affect his or her career.

  • Work Self vs. Home Self: The 59 percent of survey respondents who said they are the same person at work and at home are correct, since personality remains stable regardless of the situation. However, because almost everyone self-monitors and modifies their behavior depending on the situation, the remaining 41 percent of respondents who said they are different are likely to be more self-aware than others.

  • Dark-side Personality: Although bright-side personality describes how others are likely to perceive an individual who is actively self-monitoring his or her behavior, the more time the person spends with a group of people, the more likely it is that the individual will let his or her guard down and expose their dark-side personality.

  • Impact of Reputation: A bad reputation can affect individuals' performance and their work relationships, preventing trust, making co-workers wary of collaborating and preventing them from receiving a raise or promotion.

"To achieve success, individuals must be able to align their personal identities with their reputations," said Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, vice president of research and innovation at Hogan Assessments. "Showing people objective data regarding their reputation, whether through personality assessments, 360-degree feedback or other methods, can give individuals a realistic view of how others view them, which is necessary to adjust their own behavior."

Hogan Assessments has made this research available for download at: http://info.hoganassessments.com/who-are-you

About Hogan Assessment Systems
With more than 30 years of experience, Hogan is the global leader in providing comprehensive, research-based personality assessment and consulting. Grounded in decades of science, Hogan helps businesses dramatically reduce turnover and increase productivity by hiring the right people, developing key talent and evaluating leadership potential.