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Personality and the Fate of Organizations

• By Robert Hogan

• Price: $59.95
• Binding: Hardback (also available in Paperback)
• Pages: 178
• Published by: Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)
• Publication Date: 21st June 2006
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-4142-8

About the Book

Personality and performance are intricately linked, and personality has proven to have a direct influence on an individual's leadership ability and style, team performance, and overall organizational effectiveness. In Personality and the Fate of Organizations, author Robert Hogan offers a systematic account of the nature of personality, showing how to use personality to understand organizations and to understand, evaluate, select, deselect, and train people.

This book brings insights from a leading industrial organizational psychologist who asserts that personality is real, and that it determines the careers of individuals and the fate of organizations. The author’s goal is to increase the reader’s ability to understand other people—how they are alike, how they are different, and why they do what they do. Armed with this understanding, readers will be able to pursue their personal, social, and organizational goals more efficiently.

A practical reference, this text is extremely useful for MBA students and for all those studying organizational psychology and leadership.

Reviews

"While no book can offer a road map out of the fog that many Organizational Behavior researchers have regarding personality, this book does shine considerable light on important topics. There is no doubt it will be considered new and fresh. There are few writers in the organizational sciences--or psychology for that matter--who can communicate material as engagingly as Robert Hogan. He brings the subject of personality to life, and in doing so presents previously explored and unexplored concepts central to personality psychology."
—Timothy A. Judge
Department of Management, University of Florida

"A superb demonstration of the importance of personality traits in organizational contexts, and a lesson for any organizational psychologist (and manager) who undermines the importance of personality in sociological, historical, and political settings. Hogan's new book provides a theoretical and scientifically robust explanation of leadership, managerial incompetence, and job success, in a unique and charming style that is both a joy to read and accessible to everyone. No other author has accomplished this task with such brilliance, and no other book has succeeded at bridging the gap between academic and business knowledge with such accuracy and simplicity: a real masterpiece!"
—Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Department of Psychology, University of London, Goldsmiths College

"Bob Hogan has taught me more about leadership and personality--both intellectually and experientially--than any person I know. Given what is happening on the world stage as well as in our political, business, health care, and educational systems, this book should be mandatory reading for anyone in a position of authority. Leadership is the number one issue of the day, and we have tolerated weak or mediocre performance from our leaders for far too long."
—Gordon Curphy
President, C3, Co-author of Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience

"It is rare to find such a seriously researched, thoughtfully constructed and paradigm-challenging book so easy to read. This must be on the prescribed reading list of undergraduates and graduates in personality theory, organizational behavior and HR management, as well as read by all consultants and managers interested in the role of personality and individual differences in the workplace."
—Adrian Furnham
Professor of Psychology, University College London

"Robert Hogan is one of the most well known and often cited authors in the realm of personality as it relates to organizations and organizational behavior. As a result, many readers will find his latest text, Personality and the Fate of Organizations, informative and authoritative… Hogan's discussion of the key issues in personality psychology is accurate and in-depth." – Steven M. Elias, PsycCRITIQUES

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. What Is Personality Psychology: Defining the Key Issues and Concepts. The Personality Wars: A Brief History of Modern Personality Psychology. Who Shall Rule: Leadership and Personality. Lives in Public: Personality and Team Performance. The Secret Life of Organizations: Personality and Organizational Theory. The Psychology of Managerial Incompetence. How to Fix Incompetence.