After having dealt with and presented aptitude diagnostics for engineers in general in the PREVIOUS PART of this series of topics, this one is devoted specifically to engineering-specific characteristics, i.e. the question of whether there are characteristics that typically make an engineer. Likewise, the question naturally arises as to whether there are qualities and, if so, which ones are responsible for success in one's career.
In this observation, one must identify both the personality traits that remain stable over the entire course of an engineer's career and those personality traits that develop extremely in relation to age and hierarchy. Only then can reliable statements be made about so-called typical engineer characteristics and also about a development of characteristics that are responsible for a successful career, a climb up the career ladder.
The basis for this was the approach of looking for personality traits that do not change across all hierarchy levels. These would then be characteristics in which the engineer still rates himself equally highly both as a starter in professional life and as a manager.
If the hierarchy is used as a basis for comparing the different traits, it becomes clearly visible that personality traits, such as reliability and the ability to cooperate, hardly change over the course of a career. But issues such as perfectionism and planning for incidents are also personality traits on which the engineer adopts the same attitude throughout his career.
The characteristics in Table 7.1. and Figure 7.1. represent the development from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level, which show the least changes. These characteristics are therefore least influenced by climbing the career ladder. It can thus be deduced that the characteristics shown are those that are characteristic of an engineer - from the perspective of climbing the career ladder, i.e. the development over time during his professional career - because they change almost nothing.
Regarding the personality traits
Cooperation skills,
Meaning and commitment,
Incident planning,
Irrational assessments,
Perfectionism and
Reliability
the attitude of engineers does not change and the conclusion suggests itself that with regard to these personality traits the adage applies: engineer remains engineer .
In the search for personality traits that are responsible for development and advancement on the career ladder, a search was now made for the traits that undergo the greatest changes over the duration of an engineer's career. For this purpose, the results of the engineers as specialists, project managers, department managers and division managers were compared with each other. It was found that there was a continuous development in the personality traits concerned across all hierarchy levels, so that it is sufficient to consider only the lowest and highest hierarchy levels in the presentation.
A look at the personality traits with the greatest changes from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level is shown in the table with diagram below. Examples are leadership tasks or willingness to take responsibility.
These characteristics (Table 7.4. and Figure 7.3.) show the greatest changes when moving from the lowest to the highest hierarchical level.
For example, the great change in interest in leadership tasks thus seems eminently important for successful development on the career ladder.
It can thus be deduced that the characteristics shown are those that hold the greatest development potential for an engineer - from the perspective of climbing the career ladder, i.e. the development over time during his professional career - because they change the most.
By comparing the development fields / potentials that emerge from the perspective of a temporal development ("hierarchy" cluster) and the other, time-independent clusters, thus static differences of the individual norm profiles, the following results:
One can create a division in Table 7.9. into the 1st order dimension "Professional Interests" and the 1st order dimensions "Commitment" and "Communication ". The former symbolises interests, as the name already suggests. As is well known, interests are something that cannot be directly influenced, but are intrinsically formed and shaped.
In the engineer, therefore, interests develop in the course of his career, which are awakened by climbing the career ladder and develop further and further to the point where there is a clear difference in characteristics when comparing the standard profiles of "specialist" and "business manager".
The situation is different with the characteristics of the other two 1st order dimensions "Commitment" and "Communication": They represent such areas that can be changed through training and further education. Thus, they can contribute to further advancement.
Within the framework of personnel development, the personality traits and areas of interest should thus be
Leadership tasks,
Marketing,
Counselling,
Sale,
Initiative,
Willingness to take responsibility,
Enthusiasm and
Persuasiveness
be particularly highlighted, addressed and further developed.
In summary, it can be said that for a successful career, not only the consistent personality traits are important, but also the traits that develop during the career. Only when both are taken into account does the chance of a successful career as an engineer maximise.
The next article on the topic of aptitude testing deals with norm and best practice profiles. These are needed to mirror any aptitude assessment. Do you know how norm profiles and best practice profiles are compared?
Image source:
Betz, Armin: Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz - "Ingenieur bleibt Ingenieur", German National Library, 2015, p. 165, 169, 174, ISBN 978-3-00-052093-8
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
Successful companies show that those who know how to reduce absenteeism among their staff have competitive advantages in the market, ranging from cost savings and lower organisational costs to better employer branding. However, one important factor of successful absenteeism management is often not appreciated enough.
Psychogenic (mentally induced) absenteeism: a serious problem
Increasing flexibility and mobility demands on employees, intensification and compression of work, greater networking and cooperation between humans and machines, increased cognitive and emotional stress - all this leads to mental stress that many employees cannot easily cope with. The result can be seen in the absenteeism and health reports published in 2017 by the federal government and various health insurers (e.g. AOK, DAK, TK): days of incapacity to work, pensions for reduced earning capacity and early retirement due to psychological impairments are rising steadily. It is not for nothing that mental risk assessment has been a legal requirement since 2014.
Absenteeism is expensive: lost added value, overtime, training time and, in some cases, overloading of colleagues compensating for absenteeism, continued payment of wages, additional organisational costs, penalties in the event of delivery problems and other opportunity costs. Psychogenic incapacity to work days (AU days) are particularly significant, accounting for approx. 17 % of all AU days and approx. 38 AU days per case of illness (the average of all cases of illness is 13 AU days). If one considers that days of sick leave due to impairments of the musculoskeletal system (approx. 22 % of all days of sick leave, 20 days of sick leave per case) and especially in their main group "back disorders" are strongly (co-)caused by psychological factors, the psychological component of absenteeism becomes even more important. Sleep disorders are also relevant in this context. For years, they have been on the increase in western industrial nations. Currently, about 35 million people in Germany suffer from them, which corresponds to 42 % of the population. Of these, 15 % - 20 % are in need of treatment. About 3/4 of all sleep problems are psychogenic insomnia (problems falling asleep, sleeping through the night and waking up). Although absenteeism due to these problems is rather low, an employee survey conducted by the DAK in 2017 shows that 3.7 % of all employees did not show up for work due to sleep disorders. Sleep disorders also cause major problems when people are present at work: Not only is performance reduced, but the risk of accidents and injuries also increases with the consequence of additional absences, which, however, are not statistically attributed to psychological factors.
How can psychogenic absenteeism be effectively reduced in the company?
Of course, the best way to do this is to change the conditions identified for it. In the 2017 baua study on mental health in the world of work, the most relevant work condition factors for mental health are identified by means of a scoping review and employee surveys and divided into 4 topic areas :
Work task
Working hours
Leadership and organisation
Physical environment and human-technology interaction
The focus here is on the conditions in the workplace. Changing them in such a way that pathogenic (disease-causing) influences are reduced and salutogenic (health-promoting) factors are expanded is a must without any ifs and buts, which unfortunately is often not tackled in company practice. One reason is that system-relevant components need to be changed, such as: Corporate culture, structural and process organisation, personnel structure, remuneration systems, workplace design and ergonomics, task and resource allocation, leadership and working climate, economic circumstances and job security, etc. This effort is gladly avoided.
The solution to this problem isguided by the fact that a large part of these "operational conditions" and the "behaviour of the employees" influence each other. Therefore, psychogenic absenteeism can also be reduced through measures that start where they directly occur: with the employees who are at risk of absenteeism. These measures promote salutogenetic attitudes and behaviour, have a preventive effect against psychogenic incapacity to work and positively influence health-relevant company conditions. These in turn have a health-promoting effect on the employees.
A modular approach includes, for example:
Absenteeism analysis, economically adapted to the respective company.
Mental risk assessment.
Setting S M A R T targets.
Estimate the cost savings from absenteeism reduction and the expected ROI.
Implementation and facilitation of health circles.
Salutogenetic attitude and behavioural training for employees (concerns prevention against mental health risks and resilience for mental demands) with methods that take effect quickly, are easy to teach and can be integrated well into everyday life.
Evaluation of the measures.
Conception of a salutogenetic sustainability strategy.
Practical example:
Situation: In a medium-sized service company, absenteeism in 2016 was just under 8.5 % of the target working time, in areas D and F even over 12 % with a rate of affected employees of over 60 %. A voluntary employee survey conducted in these two areas showed that more than 3/4 of all absences were due to psychological, psychosomatic or back problems (despite very good workplace ergonomics).
Planning and goals: All employees in areas D and F were to be recruited for salutogenetic training in the first half of 2017 with the aim of reducing total absenteeism by at least 1/3 in the second half of the year. The training participants should learn to understand and perceive psychological stress and to master preventive and salutogenetic self-help techniques.
Cross-divisional groups with an average of 15 people were formed, coordinated with the work organisation. For each group, 4 half-day trainings were scheduled at intervals of 4 weeks, individual coaching sessions in consultation and according to certain criteria, and a follow-up check after 8 weeks. A total of 60 people were to participate. The direct Lug costs for absenteeism in these areas amounted to 235 T € p.a. (If indirect costs are added, a factor of 1.2 - 2 is to be applied according to sample calculations). According to the above-mentioned 1/3 target, almost 40 T € of these 235 T € should be saved in the second half of 2017 and almost 80 T € in 2018 - a multiple of the training investment.
Implementation, contents and methods: During a kick-off event, which informed about psychological conditions of absenteeism, their personal and company negative consequences as well as useful personal measures, the employees were successfully motivated to participate in the training. Personal goal clarification, theoretical input, exercise practice and evaluation were the elements of each training session with the contents: practical communication of how psychological maladjustment works, understanding of salutogenetic and preventive concepts, sensitisation to individual factors of psychological maladjustment, mastery of individual preventive and salutogenetic self-help techniques. Methods were used from: Embodiment-oriented concepts, hypno-imaginative methods, impact approaches, solution-oriented counselling, systemic constellation work.
Evaluation: For more than 90 % of the employees, the subjective success rating 8 weeks after the end of the training was between 7 and 9 success points on a scale of 0 to 9. The measured absenteeism was reduced by 42 % from July to October 2017. These are good prospects for 2018.
In addition to the professional qualifications, the so-called "hard facts", the "soft skills" also play an important role for sustainable staffing in the company. These are secured by scientifically based aptitude diagnostics, which is a focal point at HR Consult Group AG. But when and where did aptitude diagnostics actually start? How did it develop?
In world history, many references can be found to earlier pioneers of aptitude testing. One example is ancient China. There, high public officials were selected using a standardised selection procedure. Applicants had to perform five arts and also demonstrate knowledge of rites and public ceremonies. The examinations were of a very high standard, so that the proportion of applicants who were finally accepted was extremely low.
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) from England goes down in the history of aptitude testing as one of the most important pioneers. He made a name for himself because of his versatility in various disciplines. These included differential psychology, of which Galton was a co-founder. This deals with the differences between individuals in terms of psychological characteristics and states. For this purpose, he developed test procedures that could record psychological characteristics. He strove to quantify the characteristics as accurately as possible and dealt with both intellectual abilities and personality traits. In doing so, he always had his goal, the improvement of the human race, in mind.
He also developed the principle, still used today, of describing people by the deviation of their "measured value" from the mean value of a comparison group.
Since 1884, interested people could have their psychological characteristics tested by him in London. Characteristic of aptitude diagnostics were basic traits such as behavioural observation during the solution of difficult tasks and the recording of self-image and the image of others.
The first procedures of standardised personality diagnostics existed at the beginning of the 20th century through empirical psychological approaches. This was followed by an increase in standardisation and systematisation. Mainly, these early personality tests were used to distinguish adaptable and functional people from those with deviant behaviour.
The first personality tests of American origin were intended for use in military psychological examinations or for questions in clinical psychology. To a large extent, they covered constructs of psychology.
From 1920 onwards, there was the first development of occupation-related procedures. These already dealt with mental characteristics. They were already used to determine aptitude for a particular profession or to predict professional success. The first significant test of this kind was developed at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. This test was based on about 1,000 questions on various professional interests, which still serve as a source for new procedures today.
The use of clinically oriented personality tests for military questions was already successful, which led to the development of tests for psychopathological disorders (pathologically altered consciousness, memory and emotional or mental life). The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) was specially constructed for this purpose. With the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), a procedure was finally presented that was closely based on the MMPI, but was primarily used for the selection of managers.
Our next contribution in this series of topics deals with the further course of history up to the present day.
If you have any further suggestions or questions on this topic, please feel free to contact us at the e-mail address k.rasthofer@senator-partners.de.
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
The first part of this series dealt with the first pioneers of aptitude testing. Now follows the further course of history up to the present.
After the development of the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and the CPI (California Psychological Inventory), the use of personality tests increased steadily until the early 1960s, then peaked and slowly declined. More than 80% of all large companies used personality tests to select sales personnel. In 1984, it was barely more than a quarter of the companies. The reasons for this were the interactionism advocated by Walter Mischel (interaction of person and situation traits) and the growing public resistance to tests. This led to an intensive political discussion about these procedures, in which above all aspects of test fairness were in the foreground.
It was not until 1980, starting in the United States, that the topic was revived and became more and more important. The scientific as well as practical interest awoke anew. From the original merely translated tests to self-developed procedures, a change can be seen that confirms a further increase in interest until today.
It is interesting to see that the occurrence of the terms "personality test" and "aptitude diagnostics" in the German-language literature between 1900 and 2008 from the corpus "German" shows some differences, although there is a similar meaning of the two terms. This is illustrated by the following figure from the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz - Ingenieur bleibt Ingenieur":
While the term "personality test" gained popularity relatively early, as early as 1930, the term "aptitude testing" only became really popular after the Second World War in 1945. Since 1957, after a strong slump, "aptitude diagnostics" has recorded a steady increase, which has several times shown smaller fluctuations. On the other hand, the "personality test" has repeatedly recorded major drops in its incidence. There is, however, one thing in common. Both terms show a clear increase from 1996 onwards, which will continue to increase steadily. This means that both terms have arrived in the 21st century and continue to increase in popularity.
Nowadays, aptitude diagnostics is a collective term for occupation-related procedures for measuring competences and behavioural tendencies. In principle, aptitude diagnostics should provide the most accurate possible prediction of a person's likelihood of success or professional aptitude.
It should be noted that aptitude testing can look back on an impressive past, with further development to come.
Outlook: Our next article in this topic area refers to the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz - Ingenieur bleibt Ingenieur" by Armin Betz. Do you know which important and typical characteristics make up an engineer? You will learn about these and many other aspects, such as the importance of the development areas, in the following article.
After graduating as an automotive engineer and industrial engineer, he began his career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development and marketing and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing in Japan and South America and marketing strategy in North and South America.
In 1994 he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consultancy in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
With his doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics, he ideally rounds off his fields of competence, especially with regard to personnel and management consultancy. The dissertation deals with the identification and proof of typical personality traits of engineers as well as the definition of development areas for a successful professional career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz".
At the same time, his focus is on building networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous further development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Within the last 20 years in personnel consulting, he has developed several brands that are still successful on the market today.
What distinguishes a successful company from a less successful one? Of course, it requires market-driven products or services at appropriate prices. But beyond that, it is also about leadership, organisation and motivation of the team as well as the right communication with this team.
It takes a good leader, the captain, and the right culture. The leader, together with a small leadership team, creates incentives and a motivating atmosphere for open discussion processes in which everyone's resources are brought to bear. The supervisor shows with his behaviour that he serves the big goal of the whole company and keeps an overview at all times. He defuses power struggles and reduces politics in the company. He also provides a clear distribution of roles and decides when strategy changes, also called paradigm shifts, are necessary. Everyone agrees to break down the overall strategy into several sub-strategies.
This scenario is more complex in multinational teams because there are cultural sensitivities and these pose an additional challenge. For example, many Asians are often less direct in formulating and demanding goals and, at first glance, often act less proactively than their German-speaking colleagues, for example. This can lead to misunderstandings due to false expectations. It is better to cultivate a respectful way of dealing with each other that takes intercultural differences into account and that definitely uses conflicts to achieve goals effectively.
"Difference is an asset" is the motto: this method ultimately makes a decisive contribution to the success of sub-strategies and the achievement of the big goal.
Team spirit - easier said than done:
Team building is not a simple instrument. A major risk lies in the different rules of the game and motivations. These must be uncovered in detail and subordinated to the overall goal. It is important that the results are not attributed to individuals but to the team. Existing conflicts and their resolution are understood as necessary, respectful and at the same time goal-oriented communication on the way to success. Informal and direct, but at all times comprehensible dialogues are helpful here. Added to this is the appreciation of different characters, such as lateral thinkers, specialists and generalists.
But how can such a team spirit actually be achieved?
Maybe the following hints will help:
Structure: There needs to be a suitable and constant connection of all international staff to the headquarters, coupled with good education and appropriate training.
Leadership: This should be adapted to the situation, have "leadership as a role model" as its guiding principle and also explain itself on the basis of reciprocity: For example, the dialogue would begin as follows: "Please put yourself in my position. How would you act in my place to achieve our goals?"
Training: In addition, all employees should be involved in international projects and participate in as many best practice processes as possible.
Authenticity: A good example of high identification potential are concrete examples of employees who have been promoted and challenged at the same time and who have made comprehensible careers within the company at home and abroad. Such examples create a high level of identity and also the incentive to do the same as the promoted colleagues.
Career opportunities: Concrete perspectives for the individual's career are important, but are not designed for the short term, but rather for the medium and long term.
Especially today, in the age of global, fast and sometimes redundant communication, these aspects play a special role. Motivation and leadership make the difference! Especially with regard to matrix and project structures, which are becoming more and more common, the specific motivation of the individual and the right leadership of the team are essential keys to success in order to thus achieve a "we-feeling" in the long term.
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