The current study investigated differences in personality characteristics for emerging managers across several Asian countries as well as the United Kingdom. We hypothesized that managers from countries with a historical British influence would score similarly to managers from the United Kingdom on a measure of agency and that managers from countries with no historical British influence would score higher on a measure of conscientiousness than would managers from the British-influenced countries. To test our hypotheses, we sampled 4,519 managers across eight Asian countries that completed the Hogan Personality Inventory. We found support for our hypotheses, which suggests that historical economic and political factors can have long-lasting effects on the predominant management style of a country or region. We discuss the relevance of these results for multinational corporations and future researchers. These results can support organizations engaged in international expansion, management due-diligence programs for international mergers and acquisitions, cross-border contract negotiations, the preparation of expatriates, the development of regional managers with cross-country purview, and the development of global high-potential evaluation programs. These results can also support consulting psychologists and other professionals by providing context to coaching and development engagements that involve managers who operate in, or interact with stakeholders from, the countries we examined.

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Organizations need to ensure the international data on which they make personnel decisions are compiled with fairness and are accurately interpreted. But sensitivity to cross-cultural variance should not come at the expense of an evaluation model's predictive qualities. We sought to advance the understanding of individual differences in leader performance and the effects cultural norms may have on perceptions of leadership. We investigated the extent to which agency and conscientiousness predict ratings of achievement motivation in a country where a low level of agency tends to predominate. We identified incumbent Japanese leaders and collected personality and matched multirater-assessment results on each. The resulting sample included 213 rated managers and 1,546 rating supervisors and direct reports who represented a diverse cross section of industry and company affiliations. We provide recommendations to inform best practices for international mid-to senior-level talent-management programs. What's It Mean? Implications for Consulting PsychologyThe foundations of a talent-management program designed to support leader success in Japan are often compelled to rely on conclusions drawn from North American or European data. This research offers practical insight for those questioning the efficacy of such programs. Our results can benefit organizations that experience disparate outcomes when leader-evaluation models are applied across countries.