03 born entrepreneurs, born leaders

A lecture by Melih Arat – melarat.blogspot.com

Born Entrepreneurs, Born LeadersHow Your Genes Affect Your Work Life

Scott Shane



The Nature Nurture Debate

• Make two columns on a sheet of paper – • 1) nature; 2) nurture • Write characteristics you believe are mostly

nature or mostly nurture in the appropriate column

• If the characteristic was nurture, what seemed to be the influences?


Genetic Technologies….

• An Australian company called Genetic Technologies offers a test to identify the version of the ACTN3 gene people have. With a simple swab of the mouth, a person can gather some DNA and ship it to the company’s lab.

• Within four weeks, the company will send back a report that identifies which sports the person is best suited for.


The Nature/Nurture Debate

• How great is the influence of genes or environment on our behavior, personality, biology, etc.?


The Simple View• Behavior = genes + environment

The Realistic View• Behavior = genes + prenatal environment +

parental influence + nutrition + family income + education + culture + traumas + chance …


Genetics and Behavior

Nucleus Chromosome Gene

Cell DNA


Genes: Essential Definitions

• Chromosomes– threadlike structures made of DNA that contain the

genes• DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)– complex molecule containing the genetic information

that makes up the chromosomes– has two strands-forming a “double helix”- held

together by bonds between pairs of nucleotides


Behavior Genetics

• Identical Twins– develop from a single zygote

(fertilized egg) that splits in two, creating two genetic replicas

• Fraternal Twins – develop from separate zygotes– genetically no closer than

brothers and sisters, but they share the fetal environment

Identicaltwins

Fraternaltwins

Samesex only

Same oropposite sex


Jack Yufe: raised by Jewish father in Caribbean

Oskar Stohr: raised by catholic

grandmother in Nazi Germany

Nature v Nurture: Twin Studies

If we had identical twins reared apart could we separate the effects of phenotype, of genotype, and of the environment. In some cases this has happened.

A lecture by Melih Arat – melarat.blogspot.comNature v Nurture: Twin Studies

Both like sweet liqueurs

Store rubber bands on their wrists

Read magazines from back to front

Dip buttered toast in their coffee

Have very similar personalities


MZ and DZ concordance rates


Separated Twins• Born in 1940, Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were adopted

by different families. In 1979, psychologist Thomas Bouchard, interested in the nature/nurture debate, began a detailed investigation of identical twins who were separated at birth. The Jim twins caused a public stir early in this study, as they shared remarkably similar lives.

Aside from the fact that they were both named Jim by their adoptive parents, the twins had both married twice - the first time to women named Linda and the second to women called Betty. Jim Springer named his son James Allen whilst Jim Lewis called his son James Alan. They both had dogs named Toy, both spent time as sheriff's deputies, they drank the same beer, smoked the same cigarettes and drove the same model of car.

Tempting as it may be to view the twins' case as evidence of something spooky, many of these similarities are not unlikely. Jim is a very common name, and so was the model of car they both drove.


Environmental Influences

• Prenatal environment


Behavior Genetics

• Adoption studies–Are adopted kids more like their biological

relatives or their adopted relatives?–General findings: adoptees more like

biological parents than adopted parents in intelligence and personality/temperament


Numerous studies have shown that genes account for a big portion of the difference between people in both intelligence and personality.

More than half of the variance between people in scores on both IQ assessments and tests of the OCEAN model of personality are genetic.

(The OCEAN model • openness to experience,• conscientiousness, • extraversion, • agreeableness, and • neuroticism, which.)


Genes

• Genes are the basic unit of heredity. • They are composed of deoxyribonucleicacid

(DNA), which carries instructions for how to make molecules called proteins.7


• Very simply, my thesis• is that it is very unlikely that

what people do in organizations is solely the

• result of environmental forces. Genetic factors influence the tendency of

• people to engage in workplace behaviors in a myriad of ways, and these

• effects have implications that you should be aware of.

• Genes don’t cause people to engage in any behaviors orhold any attitudes.13

• They merely influence the odds that someone will engage in those behaviors or hold those attitudes.


genetic and environmental factors both matter.

• Consider height, for example. Some of us have variants of genes that make us shorter, while others have versions that make us taller. But

• the height genes’ effects don’t negate environmental influences on how tall we are.


Work is influenced by genes.• Scientists recognize that what

you do at work is influenced by your genes.

• In fact, studies show that over one-third of the differencebetween people on virtually every employment-related dimension investigated, including work interests, work values, job satisfaction, job choice, leadership turnover, job performance, and income, is genetic.


You can always overcome your genetic predispositions

• The knowledge of how genetics influences your behavior is also useful for acting in ways contrary to your ‘‘nature.’’

• How you behave at work is not genetically predetermined; your genes just make you more likely to conduct yourself in certain ways and not others.


Emotional Response DNA-CREB1

• Bosses get angry at subordinates, subordinates get angry at bosses, customers get angry at suppliers, suppliers get angry at customers, and team members get angry at each other.

• some people are better than others at dealing with this distemper.


DNA interaction with External Forces

• Becoming antisocial depends on the combination of the version of the gene and emotional or physical maltreatment.


Gene-Environment Correlation

• Researchers have recently found that children with a particular version of the dopamine receptor gene DRD2, (which I will call the ‘‘impulsiveness’’ gene) are less likely to go to college than other kids.

• This more negative behavior leads their parents to become less involved in their education.


Genes and becoming a CFO

• Suppose you were born with versions of certain genes that made you better than other kids at math. Your genetic gift led you to gravitate toward mathematics in school because you liked all of the positive feedback that your parents and teachers provided when you did a good job.

• Your quantitative skills made you a good student, which increased the odds that you would choose to go to college. At college you majored in finance, which you found very easy, given your innate mathematical aptitude. Of course, going to college and majoring in math was key to being able to get a job in the finance department of a Fortune 500 company.


The ‘‘novelty-seeking’’ gene (DRD4)

• The ‘‘novelty-seeking’’ gene (DRD4) gene interacts with the ‘‘worrier’’ gene (COMT) to affect novelty seeking.

• People who have certain versions of each gene are much more likely than other people to seek out new situations and experiences, even if doing so involves taking some risks.


• Your DNA influences the probability that you will behave in a particular way; it does not assure it.


The Effect of Genes on Work Interests

• Are you a sports nut, an artsmaven, amusic fanatic, or a collector of ancient Roman coins? Whatever your interests, some part of your preference can be traced to your DNA. Take your intellectual pastimes, for example. Do you prefer to read books or listen to music? One study found that about 21 percent of the difference between people in the kinds of intellectual activities they prefer can be accounted for by their genes.


Genetic Based Ocean Model Personality and Career Choices

• People who are imaginative, creative, and inventive—characteristics that psychologists combine in a trait called openness to experience— tend to prefer artistic, investigative occupations, such as acting and research.

• Extraverted people tend to prefer enterprising and social jobs,such as business and nursing.

• Agreeable people tend to prefer social jobs, such as child care and sales.


Genetic Influence on Character and Behaviour

• Harm avodiance low – sales• Harm avoidance high- accounting• Self-confidence %32 genetic• Stress Reaction %44 genetic• Cognitive, number and verbal skills %50

genetic


Genetic predispositions• numeracy might have higher odds of becoming an accountant,

since accountants spend their days analyzing numbers.• verbal understanding (the ability to comprehend written and

spoken words) might be more likely to become a book editor,since editors need to read and understand authors’ books. high perceptual speed (the ability to see similarities in betweendisparate things quickly) might have greater chances of becominga pilot, since pilots need to react quickly to changing circumstances.• deductive reasoning might have higher odds of becoming a market

researcher, since market researchers use deductive analysis toidentify attributes to put into products.• spatial visualization might be more likely to become an interior

designer, since interior designers need to envision the design ofrooms.


Values and Genes

• Even to be a religious person is caused by genes.

• Majority of the variance between people comes from genetic factors. Even the most rigorous studies of twins reared in different homes show that more than half of the difference in levels of ‘‘social conservatism’’ is genetic


Personality

• Psychologists and humanresource experts have found that people with high core self-evaluation (those with high self esteem, self-efficacy, and emotional stability, and an internal locus of control) tend to be satisfied with whatever job they have.


How do you make your decisions?

Do you think quickly, but make decisions calmly?That might be because of the combination of serotonin and the humanbrain- derived neurotropic genes (BDNF) that you have. (I will call BDNF the ‘‘memory’’ gene.) What about being a risk taker? That might come from your versions of the ‘‘worrier’’ (COMT) and ‘‘impulsiveness’’ (DRD2) genes.


Risk Taking?

You won a lottery and have to choose between a certain payment of$2,000, a 50–50 chance of getting either a $5,000 payment or nothing,and a 20 percent chance of a $15,000 payment and an 80 percentchance of receiving nothing. Which do you select?


Management Styles and GenesDifferences in DNA influence whether peopleare aggressive or laid-back negotiators, planning-focused or laissez-faire organizers, frugal or expansive spenders, among a host of other dimensions that make up a person’s supervisory style.

In fact, the data show that our genes even affect our management potential, with about half ofthe difference between people on tests of management capability being accounted for by genetic factors.Born Control Freaks, Innate Planners, Rule Breakers, Persistents, born competitors


Attitudes Toward Leadership

Do you have a positive or a negative view toward directing others? Do you aspire to be a leader, or is it something that you don’t care for, or even dislike? However you answer these questions, your genes are partially responsible.

Some portion of your attitude toward leadership is genetic.


Born Smart and Creative

Our genes also influence our creativity through another path, one thatbegins with effects on the enzymes that produce neurotransmitters. Ourgenes, we know, influence the development of a number of key brainchemicals, including dopamine, serotonin, and monoamine oxidase,which affect how our brains function. People with certain versions ofseveral neurotransmitter genes produce more serotonin and dopaminetransporters and receptors and less of the chemicals that decomposethem.


Some Part of Entrepreneurship is genetic

48 percent of the difference in the tendency to be self-employed 39 percent of the variance in the number of years self-employed 37 percent of the variation in the tendency to be owner-operator ofa business 37 percent of the difference in the number of businesses ownedand operated 41 percent of the variance in having started a business 42 percent of the variation in the number of businesses started 41 percent of the difference in having engaging in the start-upprocess 42 percent of the variation in the number of start-up efforts undertaken.

03 born entrepreneurs, born leaders

Self Improvement