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Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life
 
 
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Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life [Hardcover]

Scott Shane (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 4, 2010 0195373421 978-0195373424 1
It's no secret that your genes have a subtle, but powerful impact on your job and career. But did you know that your DNA accounts for one third of the difference between you and your co-workers in many aspects of work life, from job satisfaction to income level? That's the revelation of this fascinating book--one that will change the way you think It's no secret that your genes have a subtle, but powerful impact on your job and career.

Despite extensive evidence highlighting the influence of genetics in the business world, this critical connection has been glossed over by corporate leaders and management gurus. Now, for the first time, author Scott Shane explains why genes matter, and how an understanding of their relationship to behavior is of vital importance to employers, employees, and policy makers. This eye-opening resource begins with an incisive look at the basic function of genes and their effects on organizational behavior, providing a real-world analysis of how genes influence numerous aspects of our professional lives, from the jobs we choose, to how effectively we make decisions and manage people. Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders also delves into role that genetics plays in creativity and innovation, and focuses on how genes affect our tendency to start companies. Armed with these insights, you'll not only learn how to leverage your innate skills and personality, but you'll discover how to succeed by acting in ways contrary to your "nature."

Packed with scientifically grounded insights, this phenomenal book also examines the potential use of genetic information in creating job assignments and designing incentive and training plans. Ultimately, Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders shows how a heightened awareness of your own-and your colleagues'-genetic predispositions can make you a better employee or employer.

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Customers buy this book with Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body $10.17

Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life + Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bored at work? Prone to taking dangerous risks on the job? A control freak? Your genes may be to blame, argues economics professor Shane in this analysis of how our professional destinies are influenced by our genetic and hormonal makeup. Particularly intriguing are his discussions of how individuals might be variously hardwired to be altruistic, to job-hop, desire high-powered careers, take risks, and manage in highly idiosyncratic styles. Shane's findings may have a practical component, as a wider understanding of genetics may require companies to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions used to enhance employee performance, such as incentive plans and training. Buttressed by fascinating research and reasonable interpretations, the book reveals how and why some of us seem to be born leaders, creative types, communicators, or entrepreneurs. If the book has a failing, it's accessibility: though the author makes a laudable attempt to reach a broad audience, some scientific discussions might prove too esoteric. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Once in a decade a magnificent book comes along that causes a paradigm shift in thinking about business. Scott Shane's Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders is that book."--Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., author of the best-selling, Evil Genes

"Are you a workaholic? The answer may lie as much in your genes as your personality. Scott Shane has written a fascinating account of how our inherited DNA influences our work life. This book is about more than our genes; it's about what our genes can tell us about ourselves."--Dean Hamer, Molecular biologist and author of The Science of Desire, Living With Our Genes, and The God Gene.

"This book is a great read for anyone interested in the exciting new world of genetics. Focusing on job choices and workplace behaviour, it shows what genetics can offer employers, employees, parents, and students alike."--Tim Spector MD, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Director of TwinsUK, Kings College London, and author of Your Genes Unzipped.

"This is a very important book outlining and discussing how the biological building blocks of DNA affect and permeate almost everything we think, feel, and do in the workplace. Scott Shane has done a masterful job in taking difficult and sophisticated scientific findings and translating them into readable and comprehensive terms and implications."--Richard D. Arvey, noted behavioral geneticist, and Chair of the Management and Organization Department, University of Singapore.

"Scott Shane takes a close look at recent scientific research to assess the role that genes play in careers and career choices. His aim is to illuminate the role of heredity at work. The strength of his account is that it calmly brings an uncomfortable subject to the fore, laying out the research data in admirably plain English and describing in detail how scientists match specific genes to specific traits."--The Wall Street Journal

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (March 4, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0195373421
  • ISBN-13: 978-0195373424
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #836,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Laden with scientifically grounded research, this text offers good generic data about Genes in relation to employment and few areas of life.

The book looks at leaders (entrepreneur-types) and followers (employees); behaviors of Gene-types or versions; and organizational use of genetics to create job assignments, design incentives, or formulate training plans.

Unfortunately, the important topic of "Gene Discrimination" was not covered. Rather this text appeared to promote the idea of using Genes for organizational benefit. Since the brain rules or overrides genetics, there was also no mention of how conscious thought can alter genetic predisposition.

This book may be useless for those already familiar with the subject; however, it would be a useful eye-opener for others.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
There is the age old question: Are leaders born or made? Are entrepreneurs a product of nature or nurture? Scott Shane attempts to answer those questions in his book - Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders.

His conclusion is that while we all like to think that we have total control over our lives, what we do and who we become, we are all influenced to a large extent by our genes. Our DNA has a much more profound affect on our lives than we would like to believe.

We are comfortable with the fact that the color of our hair and eyes are determined by our genes. But when it comes to our behavior, we become uneasy thinking that our genes have a large influence. Scott shows that studies have time and time again proven the impact that our genes have on how we perform in the workplace and whether we actually become leaders and/or entrepreneurs.

The studies have shown that our genes have great influence on our behavior. However Shane is quick to point out that this influence indicates a propensity to behave in a certain manner. We are not predestined by our DNA to act in a specific manner. We can and do have control over our lives. At times we just have to work harder to achieve the same goals than someone who is born with a natural tendency toward that goal.

While the book deals with a very interesting topic, I found it tedious to read. I believe for the book to appeal to a wide audience, it should be much shorter. Shane is a scientist and this work is directed more at being accepted by his peers than communicating with the average reader. There are 50 pages of reference notes at the end of the book.

If you are interested in a detailed study of the impact of DNA on leadership and entrepreneurs, then you might find this helpful. If you are interested in an overview of the subject, I believe you will find this a bit tedious to read. The lessons could be made more interesting by focusing less on repetitive information and more on interesting stories surrounding the subject.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I read this book, found it a little repetitive, and have concluded that it could be condensed by about 80 or so pages. The big problem is that, as interesting as its subject is, most chapters are little better than literature reviews, summarizing the findings of studies showing a link between traits and genetic markers. If you are a skeptic about the influence of genetics on (work) behavior, this book is a good summary of current research. If not - if you are not a skeptics and even vaguely familiar with the research, this book will add little to the discussion.

The best chapters are the first - explaining how genes affect the traits we exhibit - and the last - ruminating on why this is important, how the knowledge might be used by companies, and the ethical dilemmas it creates. The intervening chapters generally focus on one trait (say, Machivellian opportunism) and review the studies showing it to have a genetic component to it. The writer succeeds in not making these summaries dry, but he is certainly no Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley, or Richard Dawkins. While the style is less formal than an academic journal, it certainly isn't popular science. And the chapters get quite repetitive.

Further, my opinion is that the author spends too little time on the "so what" question, relegated to the last chapter which is around 20 pages. Nor does he do a very good job in his ruminations here, which amount to little more than telling us that training employees for leadership/customer-orientedness/etc doesn't matter much if their genes do not predispose them to those traits, and the admonition that we should be familiar with our (genetically based) strengths and weaknesses. The latter point is an old one from the days of What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. The former point is undermined by the author's consistent demonstration that genetics at most seems to account for 50% of variance amongst people (and is too pessimistic to yield many good business conclusions).

Long and short: I can only see this book as beneficial to (a) the skeptic, and (b) the non-skeptic who wants to brush up on their knowledge of the literature. Otherwise, this book will offer little.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life
This book looks at what makes some people leaders and some people followers in the workplace. I think the issue could've been covered more in-depth, but I still found it an... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Andrew Olivo Parodi
Oversimplifies and Overgeneralizes - A Book of Little Use to Employees...
The author did research and explains which genes influence which behavior or personality trait. I do not argue about the validity of that research, I'll take Shane's word on that. Read more
Published 2 months ago by christinemm - The Thinking Mother
Drags on
This book should have been a large essay, but at 200+ pages it seems to drag on quite a bit. Since it is not particularly academically oriented and not particularly enthusiastic or... Read more
Published 17 months ago by GX
Like it or not, society must grapple with these issues
Most reviewers seem to miss the point. How often do you read a business leader's self-serving autobiography ascribing his or her success to innate ability? Never. Read more
Published 17 months ago by R.E.Miller
An economist's informed guide on how genes shape workplace behavior
Have you been able to move ahead in life because of your efforts and determination? Certainly, your strong character and hard work helped get you where you are today. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Rolf Dobelli
Quite Enjoyable
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I've always enjoyed reading about the nature vs. nurture argument, and this book takes it one step further, with more data to back up the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Patrick M. Hussey
Practical? No. Thought-provoking? Perhaps.
I'm not really sure how to rate this book. On the one hand it is of virtually no practical use. It talks about all sorts of different ways genetic factors influences who we are and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by John Forman
Boring and repetitive
I had hoped that this book would reveal some interesting ways in which genetics affect entrepreneurial potential and leadership ability, as well as some ways in which readers can... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bibliophile
Basic premise is 40% nature 60% nurture - probably didn't warrant a...
So start with a study that looks at identical twins and compare those fraternal twins and you find out that statistically a person's likelihood of becoming a business owner is 40%... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Brad Bonner
This book highlights the ways for change
I love this book very much! I do not know why some readers got the impressions of Gene Determinism after reading this book. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Zen Master
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