Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The dark side of management decisions: organisational psychopaths

The dark side of management decisions: organisational psychopaths Purpose – This paper aims to look at some of the implications of organisational psychopaths for organisations and corporations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper defines organisational psychopaths as being those psychopaths who exist at an incidence of about 1 percent of the general population and who work in organisations. The paper describes how these organisational psychopaths are able to present themselves as desirable employees and are easily able to obtain positions in organisations. Without the inhibiting effect of a conscience they are then able to ruthlessly charm, lie, cajole and manipulate their way up an organisational hierarchy in pursuit of their main aims of power, wealth and status and at the expense of anyone who gets in their way. Findings – The paper suggests that, just as criminal psychopaths are responsible for a greater share of crimes than their numbers would suggest, so too organisational psychopaths may be responsible for more than their fair share of organisational misbehaviour including accounting fraud, stock manipulation, unnecessarily high job losses and corporately induced environmental damage. Originality/value – The paper suggests that having organisational psychopaths running corporations that are themselves, at best, amoral is a recipe for negative consequences. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Management Decision Emerald Publishing

The dark side of management decisions: organisational psychopaths

Clive Roland Boddy
Management Decision , Volume 44 (10): 15 – Dec 1, 2006
Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-dark-side-of-management-decisions-organisational-psychopaths-xkUPKWTKGW
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0025-1747
DOI
10.1108/00251740610715759
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to look at some of the implications of organisational psychopaths for organisations and corporations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper defines organisational psychopaths as being those psychopaths who exist at an incidence of about 1 percent of the general population and who work in organisations. The paper describes how these organisational psychopaths are able to present themselves as desirable employees and are easily able to obtain positions in organisations. Without the inhibiting effect of a conscience they are then able to ruthlessly charm, lie, cajole and manipulate their way up an organisational hierarchy in pursuit of their main aims of power, wealth and status and at the expense of anyone who gets in their way. Findings – The paper suggests that, just as criminal psychopaths are responsible for a greater share of crimes than their numbers would suggest, so too organisational psychopaths may be responsible for more than their fair share of organisational misbehaviour including accounting fraud, stock manipulation, unnecessarily high job losses and corporately induced environmental damage. Originality/value – The paper suggests that having organisational psychopaths running corporations that are themselves, at best, amoral is a recipe for negative consequences.

Journal

Management Decision – Emerald Publishing

Published: Dec 1, 2006

Keywords: Occupational psychology; Organizations; Ethics

References

  • Measuring moral identities: psychopaths and responsibility
    Adshead, G.
  • Catching the corporate psychopath
    Anon.
  • National Institute of Mental Health
    Anon.
  • Corporate psychopaths
    Bakan, J.
  • Ten minute test could spot killers
    BBC
  • Spotting psychopaths at work
    BBC
  • Psychos in suits: corporate CEOs in need of an asylum
    Bendell, J.
  • Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy
    Birbaumer, N.; Veit, R.; Lotze, M.; Erb, M.; Herman, C.; Grodd, W.; Flor, H.
  • Corporate madness and organisational psychopaths
    Bjornsson, A.K.
  • The implications for business performance and corporate social responsibility of corporate psychopaths
    Boddy, C.
  • The implications for academic research in business of corporate psychopaths
    Boddy, C.R.
  • The implications of corporate psychopaths for business and society: an initial examination and a call to arms
    Boddy, C.R.
  • Lecture and Seminar on Corporate Psychopaths
    Boddy, C.R.
  • When the ideal applicant is too good to be true: employment: spotting a ‘white‐collar psychopath’ can be extremely difficult
    Butcher, S.
  • Psychometric analysis of the psychopathic personality inventory (PPI) with female inmates
    Chapman, A.L.; Gremore, T.M.; Farmer, R.F.
  • Working with Monsters: How to Identify and Protect Yourself from the Workplace Psychopath
    Clarke, J.
  • Chambers Pocket Dictionary
    Davidson, G.; Higgleton, E.; Sargeant, H.; Seaton, A. (Eds)
  • Is your boss a psychopath?
    Deutschman, A.
  • Psychopath in a suit
    Gettler, L.
  • The Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised
    Hare, R.
  • Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us
    Hare, R.
  • Predators: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us
    Hare, R.
  • Without Conscience: The Disturbing Word of the Psychopaths among Us
    Hare, R.
  • Psychopathy and unlawful confinement: an examination of perpetrator and event characteristics
    Hare, R.; Herve, H.F.; Mitchell, D.; Cooper, B.S.; Spidel, A.
  • Psychopaths among us: Dr Robert Hare claims there are 300,000 psychopaths in Canada, but that only a tiny fraction are violent offenders like Paul Bernado and Clifford Olson. Who are the rest?
    Hercz, R.
  • Symposium: psychopathology of organisations: summary and conclusion with an evolutionary spin
    Hofmann, S.G.; Hasebrook, J.
  • Psychopathy and intelligence: a second look
    Johansson, P.; Kerr, M.
  • No conscience, no remorse
    Kaihla, P.
  • From soap opera to science: towards gaining access to the psychopaths who live amongst us
    Kirkman, C.A.
  • Development and preliminary validation of a self‐report measure of psychopathic personality traits in noncriminal populations
    Lilienfeld, S.O.; Andrews, B.P.
  • Is my partner a sociopath or just obnoxious?
    Loizos, C.
  • Self‐reported psychopathy: a validation study
    Lynam, D.R.; Whiteside, S.; Jones, S.
  • Unmasking psychopathy: a review of the book The Clinical and Forensic Assessment of Psychopathy: A Practitioner's Guide
    McCann, J.T.
  • Corporate behaviour; snakes in suits – fear and loathing in corporate clothing; they're glib, charming, deceitful and ruthless; they've been described as ‘snakes in suits’ – and they're in an office near you
    McCormick, I.; Burch, G.
  • Interpersonal perception of psychopathy: a social relations analysis
    Mahaffey, K.J.; Marcus, D.K.
  • Moral unreason: the case of psychopathy
    Maibom, H.L.
  • Psychopathy and the five‐factor model of personality: a replication and extension
    Miller, J.D.; Lynam, D.R.
  • Standardization of the Hare psychopathy checklist – revised in a Spanish prison sample
    Molto, J.; Poy, R.; Torrubia, R.
  • Executive psychopaths
    Morse, G.
  • Utter amorality: can psychopaths feel emotions?
    Nadis, S.
  • Corporate psychopaths
    Newby, J.
  • Of criminals and CEOs: the difference between bold, creative visionaries and deluded psychopaths is not as big as it used to be
    Pepper, T.
  • The evolution of the 21st‐century corporate psychopath
    Prior, S.
  • Some apparent advantages of subclinical psychopathy
    Ray, J.; Ray, J.
  • Psychological implications of the psychopathy Q‐sort
    Reise, S.P.; Wink, P.
  • Construct validity of psychopathy in a community sample: a nomological net approach
    Salekin, R.T.; Trobst, K.K.; Krioukova, M.
  • Construct validity of the psychopathic personality inventory in a correctional sample
    Sandoval, A.‐M.R.; Hancock, D.; Poythress, N.; Edens, J.F.; Lilienfeld, S.
  • He's the office psycho
    Selamat, F.
  • The ice people: living among us are people with no conscience, no emotions and no conception of love: welcome to the chilling world of the sociopath
    Stout, M.
  • The Sociopath Next Door
    Stout, M.
  • A test for your boss: if they score 16 points, you should find another job
    (The) Times
  • Corporate psychopathy
    Ullman, M.
  • Is that a psycho sitting next to you at work?
    Utton, T.
  • Psychopaths in suits
    Walker, I.
  • Book review: without conscience: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us
    Wormith, S.