While psychopaths typically represent a very small percentage of workplace staff, the presence of psychopathy in the workplace, especially within senior management, can do enormous damage.. Indeed, psychopaths are usually most present at higher levels of corporate structure, and their actions often cause a ripple effect throughout an organization, setting the tone for an entire corporate culture. Examples of detrimental effects include increased bullying, conflict, stress, staff turnover, absenteeism, and reduction in both productivity and social responsibility.. Ethical standards of entire organisations can be badly damaged if a corporate psychopath is in charge.Boddy C, Ladyshewsky RK, Galvin PG, Leaders without ethics in global business: corporate psychopaths, Journal of Public Affairs, vol. 10, June 2010, pp. 121–138. A 2017 UK study found that companies with leaders who show "psychopathic characteristics" destroy shareholder value, tending to have poor future returns on equity.Wisniewski TP, Yekini LS, Omar AMA, Psychopathic Traits of Corporate Leadership as Predictors of Future Stock Returns, Social Science Research Network, Jun 2017.
Academics refer to psychopathic individuals in organizational settings as workplace psychopaths.Clarke J, Working with Monsters: How to Identify and Protect Yourself from the Workplace Psychopath (2012). Criminal psychologist Robert D. Hare coined the term "snakes in suits" as a synonym for workplace psychopaths.
General Oliver James identifies psychopathy as one of the dark triadic personality traits in the workplace, the others being narcissism and Machiavellianism.James O Office Politics: How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing and Dirty Tricks (2013)
Workplace psychopaths are often charming to staff above their level in the workplace hierarchy but abusive to staff below their level.Boddy. C. R (2005) “'The Implications for Business Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Corporate Psychopaths" in 2nd International Conference on Business Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility, ed. M. Hopkins, Middlesex University Business School, London They maintain multiple personas throughout the office, presenting each colleague with a different version of themselves.Clifford C Why psychopaths are so good at getting ahead CNBC 18 Nov 2016
Hare considers newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell to have been a strong candidate as a corporate psychopath.Hare R D Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us 1993
Incidence Hare reports that about 1 percent of the general population meets the clinical criteria for psychopathy.. Hare further claims that the prevalence of psychopaths is higher in the business world than in the general population. Figures of around 3–4 percent have been cited for more senior positions in business..
The organizational psychopath Psychopaths aim to reach the very highest levels of their organizations, allowing them to control the greatest number of people.
Organizational psychopaths generally appear to be intelligent, sincere, powerful, charming, witty, and entertaining communicators. They quickly assess what people want to hear and then create stories that fit those expectations. They will con people into doing their work for them, take credit for other people's work and even assign their work to junior staff members. They have low patience when dealing with others, display shallow emotions, are unpredictable, undependable, and fail to take responsibility if something goes wrong that is their fault.
According to a study from the University of Notre Dame published in the Journal of Business Ethics, psychopaths have a natural advantage in workplaces overrun by abusive supervision, and are more likely to thrive under abusive bosses, being more resistant to stress, including interpersonal abuse, and having less of a need for positive relationships than others.
Careers with highest proportion of psychopaths According to Kevin Dutton, the ten careers with the highest proportion of those who score high on psychopathic traits are:Dutton K, The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success (2012).
Workplace psychopaths may show a high number of the following behavior patterns. The individual behaviors are not exclusive to the workplace psychopath, though the higher the number of patterns exhibited, the more likely they conform to the psychopath profile:Faggioni M & White M (2009), Organizational Psychopaths – Who Are They and How to Protect Your Organization from Them. Public humiliation of others (high propensity of having temper tantrums or ridiculing work performance) Malicious spreading of lies (intentionally deceitful) Remorseless, devoid of guilt Frequently lie to push one's own point Produce exaggerated bodily expressions (yawning, sneezing, etc.) as a means of gaining attention Rapidly shift between emotions – used to manipulate people or cause high anxiety Intentionally isolate persons from organizational resources Quick to blame others for mistakes or for incomplete work even though they are guilty Encourage co-workers to torment, alienate, harass, and/or humiliate other peers Take credit for others' accomplishments Steal and/or sabotages other persons' work Refuse to take responsibility for misjudgements and/or errors Respond inappropriately to stimuli, such as with a high-pitched and forced laugh Threaten any perceived enemy with discipline and/or job loss in order to taint employee file Set unrealistic and unachievable job expectations to set employees up for failure Refuse or are reluctant to attend meetings with more than one person Refuse to provide adequate training and/or instructions to singled-out victim Invade personal privacy of others Have multiple sexual encounters with other employees Develop new ideas without real follow-through Very self-centered and extremely egotistical (often conversation revolves around them – great deal of self-importance) Often "borrow" money and/or other material objects without any intentions of giving it back Will do whatever it takes to close the deal (no regard for ethics or legality)
Attainment of success The authors of the book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work describe a five-phase model of how a typical workplace psychopath tries to climb the corporate ladder: Entry – psychopaths may use highly developed social skills and charm to obtain employment into an organization. At this stage it could be difficult to spot anything indicative of psychopathic behaviour, and as a new employee, the psychopath might be perceived by people to be helpful and even benevolent. Assessment – psychopaths categorize people according to personal usefulness, and people could be recognized as either a pawn (who has some informal influence and will be easily manipulated) or a patron (who has formal position and can be used by the psychopath to protect against attacks). Manipulation – psychopaths try to create a scenario of “psychopathic fiction” where positive information about themselves and negative disinformation or gossip about others, where people's role as a part of a network of pawns or patrons could be utilized and could be groomed into accepting the psychopath's agenda. Confrontation – the psychopath can use techniques of character assassination to maintain their agenda, and people will be either discarded as a pawn or used as a patron. Ascension – the role of the subject as a patron in the psychopath's quest for power will be discarded, and the psychopath will take for himself/herself a position of power and prestige from anyone who once supported them.
Job seeking and hiring Leading commentators on psychopathy have said that companies inadvertently attract employees who are psychopaths because of the wording of their job advertisements and their desire to engage people who are prepared to do whatever it takes to be successful in business. However, in one case at least, an advert explicitly asked for a sales executive with psychopathic tendencies.Rodionova Z Company posts job advert for sales executive with psychopathic qualities The Independent 19 Oct 2016 The advert title read "Psychopathic New Business Media Sales Executive Superstar! £50k – £110k".McKenzie L Media firm seeks ‘psychopath’ for sales role BT News 20 Oct 2016
Corporate psychopaths are recruited into organizations because they tend to make a positive impression during interviews.Cleckley H The Mask of Sanity (1988) Typically they appear to be alert, friendly, and easy to get along with and talk to. These traits make them attractive to those in charge of hiring staff within organizations. Unlike narcissists, psychopaths are able to create long-lasting favorable first impressions, though people may still eventually see through their facades. Their superficial charm may be misinterpreted by interviewers as charisma.
Those who score high on psychopathic traits are more likely to lie in interviews.Roulin, N., & Bourdage, J. S. (2017). Once an Impression Manager, Always an Impression Manager? Antecedents of Honest and Deceptive Impression Management Use and Variability across Multiple Job Interviews. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. For instance, psychopaths may create fictitious work experiences or resumes and skeptical high performers can easily discern such fiction. They may also fabricate credentials such as diplomas, certifications, or awards and due diligence and skeptics and high performers easily discern such fabrications. Thus, in addition to seeming competent and likable in interviews, psychopaths are also more likely to outright make-up information during interviews than non-psychopaths and thus the necessity of including extremely skeptical high performing loyal employees throughout the entire interview and review of each interview.
Promotion of psychopathic individuals Corporate psychopaths within organizations may be singled out for rapid promotion because of their polish, charm, and cool decisiveness and yet can also be singled out for rapid firing and removal.Boddy, C. R The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis Journal of Business Ethics August 2011, Volume 102, Issue 2, pp 255–259, DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0810-4 They are also helped by their manipulative and bullying skills. They create confusion around them (divide and rule, etc.) using instrumental bullying to promote their own agenda.What Corporate Climbers Can Teach Us 'Dark' Personality Traits Can Help People Rise Through Ranks Wall Street Journal 14 Jul 2014
Psychopaths are able to maintain calm when others are reacting to normal stress and dangerous situations. Psychopaths are well versed in impression management and ingratiation, both of which can be used to impress people in positions of power and are also obvious indications of psychopathic traits easily discerned.
Consequences of psychopathic behavior Boddy identifies the following bad consequences of workplace psychopathy (with additional cites in some cases): Workplace bullying of employeesHarvey, M. G., Buckley, M. R., Heames, J. T., Zinko, R., Brouer, R. L. & Ferris, G. R. 2007, 'A Bully as an Archetypal Destructive Leader', Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 117–129. Employees lose their jobs Legal liabilities Shareholders lose their investments Wasted employee time Suboptimal employee performanceBabiak, P., Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2010). Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk. Behavioral Sciences & the Law 28(2), 174–193.O'Boyle, E. H., Jr., Forsyth, D. R., Banks, G., & McDaniel, M. (2011). A meta-analysis of the dark triad and work outcomes: A social exchange perspective. The Journal of Applied Psychology 97, 557–579. Increased workload Difficult working conditions Poor levels of job satisfaction Lower perceived levels of corporate social responsibility Raised staff turnover