It’s true, your boss is a psychopath (…And Corporations too)

[MrScorpio]

Surprising insights from the social sciences
June 20, 2010|Uncommon Knowledge, Kevin Lewis

Watching the news some days, you’d think a lot of companies were run by psychopaths. And, according to a recent study, some might well be. One of the authors of the study was hired by companies to evaluate managers — mostly middle-aged, college-educated, white males — for a management development program. It turns out that these managers scored higher on measures of psychopathy than the overall population, and some who had very high scores were candidates for, or held, senior positions.

In general, managers with higher scores were seen as better communicators, better strategic thinkers, and more creative. However, they were also seen as having poor management style, not being team players, and delivering poor performance. But, apparently, this didn’t prevent some of them from being seen as having leadership potential. The authors conclude that “the very skills that make the psychopath so unpleasant (and sometimes abusive) in society can facilitate a career in business even in the face of negative performance ratings.”

http://articles.boston.com/2010-06-20/bostonglobe/29296010_1_female-candidate-midas-touch-parliamentary-elections

Synopsis

The documentary shows the development of the contemporary business corporation, from a legal entity that originated as a government-chartered institution meant to effect specific public functions, to the rise of the modern commercial institution entitled to most of the legal rights of a person. One theme is its assessment as a "personality", as a result of an 1886 case in the United States Supreme Court in which a statement by Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite led to corporations as "persons" having the same rights as human beings, based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The film's assessment is effected via the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV; Robert Hare, a University of British Columbia psychology professor and a consultant to the FBI, compares the profile of the contemporary profitable business corporation to that of a clinically-diagnosed psychopath. The documentary concentrates mostly upon North American corporations, especially those of the United States.

The film is in vignettes examining and criticizing corporate business practices. It establishes parallels between the way corporations are systematically compelled to behave and the DSM-IV's symptoms of psychopathy, i.e. callous disregard for the feelings of other people, the incapacity to maintain human relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness (continual lying to deceive for profit), the incapacity to experience guilt, and the failure to conform to social norms and respect for the law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation

[angstlessk]

1. MY boss is NOT a psychopath...he insists I make more money

I insist I am fine..cause I do not want to price myself out of the market

[checks-n-balances]

2. If he insists that you price yourself out of the market...

...then maybe he is a psychopath.

Is anyone surprised by this article?

[RagAss]

3. No. I'm surprised they needed a study.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. No shit!

[FirstLight]

5. I've seen this before...

somewhere, I seem to recall reading a similar concept....and I think the one I saw also included politicians as well.

:shrug:

No I am not surprised by the findings. I think we need to be screaming this from the rooftops, too.
But in essence, I think the very 'wrongness' of this makes it unstable... at least I think that's what we are seeing collectively.
Psychopaths can only stand to function in a social system for a certain amt of time before breaking.
The system itself is breaking as well.
keep calling out those who display these traits, keep calling foul on the system at large.
I would like to think that eventually the healthy systems and social traits will win out...
hope, i guess...

[yardwork]

6. There is a psychopath in my organization. He's been promoted several times and is now quite high up.

His performance metrics are terrible. He does not achieve the results that people in my field are expected to achieve. He is not a team player and is widely disliked by people who are high achievers. However, he continues to be promoted. Why? I've been puzzled by this until I realized two things. One is that there really is a bias in favor of (bottle) blonde white southern men in my organization. The second reason is that this man doesn't hesitate to tell the outrageous Big Lies over and over again, and sooner or later many people believe some of what he says, which is all about the incredible successes he is achieving (all lies, easily demonstrated by a cursory review of his performance metrics, which are a matter of public record in my organization) and lies he tells about other people, always dragging them down. Most people recognize that most of what he says is lies, but enough sticks so that he glides along. And the final piece of the puzzle is that some of the people promoting him are psychopaths themselves.

I avoid him as much as possible, but due to his promotions he's getting a lot of power.

[RagAss]

7. Don't look for justice...you work in a modern day Southern "Plantation".

[yardwork]

9. Oh I know. I have no illusions.

[Philippine expat]

8. I have only worked for 1 boss that I would

consider a psychopath. Not bad in 42 years of employment