Corporate Psychopaths: What Are Corporate Psychopaths?

When corporations are destroyed by the actions of their senior directors, employees lose their jobs, shareholders lose their investments, and societies lose key parts of their economic infrastructure, have you noticed that it often appears that the senior directors involved walk away with a clear conscience and they seem to be unaffected by the corporate collapses they have created. They present themselves as glibly unbothered by the chaos around them, unconcerned about those who have lost their jobs, savings and investments, and lacking any regrets about what they have done. Some of these individuals display characteristics of psychopaths, and some of them are in fact psychopaths.
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders …show more content…
Psychopaths employ a three-pronged approach to life that relies on achieving power, trust, and control. Some researchers have labeled this the “SOS” mentality or strive, overcome, and succeed (Brooks, 2016). It has been argued that corporate psychopaths are more motivated and better equipped to rise too high corporate positions than other managers are because they are more single minded in their craving for power and money and they are ruthless which is perceived to be valued by an organization. They also have fewer time commitments which allows them to invest a majority of their time in their position (Boddy, Ladyshewsky & Galvin, 2010). An important influence on the performance of an organization comes from its managerial culture such as the common beliefs/ values and the expectations managers have of the people they oversee. The personality of a manager will greatly impact the managerial culture because the attitude towards risk and competition, customer and shareholder etiquette, and the overall corporate image of an organization are largely driven by its leaders. Therefore, if the manger displays deviant behavior such as violating established norms which have adverse effects on either or both an organization and its members the organization …show more content…
Corporate Psychopaths, with their lack of concern for other people would logically be among these critics of organizations engaging in corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility within organizations has been linked with ethical and moral behavior however, corporate psychopaths have no ethical imperative to motivate socially responsible behavior and would logically be assumed to have no genuine or deeply felt interest in corporate social responsibility. As Corporate psychopaths have little or no conscience, it can be assumed they are not interested in the idea of social fairness or social responsibility and this in turn should limit the development of corporate social responsibility within the corporations that they work for which affects the corporation (Boddy,