1 in 100 may be totally unethical

[GwydionM]

HE WAS a natural leader, creative, energetic and ambitious. "Mike" had appeared to be the ideal recruit for a fast-growing electronics company. It was only after he got the job that certain less favourable aspects of his behaviour came to light. He couldn't get along with his secretary, he "forgot" to take on less interesting projects, he bullied colleagues and walked out of meetings. But since he'd already complained about his boss to senior management, his boss's concerns were never taken seriously, and the company even singled Mike out as a "high-potential employee".
Perhaps you know someone like Mike. Someone charming, yet aggressive; a manipulative boss who can't be bothered with paperwork; one who constantly switches allegiance as different people become useful. Mike embellished the truth on his application form, failed to document his expense claims and turned out, in the end, to be setting up his own business on company time and resources. He is what some psychologists describe as an industrial or corporate psychopath.
The psychologists do not use the term lightly. They believe that Mike shares exactly the same constellation of personality traits as the violent and sadistic killers we more commonly call psychopaths. New research suggests that people like Mike vastly outnumber the psychopaths who commit crimes and end up in prison. Psychopathy, say the researchers, is a spectrum of character traits, milder forms of which could even be useful and adaptive. What's more, studies reveal that Mike's genes contribute to his psychopathic personality. Had you known what to look for, the traits would probably have revealed themselves at a very tender age.
The researchers are going to have a battle on their hands changing the deeply ingrained popular image of psychopaths as criminals - the likes of Charles Manson or Jack the Ripper. There is a good reason for this image, says Paul Babiak, the New York-based industrial organisational psychologist who studied Mike. Psychopaths make themselves known by their crimes, so those who don't commit crimes, or who successfully cover their tracks, tend to remain invisible.

Snakes in suits, New Scientist 21 August 2004

This is significant, because it says you have to have rules to cope with such characters. As well as the rather larger number of people who clearly have ethical feelings but use peculiar arguments to justify the unjustified.

You can find New Scientist at

http://www.newscientist.com/,

but you'll need to subscribe to get the full article. Lots of other good stuff (and I say that as a contented reader with no personal state in the enterprise).

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A view from the UK

 

[MikeLacey]

Yes, I read that article as well; that kind of behaviour is commonplace.

Another article I read said that people like this can actually be useful in the short term when hard decisions have to be made - cost cutting exercises was the implication - but that you had to get them out before they created a completely paranoid culture.

Mike

"Deliver me from the bane of civilised life; teddy bear envy."

Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at faq219-2884

 

[KenCunningham]

Mike"? - I don't suppose there's anything slightly spooky about the choice of name Mr Lacey (sir).

 

[ChrisHunt]

people like this can actually be useful in the short term when hard decisions have to be made

Nothing new about that, you can find it in Machiavelli (together with what to do with them afterwards...)

When the duke occupied the Romagna he found it under the rule of weak masters, who rather plundered their subjects than ruled them, and gave them more cause for disunion than for union, so that the country was full of robbery, quarrels, and every kind of violence; and so, wishing to bring back peace and obedience to authority, he considered it necessary to give it a good governor. Thereupon he promoted Messer Ramiro d'Orco [de Lorqua], a swift and cruel man, to whom he gave the fullest power. This man in a short time restored peace and unity with the greatest success. Afterwards the duke considered that it was not advisable to confer such excessive authority, for he had no doubt but that he would become odious, so he set up a court of judgment in the country, under a most excellent president, wherein all cities had their advocates. And because he knew that the past severity had caused some hatred against himself, so, to clear himself in the minds of the people, and gain them entirely to himself, he desired to show that, if any cruelty had been practised, it had not originated with him, but in the natural sternness of the minister. Under this pretence he took Ramiro, and one morning caused him to be executed and left on the piazza at Cesena with the block and a bloody knife at his side. The barbarity of this spectacle caused the people to be at once satisfied and dismayed.

So, when it comes to downsize time, get yourself a swift and cruel corporate psychopath to do the dirty work. Then sack him.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[MikeLacey]

Ken - It did not, if I'm completely honest (not something I'm known for), make for very comfortable reading.

Mike

"Deliver me from that bane of civilised life; teddy bear envy."

Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at faq219-2884

 

[Onyxpurr]

I'm not surprised. I've encountered quite a few people who feel it's fine to behave like this. I think we've coined them in other terms though.

Psychopath has taken on a rather drastic connotative meaning, it's just psycho-babble. A descriptive term that's been twisted by the media.

 

[GwydionM]

You might note that Italy remained in chaos for centuries, because everyone did act the way Machiavelli described. In his day it was the most sophisticated part of Western Europe, but then it stagnated.

Without actual belief and idealism, a society actually won't work very well. Machiavelli was naive about larger political processes, and disaster overtook both the government he was a part of and the dubious regime of Caesare Borgia.

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A view from the UK