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When Psychopaths Go to Work: A Case Study of an Industrial Psychopath
Applied Psychology
Abstract
La plupart des recherches sur les psychopathes ont été conduites dans les hôpitaux et les prisons. L'article ci-dessous propose l'analyse d'un psycho-pathe en milieu industriel. La Check List Psychopathique: Version sur Ecran (PCL:SV) fut utilisée pour évaluer la psychopathie en observant et en codant les comportements dans une situation d'emploi. Tandis que les précédentes recherches sur des populations psychopathiques dans des milieux cliniques ou carcéraux démontrent qu'elles mènent des vies ratées, cette étude de cas présente un psychopathe industriel ayant atteint la réussite. Les psychopathes industriels possèdent les caractéristiques des personnalités psychopathes mais pas du tout la progression caractérisée du développement de comportement anti-social et de style de vie déviant. Un modèle suggère que dans le contexte d'un changement chaotique et “souterrain”, ils utilisent leurs talents manipulateurs pour manoeuvrer avec succés les points-de-vues contra-dictoires d'alliés et de déracteurs et déboucher sur des mouvements de carriére positifs.
... A ten (10) year review of primary psychopathy in organisations, Boddy (2015) found that primary psychopaths can use workplace change to hide. In depth case studies of known primary psychopaths by Babiak (1995) and Boddy (2017b) provided detailed insight into the behaviour and impact of working with a primary psychopath. Babiak (1995) found primary psychopaths can use change within an organisation (i.e. a restructure of organisational positions) to hide detrimental behaviour. ...
... In depth case studies of known primary psychopaths by Babiak (1995) and Boddy (2017b) provided detailed insight into the behaviour and impact of working with a primary psychopath. Babiak (1995) found primary psychopaths can use change within an organisation (i.e. a restructure of organisational positions) to hide detrimental behaviour. A psychopathic person will often be rewarded with a promotion while blaming staff negativity on the change process not on their toxic behaviour (Babiak, 1995). ...
... Babiak (1995) found primary psychopaths can use change within an organisation (i.e. a restructure of organisational positions) to hide detrimental behaviour. A psychopathic person will often be rewarded with a promotion while blaming staff negativity on the change process not on their toxic behaviour (Babiak, 1995). In a case study by Boddy (2017b), a charity Chief Executive Officer (CEO) displayed psychopathic behaviour by managing with fear, intimidating staff and using board meetings to seek to sign off documents with the board unaware of the gravity of what was going on. ...
Primary psychopathy is a term used to describe a personality which is characterised
by ruthless charm, a win at all cost mentality, and a neglect for others hidden behind
lies and manipulation. The study of primary psychopaths sometimes known as successful or corporate psychopaths is not new to the psychology or business fields of research. Nevertheless, little is known on how gender influences psychopathic traits in females . For example there is evidence to suggest females are more likely to display relational (covert) aggression than physical (overt) aggression. Hence, this PhD research project examined primary psychopathic traits in females with a focus on the Community Services Sector, a female dominated industry.
This research project applied a mixed methods approach across three phases: 1 –
systematic literature review, 2 – qualitative data collection (semi-structured in-depth
interviews) and 3 – quantitative data collection (online survey). A mixed paradigm
(positivism and interpretivism) provided a holistic approach to understanding female
primary psychopaths in the Community Services Sector. This study collected qualitative and quantitative data from 85 participants about working with a difficult colleague. Primary psychopathy scores were measured based on the participant’s observations. In semi-structured interviews, 13 (female n = 11, male n = 2) Tasmanians participated, and in the online survey, 72 (female n = 56, males n = 16) Australians provided quantitative data. Research questions were supported, finding Community Services Sector employees with primary psychopathic traits (n = 11 (100%) males and n = 47 (64%) females) based on participant perceptions. Additionally, low job satisfaction correlated with higher psychopathic scores and females were more likely to use covert aggression such as gaslighting and relational aggression. Males also rated female colleagues less harshly than their same gender colleagues.
Future research would benefit from having data from different industries with different gender mixes to better identify how the behaviour of primary psychopaths in the Community Services Sector may be similar or different. The nature of the helping profession and the types of people and motivations for helping others could also be explored. This would allow for further exploration of the issue of heroism as a form of power and control. Finally, future research which also focuses on the covert tactics of females could provide deeper insight into the issue and how to better mitigate the risks.
... Evidently, existing toxic leadership definitions have distinct behaviors and were developed using different perspectives. Indeed, toxic leaders' repertoires vary across a wide spectrum of toxic behaviors, from moderate, inadvertent toxicity to outright depravity, including traits such as dishonesty (psychopathic), exploitation, and unethical actions (Babiak 1995;Boddy 2023;Kahn and Rouse 2021). This contrasts with Schmidt's (2014) study which argued that toxic leadership encompasses a limited range of behaviors. ...
... Psychopathic traits (e.g., corporate, systemic, subclinical, industrial) have been associated with prototypical toxic leadership (Boddy 2023;Boddy, Boulter, and Fishwick 2021). Psychopaths, who constitute an estimated 1% of the general populace, are individuals who appear charming but are completely ruthless, devoid of emotion and empathy (Babiak 1995;Boddy, Boulter, and Fishwick 2021;Walton 2021b). Importantly, corporate psychopaths and corporate psychopathy, which manifest as toxic leadership and governance, pose significant obstacles to attaining sustainability (Boddy 2023). ...
Despite the preponderance of literature on the dark side of leadership and its consequences for employees and organizations, there remains a need for more research on toxic leadership. Previous research has conceptualized toxic leadership differently, and existing measurement dimensions are not standardized and omit crucial behaviors like power quest, psychopathy, and corruption. Recent studies have shown that toxic leadership—a multifaceted and destructive leadership style characterized by negative managerial techniques—has detrimental consequences on many organizations, societies, and countries. Specifically, employees require ethical leadership to uphold a healthy culture, improve psychological well-being, and sustain productivity. To address the lack of theoretical understanding, we present a narrative review that critically examines toxic leadership research to provide a comprehensive catalog using an integrative framework (antecedents, mediators, and outcomes) and identify three major challenges in this field. First, is toxic leadership effectively conceptualized? Second, is toxic leadership adequately measured, or is the measurement undermined by conceptual ambiguity? Finally, do existing studies provide a sufficient theoretical foundation to understand the causes, consequences, and cascading effects of toxic leadership? We synthesize our recommendations for rethinking theconceptualization, measurement, empirical, and theoretical study of toxic leadership and propose a theoretical model for further research.
... • They neutralized adversaries and detractors by raising doubts about their competence and loyalty. 31 To conclude with a broader perspective, we must now consider those successful psychopaths who dominate and lead large companies. While the behavior of a typical successful psychopath has been described, there is a subset within this category who have Of the profiles described by Cangemi and Pfohl, seven out of the total eight have been extracted and concern: a corporate executive, a well-known university professor, a 31 Conducting studies on successful psychopathic individuals is extremely complex, as previously discussed, and studying their private lives is even more challenging. ...
... 31 To conclude with a broader perspective, we must now consider those successful psychopaths who dominate and lead large companies. While the behavior of a typical successful psychopath has been described, there is a subset within this category who have Of the profiles described by Cangemi and Pfohl, seven out of the total eight have been extracted and concern: a corporate executive, a well-known university professor, a 31 Conducting studies on successful psychopathic individuals is extremely complex, as previously discussed, and studying their private lives is even more challenging. ...
... In the same way (Clarke, 2005) found that psychopathic employees end to do well in managerial decision making due to their strong sense of humor and intellectual skills. Scholars characterized psychopaths differently, for example (Babiak, 1995) defined psychopaths as inter alia (industrial psychopaths), (Morse, 2004) successful psychopaths, (Boddy, 2006) defined executive psychopaths, corporate psychopaths (Babiak & Hare, 2006), (Denison, 1996)as organizational psychopaths, while organizational psychopaths are "Con artists" or "Crook" within an organization. As a result of their self-centered motives organizational psychopaths exploit others and encourage dishonesty. ...
The accounting research have moved towards the study of the "dark" personality disorder—Dark Triad, and its effect on dishonest and unethical behavior in the workplace environment. Fraudsters with dark personality characteristics such as psychopathic personalities are even greater trouble. Some fraudsters are psychopaths but not all. Psychopaths spend a great deal of time and effort constructing and maintaining a persona that helps them get ahead at work, that's why to be known as the dark horse. Many of the people who are psychopath are short time offenders who are just "doing their work," can hold impressions easily, and their victims are few. The study aims to examine the extent of information security psychopathy and its relationship to some beliefs regarding the unethical professional practice by using a sample of accounting professionals specifically "banking personnel". A formal adopted questionnaire is used to collect primary data for the analysis. A total of 357 participants volunteered to respond to the study. The results of the study validate the position that psychopathy at the workplace is the key precursor of banking fraud scandals. Empirical findings also come with the influence of psychopathy on the unethical behavior in the study area. Finally, the study concludes that the psychopathic personalities have a role to play in unethical behavior in professional practices in the context of the banking sector. While when psychopath goes to work place there is unethical practices therefore, information security does not have a role between psychopathy and unethical performance.
... According to earlier findings, psychopathic traitsparticularly manipulative behaviour and emotional shallowness-can serve as an adaptation (Mills-Koonce et al., 2015; Lilienfeld et al., 2015). Affective psychopathic traits have adaptive potential and represent a protective factor for experiencing emotional problems, which can be an important protective factor in a stressful business environment (Babiak, 1995;Lilienfeld et al., 2015;Međedović et al., 2018). The aforementioned findings validate that psychopathy is a significant construct within the business environment, particularly regarding leadership styles. ...
Objectives: The main aim of this study was to examine the effect of the HEXACO domains and triarchic psychopathy dimensions on interpersonal and organisational deviant workplace behaviour. Methods/Approach: The Workplace Deviance Measure, HEXACO-PI-R and Triarchic Psychopathy Measure were applied to a sample of 429 workers recruited from employees of several IT organisations and education staff working in higher education. Results: Results showed that honesty-humility and agreeableness significantly predicted both interpersonal and organisational workplace deviance, and agreeableness showed significant effects on interpersonal workplace deviance. Openness to experience was unrelated to both interpersonal and organisational workplace deviance, but extraversion positively predicted organisational deviance. All triarchic dimensions (boldness, meanness, and disinhibition) showed significant effects on both interpersonal and organisational workplace deviance. Conclusions: Findings indicate that honesty-humility, agreeableness, and conscientiousness significantly enhance the probability of developing positive relationships with co-workers. Triarchic psychopathy features demonstrate considerable maladaptive potential, consequently presenting a significant risk factor for the development of positive workplace interactions.
... Overall, we provide an implicit measure of sub-clinical and workplace-contextualized psychopathy with scores that are reliable and valid. Babiak (1995) described psychopaths in the workplace as charismatic, influential, and viewed positively by most coworkers, but also highly manipulative, coercive, oppressive, and viewed more negatively by those who were less "useful" to them. Babiak suggested that these "corporate psychopaths" have the same fundamental personality traits as other psychopaths, but lack the easily detectable anti-social behaviors commonly associated with criminal psychopaths (e.g., physical violence, crime) or use ways to avoid getting caught (e.g., by acting behind office doors). ...
Researchers have called for faking-resistant measures of psychopathic personality that can be self-administered in high-stakes contexts (e.g., hiring). We developed and validated an implicit measure of psychopathy contextualized in workplace situations. We first detail how the measure is framed, conceptualized, and rooted in psychopathy literature. We then describe the item development process, and Study 1 involves expert review and refining the item list. In Study 2 (N = 396), we examine internal consistency and factor structure for a 22-item version of the measure. In Study 3 (N = 251), we demonstrate test-retest reliability, construct-related validity, and provide initial evidence for criterion-related validity through a two-wave study. Study 4 analyzes the measure using item response theory, based on a sample of 6,746 job seekers, demonstrating effectiveness for measuring high levels of psychopathy. In Study 5 (N = 219) we provide evidence of faking-resistance and criterion-related validity with behavioural (two weeks later) and self-report (one year later) outcomes. Finally, Study 6 provides promising evidence of incremental validity using an organizational sample (N = 615). Overall, scores on this new implicit measure are reliable, with acceptable construct-related, criterion-related, and incremental validity, while also being faking-resistant. Implications for use in workplace settings are discussed.
... The current study focuses on the cooperative tendency of individuals with higher psychopathic traits. Social success based on cooperative relationships with others, which employ social skills, such as the manipulation of interpersonal impressions (Babiak, 1995(Babiak, , 2000, may promote reproductive success. In fact, previous studies have reported cooperative behavior among individuals with higher psychopathic traits. ...
Individuals with high psychopathic traits tend to use short-term reproductive strategies, such as having many short-term relationships and committing sexual offenses. These strategies are maladaptive in the long term, but a certain number of individuals with high psychopathic tendencies exist in modern societies. This study focuses on the effects of social value orientation (SVO) on the enhancement of cooperative tendencies in highly psychopathic individuals. We hypothesized that highly psychopathic individuals with pro-social orientation would cooperate more than those with pro-self orientation. The results showed that individuals with high psychopathic traits behaved uncooperatively regardless of the different types of SVO. In addition, they were most cooperative with family members, followed by friends, and least with strangers. This finding suggests an exaggerated kin bias in which psychopathic individuals prefer kin as a cooperation partner.
... Agency theory, where agents are said to behave rationally in their own interests, thus acts as a good theoretical background to frame the potentially fraudulent actions of psychopaths within organizations. Psychopathy has historically been confounded with criminality, but since the 1995 pioneering study (Babiak, 1995), psychopaths in corporations have been recognized and they are described below. ...
Research on individuals with dark personalities in the work context has received much attention in the past ten years. However, one challenge remains: creating valid measures that focus on and capture the personality profile of those individuals with possible psychopathic features. The B-Scan 360 Long Form (LF) is a measure of psychopathy created for the workplace and used by others to describe a co-worker, an employee, or a supervisor. Two studies were conducted using online samples to assess the factor structure and validity of the instrument. Results indicated that B-Scan 360 LF facets were internally consistent and unidimensional. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a reliable fifteen facets and four-factor model consistent with the Psychopathic Checklist-Revised four-factor model of psychopathy. The B-Scan 360 LF showed similar patterns of association with FFM traits as other psychopathy measures. The B-Scan 360 LF correlated negatively with supervisor Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Correlations between the B-Scan 360 LF and Openness were positive. However, correlation between B-Scan 360 LF and Extraversion was non-significant. Although more research is needed to establish the validity of the B-Scan 360 LF, we believe these results show that it is a promising option to measure psychopathy in the workplace.
The transition from entrepreneurial to corporate capitalism, especially over the latter half of the 20th century, caused the rise of sociopathy and narcissism as organisational and cultural pathologies. This process intensified and was further facilitated by neoliberalism’s 1980s political ascendancy with the promotion of its societal values to cultural prominence. It has encouraged the societal dominance of Dark-triad personality types; overt narcissists, sub-clinical psychopaths and machiavellian sociopaths, with an increasing symptomatic incidence of these behavioural traits among otherwise neurotypical individuals on organisational, cultural and individual psychological levels.
The Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. Although it was designed to measure a unitary construct, the instrument has been shown to comprise several factors. To determine whether the PCL contains a factor structure that is stable and replicable, we factor-analyzed data from six samples of male prison inmates (N = 1,119) in Canada, the United States, and England. Split-half cross-validation and analysis of congruence coefficients indicated that a two-factor solution could be replicated in all six samples. Factor 1 was defined by core personality traits, including superficiality; habitual lying and manipulation; callousness; and lack of affect, guilt, remorse, and empathy. Factor 2 was defined by a chronically unstable and antisocial lifestyle.
Developed a personality measure designed to be used in practical selection contexts and examined its construct validity. Three duty categories that involved service orientation were reviewed by supervising nurses and incumbent nursing aides and then used to develop a job analysis task inventory. 17 nursing supervisors and 20 incumbent nursing aides completed this inventory. The Hogan Personality Inventory was used as an item pool. Criterion specification proceeded through 2 steps that involved supervisors' ratings of 101 nursing aides along the 3 duty categories and direct evaluation of service orientation. Concurrent validity studies were conducted with 4 additional samples: 37 senior nursing students (19–32 yrs old), 30 employees of a suburban nursing home, 100 clerical personnel of a large insurance firm, and 56 truck drivers. The pattern of correlations was explored with 169 Naval volunteers (aged 19–25 yrs) who also completed selected psychological inventories. Although findings indicate that this Service Orientation Inventory holds promise for assessing aspects of job performance that are unrelated to technical competence but crucial for maintaining good relations between an organization and its customers, the present authors' primary goal was to provide an example of a construct validity study using a personality measure in an applied context. (18 ref)
Several clinical-behavioral and self-report measures of psychopathy were compared in a sample of 274 male prison inmates. The assessment procedures included global clinical ratings, a 22-item checklist, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), a self-report version of the 22-item checklist, the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inventory, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Agreement among the various assessment procedures was evaluated with correlational analyses, discriminant function analyses, and kappa coefficients of diagnostic agreement. There was much stronger agreement among the clinical-behavioral measures (ratings, checklist, and DSM-III) than there was among the self-report measures. Agreement between these two measurement domains was, with few exceptions, rather poor.
Pathological lying, deception, and manipulation are key clinical features of the psychopath (sociopath, antisocial personality). We present some clinical accounts and theories of these behaviors, and we review recent research in which self-report inventories, psychological tests, and polygraph examinations were administered to male criminal psychopaths. In general, there is a marked discrepancy between these empirical findings and clinical/behavioral manifestations of deception by psychopaths, perhaps because laboratory measures related to deception lack sensitivity and ecological validity with this particular population.
We investigated the psychometric properties of an 18-item modification of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) in a sample of 75 male young offenders incarcerated in a maximum-security institution. The distribution and psychometric properties of PCL scores were similar to those found in samples of young adult inmates. PCL scores were significantly correlated with the number of conduct-disorder symptoms, previous violent offenses, violent behavior in the institution, and violent recidivism. These and related results from several other studies indicate that the PCL shows promise as a research instrument for the assessment of psychopathy in male young offenders.
