Monday, December 18, 2006
Psychopaths
Note the paragraph on corporate psychopaths in this article.
There's currently a bull market in corporate psychopaths, according to psychologist Paul Babiak of HRBackOffice, an industrial-consulting firm in Hopewell Junction, N.Y. Organizations undergoing major changes, such as downsizing or mergers, provide a chaotic atmosphere that savvy psychopaths exploit, Babiak holds. They cozy up to a firm's power brokers, manipulate coworkers, and intimidate underlings on their way up the corporate ladder, stealing everything possible along the way.
I can't say I've met a true psychopath in the corporate environment, although I believe I know of one individual outside of business who shows characteristics of the condition.
One individual like this in a business harms an entire organization. One CEO without values will ruin a company. I've met CEOs in my career who had few moral tenets, but at least they had some. I can't say I've ever met one without ethics. I don't know what I would do, if I did -- except get away from the individual as quickly as possible.
There's currently a bull market in corporate psychopaths, according to psychologist Paul Babiak of HRBackOffice, an industrial-consulting firm in Hopewell Junction, N.Y. Organizations undergoing major changes, such as downsizing or mergers, provide a chaotic atmosphere that savvy psychopaths exploit, Babiak holds. They cozy up to a firm's power brokers, manipulate coworkers, and intimidate underlings on their way up the corporate ladder, stealing everything possible along the way.
I can't say I've met a true psychopath in the corporate environment, although I believe I know of one individual outside of business who shows characteristics of the condition.
One individual like this in a business harms an entire organization. One CEO without values will ruin a company. I've met CEOs in my career who had few moral tenets, but at least they had some. I can't say I've ever met one without ethics. I don't know what I would do, if I did -- except get away from the individual as quickly as possible.
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