CORPORATE PSYCHOPATHS : NEWS ARTICLE
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Published:
Saturday, May 06, 2006
VANCOUVER - Twelve years ago,
when Robert Hare published his ground-breaking book on psychopathy, Without
Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, the author stated
that psychopaths can be found working the stock market and prowling corporate
boardrooms.
Hare has now co-authored, with
New York corporate psychologist Paul Babiak, a new book on that very subject.
Snakes in Suits (Regan Books/HarperCollins), to be released on Tuesday,
examines the phenomenon of white-collar psychopaths.
Most people associate psychopathy
with serial murders and other violent crimes, but the majority of psychopaths
are non-violent. Psychopathic executives do share common characteristics with
thrill-killers, however.
They are manipulative and
controlling, lack emotional depth, and care nothing about harm done to others
as they go about their business. Often they are charming and likeable, although
they're more likely to turn the charm on around those who are in positions of
power, and act ruthlessly to those who are not.
Think of a psychopath as a
social predator who s attracted to areas where there is some sort of advantage
to be obtained, says Mr.
Hare in an interview.
They go where the action is,
and the action is where you can get power and prestige and control.
If you have somebody who has
all the social skills, is fairly intelligent, attractive and raised in the
right environment, this person isn t going to rob a bank, he s going to get in
the bank.
Mr. Hare, professor emeritus of
psychology at the University of British Columbia and president of Darkstone
Research Group, says that about one per cent of the general population fit the
psychopathy profile. That area will be lower in certain areas, such as a
convent or a social work agency, and higher in others -- such as law,
politics and business.
It s almost certainly higher
than one per cent in the corporate world, says Mr. Hare. Would you want a manager who
scored well (in a psychopathy test) and could operate in a convent or a
monastery quite well? Probably not. You d want someone who s hard-driving and
aggressive and can be ruthless when it s important to be ruthless.
Many of these psychopathic
traits can actually be advantageous and useful in business.
Mr. Hare has developed a number
of screening checklists for psychopaths, but doesn t feel companies need to use
them when hiring people. He does, however, hope those in charge of hiring would
look beyond the interview process, because psychopaths are so good at
manipulating an interview to make an impression.
Quite often we don't
thoroughly investigate individuals right at the front end, he says, noting that a person s
credentials often go unchecked. A psychopath with proper social skills and
intelligence and who's reasonably good-looking can easily fake out any
personnel manager. It's not very difficult to get in.
We go by first impressions,
and quite often, if the impression is very favourable, we don't go beyond that.
Psychopaths thrive in chaotic
situations. In business, they do well in companies that have upsized, downsized
or restructured, when things are changing so rapidly, nobody has a chance to
keep track of someone, says Mr. Hare.
In the old days, you had a
stable corporate structure where everyone knew everyone else and you worked
your way up. Nowadays, people are parachuted in. There are corporate takeovers.
You don't know who's doing what. That's a good environment for (psychopaths).
We hear of those with
psychopathic tendencies who have crashed -- Enron executives, for example --
but too often psychopaths continue to thrive.
One of the themes of our new
book is someone who did just that, says Mr. Hare. Many of these people crash and burn, but a lot of them
don t.
- - -
I hired a psychopath!
According to Dr. Robert Hare, the
incidence of psychopathy stands at about one per cent in North America, meaning
that, in Canada alone, there could be more than 300,000 psychopaths. The
question is: Are you working with one, or for one, or is one sizing up your
office?
Signs of a psychopath at work
include the following:
- Gives the perfect interview,
and quickly becomes everybody s favourite employee.
- Can be charming and exudes
confidence and determination -- but may seem too good to be true.
- Works way into a high-powered
position or gets assigned important projects because he or she has associated
only with people who can advance his or her career.
- Soon becomes controlling and
abusive toward other employees, starts to break small rules, manipulate
colleagues, and gets caught blaming others for his faults.
- It is later revealed that he or
she has been destroying the management while pushing his or her way to the top.
Source: Snakes in Suits, by Dr.
Robert Hare
_____________________________________© The Ottawa Citizen 2006