Psychopaths In The Workplace Essay

A psychopath is a person that meets certain traits such as, showing no emotion, display of irresponsibility, and is developed by their sense of nature. In four articles, “What Is a Psychopath” (1) by William Hirstein, “Psychopathy: An Important Forensic Concept for the 21st Century”(2) by multiple authors, “Criminal Minds Are Different From Yours, Brain Scans Reveal” (3) by Clara Moskowitz, and “Jim Fallon: Exploring the mind of a killer” (4) by Jim Fallon, all have a common theme of a person can be deemed as a psychopath if they meet certain criteria for traits. Psychopaths are generally known to be “emotionally shallow” (1) and that they show a “lack [of] emotion” (3) meaning that they don’t appear to wear their hearts on their sleeve and

The word “psychopath” may call to mind the sadistic Hollywood cannibal Hannibal Lector or the infamous serial killer from the 1970s Ted Bundy. This perception of psychopathy is accurate but incomplete. Psychopaths are significantly more likely to make contact with the criminal justice system and their crimes also tend to be more violent than those of other criminals (Carré et al., 2013). Psychopaths are found to be responsible for approximately 50% of serious crimes and make up about 20% of North American prisons (Hare, 1999).  Psychopaths are notorious for being among society’s most dangerous individuals; however, this category not only refers to the ruthless serial killers, sex-offenders, and stereotypical convicts. In reality, most psychopaths are not criminals. In fact, most psychopaths possess a superficial charm that makes them rather appealing. This paper will focus less on the extreme, criminalized psychopath and more on those whom we might unknowingly encounter in everyday life. After exploring the diagnostic criteria for psychopaths and how the qualities associated with psychopathy tend to be favored in the workplace, this paper will examine how the disorder poses ethical problems for corporations and how society is dealing with the issue.

Toxic workplaces is a systemic and systematic problem to an organizations sustainability. It is important that the leadership develop an organizational culture that does not tolerate aggression and behaviorally supports employees in dealing with it. It is imperative that leaders are equipped with the skills to appropriately access the environment , have the ethical temperament needed to take responsibility for the problem and the skill-set to effectively correct the problem (Ellen & Ascalon, page 189). Emotionally and psychologically toxic workplaces can be framed through the following theories for redress: systems theory explains the interconnectedness and interrelations

According to the information you provided psychopaths in the corporate world are often described as bold, strong, and having leadership qualities. The description of a psychopath in the corporate world does not correspond with what a typical psychopath would be described as. Warning signs of psychopaths in the corporate world would consist of higher communication skills and creativity, but little responsibility and performance. Typically we would not associate a psychopath with a high level-paying job, it just doesn’t seem realistic. It is hard to say how an employer would deal with these types of warning signs because there is no exact way of knowing that someone is a psychopath. If an employer does attempt to bring up the situation at hand

The comment that business people are successful psychopaths and the criminals are unsuccessful psychopaths does make sense to me. In my eyes, it is basically stating business people encompass many more of the traits of a “psychopath” than criminals themselves. Psychopaths are known to be charming, self-interested, and unsympathetic. In my opinion, psychopaths use their personality traits to simply get what they want in life whether it is at the expense of others or not. With that being said, numerous managers or business people merely use their personality traits to get what they want in life or out of their job. For example, to get what they want business people can manipulate others, use their charm, and so on. This quote is not necessarily

Lilienfeld et al. put forward a well-founded argument for the manifestations of psychopathic personality traits in the business world. Their research in general is very thorough and well-supported; it is based on a current selection of empirical research that

They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them, and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages” (Wood). Psychopaths have an innate ability to seek out and discover weaknesses in people, and make it a personal goal to target those weaknesses. They tend to carry a very low level of anxiety, and are rarely stressed. They are unlikely to hold a job for any length of time, as they begin to question the ways of their employers and they become uninterested in the tasks assigned to them. Their impulsivity keeps them from planning long-term, which results in a high occurrence of debt-fault (Wood.)

Employees should have the right to feel safe in their work environment and to be free from workplace bullying. Employers need to be held accountable and have a plan in place to protect the employees from this type of violence. Barbara McCulloch is a mediator who has developed a process of mediation to address the complicated issues of bullying behavior in the workplace (McCulloch, 2010). Barbara suggests that

When it comes to selecting an employee for a job position, personality comes into play on account of the fact that it can affect behavior in the workplace. Whether positive or negative effects, it is important for the possibility of aggressive behavior to be considered as to avoid hiring persons who prove to be dishonorable toward the business through their negative actions. After reading “An Integrative Typology of Personality Assessment for Aggression: Implications for Predicting Counterproductive Workplace Behavior,” the authors heavily emphasize two cognitions: explicit and implicit. Their main concentration for this particular study involves aggression and how to properly test it using self-report as well as a type of “integrative typology.” The implicit cognition is “not accessible to consciousness and therefore measurable only by indirect means,” suggesting that testing for aggressiveness requires “an indirect measurement… integrated with a self-report” (page 723). The study sets out to prove the validity of these methods as a useful tool for businesses to determine the capabilities, whether positive or negative, of their potential or current employees.

Traits associated to a psychopath include irresponsibility, manipulation, grandioseness, lack of empathy, asocial tendencies, inability to feel remorse, refusal to take responsibility for one's actions and superficial relations with others. Modern day corporations display every one of the previously listed characteristics. Is it right that an institution, whose power now rivals that of the State that once created it to seek the better welfare of its citizens, display the psychological traits of a dangerous personality disorder? Many say no: there is a rising discomfort with the corporation and its pervasion into every sphere of human life and it is this uneasiness that has prompted many academics to further study the corporation and its

Workplace deviance, “voluntary behavior… that violates significant organizational norms and in doing so threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both,” (Robinson and Bennett, 1995).is a major concern in the workplace today. There are a multiple types of workplace deviance that individuals’ behavior can be classified as. Several of these types can be very disruptive and impactful to an organization. For a company to invest time and dedication in researching these common behaviors would be extremely valuable. Being aware of what triggers these behaviors is one way of research that will make a difference. Another way is through establishing possible approaches of prevention to these behavioral mishaps. With taking even as little

Studying behavioral characteristics of a certain group of people is a fascinating aspect of psychology. The psychopaths are some of the most extreme characters that intrigue psychiatrists. In many criminal cases involving psychopaths, it is required that a psychiatric examination is performed on the accused.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter-relationship of incivility and toxicity, how bullies are able to become toxic managers, and how they are allowed to develop in a toxic organization. We also analyze the development of organizational pain and how toxin handlers deal it with. Finally, we hope to assess if there is any validity to claims that ‘Generation Z’ is responsible for the recent prevalence of workplace toxicity.

Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,

The social exchange theory on the other hand gives a theoretical perspective in sociology. This theory views social behavior in terms of the pursuit of a reward and the avoidance of other forms of costs and punishments. According to this theory, individuals engage in social interactions for the primary goal of meeting their needs, thus implying to the fact that a basic unit of analysis is in the relationship between the actors. The exchange theorists in line with this therefore view social relations and structures as generated by the ties that unite people in various associations.