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This paper aims to look at some of the implications of organisational psychopaths for organisations and corporations.

This paper defines organisational psychopaths as being those psychopaths who exist at an incidence of about 1 percent of the general population and who work in organisations. The paper describes how these organisational psychopaths are able to present themselves as desirable employees and are easily able to obtain positions in organisations. Without the inhibiting effect of a conscience they are then able to ruthlessly charm, lie, cajole and manipulate their way up an organisational hierarchy in pursuit of their main aims of power, wealth and status and at the expense of anyone who gets in their way.

The paper suggests that, just as criminal psychopaths are responsible for a greater share of crimes than their numbers would suggest, so too organisational psychopaths may be responsible for more than their fair share of organisational misbehaviour including accounting fraud, stock manipulation, unnecessarily high job losses and corporately induced environmental damage.

The paper suggests that having organisational psychopaths running corporations that are themselves, at best, amoral is a recipe for negative consequences.

Whilst several studies investigate the attributes of dysfunctional leaders exhibiting corporate psychopathic traits, there is a paucity of longitudinal data exploring the way these leaders damage employees and the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the literature and provide a focus for HR to address these emerging issues within organisations.

A longitudinal and in-depth case study approach is taken to explore the impact on a workplace of a dysfunctional leader exhibiting the traits of a corporate psychopath. A framework is used to analyse the nuances of the behaviours, in particular bullying behaviours and the impact of this leadership style on the workforce over a five-year period.

The long-term negative effects of this type of leadership are identified through a detailed analysis of a trait commonly associated with this toxic style of leader, bullying behaviours and their consequences.

Whilst a single case study allows for in-depth analysis, it may be seen as atypical and of limited application. However, the longitudinal approach is ideal to investigate the nuance of how a highly dysfunctional leader operates within and through the multiple layers of an organisation.

The paper identifies the traits and effects of a dysfunctional leader on an organisation to enable the organisation primarily through human resources to deal with them and their behaviours.

The finding of this study adds to the knowledge of identifying and dealing with toxic behaviours in the workplace.

The longitudinal nature of the study provides a unique insight into the behaviours and damage of a dysfunctional leader within the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to adapt the research conducted on subclinical psychopaths in the private sector and applies it to the public sector to build a conceptual frame for further research on subclinical psychopaths in public organisations. General characteristics of entrepreneurs often run counter to democratic values, and are more often aligned with private sector values. Public managers who display one of the dark-triad personalities, i.e., psychopathy, can pose a greater threat to democratic values and the state.

The approach of this paper is theoretical with the aim of proposing a conceptual framework that utilises Downs’ five types of officials governing bureaucracies, to illustrate a relationship between public entrepreneurs and subclinical psychopaths.

The conceptual framework presented in this paper suggests that psychopathic entrepreneurs can be identified within Downs’ bureaucratic framework specifically as climbers (due to inherent personality traits) and as zealots (heroic and altruistic behaviour for organisational causes, yet motivated by power, domination, and self-interest). The implications of psychopathic public managers who engage in entrepreneurial activities may be escalating public distrust, hostility, and dissatisfaction in government.

This theoretical paper adds to the growing body of criticism for public entrepreneurship by conceptualising how psychopaths, as climbers and zealots, affect public trust in terms of accountability and democratic values.

Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic traits are often viewed as negative or undesirable personality traits. However, recent research demonstrates that individuals with these traits possess qualities that may be personally beneficial within the business contexts. In this chapter, we conceptualize a balanced perspective of these traits throughout the entrepreneurial process (opportunity recognition, opportunity evaluation, and opportunity exploitation) and discuss human resources management strategies that can be employed to enhance the benefits, or minimize the challenges, associated with Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic traits. Specifically, we propose that Machiavellian qualities are most beneficial in the evaluation stage of entrepreneurship, and Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic qualities are beneficial in the exploitation stage of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether business students deceive others more often than non-business students.

A cheap talk experiment and an ethics questionnaire are employed to examine the subject’s behavior. Fundamental differences, such as psychopathic personality, are used to examine their role in deceptive and unethical behavior.

The results show that business students deceive others for personal gain more often than non-business students when there is the most to gain; however, business students find deception committed by others as unethical. Business students exhibit more psychopathic tendencies compared to non-business students, including being more likely to fit the prototypical psychopath profile. This fundamental difference in psychopathy can help explain why individuals deceive others and behave unethically.

These results have important implications for the business industry and the design of policies.

Thus, this study endeavors to advance the literature on fundamental distinctions between those who work in high levels of organizations and how this fundamental difference impacts decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between psychopathy and its underlying traits and financial risk and time preferences.

The authors measure risk and time preferences using both the cumulative prospect theory and quasi-hyperbolic time discounting in a sample of business majors. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised test is then used to measure the global psychopathy and eight primary and two secondary traits of the sample of business majors. The measures of psychopathy are used as explanatory variables to model variation in subjects’ time and risk preferences.

The authors find that the overall score on the continuum of psychopathy is positively related to the linearity of the cumulative prospective utility function. A breakdown of psychopathy into its secondary and primary traits shows a more complex relation. For example, the secondary trait of self-centered impulsivity is statistically significant in models of financial risk preference determinants under the cumulative prospect theory. The authors find that the primary traits of self-centered impulsivity and stress immunity are related to a higher time preference discount rate under quasi-hyperbolic time preferences.

This paper adds to the literature on personality and financial decisions and highlights the importance of psychopathy in finance.

Purpose – Both misbehavior and commitment in organizations have attracted substantial attention. This chapter reviews the misbehavior and commitment literature to investigate the implicit negative correlation between these two important organizational phenomena.

Methodology/approach – A four-dimensional typology of counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs) is developed from the misbehavior literature, describing individual behaviors in terms of: their target(s), the vehicle for misbehavior, their social acceptability, and their quantity. The typology facilitates characterization of CWBs, and, more generally, comparisons between workplace commitment and the field of misbehavior, comprising the range of CWBs.

Findings – The chapter supports the assumed negative relationship between commitment and misbehavior although the strength of the relationship varies across some of the four dimensions.

Research limitations/implications – The reliance on secondary data limits evaluation of the typology. Further research using primary data is commended.

Practical implications – More insightful audits of organizational misbehavior can be produced to guide interventions. For example, CWBs that are directed at individuals, through a person's work role, and are socially unacceptable will require different interventions to those who are directed at the organization, through extra-role behavior, and are more socially acceptable (e.g., minor thefts).

Social implications – Clarifying the impact of CWBs on commitment and, hence, turnover, etc., highlights the cost of CWBs and may motivate organizations to address CWBs and, thereby, promote healthier workplaces.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter is novel in developing a more comprehensive typology of CWBs. Describing the various CWBs in a single, comprehensive framework provides additional insight into misbehavior.