Corporate Psychopaths and organizational type

This paper looks at one of the members of the ‘dark triad’ of managers with malevolent personalities and investigates whether Corporate Psychopaths are to be found at greater levels of incidence in any particular type of organization. The paper introduces the topic of research into the characters of leaders and explains why this is important. It then discusses who Psychopaths and Corporate Psychopaths are in comparison with the other members of the ‘dark triad’; Machiavellians and Narcissists. The paper discusses some of the theoretical implications of having Corporate Psychopaths in organizations and then presents some evidence that they are to be found at greater incidence levels in financial service institutions and the civil service rather than in primary industries and retail services. The paper looks at the implications of the presence of Corporate Psychopaths in terms of lower levels of corporate social responsibility and mentions that Corporate Psychopaths also influence productivity and organizational constraints. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.