Psychopathology of the Boss

April 8, 2007 10:17 PM

Boss Science: The Psychopathology of the modern American corporate leader.The personality which wins the promotion game has dubious overlap with characteristics of effective leadership. Many organizational psychologists argue that the "emergent" boss is often a narcissist who, because he "manages to act like he already is the boss," is "socially skilled at adjusting his personality," and is charismatic, rises and entrenches himself to the detriment of the organization. Some, though, "extol[] the virtues of the narcissist’s selfishness, ethical blindness, and lack of empathy as indispensable to being an agent of change in a large corporation—or the world."
posted by shivohum (37 comments total)

Alpha Male: Now reinforced with tactical urination.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 10:44 PM on April 8, 2007

You've got to be trusted
by the people that you lie to
so when they turn their backs on you
you'll get the chance .. to put the knife in!
/sing

I was just listening to Pink Floyd's Animals today, these guys are the dogs they were singing about.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:11 PM on April 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Pop-Psych reinforces common stereotype, film at 11.
posted by Firas at 11:25 PM on April 8, 2007

Love the conceit of the subheadings though, specially the Rousseau one.
posted by Firas at 12:04 AM on April 9, 2007

Talk about tactical urination...

My boss spells out his supposed AlphaMale status by never flushing the toilet when things are stressful at work.

There are 6 of us in the office (3 men, 3 women) with one toilet. I think I can pretty much go a lifetime without having to see his shit and get rid of it ever again.
posted by gerls at 12:37 AM on April 9, 2007

Why ascribe success to narcissism, when incompetence is more probable?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:38 AM on April 9, 2007

"extol[] the virtues of the narcissist’s selfishness, ethical blindness, and lack of empathy as indispensable to being an agent of change in a large corporation—or the world."

They even get paid handsomely.
posted by hal9k at 1:13 AM on April 9, 2007

Why does everything have to be "psychopathological"? And if you must diagnose a boss with something, why not "manic" or "bipolar" instead of "narcissistic"? Or maybe "Borderline Personality," "closet queen" or "neurasthenic"? Who or what exactly is to be dismissed or discounted by these labels?
posted by davy at 1:32 AM on April 9, 2007

Has anyone done 'The Psychopathology of the modern Psychologist selling snake oil for age old problems' by dressing up stereotypes with pseudo scientific jargon?
posted by sien at 4:05 AM on April 9, 2007

blazecock: cause "peter principle" , the way it is represented in Wiki, assumes people is promoted for seeming competent at their current position.

If the change in hierarchy level requires a change of the set of qualities needed to succeed , there is no guarantee the person will express the qualities needed. Yet the promotion is often seeked by many because it often implies more power (good to keep you out of some trouble) and more money , which is usually seen as a good tradeoff for less free time. So it is obviously used as an incentive that is often less expensive than a salary increase proportional to how good you are at your job. That's part of the reason why you have walmart's "associates" and everbody has a title the lenght of a bible.

As far as I know nothing attracts some people more then recognition (even false) of how excellent he/she is , power to kick away those who display he's an ordinary tool undermining his frail self-confidence, money to buy more bling and status symbols.

Obviously, as they are not stupid, they will surround themselves of useful subordinates that will compensate their shortcomings..aka do his/her job ; yet as they are more concerned about obtaining the next power level or maintaining their present one, company success logically become secondary objective, if an objective at all.

As their sidekicks recognize the boss shortcomings, they are likely to require more compensation in an attempt to offset
the distaste of working for an incompent+asshole..or become depressed by feeling cornered into a situation in which escaping means high risk of not finding a job (and high costs) and remaining means being discredited AND mistreated by the boss.

Most of the times, in my experience, they don't get compensation , transfer part of their induced psycological problems to coworkers and familes..generally reducing and damaging producivity , they become negatively conditioned escapists.

Imho this is only more likely to happen in a society in which the majority of stocks are held by public, the dividends aren't distributed and the CEO/CIO/NOTYOURACRONYM can get immense compensation packages while shifting most of the risks to the mass stockholders.
posted by elpapacito at 4:10 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

There is nothing wrong with narcissism, which is why it prevailed as an evolutionary trait. People who complain about narcissism without context remind me of people who complain members of the military are too tough, too eager to kill, and not sensitive to geo-politics. You can't be a leader if you don't have narcissistic traits. Altrusim and selflessness are myths and only serve to support propagation of a culture or species (if communism taught the world anything, it is that). Without narcissists most of us probably wouldn't be around to notice the lack of narcissism.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 5:17 AM on April 9, 2007

*awaits TPS report*
posted by seanyboy at 5:27 AM on April 9, 2007

There is nothing wrong with narcissism, which is why it prevailed as an evolutionary trait.

Well that's just nonsense. What does evolution have to do with right and wrong?

You can't be a leader if you don't have narcissistic traits.

Yeah that's also pretty dumb. It's doubtful that narcissism would likely be of any use in the small, close-knit groups that defined pre-history.

Altrusim and selflessness are myths and only serve to support propagation of a culture or species (if communism taught the world anything, it is that).

I feel like you ought to be given some sort of prize for what may be one of the silliest comments ever of the blue. But then New York magazine's latest attempt to titillate yuppies doesn't deserve anything more.
posted by nixerman at 5:56 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

There is nothing wrong with narcissism, which is why it prevailed as an evolutionary trait.

Pop-psych in the FPP...

Evolutionary psych in the comments...

Together they will form... Pseudobot! Destroyer of reason!
posted by Alex404 at 6:12 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

The traits described in the article are actually more characteristic of antisocial personality than narcissism-- and there's actually a body of literature on how sociopathy can be both an evolutionarily sound strategy (which doesn't imply anything about "goodness" or "badness" unless you are of the insane view that all that is natural is good) and how sociopaths often rise in corporate structures.

There's a somewhat recent film on the corporation itself as sociopath
which sounds interesting as well.
posted by Maias at 6:17 AM on April 9, 2007

Pop-Psych reinforces common stereotype

Hrm... what makes it pop psychology? Seems like the psychologists described in the article used widely-accepted methods of personality testing to derive their results, no?
posted by shivohum at 6:33 AM on April 9, 2007

My boss spells out his supposed AlphaMale status by never flushing the toilet when things are stressful at work.

One of my bosses at my last job was a true robber-baron dot-com gazillionaire asshole. Also, a few days after announcing layoffs, he happened to go to the urinal next to me and start trying to talk to me, and everytime thereafter. I started using the stall just to avoid him. Another day in the elevator, we were riding up and he said "Lot going on at once." I responded with a non-commital grunt. "Lot of uncertainty." Another grunt. We got to our floor and he look me in the eye and said "Uncertainty is very disarming." and walked off. His MySpace page descbies him as a bisexual swinger. Wonderful. I've heard he's since been sent packing.
posted by jonmc at 6:34 AM on April 9, 2007

Well that's just nonsense. What does evolution have to do with right and wrong?

Right and wrong are social constructs. Nature does not care about right and wrong and humans barely do (see such notions as a "just war"). Evolution seeks propagation and all notions of "morality" are what serve evolution's goals. The very concept of leadership is due to this, hence why every decision made doesn't depend on the agreement of 100% in the name of harmony and love for the views of an entire society.

"Right and wrong" do not belong in discussions about nature. They do belong in discussions about what sort of society we want to construct. Hobbes dealt with all this centuries ago.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 6:43 AM on April 9, 2007

Evolution seeks propagation and all notions of "morality" are what serve evolution's goals.

Evolution has goals?
posted by Alex404 at 7:30 AM on April 9, 2007

Evolution has goals?

Yes, albeit not in strictly conscious terms. Evolution's goals are essentially biologically determinist. Although, there is a huge debate going on about how influential this is in an intellectual or socially constructed (i.e. moral society). I still say it is always essentially B.D. because even in a world of cultural difference, the same power lust and the same conspicuous disregard for the individual pervades.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 7:36 AM on April 9, 2007

Don't you find BD to be a little suspect? Isn't the capacity to wave your hand at any human behavior and say 'Evolution's Plan' awfully reminiscent of a Christian's capacity to wave their hand at any behavior and say 'God's plan?'

If not, please explain to me how they differ.
posted by Alex404 at 7:44 AM on April 9, 2007

Gnostic Novelist, have you ever actually encountered narcissists? I don't mean narcissists in the general use of the term, the way that we think of someone being particularly vain or self-regarding, I mean actual mentally ill people. I've been unfortunate enough to have a grandmother who is so afflicted, and it's incredibly destructive- it's led to massive amounts of psychological and emotional pain. Your handwaving of it and your assertion that leaders must possess narcissistic traits betrays your lack of understanding.

Narcissism is not some kind of morally neutral thing here. It is a serious mental illness that needs to be diagnosed and treated, not celebrated by people who think evolution is teleological.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:55 AM on April 9, 2007

Don't you find BD to be a little suspect? Isn't the capacity to wave your hand at any human behavior and say 'Evolution's Plan' awfully reminiscent of a Christian's capacity to wave their hand at any behavior and say 'God's plan?' If not, please explain to me how they differ.

Because "God's Plan" also means that this is the way things should be -- not just the way things are.
posted by Slothrup at 8:05 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm very curious how these traits might correlate to U.S. Presidents and presidential candidates. Both in terms of evaluating how society should choose one, and how we already do.
posted by dhartung at 8:17 AM on April 9, 2007

Gnostic Novelist, have you ever actually encountered narcissists? I don't mean narcissists in the general use of the term, the way that we think of someone being particularly vain or self-regarding, I mean actual mentally ill people

Yes, I worked on a psych ward, and much of it depends on social constructs. It many totalitarian countries, political dissent is a mark of mental illness. It also makes sense that rampant individual focus will be considered mentally ill. The mark of more objective mental illness would be the consequences of one's actions without social restraint, hence a 'sane' murderer is more mentally ill than an insane man doing no harm to any one else. Mentally ill people don't actually, statistically, do the most harm to society. They at most engage in behavior other people don't like or don't approve of. One only has to look at the fact that homosexuality was a mental illness and barely survived a vote (by about 14%) to strike it from the DSM as a mental illness. Homosexuality is associated with a host of pathological behaviors, from pedophilia (even though most offenders are hetero) to narcissism. What is overlooked are the social factors leading to it and social factors that condemn the behavior in homosexuals but not heterosexuals.

I don't even have to get into the belief in Virgin births and other such assorted magical thinking. Mental illness is a social construct and this isn't to say there aren't brain disorders, but behavior can only be a disorder in terms of social construction. If a society says a weird behavior isn't weird but "inspired by God" or "inspired by class consciousness" then it isn't a mental illness.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 8:28 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I agree with you, Alex404, in the sense that invoking either "biological determinism" or "god's plan" is a very handy explanation for a course of action that may be suspect. The Elizabethan Poor Laws or GWOT, for example.
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:36 AM on April 9, 2007

Homosexuality hasn't been in the DSM since DSM-III, IIRC- it's certainly not in my copy of the DSM-IV. And I doubt that someone who works in a psych ward (as what, an orderly? office staff? surely not in a treatment function, given your answer) is going to encounter narcissists, since narcissists are emotionally and psychologically harmful to others rather than physically dangerous.

But hey, way to turn "narcissists are sick individuals who hurt people" into "explain why the designation of particular constellations of actions and psychological traits as 'mental illness' in order to recognise and treat patterns of behavior is invalid according to a relativistic view of the world". That takes skill.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:37 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Also, Gnostic Novelist, "sane" or "insane" are words that mean nothing in relationship to mental illness; they are legal constructs.

I believe that the correct terminology is CCFCCP*

*coo-coo for cocoa puffs.
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:41 AM on April 9, 2007

Narcissists don't always win.

They're good at striking leadership poses, at playing the corporate game. (Much better than people like me, that's for damn sure.) But being good at something doesn't guarantee success, especially in an environment as volatile and unpredictable as American office politics. Narcissists lose out to other narcissists and to non-narcissists as well.

The narcissist in the corner office is outnumbered by narcissists who occupy much humbler positions on the food chain.
posted by jason's_planet at 8:46 AM on April 9, 2007

This would be a much better conversation if everyone pretended they were DaffyDuck when saying "narcissist".

Narthathtithst season!!
posted by spicynuts at 8:58 AM on April 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Narcissistic traits v. Narcisisstic Personality Disorder...

Narcissists make horrible bosses.
posted by blurb at 9:12 AM on April 9, 2007

I just wish every mass-market exploration of corporate psychology didn't reference Steve Carell ...

I *am* a boss, though not likely one of those the article is discussing. I work in an organization that pays much less than industry averages, and I took the promotion grudgingly to get a 15% raise.

Ah, screw it. I'm just a middle manager, I suppose, though I have been promoted a bunch at all my jobs, with virtually zero ambition (other than not having to work very hard) and no (OK, few) narcissistic traits.

My biggest problems are delegation, time management, and trying to make my employees more productive. They all like me OK, but we're not the most productive group in the organization.

In fact, effective leadership correlates with low agreeableness.

Hmm. Probably true. That's the funny thing. I'm actually a very good leader, but I'm not a good boss. That's most likely because I'd be much happier to get laid off and get a decent severance, find another job, and start all over at the entry level. Unfortunately, I'm not selfish (smart) enough to willfully stop being productive.

My problem is that I want to "work" (at for-profit companies) as little as possible. I'd much rather "work" for free, volunteering, coaching junior soccer/basketball, etc., but I've proven unambitious enough (or too lazy?) to make my own way in the world. Kinda sad.

I think that the article confuses Charisma with Narcissism a bit. I have the former in spades, but I have a rather negative self-image.

it’s a tragic fact of the human condition that the world changes, the cheese gets moved, and someone has to move it.

Say what now? That article ended very badly ... that whole last page was worthless.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:12 AM on April 9, 2007

New Narc City: Sam Vaknin and the Narcissism of Wall Street.

Spotting psychopaths at work.

My boss, the bitch.

Narcissists, Psychopaths and Bullying in Business.

Narcissism in the Boardroom.

Dattner Consulting,The impact of narcissism on self- and other- rated fairness in the workplace.

Corporate Kleptocracy.

Corporate bullying. Corporate Hyenas at Work! How to spot and outwit them by being Hyenawise.

Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons.

Working With the Self-Absorbed: How to Handle Narcissistic Personalities on the Job (Paperback).

No. 1 Reason People Quit Their Jobs.

DSM-IV traits of a pathological narcissist.

Narcissists and Psychopaths in Politics.
posted by nickyskye at 9:24 AM on April 9, 2007 [3 favorites]

One can rearrange the letters of 'Michael Scott' to get the name of the person who is the academic equivalent and created this web page. Ahem.
posted by Wash Jones at 10:00 AM on April 9, 2007

If evolution selected for narcissism, there would be far more narcissists. Otherwise, it's just another idiot tooth that hasn't been removed from the gene pool yet.
posted by drezdn at 10:51 AM on April 9, 2007

And now I'm convinced that Gnostic Novelist is Theodore Dalrymple.
posted by drezdn at 11:00 AM on April 9, 2007

The speciality of Dr. Anthony Benis at Mt. Sinai Hospital is the genetic study of personality disorders, pathological narcissism in particular. He has an entertaining forum discussing the personality traits of royalty.

Charisma, Crowd Psychology and Altered States of Consciousness. If I remember correctly, Max Weber, social psychologist, discussed the idea that there is a role for pathological narcissists in society as iconoclasts, that the foundation of emotionally healthier, humbler, empathic society can become complacent and narcissists can paradoxically be tremendously creative while being monstrously destructive.
posted by nickyskye at 11:22 AM on April 9, 2007