Northcentral University s1

NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Learner: Jason Walker

THIS FORM MUST BE COMPLETELY FILLED IN

Please Follow These Procedures: If requested by your mentor, use an assignment cover sheet as the first page of the word processor file. The assignment header should include the Learner’s last name, first initial, course code, dash, and assignment number (DoeJXXX0000-1) justified to the left and the page number justified to the right.

Keep a Photocopy or Electronic Copy of Your Assignments: You may need to re-submit assignments if your mentor has indicated that you may or must do so.

Academic Integrity: All work submitted in each course must be the Learner’s own. This includes all assignments, exams, term papers, and other projects required by the faculty mentor. The known submission of another person’s work represented as that of the Learner’s without properly citing the source of the work will be considered plagiarism and will result in an unsatisfactory grade for the work submitted or for the entire course, and may result in academic dismissal.

PSY7108 / Dr. Ackerman
Qualitative Research Design / A4

Faculty Use Only

NorthCentral University

Assignment 4

PSY7108

Mentor: Dr.Ackerman

Submitted By: Jason Walker MSW, PhD Student

#181846

May 2014

Introduction

Psychopaths commit an offence, go to prison, then come out and commit the offence again, because they fail to learn from the prison experience. What is novel about the psychopath is that their character traits mirror incredibly successful attributes seen in CEO’s and other leaders.

There was a time when successful and rich people were known by the amount of charity they did for the society. The irony it seems that as the stock markets rule the world of business and what the CEOs do every day and every month, traits insincerity, lack of truthfulness and lack of remorse and shame become second nature. Psychopathy is a grouping of personality characteristics including glibness, manipulation, callousness, and lack of emotion, irresponsibility, impulsivity and aggression.

The prevalence in the general population as it relates to psychopaths is approximately one per cent. In an article by Cangemi and Pfohl (2009) featuring ‘Sociopaths in high places’ they argue that it well known that top executives and CEO’s in the mainstream workforce display adaptive psychopathic personality traits.

As an evolving forensic science, research requires focus moving from maladaptive psychopathic traits towards adaptive characteristics that, save for empathy, demonstrate how successful people can manage this behaviour. Further, there is a lack of data to explore and explain gender difference as it relates to psychopathic traits in leadership roles. The key goal of this research is to examine the relationship between gender and adaptive psychopathic traits in senior corporate leaders.

Literature Review

Work by Zona, Minoja & Coda (2013) examines the antecedents of corporate scandals. Corporate scandals are defined as rare events occurring at the apex of corporate fame when managerial fraud suddenly emerges in conjunction with a significant gap between perceived corporate success and actual economic conditions. Previous studies on managerial fraud have examined the antecedents of illegal acts in isolation from strategic decisions and in terms of CEOs' individual responses to the external context. This study frames the antecedents of corporate scandals in terms of the interplay of CEOs' personal traits with corporate strategy and stakeholders' cohesion.

Boddy (2012) looks at why corporate psychopaths, as one particularly pernicious type of dysfunctional leader, should be of interest to marketers. One reason is because of the negative impact of corporate psychopaths on some of the antecedents of Corporate Reputation. The paper discusses how corporate psychopaths through their direct action and via their example to others, undermines some of the key drivers of corporate reputation such as good communications, job satisfaction and corporate social responsibility. As well past research is examined which found that in the presence of managers who are Corporate psychopaths, a corporation's levels of perceived corporate social responsibility, good communications and commitment to employees go down. Simultaneously, levels of conflict and organizational constraints go up. The negative impact of the presence of corporate psychopaths in an organization is discussed and the implications for marketers are drawn out. The paper finishes by hypothesizing that the presence of corporate psychopaths will probably affect some of the other areas of marketing that influence corporate reputation as well. This includes levels of marketing service provision and delivery, marketing orientation, job related stress, marketing ethics and management credibility and trustworthiness.

This study by Boddy, Ladyshewsky, and Galvin (2010) investigated whether employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were associated with the presence of corporate psychopaths in corporations. The article states that, as psychopaths are 1% of the population, it is logical to assume that every large corporation has psychopaths working within it. To differentiate these people from the common perception of psychopaths as being criminals, they have been called 'Corporate Psychopaths' in this research. The article presents quantitative empirical research into the influence of corporate psychopaths on four perceptual measures of CSR and three further measures of organizational commitment to employees. They argue that when corporate psychopaths are present in leadership positions within organizations, employees are less likely to agree with views that: the organization does business in a socially desirable manner; does business in an environmentally friendly manner and that the organization does business in a way that benefits the local community. Also, when corporate psychopaths are present in leadership positions within organizations, employees are significantly less likely to agree that the corporation does business in a way that shows commitment to employees, significantly less likely to feel that they receive due recognition for doing a good job, to feel that their work was appreciated and to feel that their efforts were properly rewarded. Leadership has become a more popular term than management, even though it is understood that both phenomena represent important organizational behaviors.

This paper by Holt and Marques (2012) focuses on empathy in leadership, and presents the findings of a study conducted among business students over the course of 3 years. Finding that empathy consistently ranked lowest in the ratings, the researchers set out to discover the driving motives behind this invariable trend, and conducted a second study to obtain opinions about possible underlying factors. Issues related to corporate psychopaths on ethical performance, and scholars' perception on empathy in corporate leadership is examined. The findings indicate the need for a paradigm shift in corporations as well as business schools in regards to leaders' required skills, and suggest a proactive approach from business faculty to change the current paradigm.

Work by Furnham, Crump, and Ritchie (2013) examined over 6000 adult managers attending an assessment centre completed a battery of tests including a ‘bright side’ personality trait measure (NEO-PI-R); a ‘dark side’/disorders measure (HDS), an ability test (GMA) and also specified, in detail, how long it had been before they were promoted to a managerial role, and also, where appropriate to a senior managerial role. Correlation analyses showed shorter times to promotion were associated with low Neuroticism, high Extraversion, high Conscientiousness, and high Intelligence, as well as being high on Bold and Colorful, but low on Cautious, Reserved and Leisurely “dark side” traits. Regressions showed the higher-order, dark side factors named “Moving against” people positively, and “Away from” and “Moving toward” people negatively, were associated with promotions. Implications for the selection and management of people, as well as limitations of this study are considered.

Work by Westerlaken and Woods (2013) argued that while emerging research suggests psychopathic traits and leadership behaviors may be linked, this proposition requires further empirical investigation. This study aims to examine the relationship between psychopathic traits and the Full Range Leadership Model, which includes transformational, transactional, and passive leadership styles. Using a cross-sectional design, survey data was collected from 115 students who reported having management experience. Measures included the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-Revised. A four-factor structure of psychopathy positively correlated with passive leadership behavior, namely passive-management-by-exception and laissez-faire, but negatively correlated with individual consideration. This study addresses a research need, and is one of the first to empirically examine the relationship between psychopathic traits and the Full Range Leadership Model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Mathieu, Neumann, Hare and Babiak (2014) examined how psychopathy often is considered the most toxic of the “types” that make up the Dark Triad of personality (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism), its role in organizational leadership is the least explored. Using the B-Scan 360, a measure of corporate psychopathy, we investigated the relationships among employees’ perceptions of psychopathic traits in their supervisors, employee psychological distress, work–family conflict, and job satisfaction. Participants in two different samples, one civic and the other financial, rated their supervisors with the B-Scan 360, and completed self-report measures of psychological distress, work–family conflict, and job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that in each sample B-Scan 360 scores of supervisors were directly and negatively related to employee job satisfaction. The two samples differed somewhat in the associations of the B-Scan 360 with employee psychological distress and work–family conflict. Overall, the results illustrate the effects of perceived psychopathic traits in supervisors on employee well being and job-related attitudes.

Methods

Grounded theory is a complex iterative process (Bryant, & Charmaz, 2007). The research begins with the raising of generative questions, which help to guide the research but are not intended to be either static or confining. As the researcher begins to gather data, core theoretical concept(s) are identified. Tentative linkages are developed between the theoretical core concepts and the data. This early phase of the research tends to be very open and can take months. Later on the researcher is more engaged in verification and summary. The effort tends to evolve toward one core category that is central. For the purposes of examining the narrative in corporate psychopaths grounded theory would allow for a process to take place in which the research continues to grow and build upon itself allowing for appropriate coding and analysis to occur that would guide research outcomes.

A random sample of corporate leaders (CEO, COO, VP’s, ED’s, Directors) would be drawn from with preferably equal female and male participants. In this case likely 10-12 (6 male 6 female) would be appropriate. Through the use of structured interviews, trained interviewers would meet one-on-one with the participants allowing for the Hare Psycopathology Checklist and then research driven questions around actions, feelings and beliefs would be administered. The setting would likely be in the work environment of the participant so as to elicit responses that are ‘natural’ and in real time. The caveat would be that the participant may feel a psychological advantage, however, given the personality type this would elicit interesting data. Data would then be examined by way of grounded theory methods including coding, memoing and like integrative diagrams to assist in theory development (Bryant, & Charmaz, 2007).

Expected Outcomes

The purpose of examining the relationship between gender and adaptive psychopathic traits in senior corporate leaders is to better understand whether or not men or women differ in traits and behavior. The hypothesis in this case is that although there may be some gender specific differences that may reflect local culture, the traits and behaviours between men and women who score high on psychopathology in a corporate setting will likely remain relatively the same.

One may expect that to some degree the approach that these individuals take to meet their end goals are dramatically similar. They may be executed in a different way, however, based on current research one could hypothesize that the themes between genders will be relatively the same in terms of adaptability.

References

Bryant, A., & Charmaz, K. (2007). Grounded theory in historical perspective: An

epistemological account. The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory. London.

Boddy, C. (2012). The impact of corporate psychopaths on corporate reputation and

marketing. Marketing Review, 12(1), 79-89.

Boddy, C., Ladyshewsky, R., & Galvin, P. (2010). The Influence of Corporate

Psychopaths on Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Commitment

to Employees. Journal Of Business Ethics, 97(1), 1-19. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0492-3.

Furnham, A., Crump, J., & Ritchie, W. (2013). What it takes: Ability, demographic,

bright and dark side trait correlates of years to promotion. Personality And Individual Differences, 55952-956. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.07.469.

Holt, S., & Marques, J. (2012). Empathy in Leadership: Appropriate or Misplaced? An

Empirical Study on a Topic that is Asking for Attention. Journal Of Business Ethics, 105(1), 95-105.

Mathieu, C., Neumann, C. S., Hare, R. D., & Babiak, P. (2014). A dark side of

leadership: Corporate psychopathy and its influence on employee well-being and job satisfaction. Personality And Individual Differences, 5983-88. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.010

Westerlaken, K. M., & Woods, P. R. (2013). The relationship between psychopathy and

the Full Range Leadership Model. Personality And Individual Differences, 5441-46. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.08.026

Zona, F., Minoja, M., & Coda, V. (2013). Antecedents of Corporate Scandals: CEOs'

Personal Traits, Stakeholders' Cohesion, Managerial Fraud, and Imbalanced Corporate Strategy. Journal Of Business Ethics, 113(2), 265-283. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1294-6

WalkerJPSY7108-4