Paper Abstract for the: Sustainable HRM and Employee Well-being Research
Symposium, 4-5 November, ACU, Sydney.
Title: The Influence of Corporate Psychopaths on Job Satisfaction and its
Determinants
We would like the full paper to be considered for the associated Special Issue of
the International Journal of Manpower (IJM)
Purpose
The paper presents new in-depth, qualitative research on corporate psychopaths at work in terms of
how they influence job satisfaction as reported in twelve UK interviews with white collar employees.
In addition the paper re-analyses existing quantitative data from a sample of 346 Australian managers
to investigate the relationship between workplace psychopathy and job satisfaction. The paper reanalyses the quantitative data using regression analysis to better elucidate the inter-relationships
between workplace psychopaths and the job satisfaction of employees who report to those highly
psychopathic managers. The paper uses the insights gained by the new qualitative research in the UK
to presents a deeper understanding of this interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Twelve in-depth interviews were carried out in the UK with white collar employees who had worked
with a managers who scored highly enough on an indicator of psychopathy to be called a corporate
psychopath. In addition, regression analysis was carried out on an existing sample of 346 Australian
managers who had also reportedly worked with a highly psychopathic manager.
Key findings
Job satisfaction has previously been seen as a function of various constructs. We take one step back
from the literature to examine the relationship not just between job satisfaction, workplace conflict,
organizational constraints, withdrawal from the workplace, and perceived levels of corporate social
responsibility, but also between all of these constructs and the presence of corporate psychopaths. We
find that there is a direct link between corporate psychopaths and job satisfaction. There is also an
indirect link through variables such as conflict, since corporate psychopaths influence conflict.
Further, the research establishes that psychopathy is the dominant predictor of job satisfaction.
Research implications
This current research establishes that corporate psychopaths have a large influence on job satisfaction
and on some of the other organisational outcomes that determine job satisfaction such as conflict. This
corresponds with and extends, research into the antecedents of leader-employee exchange which has
shown that the personality traits of leaders and of employees influence the development and quality of
leader-follower exchanges, which in turn influence job effectiveness and satisfaction (Janssen & Van
Yperen 2004).
An understanding of the causes of conflict, bullying and abusive behaviour is also furthered by this
research. Additionally, the empirical evidence for the prevalence of abusive supervision has been
reported to be weak and a gap in knowledge has been reported in terms of understanding the causes of
abusive behaviour (Tepper 2000). This current paper illuminates some of the personality trait
correlates of abusive supervision and bullying. Corporate psychopaths have the traits of being callous
and unemotional towards those who report to them.
Previous research into the relationship between job stressors, negative affectivity, and
counterproductive work behaviour, that was designed to investigate the effects of workplace incivility
on employee satisfaction; indicated that incivility, organizational constraints, and interpersonal
conflict are negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to counterproductive work
behaviour (Penney & Spector 2005). Therefore, it seems likely that although counterproductive work
behaviour was not specifically measured in this current research, it would probably be an area of
fruitful research into the effects of corporate psychopaths on organizations.
Similarly job satisfaction levels have been found to be robust predictors of organizational citizenship
behaviour (Organ & Ryan 1995) and so the presence of corporate psychopaths can be expected to
have a major impact here as well (Organ & Ryan 1995; Lapierre & Hackett 2007; Moorman 1993).
Further research is called for in these areas.
Practical implications
We argue that the implications of these research findings are important for future research into a wide
variety of areas of management research. For example, corporate psychopaths influence job
satisfaction, as shown by this current research, and job satisfaction in turn influences turnover
decisions as shown by previous research (Tett & Meyer 1993; Hershcovis & Barling 2010). In
practical terms it can be logically expected that there will be a link between the presence of corporate
psychopaths and turnover. This current research did not measure intention to quit (the intention to
leave an organization). However, it logically follows that the intention to quit will be higher when
corporate psychopaths are present in an organization because of the increased levels of interpersonal
aggression and hostility and lower levels of job satisfaction that their presence directly or indirectly
generates. Job satisfaction, workplace withdrawal behaviours and intention to quit are often linked in
the literature (Hom & Kinicki 2001; Grandey, Dickter & Sin 2004). This has implications for the
hiring practices of HR professionals.
Social implications
Our findings add to the evidence that psychopathic individuals are not related to success, as some
psychology researchers argue (Smith et al. 2013; Lilienfeld et al. 2012). Rather, psychopathic
managers decrease the job satisfaction of almost everyone who works for them.
This implies that the calls for the screening of psychopathic managers out of positions of
responsibility are more well-founded then recent papers on this subject have argued (Smith &
Lilienfeld 2013). Smith and Lilienfeld conclude that not enough is known about psychopaths in the
workplace to support calls for workplace screening for psychopathy. On the other hand other writers
on psychopathy support calls for psychopathy screening so that close management and supervision of
these potentially highly disruptive people can be implemented (Boddy et al. 2015).
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