Based on my own anecdotal research, I think it's much worse than 1
in 25 as this 2011 TIME article suggests. My own non-scientific polling
suggests that bad managers far exceed the good ones by at least 10 to 1.
It's almost the exception to the rule to find a good, honest manager in any organization public or private. All these bad managers may not be certifiable psychopaths but I think in their quest for power at any price they learn that dishonest, unethical, immoral behavior is encouraged and rewarded whereas the opposite is not the case.
It seems the scum always rises to the
top when people are promoted.
Why is this? Well I think it's because promotions have less to do
with merit and more to do with popularity. In most cases, people are
promoted because those in decision making positions personally like them and the amoral compass they live by. And
people tend to like those who are just like themselves; as the old saying
goes, birds of a fetter flock together. So the vicious cycle
continues and good, honest people are consistently passed over for promotions and
relegated to irrelivant positions as worker bees where they cannot do much to affect positive change in their organization.
And in this age of the financialization of
America where Wall Street's demands for quarterly profits coerces business
managers into making short-term financial decisions at the expense of the
long-term viability of their company, who wants to hire a manager with long-term
goals and objectives at the expense of short term gains? Bad management at
all levels in an organization just facilitates Wall Street's demand for a profit at
any price!
Regardless of the type of organization you
work for, start paying attention to who gets promoted and who doesn't; pay attention to the behavior rather than the words of those in management positions; pay attention to the subtleties; and I think you'll confirm for yourself my suspicions that
good managers are few and far between. But read this article and judge for
yourself.
TIME
Study: 1 in 25 Business Leaders May Be Psychopaths
One in 25 bosses may be psychopaths — a rate that’s four times greater than in the general population — according to research by psychologist and executive coach Paul Babiak.
Babiak studied 203 American corporate professionals who had been chosen by their companies to participate in a management training program. He evaluated their psychopathic traits using a version of the standard psychopathy checklist developed by Robert Hare, an expert in psychopathy at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Psychopaths, who are characterized by being completely amoral and concerned only with their own power and selfish pleasures, may be overrepresented in the business environment because it plays to their strengths. Where greed is considered good and profitmaking is the most important value, psychopaths can thrive.
They also tend to be charming and manipulative — and in corporate America, that easily passes for leadership. But, as the U.K.’s Guardian reported:
In fact, it can be hard spot the psychopath in any crowd (according to Hare, psychopaths make up 1% of the general population). They’re not all ruthless serial killers; rather, psychopaths who grow up in happy, loving homes might end up channeling their energies in a less violent way — say, by becoming a CEO. “Psychopaths really aren’t the kind of person you think they are,” Babiak said.
Szalavitz's latest book isBorn for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered. It is co-written with Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading expert in the neuroscience of child trauma and recovery.
