Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Corporate Psychopaths

Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics

  • 193 Accesses

Synonyms

Aggressive narcissists; Executive psychopaths; Industrial psychopaths; Machiavellians; Organizational psychopaths; Political psychopaths; Primary psychopaths; Sociopaths; Successful psychopaths

Definition

Although encyclopedia definitions are supposed to be definitive, it is important to bear in mind that designations of personalities such as psychopaths, Machiavellians, and narcissists are man-made definitions which are emergent, contested, and have been subject to conceptual drift. They are not naturally occurring genera in the real world like mice and rats whose mammalian similarities and species-specific differences can be examined and reported on.

Over time, the names Machiavellian, narcissist, and psychopath have become to some extent just different labels for the same people. For example, McHoskey, Worzel, and Szyarto described, in 1998, a measure of Machiavellianism as being a global measure of psychopathy and especially of primary psychopathy, while Falkenbach, Howe,...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Babiak P (1995) When psychopaths go to work: a case study of an industrial psychopath. Appl Psychol Int Rev 44(2):171–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair J, Mitchell D, Blair K (2005) The psychopath: emotion and the brain. Wiley-Blackwell, Maiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Boddy CR, Taplin R (2016) The influence of corporate psychopaths on job satisfaction and its determinants. Int J Manpow 37(6):965–988

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleckley H (1941/1988) The mask of sanity, 5th edn. Private Printing for Educational Use by Emily Cleckley 1988 (Formerly first published by C.V. Mosley Co.in 1941), Augusta

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke DJ, Michie C (2001) Refining the construct of psychopathy: towards a hierarchical model. Psychol Assess 13(2):171–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middlesex University, London, UK

    Clive R. Boddy

Authors
  1. Clive R. Boddy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clive R. Boddy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Deborah C Poff

  2. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

Section Editor information

  1. Middlesex University, London, UK

    Clive R. Boddy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Boddy, C.R. (2017). Corporate Psychopaths. In: Poff, D., Michalos, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_222-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_222-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Corporate Psychopaths
    Published:
    03 January 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_222-2

  2. Original

    Corporate Psychopaths
    Published:
    06 June 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_222-1

Search

Navigation