Psychopath
Ó Springer 2011
Journal of Business Ethics (2011) 102:255–259
DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0810-4
The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis
ABSTRACT. This short theoretical paper elucidates a plausible theory about the Global Financial Crisis and the role of senior financial corporate directors in that crisis.
The paper presents a theory of the Global Financial Crisis which argues that psychopaths working in corporations and in financial corporations, in particular, have had a major part in causing the crisis. This paper is thus a very short theoretical paper but is one that may be very important to the future of capitalism because it discusses significant ways in which Corporate Psychopaths may have acted recently, to the detriment of many. Further research into this theory is called for.
KEY WORDS: Corporate Psychopaths, The Global Financial Crisis, leadership, corporate management
Introduction
The Global Financial Crisis has raised many ethical issues concerning who pays for the damage inflicted and who is responsible for causing the crisis. Commentators on business ethics have noted that corporate financial scandals have assumed epidemic proportions and that once great companies of longstanding history and with previously unblemished and even dignified reputations have been brought down by the misdeeds of a few of their leaders. These commentators raise the fascinating question of how these resourceful and historic organizations end up with impostors as leaders in the first place (Singh, 2008). One writer on leadership even goes as far as to say that modern society is suffering from a epidemic of poor leadership in both the private and the public sectors of the economy
(Allio, 2007).
An understanding of Corporate Psychopaths as expressed in a recent series of papers in this journal and in others, and based on empirical research, has
Clive R. Boddy
helped to answer the question of how organizations end up with impostors as leaders and how those
Journal of Business Ethics (2011) 102:255–259
DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0810-4
The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis
ABSTRACT. This short theoretical paper elucidates a plausible theory about the Global Financial Crisis and the role of senior financial corporate directors in that crisis.
The paper presents a theory of the Global Financial Crisis which argues that psychopaths working in corporations and in financial corporations, in particular, have had a major part in causing the crisis. This paper is thus a very short theoretical paper but is one that may be very important to the future of capitalism because it discusses significant ways in which Corporate Psychopaths may have acted recently, to the detriment of many. Further research into this theory is called for.
KEY WORDS: Corporate Psychopaths, The Global Financial Crisis, leadership, corporate management
Introduction
The Global Financial Crisis has raised many ethical issues concerning who pays for the damage inflicted and who is responsible for causing the crisis. Commentators on business ethics have noted that corporate financial scandals have assumed epidemic proportions and that once great companies of longstanding history and with previously unblemished and even dignified reputations have been brought down by the misdeeds of a few of their leaders. These commentators raise the fascinating question of how these resourceful and historic organizations end up with impostors as leaders in the first place (Singh, 2008). One writer on leadership even goes as far as to say that modern society is suffering from a epidemic of poor leadership in both the private and the public sectors of the economy
(Allio, 2007).
An understanding of Corporate Psychopaths as expressed in a recent series of papers in this journal and in others, and based on empirical research, has
Clive R. Boddy
helped to answer the question of how organizations end up with impostors as leaders and how those
References: Decision 44(9/10), 1461–1475. Viding, E.: 2004, ‘Annotation: Understanding the Development of Psychopathy’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45(8), 1329–1337.