0:00:15.016,0:00:16.693 [Bullying and Corporate Psychopaths[br]at work] 0:00:16.693,0:00:20.367 Right. Hello, everybody. I'm here[br]to tell you a bit of a story about 0:00:20.367,0:00:25.835 why I got interested in the link between[br]corporate psychopaths and bullying. 0:00:26.159,0:00:29.046 A long time ago, in a land far away, 0:00:29.046,0:00:31.608 I was running a business[br]in the Far East, 0:00:31.608,0:00:34.606 and, as a part of that,[br]I was moved offices. 0:00:34.606,0:00:39.090 And when I was moved offices,[br]I was told I was getting a new boss. 0:00:39.090,0:00:41.447 And various people[br]came up to me and said, 0:00:41.447,0:00:45.061 "You have to be careful about this[br]new guy, this new boss you're getting. 0:00:45.061,0:00:48.597 He's very manipulative,[br]he's very ruthless, very cunning, 0:00:48.597,0:00:51.494 and he's almost downright evil. 0:00:51.494,0:00:55.445 So, I thought, hm, this guy sounds[br]like a bit of a monster, a bit of a devil. 0:00:55.445,0:00:58.902 And when people say things like[br]that to you, that's what you expect. 0:00:58.902,0:01:00.968 You expect to meet a monster. 0:01:00.968,0:01:04.287 What you actually meet[br]is an utterly charming man, 0:01:04.287,0:01:07.702 in a well-cut suit,[br]who looks very attractive. 0:01:07.702,0:01:12.480 He's very sociable, very extroverted[br]and he doesn't look like a monster at all. 0:01:12.480,0:01:16.344 He looks like your next best friend.[br]And so, you get confused. 0:01:16.344,0:01:18.439 Then you think that these people[br]must have been wrong. 0:01:18.439,0:01:20.103 [br]"He's not a monster, he's a nice guy. 0:01:20.103,0:01:22.659 I'm going to really enjoy working[br]with this person." 0:01:22.659,0:01:25.908 Looking back years later,[br]people would say to me, 0:01:25.908,0:01:30.939 "Well, how did you end up in[br]the circumstances that you ended up with?" 0:01:30.939,0:01:36.114 And I could never answer that,[br]until I read about corporate psychopaths. 0:01:36.114,0:01:38.276 And then it all clicked together. 0:01:38.276,0:01:42.328 So, that's my personal reason[br]for getting involved in psychopathy 0:01:42.328,0:01:44.977 and corporate psychopaths. 0:01:44.977,0:01:50.193 And, as I started to read about bullying[br]as a different part of my academic job, 0:01:50.193,0:01:53.565 I realized there's probably[br]a large area of crossover 0:01:53.565,0:01:57.632 between bullies and psychopaths[br]in the workplace. 0:01:57.632,0:02:02.244 So, I started to look at bullying itself. 0:02:02.244,0:02:08.245 It's usually described as being[br]the regular and repeated belittling, 0:02:08.245,0:02:13.606 or humiliating, or, in some way,[br]intimidating a person, 0:02:13.606,0:02:17.593 and it's usually a single person,[br]in the workplace, 0:02:17.593,0:02:19.677 on a regular basis, as I said. 0:02:19.677,0:02:26.435 So, it involves things like regular[br]conflict, arguments, yelling, 0:02:27.972,0:02:32.772 rudeness in the workplace,[br]directed at a single person. 0:02:34.095,0:02:37.263 It seems to be all over[br]the place, basically. 0:02:37.263,0:02:39.328 If you look at the papers[br]to do with bullying, 0:02:39.328,0:02:44.645 it seems to be in every organization,[br]and significant numbers of people 0:02:44.645,0:02:49.055 have experienced it. Usually[br]it's in the 30 and 40 percentages. 0:02:49.055,0:02:53.032 And even organizations like 0:02:53.032,0:02:55.619 the Departments of Consumer[br]and Employment Protection, 0:02:55.619,0:02:59.365 in Western Australia,[br]where I was at the time, 0:02:59.375,0:03:02.291 whose job is to prevent bullying, 0:03:02.291,0:03:07.198 were accused by their own staff[br]of having a culture of bullying. 0:03:07.198,0:03:10.509 And the staff insisted that they[br]bring in private investigators 0:03:10.509,0:03:14.544 to investigate the bullying[br]that was going on in the organization, [br] 0:03:14.544,0:03:18.715 that was there to prevent bullying.[br]So, it's all over the place. 0:03:18.715,0:03:23.049 So, that made me think,[br]"But, why? Why is it all over the place?" 0:03:24.495,0:03:28.238 And the other thing that struck me[br]in reading about it 0:03:28.238,0:03:31.319 is that companies and corporations[br]and organizations 0:03:31.319,0:03:33.961 don't seem to know what to do about it. 0:03:33.961,0:03:39.117 They tend to want to sweep it under[br]the carpet, to pretend it doesn't exist. 0:03:39.117,0:03:40.851 And quite often, they'll do things like, 0:03:40.851,0:03:44.947 they'll pay off the people[br]who are being bullied, 0:03:44.947,0:03:49.685 and they'll insert a clause into that payoff,[br]into that contractual arrangement, 0:03:49.685,0:03:52.934 whereby they're not allowed[br]to talk about it. 0:03:52.934,0:03:54.901 So it all gets swept under the carpet. 0:03:54.901,0:03:57.397 The bully, in the meantime,[br]gets promoted, 0:03:57.397,0:04:02.803 and they're the only one that's[br]left in the organization. 0:04:02.803,0:04:05.811 But there are many ethical[br]and financial reasons 0:04:05.811,0:04:09.205 why bullying should not be swept[br]under the carpet, 0:04:09.205,0:04:11.606 and some of these are to do[br]with individual reasons. 0:04:11.606,0:04:14.127 So, the negative effects, 0:04:14.127,0:04:18.541 the psychological effects on the individual[br]concern are quite devastating. 0:04:18.541,0:04:21.432 So, they feel humiliated, belittled, 0:04:22.046,0:04:26.041 their careers quite often[br]get ruined or disjointed. 0:04:26.041,0:04:28.444 They'll try and withdraw[br]from the workplace, 0:04:28.444,0:04:32.047 they'll seek other jobs, 0:04:32.067,0:04:37.090 and they end up in lesser positions,[br]or unemployed, 0:04:37.090,0:04:39.410 or in jobs they don't really want to do. 0:04:39.410,0:04:45.206 And their confidence and motivation[br]is destroyed at a personal level. 0:04:45.206,0:04:50.679 But it also has an effect at a corporate[br]level or an organizational level as well, 0:04:50.679,0:04:56.936 because there's a typical[br]fight-or-flight response to being 0:04:56.936,0:04:59.802 in a conflict situation[br]or to being bullied. 0:04:59.802,0:05:03.375 So, in terms of flight, 0:05:03.375,0:05:05.935 people withdraw[br]their time and effort. 0:05:05.935,0:05:13.695 So, they'll stop doing overtime, they'll[br]stop their extracurricular activities, 0:05:13.695,0:05:18.704 in terms of commitment to the organization[br]and helping the organization grow. 0:05:18.704,0:05:20.989 And they'll fight back 0:05:20.989,0:05:23.880 in terms of things like[br]counterproductive work behavior. 0:05:23.880,0:05:27.001 So, typically, if the bully[br]is your manager, 0:05:27.001,0:05:29.853 or your supervisor,[br]or your boss in some way, 0:05:29.853,0:05:33.997 you take him or her[br]as a representative of the company. 0:05:33.997,0:05:38.400 And, therefore, your revenge is not[br]on them particularly, as an individual. 0:05:38.400,0:05:40.638 It tends to be against the company. 0:05:40.638,0:05:46.295 So, you'll stop working properly,[br]you'll sabotage normal work processes, 0:05:46.295,0:05:51.835 you'll withdraw your effort and your[br]commitment, as I said, to what you're doing. 0:05:51.835,0:05:55.502 And the result of all that is just[br]further conflicts within the organization. 0:05:55.502,0:06:01.000 The ethical and moral climate[br]of the organization starts to diminish, 0:06:01.000,0:06:05.169 and that has knock-on effects in terms[br]of how you treat your suppliers, 0:06:05.169,0:06:10.293 how you treat your tax returns[br]and everything else to do with the company. 0:06:13.522,0:06:17.521 So, reading some of the literature[br]on bullies and bullying, 0:06:17.521,0:06:23.050 there seems to be a sort of unspoken,[br]underlying sense of bewilderment, 0:06:23.050,0:06:25.078 "Who are these people? 0:06:25.078,0:06:29.026 Who are these people[br]that enjoy watching people get hurt?" 0:06:29.026,0:06:32.014 'Cause it doesn't seem[br]a normal thing to do, 0:06:32.014,0:06:37.009 a normal thing to want to do or to enjoy[br]doing, and they clearly enjoy it. 0:06:37.009,0:06:39.293 Reading about bullies, 0:06:39.293,0:06:42.687 the words that are used to describe them[br]are on the screen there. 0:06:42.687,0:06:45.726 So, they enjoy hurting other people,[br]they're cruel, they're selfish, 0:06:45.726,0:06:48.098 they're parasitic, Machiavellian, 0:06:48.098,0:06:51.486 and you start to get in the literature[br]a lot of words 0:06:51.486,0:06:55.603 to do with a dissocial personality. 0:06:55.603,0:07:01.639 So, antisocial personality disorder,[br]sociopathy, psychopathy 0:07:01.639,0:07:05.632 and lots of these words[br]are similar to words 0:07:05.632,0:07:09.625 used to identify corporate psychopaths. 0:07:09.625,0:07:13.618 Well, corporate psychopaths[br]are those psychopaths 0:07:13.618,0:07:15.873 who are about 1% of the population, 0:07:15.873,0:07:20.470 and just by the way, who go into[br]organizational and corporate positions, 0:07:20.470,0:07:22.810 rather than into a criminal career. 0:07:22.810,0:07:25.793 And psychologists have slowly[br]come to realize 0:07:25.793,0:07:30.811 that those from better socioeconomic[br]backgrounds, perhaps with a good education, 0:07:30.811,0:07:36.577 good family background, work out[br]fairly early, that it's far easier 0:07:37.483,0:07:41.487 to get the power, the prestige,[br]and the money that they want 0:07:41.487,0:07:45.062 from a corporate career[br]than it is from a criminal career. 0:07:45.062,0:07:47.354 And so, they go into[br]the corporate world. 0:07:47.354,0:07:51.291 So, the same words are used[br]to describe them, these psychopaths, 0:07:51.291,0:07:56.979 as I used to describe bullies,[br]with the exception that psychopaths, 0:07:56.979,0:08:01.140 the outstanding thing about psychopaths[br]is they have absolutely no conscience. 0:08:01.140,0:08:05.730 So, there's nothing that inhibits them,[br]in terms of how they behave. 0:08:05.730,0:08:10.130 They can be totally ruthless[br]and sleep perfectly well that night, 0:08:10.130,0:08:13.852 because nothing they do bothers them,[br]because they don't have a conscience, 0:08:13.852,0:08:20.354 and there's no feeling,[br]no emotion in their lives. 0:08:20.354,0:08:24.522 So, having realized that there's[br]probably a large link 0:08:24.522,0:08:28.100 between psychopathy and psychopaths[br]and bullying, 0:08:28.100,0:08:32.271 I thought it would be interesting[br]to do some research 0:08:32.271,0:08:35.332 to see how large that link actually is. 0:08:35.332,0:08:37.529 So, I took a psychopathy measure 0:08:37.529,0:08:42.253 from reading 200 and odd psychology[br]papers on psychopaths, 0:08:42.253,0:08:44.773 and embedded it[br]in a management survey 0:08:44.773,0:08:50.134 of management behavior,[br]firstly doing this in Australia. 0:08:50.657,0:08:55.686 And what I found was one[br]of the most outstanding things. 0:08:55.686,0:09:00.197 I found that psychopaths 0:09:00.197,0:09:04.691 seemed to account for around 26%[br]of all bullying 0:09:04.691,0:09:07.853 in that particular sample of managers,[br]of Australian managers. 0:09:07.853,0:09:14.187 It was 346 managers,[br]research carried out in 2008, I think. 0:09:17.432,0:09:21.171 And there were quite a few other[br]interesting statistics there, as well. 0:09:21.171,0:09:23.754 I mean, under normal managers, 0:09:23.754,0:09:28.329 employees encountered bullying[br]less than once a month. 0:09:28.329,0:09:31.438 If there were corporate psychopaths[br]in the organization, 0:09:31.438,0:09:36.050 then bullying went up to[br]more than once a week. 0:09:36.050,0:09:38.616 1.3 times a week,[br]I think it was. 0:09:38.616,0:09:42.171 - And I measured lots[br]of other things as well, besides bullying, 0:09:42.171,0:09:46.938 but that was the interesting thing[br]for the purposes of today - 0:09:46.938,0:09:52.502 Because those results were so dramatic,[br]I repeated it again in the U.K. 0:09:56.522,0:09:59.249 And - Let's get the right slide.[br]That one - 0:09:59.249,0:10:04.049 And I found even more bullying[br]in the U.K. than I found in Australia. 0:10:04.049,0:10:07.891 And I found that psychopaths[br]and corporate psychopaths 0:10:07.891,0:10:12.970 were accounted for more of that bullying[br]than they did in Australia. 0:10:12.970,0:10:17.521 So, up to 36% of all bullying is down[br]to the presence of corporate psychopaths 0:10:17.521,0:10:21.059 in an organization, in this sample. 0:10:21.059,0:10:25.439 And the knock-on effects,[br]more yelling, more arguments, 0:10:25.439,0:10:30.438 more disruption, more conflict,[br]then, when psychopaths are there, 0:10:30.438,0:10:32.604 compared to when they're not there. 0:10:32.604,0:10:37.604 So, under normal managers,[br]everything is, in terms of conflict, 0:10:37.604,0:10:40.832 everything is lowered,[br]and much more sedate, 0:10:40.832,0:10:44.060 and much more smooth, 0:10:44.060,0:10:47.290 and much less chaotic,[br]and less confusion. 0:10:47.290,0:10:50.694 So...[br]Where are we? 0:10:52.094,0:10:55.896 In conclusion, I think that what I've — 0:10:55.896,0:10:59.691 Having established the link between[br]corporate psychopaths and bullying, 0:10:59.691,0:11:05.809 it starts to explain some of the big[br]questions that are to do with bullyings. 0:11:05.809,0:11:09.464 For example, why is it so pervasive[br]in all companies, 0:11:09.464,0:11:12.479 around the world and in all countries? 0:11:12.479,0:11:15.010 Well, the answer to that might be that, 0:11:15.010,0:11:18.065 because psychopaths are 1%[br]of the population. 0:11:18.065,0:11:22.902 If we assume they are normally[br]distributed across the whole population, 0:11:22.902,0:11:26.081 then, in every major company[br]there will be psychopaths. 0:11:26.081,0:11:28.899 And if there are psychopaths,[br]there will be bullying. 0:11:28.899,0:11:33.914 So, that explains why bullying[br]is so common. 0:11:33.914,0:11:39.035 The other thing it explains is[br]why bullying occurs in the first place. 0:11:39.035,0:11:42.983 Psychopaths bully for two main reasons.[br]One of them is predatory. 0:11:42.983,0:11:46.207 So they do it because they like it.[br]They do it because they enjoy it. 0:11:46.207,0:11:49.007 They do it because they like[br]to see people squirm. 0:11:49.007,0:11:52.011 They like just to hurt people,[br]they like to damage their careers, 0:11:52.011,0:11:55.691 and that's the thing that's hard[br]for the rest of us to understand. 0:11:55.691,0:11:58.650 It's enjoyable. That's one[br]of the reasons they do it. 0:11:58.650,0:12:02.816 The other reason they do it is[br]what I've called instrumental bullying. 0:12:02.816,0:12:09.056 So, they're doing it quite often to create[br]confusion and chaos all around them, 0:12:09.056,0:12:14.279 so that they can forward their own[br]political and social and career agendas, 0:12:14.279,0:12:18.016 while everybody else[br]is emotionally distracted. 0:12:18.016,0:12:23.127 So, it creates a smokescreen for them[br]to get on with what they're really doing, 0:12:23.127,0:12:26.957 which is gaining power, and influence,[br]and prestige, 0:12:26.957,0:12:29.077 and money within the corporation. 0:12:29.077,0:12:32.847 So, anybody, for example, a boss[br]looking down on this whole situation 0:12:32.847,0:12:35.610 of bullying and emotional reactions 0:12:35.610,0:12:41.287 will see that the only person that seems[br]to have kept their cool is this psychopath, 0:12:41.287,0:12:43.650 because he started it all[br]in the first place. 0:12:43.650,0:12:45.931 And therefore, the only person[br]that seems like they want... 0:12:45.931,0:12:49.571 deserves promotion is the psychopath. 0:12:49.571,0:12:53.099 So, that's why it helps[br]to answer the question 0:12:53.099,0:12:57.430 of why psychopaths seem[br]to get promoted at the hierarchy 0:12:57.430,0:12:59.567 more than ordinary people do. 0:12:59.567,0:13:01.890 Because they create[br]confusion around them 0:13:01.890,0:13:06.948 and that enables them to forward their[br]own agenda to promote themselves. 0:13:09.598,0:13:14.169 So, if you link it[br]at an organizational level, 0:13:14.169,0:13:19.291 companies like Enron, which was[br]the biggest fraud in history at the time, 0:13:19.291,0:13:22.827 before the global financial crisis[br]and things like that, 0:13:22.827,0:13:25.887 was reported to have a culture[br]of bullying within it. 0:13:25.887,0:13:28.953 And they bullied their agencies,[br]they bullied their advisers, 0:13:28.953,0:13:35.224 they bullied their suppliers to keep them[br]in check and to stop them asking questions, 0:13:35.224,0:13:39.211 so that they could perpetuate this massive[br]fraud that was going on for years. 0:13:39.211,0:13:43.824 So, it's a means to an end,[br]as well as an end in itself. 0:13:46.734,0:13:50.054 And I think bullying in corporate banks,[br]for example, 0:13:51.273,0:13:54.506 and linking it to the global[br]financial crisis, was very evident as well. 0:13:54.506,0:13:59.236 There is a culture of, "Don't ask questions,[br]or you'll get into trouble." 0:13:59.236,0:14:03.268 So, no ethical questions[br]are allowed in these institutions, 0:14:03.714,0:14:07.637 and it enables them to get on[br]with what they're doing, with their fraud, 0:14:07.637,0:14:12.836 and it prevents people from exposing it. 0:14:13.743,0:14:16.861 If anyone is interested in finding out[br]more about any of these things, 0:14:16.861,0:14:21.038 those are the things to look up[br]in your search engine. 0:14:21.038,0:14:23.228 Thank you for listening.[br]Goodbye. 0:14:23.228,0:14:25.318 (Applause)