Psychopaths hiding in office: Personality screening urged for corporate recruitment

Ruthless, insincere, egotistical ... sound familiar? Psychopaths are as prevalent in the office as they are in prisons.

Researchers say they have a screening tool for use by recruiters.

Up to one in five bosses could be psychopaths, exhibiting traits including ruthlessness, insincerity, egotism and a lack of empathy to their employees.

Research presented to the Australian Psychological Society Congress in Melbourne suggests psychopaths are as prevalent in the corporate sector as they are in prisons.

Forensic psychologist Nathan Brooks said while emerging studies showed one in 100 members of the general community displayed psychopathic traits, the traits were found in up to 21 per cent of senior executives and managers.

``The term ‘successful psychopath’, which describes high-flyers with psychopathic traits such as insincerity, a lack of empathy or remorse, egocentric, charming and superficial, has emerged in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis,’’ he said.

‘’We are really talking about someone who strives to dominate others. They are ruthless. They are very callous. They have no conscience and really it’s all about self-gain.

`In moderate levels, it could be successful but with too many traits and, in too higher levels, it’s going to a problem. They will be successful potentially for a period of time but then it’s a question of what the costs are going to be. It night be moral costs or it might be criminal costs.’’

He said there was a risk the `successful psychopath’ might engage in unethical and illegal business practices and have a `toxic impact’ on employees.

“Typically psychopaths create a lot of chaos and generally tend to play people off against each other,” Mr Brooks said.

Along with researchers Katarina Fritzon of Bond University and Simon Croom of the University of San Diego, Mr Brooks examined psychopathic traits in the business sector.

`The other thing in understanding psychopaths is they need to watch their backs,’’ he said.

``It’s all about them and it’s a process like a chess game. Who can they cut the legs out from underneath their chair and take their position? It’s about rising through the hierarchy if they can, and, if they don’t succeed, they just move to the next business and start again.’’

He said companies should undertake psychological screening to help identify ‘successful psychopaths’.

“Too often companies look at skills first and then secondly consider personality features,” he said. “Really it needs to be firstly about the candidate’s character and then, if they pass the character test, consider whether they have the right skills.”

The researchers have developed a corporate personality inventory tool to help companies assess for psychopathic personality disorder during the recruitment process.

“We hope to implement our screening tool in businesses so that there’s an adequate assessment to hopefully identify this problem — to stop people sneaking through into positions in the business that can become very costly,” Mr Brooks said.