Troublesome colleagues are likely to harbour a "dark triad" of psychopathic tendencies, Machiavellian cunning and narcissistic selfishness, according to a new study.
If you feel your colleagues are out to get you, it turns out you could be right.
A study of office politics suggests that workplaces are a jungle of awkward personalities vying for domination.
Oliver James, the psychologist and broadcaster, identified three types of dysfunctional personalities among white collar workers: psychopath, Machiavellian, and narcissist.
These are the colleagues who have no compunction about trampling over others, or like nothing more than to plot and scheme, or who drone on endlessly about themselves.
Most terrifyingly, the author concluded that there was fourth dysfunctional type: a “triadic person” who is a combination of all three. Such staff, James warns, have a dangerous, yet effective mix of a lack of empathy, self-centredness, deviousness and self-regard which can propel them to the top of the organisations.
Among the examples of these “triadics” he gives are Gordon Gecko, the trader played by Michael Douglas in Wall Street, the fictional Mafia boss Tony Soprano, and Stalin. Other fictional managers such as David Brent of The Office would score highly on the scale, while Lord Mandelson, the former Labour minister, is described as having Machiavellian tendencies.
Research has suggested that there has been an increase in the “triadic” conditions over the past 30 years because of changes in Western society and especially the rise of workplaces where there are no objective criteria for success or failure.
In a book, Office Politics, James warns how people who do not suffer from the disorders can lose out in the world of work and damage their emotional health unless they learn how to survive among such personalities. The warning may resonate among the almost eight million Britons who work in offices, as well as those based in schools, hospitals and particularly television studios — James says broadcasting is infested with “triadic personalities”.
Describing psychopathic tendencies, Machiavellian cunning and narcissistic selfishness a “dark triad”, James says: “This dark triad of characteristics is very likely to be present in that person in your office who causes you so much trouble. Whether you work in the corporate sector, a small business or a public sector job, the system you are in is liable to reward ruthless, selfish manipulation.
“The likelihood of your daily working life being sacrificed by a person who is some mixture of psychopathic, Machiavellian and narcissistic is high. If you do not develop the skills to deal with them, they will eat you for breakfast.”
Research suggests that there is significant overlap between the three different types of personality, to the point where someone near the top of the psychopath scale could be almost indistinguishable from one who is Machiavellian.
James says that no industry has a monopoly on “triadic types” because modern work rewards their traits as long as they can keep their most “obnoxious” tendencies in control.
His research is likely to start a guessing game in the offices where he found his anonymous case studies.
He cites an advertising and film executive whom he nicknames “Rat”, who introduced a female colleague to another man saying, “The last time I saw Suzy she was stark naked”; and “Jan”, a respected academic with a professorship who has “little capacity for original thought” but “a great talent for acquiring, and taking credit for, others’ ideas”.
James also writes of “John”, a British MEP, and his attempts to get a 19-year-old to have an affair after she flirted with him and hinted that she was available. The politician, 35, who was engaged, told “Sofia”, “sleeping with the boss will get you everywhere”. She did not reward him, although she was having a relationship with another MEP, who was a friend of “John”.
James says that partners in one elite law firm were in many cases humourless, charmless and had social skills akin to someone with Asperger’s syndrome, so unaware were they of the thoughts and feelings of others.
He also discloses how an investment banker got his job by fooling the interview panel at a leading American institution into believing that he was an expert in a product he knew nothing about. He then conned his socially insecure boss into believing that he was from an “old money” background by lying about “decadent weekends at grand and historic country houses”.
James reserves some of his most scathing views for the television industry in which he has himself worked for both BBC and independent broadcasters.
He discloses how he addressed a group of senior BBC executives, falsely claiming that research had shown that 28 per cent of television producers had “full-blown” psychopathic personality disorders and a further 34 per cent had psychopathic tendencies, while 85 per cent of producers felt sexual infidelity was “wholly acceptable” as long as their partner did not learn of it. Some did not realise that the research was false and said “the industry was crawling with psychopaths”, while those who recognised it as fiction said “if it had been done for real, these would have been the findings”.
James adds: “Television is jam-packed with untalented people who have managed to associated themselves with successful programmes and disassociate themselves from failures.”
How to tell if your boss is psychopathic, Machiavellian, a narcissist or – even worse – all three.
For each character trait decide whether you strongly agree, agree, feel it applies sometimes, disagree or strongly disagree and give a score from 5 for strongly agree to 1 for strongly disagree.
The higher the score, the more they have combined psychopathic, Machiavellian and narcissistic tendencies.
1. They tend to exploit and trick others for self-advancement.
2. They have used lies and deception to get their way.
3. They have used ingratiation to get their way.
4. They tend to manipulate others for selfish reasons.
5. They tend not to feel regretful and apologetic after having done wrong.
6. They tend not to worry about whether their behaviour is ethical.
7. They tend to be lacking in empathy and crassly unaware of the distress they can cause others.
8. They tend to take a pretty dim view of humanity, attributing nasty motives and selfishness.
9. They tend to be hungry for admiration.
10. They tend to want to be the centre of attention.
11. They tend to aim for higher status and signs of their importance.
12. They tend to take it for granted that other people will make extra efforts to help them.
* Courtesy of Office Politics by Oliver James (Vermillion)
_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9828914/Why-your-boss-could-easily-be-a-psychopath.html
