Course:

Organizational Behavior

Semester:
Mpa(2nd)

Project
Corporate Psychopaths, Conflicts, Employee Affective Well-Being and Counterproductive Work
Behavior

Date:

May 4th , 2018

Submitted by:

Mahnoor Mughal

Maha Mussarat

Submitted to:

Sir Shaheryar
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction Section

 Significance/Rationale of study
 Research Objectives
 Research Questions
 Delimitation of study

2. Literature Section

 Concepts and Definitions

 Theoretical Reflection
 Literature Gap
 Substantiating Evidences
 Critical Analysis

3. Methodology Section

 Sample Selection
 Prpolation Frame
 Unit of Analysis
 Type of Study
 Time Horizon
 Researcher’s Strength
 Instrument Development/Selection
 Proposed data collection procedure
 Proposed Data Analysis Technique

4. Results and Future Directions

 Organizational Behavior Final project

Question no 1

Significance/rationale of the study:

Significance of this study is that it analyzed the presence of corporate psychopaths which result
in counter productive work behavior. This study makes addition to our knowledge of corporate
psychopaths being first ever published research in this field.

Research objective:
 To identify the impact of corporate psychopaths on counter productive work behavior.
 To critically review the literature concerning counter productive work behavior.
 To investigate the role of conflict, bullying and effective well being in relation of
corporate psychopath and counterproductive work behavior.

Research questions:
 Has there been any relation of conflict and bullying with counterproductive work
behavior?
 Do corporate psychopaths creates high conflicts and bullying among employees?
 Is employee effective well being is lower due to corporate psychopaths among man and
women?
 is counterproductive work behavior is lower in women then men in the presence of
corporate psychopaths?

Delimitations of the study:

 Not focused on all three dark traids, only found the impact of corporate psychopaths on
counterproductive work behavior.
 Only PM-MRV was used to determine the existence of corporate psychopaths at work
place.
 Research only focused on psychopaths at manager level.
 Self completion survey was used.
 Research was only conducted in Britain and included only 304 participants.
 Question no 2

1.1) Concepts & definitions:

Psychopath:

Psychopaths are those one per cent of the population who have no conscience and who,
therefore, demonstrate an egotistic and ruthless approach to living

(Hare 1994, 1999).

Psychopath are type of person who have no sense of right and wrong and have extremely
egotistic, cruel and heartless approach toward people and living. They are also anti social
personalities.

A person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior,
lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity,
failure to learn from experience, etc.

Reference: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/psychopath

Conflict:

Interpersonal conflict at work is behaviour involving people imposing their will on others and
victimizing them through extra-ordinary behaviour; this can include argumentativeness, yelling,
other elements of abusive supervision and bullying

(Tepper 2000; Wornham 2003).

The behavior of people including imposing their will on other people and victimizing through
their behavior like yelling and abusive arguments results in conflicts. It can also include
difference of opinion, principle and interests.

Conflict can also be define as serious incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles
or interest.
Reference: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/conflict

Bullying:

Bullying includes actions like physical contacts, words and behavior that hurt other person
either in the form of injury or discomfort. The person who is bullied has done nothing wrong that
caused bullying and is unable to defend himself.

Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes
another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or
more subtle actions.The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and
does nothing to “cause” the bullying.

Reference: http://www.apa.org/topics/bullying/

Corporate Psychopaths:

Corporate Psychopaths have been described as simply those psychopaths working in the
corporate sector, possibly attracted by the potentially high monetary rewards, prestige and
power available to those who reach the senior managerial levels of large corporations

(Babiak and Hare 2006).

The psychopaths working in the corporate sector are called corporate psychopaths.

Machiavellianism:

It is a type of behavior in which a person manipulate other people to achieve his own purpose.

It is a personality trait involving willingness to manipulate others for one’s own purpose.
Incivility:

Rude and disruptive behavior that may result in psychological distress for the people involved
and, if left unaddressed, may progress into threatening situations.

(Clark, 2010).

It is a type of behavior that include rude and distracting attitude toward others that may result in
psychological issues like anxiety in people.

Counter Productive Work Behavior:

Counterproductive work behavior is the deliberate jeopardizing of workplace outcomes and

normal functioning and has well established connections with productivity and efficiency

(Dunlop and Lee 2004)

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is employee behavior that goes against the legal
interests of an organization. These behaviors can harm any one in the organizations including
employees and clients, customers, or patients.

Counterproductive work behavior is any intentional behavior that has the ability to produce
negative outcomes on an organization and the staff members within that organization. These
behaviors may include acts such as theft, calling in sick when you’re not sick, fraud, sexual
harassment, violence, drug and alcohol use, and inappropriate use of the internet.

Reference:

https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/psych/about/our-people/documents/Karin%20Instone%20-
%20Counterproductive%20Work%20Behaviour%20-%20White%20Paper.pdf
Toxic Leadership:

Toxic leadership is a amalgamation of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that

have adverse effects on subordinates, the organization, and mission performance. This leader
lacks care for others and the climate of the organization, which leads to negative environment of
organization

toxic leader is a person who has responsibility over people in an organization, and
who abuses the leader–follower relationship by leaving the organization in a worse condition
than when they first found them . Toxic Leader is also called as the little Hitler, manager from
hell, the toxic boss, boss from hell or toxic manager. This leadership style is both self-
destructive and ultimately corporately harmful as they unsettle and destroy organizational
structures.

Reference:

https://evolution-institute.org/us-army-ambushed-by-toxic-leaders/

eadchangegroup.com/toxic-leadership/

Employees effective wellbeing:

Affective, Emotional or psychological wellbeing is a state where a person is content and happy
with their life and with the balance of their work, home ,emotional and spiritual lifes. At work it
promotes a stable and efficiency functioning organization . Employees effective or psychological
wellbeing is important to organization because it has been found to predict job performance.The
colloquial version of this is saying that a Happy Worker is a productive Worker

(Wright and Cropanzano)

Employees Effective Wellbeing includes effective , emotional and psychological wellbeing of
any employee. It is a state in which a person is at ease ,satisfied and happy with balance of their
work, home ,emotional and spiritual lifes. On an individual note , it promotes mental and
physical health, whereas on collective note it promotes healthy and stable society.

If employees are satisfied with their job only in that case they would be beneficial for
organization. It is also essential to reduce employees turnover rate within the organization.

Social Exchange Theory:

Social Exchange Theory helps how and why people unspecified reciprocal (Gouldner 1960)
relationship with others and at their discretion

(Blau 1964/1986)

Social exchange theory proposes that social behavior is the net result of an exchange process.
The aim of this exchange is to maximize the possible benefits and minimize the possible costs.
According to this theory, developed by sociologist George Homans, people consider the potential
benefits and risks of social relationships. When the risks outweigh the rewards, people will end
up with that relationship.

Most relationships are made up on basis of give-and-take, but this does not mean that they
always stand as equal. Social exchange suggests that it is the valuation of between the benefits
and costs of each relationship that determine whether or not we opt to continue a social
association. Reciprocity, the giving of benefits to another in return for benefits received, and loss
in return of a loss ,is a defining feature of social exchange.

Reference: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-social-exchange-theory-2795882

Narcissism

Narcissism is the activity of gratification from self-centered admiration of one's own attributes.
The term originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own
image reflected in a pool of water.
Narcissism is also considered one of the social or cultural problem. It is a factor in trait
theory used in various self-report inventories of personality such as the Millon Clinical
Multiaxial Inventory. It is among one of the three dark triadic personality traits (the others
being psychopathy and Machiavellianism). Except in the sense of primary narcissism or healthy
self-love, narcissism is usually considered a problem in a person's or group's relationships with
self and others.

Reference;

Symington, Neville (1993). Narcissism: A New Theory. H. Karnac Ltd. pp. 6–7. ISBN 9781855750470.

Social Learning Theory:

Social Learning Theory says that people learn from one another, via observation, following, and
modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning
theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

In line with Social Learning Theory which implies that subordinates learn negative and
dysfunctional behavior from observing and emulating their managers, subjects who are buried
and who experience interpersonal conflicts at work become involved in bullying of others
(Hauge et al..2009)

Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction
between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

References: www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html

1.2 Theoretical reflections

The Theoretical Reflection of Corporate Psychopaths producing conflicts and bullying in
organization is based on “Social Learning Theory” which says:
People learn indirectly by observing others behavior especially while observing influential Role
models who re reliable to the observer.

These conflicts and bullying produce Counterproductive Work Behavior the base of which is
“Social Exchange Theory” which says:

Behavior of a person is the outcome of exchange process, it explains how and why people create
unspecified reciprocal relations with others . This exchange may be in form of kind for those
who have helped or in the form of revenge for those who constraint as a result of Reciprocity-
Social Exchange Theory.

Identify literature gap(s) pertaining to the topic under study:

Previous work on toxic leadership Including corporate psychopaths and counterproductive work
behavior is scarce and this paper helped to fill this gap thereby making significant contribution to
literature.
For future researches differences between male and female experiences working under corporate
psychopaths can further investigated as well as stress and health issues in employees due to the
presence of corporate psychopaths can also be studied.

Substantiating evidences from the literature:

The literature in this paper says that existence of corporate psychopaths in organization has
significant effect on employees. The theory behind this is social learning theory which says that
people learn through observing others behavior whether positive or negative. By observing
manager’s negative behavior they produced counter productive work behavior that further imples
application of reciprocacity social exchange theory.

Critical analysis of the literature:

Literature Review in this Research Paper is about Toxic Leadership Personalities and their effect
in the form of Counterproductive work behavior in an organization. It further investigates that
Dark Personality Traids at managerial level have adverse effect on entire business in the form of
conflicts, bullying and employee’s ineffective well-being which ultimately force them to produce
Counterproductive work behaviors that poorly damages organizations productivity. Literature
further says Psychopaths whether at any level serves to be Anti-Social criminals. The
Psychopaths within the corporate sector are harmful and being influential role models, they
generate toxic behavior which is further learnt and repeated throughout the organization.
Conflicts and Bullying both are pernicious and reduce organizational productivity and its reason
is none other than Corporate Psychopaths at Managerial level because subordinates learn
behavior from their managers. At the same time Employees Effective Well-Being is important
because it tells functioning state of employee and it should be kept in mind that “Happy Worker
is a Productive Worker” . Counterproductive Work Behavior are produced in an organization as
a revenge of Conflicts and Bullying and ultimate reason of which is presence of Dark Traid
Personality at top level. Organizations that wish to maximize Employees Effective Well-Being
and minimize Conflicts and Bullying will have to first minimize their recruitment of Corporate
Psychopaths or take steps to carefully manage their behavior.

Question no 3

Sample selection (with full justifications):

White collar professionals and managerial employee’s sample have been selected based on their
working in variety of business with the size of 304 respondents. Self completion survey was used
to ensure no personal influence of researcher so that respondent answer honestly.

Population frame:
All white collar worker of Britain are population of the research of which 304 are sample.

Unit of analysis:
White collar employees in Britain were investigated through self completion online survey on
individual basis irrespective of their organization.
Type of study:
Quantitative study because correlation, regression etc is used to find relationship of variables.

Time horizon:
Cross sectional time horizon was used because researcher conducted the whole study in 2011
without phases.

Researcher’s strength:
There is no particular research published previously by taking conflicts, bullying as variables and
especially corporate psychopath’s presence leads to counter productive work behavior. So it is a
significant contribution to literature as it fills the gap.

Instrument development/selection:
The PM_MRV was transformed into questionnaire and used to find the presence or absence of
psychopaths at work place.

Proposed data collection procedures:

Psychopathy scale PM-MRV was used in the questionnaire in a self completion management
survey.

Proposed data analysis techniques (with full justifications):

SPSS is used to find correlation among different variables.
 Question no 4

Identify and discuss results and future direction.

Results:
There is seen high correlation between conflicts (including bullying) and Counterproductive
Work Behavior as same as it exists between Corporate Psychopaths and Conflicts. Corporate
Psychopaths play key role in lowering employee’s effective well-being and increasing
Counterproductive work behaviors. Whereas in organizations where Corporate Psychopaths are
not present the average of incidents of getting into argument with others is 8.9 times whereas it
was 59.7 times when Corporate Psychopaths were present. Both male and female employees are
equally effected by corporate psychopaths, as both of them feel angry, anxious, depressed and
discourage in presence of corporate psychopaths. This supports Social Learning Theory that
subordinates learn negative behavior from their un-ethical managers. It also goes in favor of
Social Exchange Theory which implies that, employees will respond negatively to unfair
treatment.

Future Directions:
Future Research should focus on differences between male and female experiences of working
under Corporate Psychopaths. Stress and Health of employees be taken into consideration during
future researches