Two separate studies offer insights for why your boss is such an abusive jerk. One says that corporate managers score higher than the average population on tests measuring psychopathy. The other reveals that bosses who make big bucks are much meaner to their employees compared to executives who aren’t earning astronomical salaries. So consider yourself a winner if your boss isn’t mean, a psychopath, or a mean psychopath.
Over at wsj.com/wealth, Robert Frank sums up the findings of a new research paper “When Executives Rake in Millions: Meanness in Organizations.” How do you judge meanness? It’s not like it would be possible to follow CEOs around and note every time he or she knocked employees’ books out of their hands or shoved interns into their lockers. (I’ve watched too many teen movies.) Here’s how the study was conducted:
They scored companies with “strength points” and “weakness points,” giving strength points to companies that offered employee profit sharing and deducting points for companies that had been penalized for employee mistreatment. The researchers then examined each company’s executive compensation and looked for any correlations between increasing income and increasing meanness.
They concluded that “higher income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in executives perceiving themselves as being all-powerful and this perception of power leads them to maltreat rank and file workers.”
Psychopaths are also known for having inflated self images and for maltreating—and sometimes killing—people around them. In “Corporate Psychopathy: Talking the walk,” researchers found that managers scored higher on measures of psychopathy—including poor management style and failure at being team players—compared to the overall population. Per Boston Globe story about the research paper:
The authors conclude that “the very skills that make the psychopath so unpleasant (and sometimes abusive) in society can facilitate a career in business even in the face of negative performance ratings.”
So if you’re a psychopath, don’t turn to a life of crime. Go into the business world instead and think management. You could have a great career.
And if you’re an employee who isn’t crazy about the boss, be grateful that your boss isn’t a mean psychopath. If you’re unfortunate enough to have a boss who happens to be a mean psychopath, then be grateful that at least you continue to draw a paycheck—no small thing in today’s economy.