Essay Psychopathic Leadership A Case Study – Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Justification of Selection
The three leadership articles relate to each other via the subject material of corporate psychopathy. Corporate psychopathy is marked by the following traits: lack of empathy, impulsive behavior, and interpersonal dominance (Boddy, 2015; Landay et al., 2018). When leaders are defined by these traits, the results are often disastrous for organizations (Landay et al., 2018). The problem of corporate psychopathy exists as a niche topic of study in leadership academia, yet the findings are holistically applicable to the business world. It is estimated that 3.5% of high-level executives and C-suite personnel are psychopaths, as compared to only 1% of the general population (Boddy, 2015).

Contribution of Articles to Field of Leadership
The case study from Boddy (2015) is a unique contribution to the Dark-Side of Leadership field of academia in that it was the first real-time case study of a corporate psychopath. Because the psychopath CEO’s predecessor was transformational, the case-study is, in a limited fashion, a comparative-one. The study provides empirical evidence how an organization can deteriorate from the top-down with psychopathic leadership (Boddy, 2015).

Relevance to Leadership and Overall Impact of the Articles
When approaching these three articles as one, there are a few noteworthy implications that add to leadership practice and theory. Boddy’s (2015) case study on the psychopath CEO captured how inauthentic leadership can deteriorate an organization. The CEO did not promote positive psychological capacities or an ethical environment. The CEO fostered a climate of fear and control, destroying the potential to foster positive self-development. Self-awareness is a quintessential component to an authentic leader and was noticeably absent in the Psychopath CEO (Crawford et al. 2019). The results were apparent, a 110% turnover rate of employees within a 3-year time-span, leaving no knowledgeable managers and a workforce of uninterested drones (Boddy, 2015).