Recruiting and Hiring Corporate Psychopaths

Jason Blaik, One Test Psychology Research and development manager writes about corporate psychopaths and how they appear on the surface to be "perfect" candidates.

Has your company ever fired a corporate psychopath?Have you ever recruited someone too good to be true?Are you about to recruit a corporate psychopath? Corporate psychopaths can wreak havoc with an organisation's morale, retention and reputation. Do you know how to recognise one?

Psychology research and development manager Jason Blaik explains that corporate psychopaths often appear to recruiters as "ideal" candidates.They present extremely well at interview, coming across as charming, highly intelligent, confident, calm and slick, he says. They appear to have all the right experience and command the respect of everyone in the room. But, Blaik says, sometimes when a candidate seems too good to be true, he or she probably is.

What is a psychopath?Psychopaths are characterised by failings in four main areas, Blaik says. They don't adopt common interpersonal conventions of honesty, modesty, trustworthiness - they don't believe these are important. They also fail on an affective level because they don't experience emotions like love, empathy and guilt; they can't understand and feel these on a personal level.Psychopaths are also impulsive, Blaik says, in that they fail to adopt widely shared norms pertaining to financial responsibility and safe conduct, while they also lead an antisocial lifestyle, failing to obey the laws of society (Blaik says psychopaths make up a disproportionate number of the prison population).

While we generally associate the term "psychopath" with murderers, the majority ply their trade in more subtle ways, Blaik says. They actually exhibit characteristics highly valued by the business world, because their lack of empathy and conscience can be seen as an ability to make tough decisions, and they don't appear to experience stress. Psychopaths are generally thought to make up about one per cent of the general population, but it's more like three per cent in the corporate world, he says. They are equally represented among men and women, and Blaik expects the female corporate psychopath to become a bigger feature of the corporate world as more women break through the glass ceiling.

Have you encountered one?Some signs that your colleague or candidate might be a corporate psychopath include:they consistently present in a smooth, polished and charming way;they redirect conversations to focus around them;they discredit or put others down in an attempt to enhance their own status and reputation;they lie with ease to colleagues, clients and business associates;they demonstrate a lack of empathy or understanding of others' emotions; andthey create internal power networks in the organisation and use them for personal gain. A corporate psychopath will generally charm the hiring team into selecting them for the job, and once inside the organisation will identify a potential support network of employees and those who can be manipulated.

During the "ascension phase" the psychopath works his or her way into positions of power. What they doImplications for an organisation that hires a corporate psychopath include interpersonal conflict and team disruptions, and these people can ultimately cause valuable employees to leave because they are so hard to deal with, Blaik says. (Very little can be done to reform a corporate psychopath, because they tend not to believe they have a problem and they don't want to change.)They also cause damage to the company's reputation, and legal and financial difficulties, with the risks increasing if they are allowed to climb into positions of power.

Many high-profile company collapses in recent years are believed to have been contributed to by corporate psychopaths, Blaik says. How can you avoid them?The first line of defense against corporate psychopaths is the selection phase of recruitment, Blaik says.While many candidates' resumes contain falsehoods, the corporate psychopath is more likely to embellish their skills and to change employment dates to hide some experiences, so recruiters should take care to validate their claims.

As well, structured interviews are better for dealing with corporate psychopaths and identifying gaps in their experience or knowledge, because these people perform at their best in free-flowing, conversational interviews. Blaik also recommends complementing the selection process with objective measures such as work samples and psychological assessments, and finally, conducting thorough background and reference checks.

He says recruiters should keep in mind that if a candidate seems too good to be true, he or she probably is, "and if he seems perfect for the job, he probably isn't".Blaik says it's important to note that displaying some of these behaviours occasionally doesn't make someone a corporate psychopath - anyone can "lose it" from time to time and not all "toxic" employees or bossses are psychopathic!