Psychopaths as Destructive Leaders. Why Are They So Hard to Identify in the Corporate World?

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich Psychologie - Arbeit, Betrieb, Organisation, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This paper takes the position that destructive leadership can be caused and sustained by personality traits of the individual leader. Specifically, this paper focuses on psychopathic personality traits as the root of destructive leadership behavior. Note that this is one possible trigger of destructive leadership and this paper does not imply that all leaders exposing destructive leadership behavior are to be recognized as Psychopaths. Taking this view point, the following paper will aim to analyze the reason behind the linkage of Psychopathy and Destructive Leadership as well as discuss possible preventive methods and their moral value. Destructive leadership is a leadership style which results in various negative effects on employee's well-being and/or financial and legitimate interests of the organization. It is only natural that a rising number of companies are interested in finding preventive methods to lower the number of destructive leaders in their organizational hierarchy.