Organizational Dysfunction

Walk by Faith; Serve with Abandon
Expect to Win!
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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc.
Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities
Achieve Their Full Potential
Since its founding in 2003, The Advocacy Foundation has become recognized as an effective
provider of support to those who receive our services, having real impact within the communities
we serve. We are currently engaged in community and faith-based collaborative initiatives,
having the overall objective of eradicating all forms of youth violence and correcting injustices
everywhere. In carrying-out these initiatives, we have adopted the evidence-based strategic
framework developed and implemented by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP).
The stated objectives are:
1. Community Mobilization;
2. Social Intervention;
3. Provision of Opportunities;
4. Organizational Change and Development;
5. Suppression [of illegal activities].
Moreover, it is our most fundamental belief that in order to be effective, prevention and
intervention strategies must be Community Specific, Culturally Relevant, Evidence-Based, and
Collaborative. The Violence Prevention and Intervention programming we employ in
implementing this community-enhancing framework include the programs further described
throughout our publications, programs and special projects both domestically and
internationally.
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Dedication
______
Every publication in our many series’ is dedicated to everyone, absolutely everyone, who by
virtue of their calling and by Divine inspiration, direction and guidance, is on the battlefield dayafter-day
striving to follow God’s will and purpose for their lives. And this is with particular affinity
for those Spiritual warriors who are being transformed into excellence through daily academic,
professional, familial, and other challenges.
We pray that you will bear in mind:
Matthew 19:26 (NLT)
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible.
But with God everything is possible.” (Emphasis added)
To all of us who daily look past our circumstances, and naysayers, to what the Lord says we will
accomplish:
Blessings!!
- The Advocacy Foundation, Inc.
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The Transformative Justice Project
Eradicating Juvenile Delinquency Requires a Multi-Disciplinary Approach
The Juvenile Justice system is incredibly
overloaded, and Solutions-Based programs are
woefully underfunded. Our precious children,
therefore, particularly young people of color, often
get the “swift” version of justice whenever they
come into contact with the law.
Decisions to build prison facilities are often based
on elementary school test results, and our country
incarcerates more of its young than any other
nation on earth. So we at The Foundation labor to
pull our young people out of the “school to prison”
pipeline, and we then coordinate the efforts of the
legal, psychological, governmental and
educational professionals needed to bring an end
to delinquency.
We also educate families, police, local businesses,
elected officials, clergy, and schools and other
stakeholders about transforming whole communities, and we labor to change their
thinking about the causes of delinquency with the goal of helping them embrace the
idea of restoration for the young people in our care who demonstrate repentance for
their
mistakes.
The way we accomplish all this is a follows:
1. We vigorously advocate for charges reductions, wherever possible, in the
adjudicatory (court) process, with the ultimate goal of expungement or pardon, in order
to maximize the chances for our clients to graduate high school and progress into
college, military service or the workforce without the stigma of a criminal record;
2. We then enroll each young person into an Evidence-Based, Data-Driven
Restorative Justice program designed to facilitate their rehabilitation and subsequent
reintegration back into the community;
3. While those projects are operating, we conduct a wide variety of ComeUnity-
ReEngineering seminars and workshops on topics ranging from Juvenile Justice to
Parental Rights, to Domestic issues to Police friendly contacts, to mental health
intervention, to CBO and FBO accountability and compliance;
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4. Throughout the process, we encourage and maintain frequent personal contact
between all parties;
5 Throughout the process we conduct a continuum of events and fundraisers
designed to facilitate collaboration among professionals and community stakeholders;
and finally
6. 1 We disseminate Quarterly publications, like our e-Advocate series Newsletter
and our e-Advocate Quarterly electronic Magazine to all regular donors in order to
facilitate a lifelong learning process on the ever-evolving developments in the Justice
system.
And in addition to the help we provide for our young clients and their families, we also
facilitate Community Engagement through the Restorative Justice process,
thereby balancing the interests of local businesses, schools, clergy, social assistance
organizations, elected officials, law enforcement entities, and all interested
stakeholders. Through these efforts, relationships are rebuilt & strengthened, local
businesses and communities are enhanced & protected from victimization, young
careers are developed, and our precious young people are kept out of the prison
pipeline.
Additionally, we develop Transformative “Void Resistance” (TVR) initiatives to elevate
concerns of our successes resulting in economic hardship for those employed by the
penal system.
TVR is an innovative-comprehensive process that works in conjunction with our
Transformative Justice initiatives to transition the original use and purpose of current
systems into positive social impact operations, which systematically retrains current
staff, renovates facilities, creates new employment opportunities, increases salaries and
is data proven to enhance employee’s mental wellbeing and overall quality of life – an
exponential Transformative Social Impact benefit for ALL community stakeholders.
This is a massive undertaking, and we need all the help and financial support you can
give! We plan to help 75 young persons per quarter-year (aggregating to a total of 250
per year) in each jurisdiction we serve) at an average cost of under $2,500 per client,
per year. *
Thank you in advance for your support!
* FYI:
1 In addition to supporting our world-class programming and support services, all regular donors receive our Quarterly e-Newsletter
(The e-Advocate), as well as The e-Advocate Quarterly Magazine.
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1. The national average cost to taxpayers for minimum-security youth incarceration,
is around $43,000.00 per child, per year.
2. The average annual cost to taxpayers for maximum-security youth incarceration
is well over $148,000.00 per child, per year.
- (US News and World Report, December 9, 2014);
3. In every jurisdiction in the nation, the Plea Bargain rate is above 99%.
The Judicial system engages in a tri-partite balancing task in every single one of these
matters, seeking to balance Rehabilitative Justice with Community Protection and
Judicial Economy, and, although the practitioners work very hard to achieve positive
outcomes, the scales are nowhere near balanced where people of color are involved.
We must reverse this trend, which is right now working very much against the best
interests of our young.
Our young people do not belong behind bars.
- Jack Johnson
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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc.
Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities
Achieve Their Full Potential
…a compendium of works on
Organizational
Dysfunction
“Turning the Improbable Into the Exceptional”
Atlanta
Philadelphia
______
John C Johnson III
Founder & CEO
(878) 222-0450
Voice | Data | SMS
www.TheAdvocacy.Foundation
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Biblical Authority
______
Luke 6:31 (NIV)
31
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Luke 22:26
26
But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the
youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.
Proverbs 16:32
32
Better a patient person than a warrior,
one with self-control than one who takes a city.
20
Without wood a fire goes out;
without a gossip a quarrel dies down.
Proverbs 26:20
Matthew 20:26
26
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant,
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others
above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of
the others.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
Romans 12:3
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more
highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance
with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Romans 12:18
18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
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Table of Contents
…a compilation of works on
Organizational Dysfunction
Biblical Authority
I. Introduction: Executive Dysfunction………………………………….. 17
II. Founder’s Syndrome…………………………………………………… 37
III. The Peter Principle……………………………………………………… 41
IV. Organizational Conflict…………………………………………………. 49
V. Narcissistic Leadership & Control Freaks……………………………. 59
VI. Micromanagement…………….………………………………………… 65
VII. Abusive Power & Control (Fit-In or F-Off……………………………... 71
VIII. Psychopathy In The Workplace………………………………............. 87
IX. Machiavellianism In The Workplace…………………………………... 97
X. References……………………………………………………............... 101
______
Attachments
A. Seventeen Syndromes of Organizational Dysfunction
B. Organizational Culture As A Source of Dysfunction
C. Dysfunctional Leadership
Copyright © 2003 – 2019 The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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This work is not meant to be a piece of original academic
analysis, but rather draws very heavily on the work of
scholars in a diverse range of fields. All material drawn upon
is referenced appropriately.
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I. Introduction
Executive Dysfunction
In psychology and neuroscience, Executive Dysfunction, or executive function
deficit, is a disruption to the efficacy of the executive functions, which is a group
of cognitive processes that regulate, control, and manage other cognitive
processes. Executive dysfunction can refer to both neurocognitive deficits and
behavioural symptoms. It is implicated in
numerous psychopathologies and mental
disorders, as well as short-term and long-term
changes in non-clinical executive control.
Executive dysfunction is not the same
as dysexecutive syndrome, a term coined
by Alan Baddeley to describe a common
pattern of dysfunction in executive functions,
such as deficiencies in planning,
abstract thinking, flexibility and
behavioural control. This group of
symptoms, usually resulting from
brain damage, tend to occur
together. However, the existence of
dysexecutive syndrome is controversial.
Overview
Executive functioning is a theoretical construct
representing a domain of cognitive processes
that regulate,
control, and manage other cognitive processes. Executive
functioning is not a unitary concept; it is a broad description of the set of processes
involved in certain areas of cognitive and behavioural control. Executive processes are
integral to higher brain function, particularly in the areas of goal formation, planning,
goal-directed action, self-monitoring, attention, response inhibition, and coordination of
complex cognition and motor control for effective performance. Deficits of the executive
functions are observed in all populations to varying degrees, but severe executive
dysfunction can have devastating effects on cognition and behavior in both individual
and social contexts.
Executive dysfunction does occur to a minor degree in all individuals on both short-term
and long-term scales. In non-clinical populations, the activation of executive processes
appears to inhibit further activation of the same processes, suggesting a mechanism for
normal fluctuations in executive control. Decline in executive functioning is also
associated with both normal and clinical aging. In aging populations, the decline of
memory processes appears to affect executive functions, which also points to the
general role of memory in executive functioning.
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Executive dysfunction appears to consistently involve disruptions in task-oriented
behavior, which requires executive control in the inhibition of habitual responses and
goal activation. Such executive control is responsible for adjusting behavior to reconcile
environmental changes with goals for effective behavior. Impairments in set shifting
ability are a notable feature of executive dysfunction; set shifting is the cognitive ability
to dynamically change focus between points of fixation based on changing goals and
environmental stimuli. This offers a parsimonious explanation for the common
occurrence of impulsive, hyperactive, disorganized, and aggressive behavior in clinical
patients with executive dysfunction. Executive dysfunction, particularly in working
memory capacity, may also lead to varying degrees of emotional dysregulation, which
can manifest as chronic depression, anxiety, or hyperemotionality. Russell
Barkley proposed a hybrid model of the role of behavioral disinhibition in the
presentation of ADHD, which has served as the basis for much research of both ADHD
and broader implications of the executive system.
Other common and distinctive symptoms of executive dysfunction include utilization
behavior, which is compulsive manipulation/use of nearby objects due simply to their
presence and accessibility (rather than a functional reason); and imitation behaviour, a
tendency to rely on imitation as a primary means of social interaction. Research also
suggests that executive set shifting is a co-mediator with episodic memory of feeling-ofknowing
(FOK) accuracy, such that executive dysfunction may reduce FOK accuracy.
There is some evidence suggesting that executive dysfunction may produce beneficial
effects as well as maladaptive ones. Abraham et al. demonstrate that creative thinking
in schizophrenia is mediated by executive dysfunction, and they establish a
firm etiology for creativity in psychoticism, pinpointing a cognitive preference for broader
top-down associative thinking versus goal-oriented thinking, which closely resembles
aspects of ADHD. It is postulated that elements of psychosis are present in both ADHD
and schizophrenia/schizotypy due to dopamine overlap.
Cause
The cause of executive dysfunction is heterogeneous, as
many neurocognitive processes are involved in the executive system and each may be
compromised by a range of genetic and environmental factors. Learning and
development of long-term memory play a role in the severity of executive dysfunction
through dynamic interaction with neurological characteristics. Studies in cognitive
neuroscience suggest that executive functions are widely distributed throughout the
brain, though a few areas have been isolated as primary contributors. Executive
dysfunction is studied extensively in clinical neuropsychology as well, allowing
correlations to be drawn between such dysexecutive symptoms and their neurological
correlates.
Executive processes are closely integrated with memory retrieval capabilities for overall
cognitive control; in particular, goal/task-information is stored in both short-term and
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long-term memory, and effective performance requires effective storage and retrieval of
this information.
Executive dysfunction characterizes many of the symptoms observed in
numerous clinical populations. In the case of acquired brain injury and
neurodegenerative diseases there is a clear neurological etiology producing
dysexecutive symptoms. Conversely, syndromes and disorders are defined and
diagnosed based on their symptomatology rather than etiology. Thus, while Parkinson's
disease, a neurodegenerative condition, causes executive dysfunction, a disorder such
as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a classification given to a set of subjectivelydetermined
symptoms implicating executive dysfunction – current models indicate that
such clinical symptoms are caused by executive dysfunction.
Neurophysiology
As previously mentioned, executive functioning is not a unitary concept. Many studies
have been conducted in an attempt to pinpoint the exact regions of the brain that lead to
executive dysfunction, producing a vast amount of often conflicting information
indicating wide and inconsistent distribution of such functions. A common assumption is
that disrupted executive control processes are associated with pathology
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in prefrontal brain regions. This is supported to some extent by the primary literature,
which shows both pre-frontal activation and communication between the pre-frontal
cortex and other areas associated with executive functions such as the basal
ganglia and cerebellum.
In most cases of executive dysfunction, deficits are attributed to either frontal lobe
damage or dysfunction, or to disruption in fronto-subcortical connectivity. Neuroimaging
with PETand fMRI has confirmed the relationship between executive function and
functional frontal pathology. Neuroimaging studies have also suggested that some
constituent functions are not discretely localized in prefrontal regions. Functional
imaging studies using different tests of executive function have implicated the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to be the primary site of cortical activation during these
tasks. In addition, PET studies of patients with Parkinson's disease have suggested that
tests of executive function are associated with abnormal function in the globus
pallidus and appear to be the genuine result of basal ganglia damage.
With substantial cognitive load, fMRI signals indicate a common network of frontal,
parietal and occipital cortices, thalamus, and the cerebellum. This observation suggests
that executive function is mediated by dynamic and flexible networks that are
characterized using functional integration and effective connectivity analyses. The
complete circuit underlying executive function includes both a direct and an indirect
circuit. The neural circuit responsible for executive functioning is, in fact, located
primarily in the frontal lobe. This main circuit originates in the dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex/orbitofrontal cortex and then projects through the striatum and thalamus to return
to the prefrontal cortex.
Not surprisingly, plaques and tangles in the frontal cortex can cause disruption in
functions as well as damage to the connections between prefrontal cortex and
the hippocampus. Another important point is in the finding that structural MRI images
link the severity of white matter lesions to deficits in cognition.
The emerging view suggests that cognitive processes materialize from networks that
span multiple cortical sites with closely collaborative and over-lapping functions. A
challenge for future research will be to map the multiple brain regions that might
combine with each other in a vast number of ways, depending on the task requirements.
Genetics
Certain genes have been identified with a clear correlation to executive dysfunction and
related psychopathologies. According to Friedman et al. (2008), the heritability of
executive functions is among the highest of any psychological trait. The dopamine
receptor D4 gene (DRD4) with 7'-repeating polymorphism (7R) has been repeatedly
shown to correlate strongly with impulsive response style on psychological tests of
executive dysfunction, particularly in clinical ADHD. The catechol-o-methyl transferase
gene (COMT) codes for an enzyme that degrades catecholamine neurotransmitters (DA
and NE), and its Val158Met polymorphism is linked with the modulation of task-oriented
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cognition and behavior (including set shifting) and the experience of reward, which are
major aspects of executive functioning. COMT is also linked to methylphenidate
(stimulant medication) response in children with ADHD. Both the DRD4/7R and
COMT/Val158Met polymorphisms are also correlated with executive dysfunction in
schizophrenia and schizotypal behavior.
Testing and Measurement
There are several measures that can be employed to assess the executive functioning
capabilities of an individual. Although a trained non-professional working outside of an
institutionalized setting can legally and competently perform many of these measures, a
trained professional administering the test in a standardized setting will yield the most
accurate results.
Clock Drawing Test
The Clock drawing test (CDT) is a brief cognitive task that can be used by physicians
who suspect neurological dysfunction based on history and physical examination. It is
relatively easy to train non-professional staff to administer a CDT. Therefore, this is a
test that can easily be administered in educational and geriatric settings and can be
utilized as a precursory measure to indicate the likelihood of further/future deficits. Also,
generational, educational and cultural differences are not perceived as impacting the
utility of the CDT.
The procedure of the CDT begins with the instruction to the participant to draw a clock
reading a specific time (generally 11:10). After the task is complete, the test
administrator draws a clock with the hands set at the same specific time. Then the
patient is asked to copy the image. Errors in clock drawing are classified according to
the following categories: omissions, perseverations, rotations, misplacements,
distortions, substitutions and additions. Memory, concentration, initiation, energy,
mental clarity and indecision are all measures that are scored during this activity. Those
with deficits in executive functioning will often make errors on the first clock but not the
second. In other words, they will be unable to generate their own example, but will show
proficiency in the copying task.
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Stroop Task
The cognitive mechanism involved in the Stroop task is referred to as directed attention.
The Stroop task requires the participant to engage in and allows assessment of
processes such as attention management, speed and accuracy of reading words and
colours and of inhibition of competing stimuli. The stimulus is a color word that is printed
in a different color than what the written word reads. For example, the word "red" is
written in a blue font. One must verbally classify the color that the word is
displayed/printed in, while ignoring the information provided by the written word. In the
aforementioned example, this would require the participant to say "blue" when
presented with the stimulus. Although the majority of people will show some slowing
when given incompatible text versus font color, this is more severe in individuals with
deficits in inhibition. The Stroop task takes advantage of the fact that most humans are
so proficient at reading color words that it is extremely difficult to ignore this information,
and instead acknowledge, recognize and say the colour the word is printed in. The
Stroop task is an assessment of attentional vitality and flexibility. More modern
variations of the Stroop task tend to be more difficult and often try to limit the sensitivity
of the test.
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is used to determine an individual's
competence in abstract reasoning, and the ability to change problem-solving strategies
when needed. These abilities are primarily determined by the frontal lobes and basal
ganglia, which are crucial components of executive functioning; making the WCST a
good measure for this purpose.
The WCST utilizes a deck of 128 cards that contains four stimulus cards. The figures on
the cards differ with respect to color, quantity, and shape. The participants are then
given a pile of additional cards and are asked to match each one to one of the previous
cards. Typically, children between ages 9 and 11 are able to show the cognitive
flexibility that is needed for this test.
Trail-Making Test
Another prominent test of executive dysfunction is known as the Trail-Making test. This
test is composed of two main parts (Part A & Part B). Part B differs from Part A
specifically in that it assesses more complex factors of motor control and
perception. Part B of the Trail-making test consists of multiple circles containing letters
(A-L) and numbers (1-12). The participant's objective for this test is to connect the
circles in order, alternating between number and letter (e.g. 1-A-2-B) from start to
finish. The participant is required not to lift their pencil from the page. The task is also
timed as a means of assessing speed of processing. Set-switching tasks in Part B have
low motor and perceptual selection demands, and therefore provide a clearer index of
executive function. Throughout this task, some of the executive function skills that are
being measured include impulsivity, visual attention and motor speed.
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In Clinical Populations
The executive system's broad range of functions relies on, and is instrumental in, a
broad range of neurocognitive processes. Clinical presentation of severe executive
dysfunction that is unrelated to a specific disease or disorder is classified as
a dysexecutive syndrome, and often appears following damage to the frontal lobes of
the cerebral cortex. As a result, Executive dysfunction is
implicated etiologically and/or co-morbidly in many psychiatric illnesses, which often
show the same symptoms as the dysexecutive syndrome. It has been assessed and
researched extensively in relation to cognitive developmental disorders, psychotic
disorders, affective disorders, and conduct disorders, as well as neurodegenerative
diseases and acquired brain injury (ABI).
Environmental dependency syndrome is a dysexecutive syndrome marked by
significant behavioural dependence on environmental cues and is marked by excessive
imitation and utilization behaviour.
It has been observed in patients with a variety of etiologies including ABI, exposure to
phendimetrazine tartrate, stroke, and various frontal lobe lesions.
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Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is commonly described as a mental disorder in which a person becomes
detached from reality because of disruptions in the pattern of thinking and perception.
Although the etiology is not completely understood, it is closely related to dopaminergic
activity and is strongly associated with both neurocognitive and genetic elements of
executive dysfunction. Individuals with schizophrenia may demonstrate amnesia for
portions of their episodic memory. Observed damage to explicit, consciously accessed,
memory is generally attributed to the fragmented thoughts that characterize the
disorder. These fragmented thoughts are suggested to produce a similarly fragmented
organization in memory during encoding and storage, making retrieval more difficult.
However, implicit memory is generally preserved in patients with schizophrenia.
Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate spared performance on measures of visual
and verbal attention and concentration, as well as on immediate digit span recall,
suggesting that observed deficits cannot be attributed to deficits in attention or shortterm
memory. However, impaired performance was measured on psychometric
measures assumed to assess higher order executive function. Working memory and
multi-tasking impairments typically characterize the disorder. Persons with
schizophrenia also tend to demonstrate deficits in response inhibition and cognitive
flexibility.
Patients often demonstrate noticeable deficits in the central executive component of
working memory as conceptualized by Baddeley and Hitch. However, performance on
tasks associated with the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are typically
less affected. More specifically, patients with schizophrenia show impairment to the
central executive component of working memory, specific to tasks in which the
visuospatial system is required for central executive control. The phonological system
appears to be more generally spared overall.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
A triad of core symptoms, namely inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity characterize
attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Individuals with ADHD often experience problems
with organization, discipline, and setting priorities, and these difficulties often persist
from childhood through adulthood. In both children and adults with ADHD, an underlying
executive dysfunction involving the prefrontal regions and other interconnected
subcortical structures has been found. As a result, people with ADHD commonly
perform more poorly than matched controls on interference control, mental flexibility and
verbal fluency. Also, a more central impairment in self-regulation is noted in cases of
ADHD. However, some research has suggested the possibility that the severity of
executive dysfunction in individuals with ADHD declines with age as they learn to
compensate for the aforementioned deficits. Thus, a decrease in executive dysfunction
in adults with ADHD as compared to children with ADHD is thought reflective of
compensatory strategies employed on behalf of the adults (e.g. using schedules to
organize tasks) rather than neurological differences.
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Although ADHD has typically been conceptualized in a categorical diagnostic paradigm,
it has also been proposed that this disorder should be considered within a more
dimensional behavioural model that links executive functions to observed
deficits. Proponents argue that classic conceptions of ADHD falsely localize the problem
at perception (input) rather than focusing on the inner processes involved in producing
appropriate behaviour (output). Moreover, others have theorized that the appropriate
development of inhibition (something that is seen to be lacking in individuals with
ADHD) is essential for the normal performance of other neuropsychological abilities
such as working memory, and emotional self-regulation. Thus, within this model, deficits
in inhibition are conceptualized to be developmental and the result of atypically
operating executive systems.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism is diagnosed based on the presence of markedly abnormal or impaired
development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted
repertoire of activities and interests. It is a disorder that is defined according to
behaviour as no specific biological markers are known. Due to the variability in severity
and impairment in functioning exhibited by persons with autism, the disorder is typically
conceptualized as existing along a continuum (or spectrum) of severity.
Individuals with autism commonly show impairment in three main areas of executive
functioning:
Fluency. Fluency refers to the ability to generate novel ideas and responses.
Although adult populations are largely underrepresented in this area of research,
findings have suggested that children with autism generate fewer novel words
and ideas and produce less complex responses than matched controls.
Planning. Planning refers to a complex, dynamic process, wherein a sequence
of planned actions must be developed, monitored, re-evaluated and updated.
Persons with autism demonstrate impairment on tasks requiring planning abilities
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elative to typically functioning controls, with this impairment maintained over
time. As might be suspected, in the case of autism comorbid with learning
disability, an additive deficit is observed in many cases.
Flexibility. Poor mental flexibility, as demonstrated in individuals with autism, is
characterized by perseverative, stereotyped behaviour, and deficits in both the
regulation and modulation of motor acts. Some research has suggested that
individuals with autism experience a sort of 'stuck-in-set' perseveration that is
specific to the disorder, rather than a more global perseveration tendency. These
deficits have been exhibited in cross-cultural samples and have been shown to
persist over time.
Although there has been some debate, inhibition is generally no longer considered to be
an executive function deficit in people with autism. Individuals with autism have
demonstrated differential performance on various tests of inhibition, with results being
taken to indicate a general difficulty in the inhibition of a habitual response. However,
performance on the Stroop task, for example, has been unimpaired relative to matched
controls. An alternative explanation has suggested that executive function tests that
demonstrate a clear rationale are passed by individuals with autism. In this light, it is the
design of the measures of inhibition that have been implicated in the observation of
impaired performance rather than inhibition being a core deficit.
In general, individuals with autism show relatively spared performance on tasks that do
not require mentalization. These include: use of desire and emotion words, sequencing
behavioural pictures, and the recognition of basic facial emotional expressions. In
contrast, individuals with autism typically demonstrated impaired performance on tasks
that do require mentalizing. These include: false beliefs, use of belief and idea words,
sequencing mentalistic pictures, and recognizing complex emotions such as admiring or
scheming.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that is characterized by both highs (mania) and lows
(depression) in mood. These changes in mood sometimes alternate rapidly (changes
within days or weeks) and sometimes not so rapidly (within weeks or months). Current
research provides strong evidence of cognitive impairments in individuals with bipolar
disorder, particularly in executive function and verbal learning. Moreover, these
cognitive deficits appear to be consistent cross-culturally, indicating that these
impairments are characteristic of the disorder and not attributable to differences in
cultural values, norms, or practice. Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated
abnormalities in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex as
being volumetrically different in individuals with bipolar disorder.
Individuals affected by bipolar disorder exhibit deficits in strategic thinking, inhibitory
control, working memory, attention, and initiation that are independent of affective
state. In contrast to the more generalized cognitive impairment demonstrated in persons
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with schizophrenia, for example, deficits in bipolar disorder are typically less severe and
more restricted. It has been suggested that a "stable dys-regulation of prefrontal
function or the subcortical-frontal circuitry [of the brain] may underlie the cognitive
disturbances of bipolar disorder". Executive dysfunction in bipolar disorder is suggested
to be associated particularly with the manic state, and is largely accounted for in terms
of the formal thought disorder that is a feature of mania. It is important to note, however,
that patients with bipolar disorder with a history of psychosis demonstrated greater
impairment on measures of executive functioning and spatial working memory
compared with bipolar patients without a history of psychosis suggesting that psychotic
symptoms are correlated with executive dysfunction.
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease (PD) primarily involves damage to subcortical brain structures and
is usually associated with movement difficulties, in addition to problems with memory
and thought processes. Persons affected by PD often demonstrate difficulties in working
memory, a component of executive functioning. Cognitive deficits found in early PD
process appear to involve primarily the fronto-executive functions. Moreover, studies of
the role of dopamine in the cognition of PD patients have suggested that PD patients
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with inadequate dopamine supplementation are more impaired in their performance on
measures of executive functioning. This suggests that dopamine may contribute to
executive control processes. Increased distractibility, problems in set formation and
maintaining and shifting attentional sets, deficits in executive functions such as selfdirected
planning, problems solving, and working memory have been reported in PD
patients. In terms of working memory specifically, persons with PD show deficits in the
areas of: a) spatial working memory; b) central executive aspects of working memory; c)
loss of episodic memories; d) locating events in time.
Spatial Working Memory. PD patients often demonstrate difficulty in updating changes
in spatial information and often become disoriented. They do not keep track of spatial
contextual information in the same way that a typical person would do almost
automatically. Similarly, they often have trouble remembering the locations of objects
that they have recently seen, and thus also have trouble with encoding this information
into long-term memory.
Central Executive Aspects. PD is often characterized by a difficulty in regulating and
controlling one's stream of thought, and how memories are utilized in guiding future
behaviour. Also, persons affected by PD often demonstrate perseverative behaviours
such as continuing to pursue a goal after it is completed, or an inability to adopt a new
strategy that may be more appropriate in achieving a goal. However, some recent
research suggests that PD patients may actually be less persistent in pursuing goals
than typical persons and may abandon tasks sooner when they encounter problems of
a higher level of difficulty.
Loss of Episodic Memories. The loss of episodic memories in PD patients typically
demonstrates a temporal gradient wherein older memories are generally more
preserved than newer memories. Also, while forgetting event content is less
compromised in Parkinson's than in Alzheimer's, the opposite is true for event data
memories.
Locating Events In Time. PD patients often demonstrate deficits in their ability to
sequence information, or date events. Part of the problems is hypothesized to be due to
a more fundamental difficulty in coordinating or planning retrieval strategies, rather than
failure at the level of encoding or storing information in memory. This deficit is also likely
to be due to an underlying difficulty in properly retrieving script information. PD patients
often exhibit signs of irrelevant intrusions, incorrect ordering of events, and omission of
minor components in their script retrieval, leading to disorganized and inappropriate
application of script information.
Psychosocial Treatment
Treatment
Since 1997 there has been experimental and clinical practice of psychosocial treatment
for adults with executive dysfunction, and particularly attention-deficit/hyperactivity
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disorder (ADHD). Psychosocial treatment addresses the many facets of executive
difficulties, and as the name suggests, covers academic, occupational and social
deficits. Psychosocial treatment facilitates marked improvements in major symptoms of
executive dysfunction such as time management, organization and self-esteem.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Group Rehabilitation
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a frequently suggested treatment for executive
dysfunction, but has shown limited effectiveness. However, a study of CBT in a group
rehabilitation setting showed a significant increase in positive treatment outcome
compared with individual therapy. Patients' self-reported symptoms on 16 different
ADHD/executive-related items were reduced following the treatment period.
Treatment for Patients with Acquired Brain Injury
The use of auditory stimuli has been examined in the treatment of dysexecutive
syndrome. The presentation of auditory stimuli causes an interruption in current activity,
which appears to aid in preventing "goal neglect" by increasing the patients' ability to
monitor time and focus on goals. Given such stimuli, subjects no longer performed
below their age group average IQ.
Patients with acquired brain injury have also been exposed to goal management
training (GMT). GMT skills are associated with paper-and-pencil tasks that are suitable
for patients having difficulty setting goals. From these studies there has been support
for the effectiveness of GMT and the treatment of executive dysfunction due to ABI.
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Developmental Context
An understanding of how executive dysfunction shapes development has implications
how we conceptualize executive functions and their role in shaping the individual.
Disorders affecting children such as ADHD, along with oppositional defiant disorder,
conduct disorder, high functioning autism and Tourette's syndrome have all been
suggested to involve executive functioning deficits. The main focus of current research
has been on working memory, planning, set shifting, inhibition, and fluency. This
research suggests that differences exist between typically functioning, matched controls
and clinical groups, on measures of executive functioning.
Some research has suggested a link between a child's abilities to gain information about
the world around them and having the ability to override emotions in order to behave
appropriately. One study required children to perform a task from a series of
psychological tests, with their performance used as a measure of executive
function. The tests included assessments of: executive functions (self-regulation,
monitoring, attention, flexibility in thinking), language, sensorimotor, visuospatial, and
learning, in addition to social perception. The findings suggested that the development
of theory of mind in younger children is linked to executive control abilities with
development impaired in individuals who exhibit signs of executive dysfunction.
Both ADHD and obesity are complicated disorders and each produces a large impact
on an individual's social well being. This being both a physical and psychological
disorder has reinforced that obese individuals with ADHD need more treatment time
(with associated costs), and are at a higher risk of developing physical and emotional
complications. The cognitive ability to develop a comprehensive self-construct and the
ability to demonstrate capable emotion regulation is a core deficit observed in people
with ADHD and is linked to deficits in executive function. Overall, low executive
functioning seen in individuals with ADHD has been correlated with tendencies to
overeat, as well as with emotional eating. This particular interest in the relationship
between ADHD and obesity is rarely clinically assessed and may deserve more
attention in future research.
It has been made known that young children with behavioral problems show poor verbal
ability and executive functions. The exact distinction between parenting style and the
importance of family structure on child development is still somewhat unclear. However,
in infancy and early childhood, parenting is among the most critical external influences
on child reactivity. In Mahoney's study of maternal communication, results indicated that
the way mothers interacted with their children accounted for almost 25% of variability in
children's rate of development. Every child is unique, making parenting an emotional
challenge that should be most closely related to the child's level of emotional selfregulation
(persistence, frustration and compliance). A promising approach that is
currently being investigated amid intellectually disabled children and their parents is
responsive teaching. Responsive teaching is an early intervention curriculum designed
to address the cognitive, language, and social needs of young children with
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developmental problems. Based on the principle of "active learning", responsive
teaching is a method that is currently being applauded as adaptable for individual
caregivers, children and their combined needs. The effect of parenting styles on the
development of children is an important area of research that seems to be forever
ongoing and altering. There is no doubt that there is a prominent link between parental
interaction and child development but the best child rearing technique continues to vary
amongst experts.
Evolutionary Perspective
The prefrontal lobe controls two related executive functioning domains. The first is
mediation of abilities involved in planning, problem solving, and understanding
information, as well as engaging in working memory processes and controlled attention.
In this sense, the prefrontal lobe is involved with dealing with basic, everyday situations,
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especially those involving metacognitive functions. The second domain involves the
ability to fulfill biological needs through the coordination of cognition and emotions which
are both associated with the frontal and prefrontal areas.
From an evolutionary perspective, it has been hypothesized that the executive system
may have evolved to serve several adaptive purposes. The prefrontal lobe in humans
has been associated both with metacognitive executive functions and emotional
executive functions. Theory and evidence suggest that the frontal lobes in other
primates also mediate and regulate emotion, but do not demonstrate the metacognitive
abilities that are demonstrated in humans.
This uniqueness of the executive system to humans implies that there was also
something unique about the environment of ancestral humans, which gave rise to the
need for executive functions as adaptations to that environment. Some examples of
possible adaptive problems that would have been solved by the evolution of an
executive system are: social exchange, imitation and observational learning, enhanced
pedagogical understanding, tool construction and use, and effective communication.
In a similar vein, some have argued that the unique metacognitive capabilities
demonstrated by humans have arisen out of the development of a sophisticated
language (symbolization) systems and culture.
Moreover, in a developmental context, it has been proposed that each executive
function capability originated as a form of public behaviour directed at the external
environment, but then became self-directed, and then finally, became private to the
individual, over the course of the development of self-regulation. These shifts in function
illustrate the evolutionarily salient strategy of maximizing longer-term social
consequences over near-term ones, through the development of an internal control of
behavior.
Comorbidity
Flexibility problems are more likely to be related to Anxiety, and Metacognition problems
are more likely to be related to depression.
Education
Socio-Cultural Implications
In the classroom environment, children with executive dysfunction typically demonstrate
skill deficits that can be categorized into two broad domains: a) self-regulatory skills;
and b) goal-oriented skills. The table below is an adaptation of McDougall's summary
and provides an overview of specific executive function deficits that are commonly
observed in a classroom environment. It also offers examples of how these deficits are
likely to manifest in behavior.
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Self-Regulatory Skills
Often Exhibit Deficits In...
Perception. Awareness of something
happening in the environment
Modulation. Awareness of the amount of effort
needed to perform a task (successfully)
Sustained attention. Ability to focus on a task
or situation despite distractions, fatigue or
boredom
Flexibility. Ability to change focus, adapt to
changing conditions or revise plans in the face
of obstacles, new information or mistakes (can
also be considered as "adaptability")
Working memory. Ability to hold information in
memory while performing complex tasks with
information
Response inhibition. Capacity to think before
acting (deficits are often observed as
"impulsivity")
Emotional regulation. Ability to modulate
emotional responses
Manifestations In The Classroom
Doesn't "see" what is happening; Doesn't "hear"
instructions
Commission of errors at easy levels and success at
harder levels; Indication that student thinks the task is
"easy" then cannot do it correctly; Performance
improves once the student realized that the task is
more difficult than originally thought
Initiates the task, but doesn't continue to work steadily;
Easily distracted; Fatigues easily; Complains task is
too long or too boring
Slow to stop one activity and begin another after being
instructed to do so; Tendency to stay with one plan or
strategy even after it is shown to be ineffective; Rigid
adherence to routines; Refusal to consider new
information
Forgets instructions (especially if multi-step);
Frequently asks for information to be repeated;
Forgets books at home or at school; Can't do mental
arithmetic; Difficulty making connections with
previously learned information; Difficulty with reading
comprehension
Seems to act without thinking; Frequently interrupts;
Talks out in class; Often out of seat/away from desk;
Rough play gets out of control; Doesn't consider
consequences of actions
Temper outbursts; Cries easily; Very easily frustrated;
Very quick to anger; Acts silly
Goal-Oriented Skills
Often Exhibit Deficits In...
Planning. Ability to list steps needed to reach
a goal or complete a task
Organization. Ability to arrange information
or materials according to a system
Time management. Ability to comprehend
how much time is available, or to estimate
how long it will take to complete a task, and
keep track of how much time has passed
relative to the amount of the task completed
Manifestations In The Classroom
Doesn't know where to start when given large
assignments; Easily overwhelmed by task demands;
Difficulty developing a plan for long-term projects;
Problem-solving strategies are very limited and
haphazard; Starts working before adequately considering
the demands of a task; Difficulty listing steps required to
complete a task
Disorganized desk, binder, notebooks, etc.; Loses books,
papers, assignments, etc.; Doesn't write down important
information; Difficulty retrieving information when needed
Very little work accomplished during a specified period of
time; Wasting time, then rushing to complete a task at the
last minute; Often late to class/assignments are often
late; Difficulty estimating how long it takes to do a task;
Limited awareness of the passage of time
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Self-monitoring. Ability to stand back and
evaluate how you are doing (can also be
thought of as "metacognitive" abilities)
Makes "careless" errors; Does not check work before
handing it in; Does not stop to evaluate how things are
going in the middle of a task or activity; Thinks a task was
well done, when in fact it was done poorly; Thinks a task
was poorly done, when in fact it was done well
Teachers play a crucial role in the implementation of strategies aimed at improving
academic success and classroom functioning in individuals with executive dysfunction.
In a classroom environment, the goal of intervention should ultimately be to apply
external control, as needed (e.g. adapt the environment to suit the child, provide adult
support) in an attempt to modify problem behaviours or supplement skill
deficits. Ultimately, executive function difficulties should not be attributed to negative
personality traits or characteristics (e.g. laziness, lack of motivation, apathy, and
stubbornness) as these attributions are neither useful nor accurate.
Several factors should be considered in the development of intervention strategies.
These include, but are not limited to: developmental level of the child, comorbid
disabilities, environmental changes, motivating factors, and coaching strategies. It is
also recommended that strategies should take a proactive approach in managing
behavior or skill deficits (when possible), rather than adopt a reactive approach. For
example, an awareness of where a student may have difficulty throughout the course of
the day can aid the teacher in planning to avoid these situations or in planning to
accommodate the needs of the student.
People with executive dysfunction have a slower cognitive processing speed and thus
often take longer to complete tasks than people who demonstrate typical executive
function capabilities. This can be frustrating for the individual and can serve to impede
academic progress. Disorders affecting children such as ADHD, along with oppositional
defiant disorder, conduct disorder, high functioning autism and Tourette's syndrome
have all been suggested to involve executive functioning deficits. The main focus of
current research has been on working memory, planning, set shifting, inhibition, and
fluency. This research suggests that differences exist between typically functioning,
matched controls and clinical groups, on measures of executive functioning.
Moreover, some people with ADHD report experiencing frequent feelings of
drowsiness. This can hinder their attention for lectures, readings, and completing
assignments. Individuals with this disorder have also been found to require more stimuli
for information processing in reading and writing. Slow processing may manifest in
behavior as signaling a lack of motivation on behalf of the learner. However, slow
processing is reflective of an impairment of the ability to coordinate and integrate
multiple skills and information sources.
The main concern with individuals with autism regarding learning is in the imitation of
skills. This can be a barrier in many aspects such as learning about others intentions,
mental states, speech, language, and general social skills. Individuals with autism tend
to be dependent on the routines that they have already mastered, and have difficulty
with initiating new non-routine tasks. Although an estimated 25–40% of people with
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autism also have a learning disability, many will demonstrate an impressive rote
memory and memory for factual knowledge. As such, repetition is the primary and most
successful method for instruction when teaching people with autism.
Being attentive and focused for people with Tourette's syndrome is a difficult process.
People affected by this disorder tend to be easily distracted and act very
impulsively. That is why it is very important to have a quiet setting with few distractions
for the ultimate learning environment. Focusing is particularly difficult for those who are
affected by Tourette's syndrome comorbid with other disorders such as ADHD
or obsessive-compulsive disorder, it makes focusing very difficult. Also, these
individuals can be found to repeat words or phrases consistently either immediately
after they are learned or after a delayed period of time.
Criminal Behavior
Prefrontal dysfunction has been found as a marker for persistent, criminal behavior. The
prefrontal cortex is involved with mental functions including; affective range of emotions,
forethought, and self-control. Moreover, there is a scarcity of mental control displayed
by individuals with a dysfunction in this area over their behavior, reduced flexibility and
self-control and their difficulty to conceive behavioral consequences, which may
conclude in unstable (or criminal) behavior. In a recent study conducted by Barbosa &
Monteiro, it was discovered that the recurrent criminals that were considered in this
study suffered from executive dysfunction. In view of the fact that abnormalities in
executive function can limit how people respond to rehabilitation and re-socialization
programs these findings of the recurrent criminals are justified. Statistically significant
relations have been discerned between anti-social behavior and executive function
deficits. These findings relate to the emotional instability that is connected with
executive function as a detrimental symptom that can also be linked towards criminal
behavior. Conversely, it is unclear as to the specificity of anti-social behavior to
executive function deficits as opposed to other generalized neuropsychological
deficits. The uncontrollable deficiency of executive function has an increased
expectancy for aggressive behavior that can result in a criminal deed. Orbitofrontal
injury also hinders the ability to be risk avoidant, make social judgments, and may
cause reflexive aggression. A common retort to these findings is that the higher
incidence of cerebral lesions among the criminal population may be due to the peril
associated with a life of crime. Along with this reasoning, it would be assumed that
some other personality trait is responsible for the disregard of social acceptability and
reduction in social aptitude.
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Furthermore, some think the dysfunction cannot be entirely to blame. There are
interacting environmental factors that also have an influence on the likelihood of criminal
action. This theory proposes that individuals with this deficit are less able to control
impulses or foresee the consequences of actions that seem attractive at the time (see
above) and are also typically provoked by environmental factors. One must recognize
that the frustrations of life, combined with a limited ability to control life events, can
easily cause aggression and/or other criminal activities. Early brain Damage causes
dopamine(epigentically) to select for "Seeking" behavior in the very short term...this is
the window for existence for these individuals...the future has no meaning so
consequences have no meaning
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II. Founder’s Syndrome
Founder's Syndrome (also founderitis) is a popular term for a difficulty faced by
organizations where one or more founders maintain disproportionate power and
influence following the effective initial establishment of the project, leading to a wide
range of problems for the organization. The passion and charisma of the founder(s),
sources of the initial creativity and productivity of the organization, become limiting or
destructive factors. The syndrome occurs in both non-profit and for-profit organizations.
It may simply limit further growth and success of the project, or it may lead to bitter
factionalism and divisions as the scale of demands made on the organization increases,
or it may result in outright failure. There are ways in which a founder or organization can
respond and grow beyond this situation.
Symptoms
An organization suffering from founder's syndrome typically presents many of the
following symptoms:
The organization is strongly identified with the founder.
The founder makes all decisions, big and small, without a formal process or input
from others. Decisions are made in crisis mode, with little forward planning. Staff
meetings are held generally to rally the troops, get status reports, and assign
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tasks. There is little meaningful strategic development, or shared executive
agreement on objectives with limited or a complete lack of professional
development. Typically, there is little organizational infrastructure in place, and
what is there is not used correctly.
There is no succession plan.
Key staff and board members are typically selected by the founder and are often
friends and colleagues of the founder. Their role is to support the founder, rather
than to lead the mission. Staff may be chosen due to their personal loyalty to the
founder rather than skills, organizational fit, or experience. Board members may
be under-qualified, under-informed or intimidated and will typically be unable to
answer basic questions without checking first.
Professionally trained and talented recruits, often recruited to resolve difficulties
in the organization, find that they are not able to contribute in an effective and
professional way.
The founder begins to believe his/her own Press/PR
The founder, who is usually the CEO or managing director, suffers HiPPO
(Highest-paid-person's opinion), which means that often his or her ideas,
decisions, etc. keep winning over the actual better ideas, decisions, etc.
The founder becomes increasingly paranoid as delegation is required, and/or
business management needs are greater than their training or experience.
The founder responds to increasingly challenging issues by accentuating the
above, leading to further difficulties. Anyone who challenges this cycle will be
treated as a disruptive influence and will be ignored, ridiculed or removed. The
working environment will be increasingly difficult with decreasing public trust. The
organization becomes increasingly reactive, rather than proactive. Alternatively,
the founder or the board may recognize the issue and take effective action to
move beyond it as outlined below.
Responses
Coping with founder's syndrome requires discussion of the problem, a plan of action,
and interventions by the founder, the board and or by others involved in the
organization.
The objective of the plan should be to allow the organization to make a successful
transition to a mature organizational model without damage to either the organization
itself or the individuals concerned.
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Criticism
Despite the negative symptoms listed above, according to one study focused on
"knowledge-intensive technology" companies, founders with a hands-on management
style are more likely to retain employees and see their firms thrive.
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III. The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter,
which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence".
In other words, an employee is promoted based on their success in previous jobs until
they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not
necessarily translate to another. The concept was elucidated in the 1969 book The
Peter Principle by Peter and Raymond Hull.
The Peter Principle was published by William Morrow and Company in 1969. Peter and
Hull intended the book to be satire, but it became popular as it was seen to make a
serious point about the shortcomings of how people are promoted within hierarchical
organizations. Hull wrote the text, based on Peter's research.
The Peter
principle has been
the subject of
much later
commentary and
research.
Summary
The Peter
principle states
that a person who
is competent at
their job will earn
promotion to a
more senior
position which
requires different
skills. If the
promoted person
lacks the skills
required for their
new role, then
they will be incompetent at their new level, and so they will not be promoted again. But if
they are competent at their new role, then they will be promoted again, and they will
continue to be promoted until they eventually reach a level at which they are
incompetent. Being incompetent, they do not qualify to be promoted again, and so
remain stuck at that final level for the rest of their career (termed "Final Placement" or
"Peter's Plateau"). This outcome is inevitable, given enough time and assuming that
there are enough positions in the hierarchy to promote competent employees to. The
"Peter Principle" is therefore expressed as: "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise
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to his level of incompetence." This leads to Peter's Corollary: "In time, every post tends
to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties." Hull calls the
study of how hierarchies work "hierarchiology."
The Peter Principle
Laurence J. Peter had conducted the research that led to the formulation of the Peter
principle well before publishing his findings. He worked with Raymond Hull on a book
that elucidated his observations about hierarchies. The principle is named for Peter
because although Hull actually wrote the book, it is a summary of Peter's research. The
Peter Principle was published by William Morrow and Company in 1969.
Summary
In chapters 1 and 2, Peter and Hull give various examples of the Peter principle in
action. A competent mechanic may make an incompetent foreman; a competent school
teacher may make a competent assistant principal, but then go on to be an incompetent
principal, and therefore will not be considered for promotion to assistant superintendent;
a military officer may be promoted all the way up through the ranks to general and still
be competent at that rank, but then make an incompetent field marshal. In each case,
the higher position required skills which were not required at the level immediately
below. The mechanic only had to know how to fix cars, but as a foreman he needed to
be able to manage the other mechanics and deal with customers. The teacher was
competent at educating children, and as assistant principal he was good at dealing with
parents and other teachers, but as principal he was poor at maintaining good relations
with the school board and the superintendent. The general was capable at dealing with
ordinary soldiers, but as a field marshal he did not know how to liaise with politicians
and the field marshals of his country's allies. They conclude that "this could happen to
every employee in every hierarchy."
In chapter 3, Peter and Hull discuss apparent exceptions to this principle and then
debunk them. One of these illusory exceptions is when someone who is incompetent is
still promoted anyway. This is known as "percussive sublimation" (i.e. being "kicked
upstairs"). But it is only a pseudo-promotion: a move from one unproductive position to
another; whereas a true promotion is a move from a position of competence (either to a
position of competence or to a position of incompetence). This improves staff morale, as
other employees believe that they too can be promoted again. Another pseudopromotion
is the "lateral arabesque", when a person is moved out of the way and given
a longer job title.
Competence is measured by the employer, not by the customers or anyone else outside
the hierarchy. "Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the
beholder." So people who appear to outsiders to be incompetent because they follow
the rules of the organisation to an extent which actually impedes their effectiveness are
still deemed competent by their immediate superior, because "internal consistency is
valued more highly than efficient service". This is dubbed "Peter's Inversion," because
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the meanshave become more important than the ends. Those who value the means
more than the ends are called "Peter's Inverts."
While incompetence is merely a barrier to further promotion, super-incompetence is
grounds for dismissal. So is super-competence. The competence of employees at a
given level can be represented by a bell curve: the majority are either competent or
incompetent and so can remain employed, but a small number of outliers are either
super-incompetent or super-competent, and in both cases "they tend to disrupt the
hierarchy." They are therefore expelled in order to preserve the hierarchy; a process
called "hierarchical exfoliation". One example of a super-competent employee is a
teacher of children with special needs who was so effective at educating them that after
a year they exceeded all expectations at reading and arithmetic, but the teacher was
still fired because he had neglected to devote enough time to bead-stringing and fingerpainting.
Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the methods of achieving promotion: "Push" and "Pull." Push
means the employee's own efforts, such as working hard and taking self-improvement
courses. This is usually not very effective, because of the Seniority Factor: the next
level up is often fully occupied, blocking the path to promotion. (Murdering one's
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immediate superiors can be an effective way of overcoming this obstacle, but as this is
such a rare phenomenon it does not really affect Peter and Hull's assessment of Push.)
Pull is far more effective, and refers to accelerated promotion brought about by the
efforts of an employee's mentors or patrons. It is better to have as many patrons as
possible, because each additional patron produces a multiplying effect on their
combined effectiveness, as patrons reinforce their positive opinion of the employee by
discussing him with each other ("Hull's Theorem").
Chapter 6 explains why "good followers do not become good leaders." In chapter 7,
Peter and Hull describe the effect of the Peter Principle in politics and government.
Chapter 8, entitled "Hints and Foreshadowings", discusses the work of earlier writers on
the subject of incompetence, such as Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and Alexander Pope.
Chapter 9 explains that once employees have reached their level of incompetence, they
always lack insight into their situation. Most don't realise that they are incompetent, but
those who do recognise their own incompetence still never realise that it is because
they have been promoted, and so they futilely search for other explanations instead. In
this chapter, Peter and Hull go on to explain why aptitude tests don't work and are
actually counter-productive. Finally, they describe "Summit Competence": when
someone reaches the highest level in their organisation and yet is still competent at that
level. This is only because there were not enough ranks in the hierarchy, or because
they did not have time to reach a level of incompetence. Such people often seek a level
of incompetence in another hierarchy. For example, Socrates was an outstanding
teacher but a terrible defence attorney. This is known as "Compulsive Incompetence."
Chapter 10 explains why trying to assist an incompetent employee by promoting
another employee to act as his assistant doesn't work. "Incompetence plus
incompetence equals incompetence."
Chapters 11 and 12 describe the various medical and psychological manifestations of
stress which may result when someone reaches his level of incompetence, as well as
other symptoms such as certain characteristic habits of speech or behavior.
Chapter 13 considers whether it is possible for an employee who has reached his level
of incompetence to be happy and healthy once he gets there. The answer is no, if he
realises his true situation, and yes if he does not. Those who realise that they are
incompetent usually think (mistakenly) that this is only because they are not working
hard enough, and so they work themselves harder until they burn out or damage their
health. So facing the sordid truth is not recommended. Those who have not realised
that they are at their level of incompetence remain happy and healthy because they
substitute irrelevant duties for the proper duties of their post, and excel at those instead.
Peter and Hull describe six different Substitution techniques.
In chapter 14 various ways of avoiding promotion to the final level are described.
Attempting to refuse an offered promotion is ill-advised, and is only practicable if the
employee is not married and has no-one else to answer to. Generally it is better to avoid
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eing considered for promotion in the first place, by pretending to be incompetent while
one is actually still employed at a level of competence. This is "Creative Incompetence,"
and several examples of successful techniques are given. It works best if the chosen
field of incompetence does not actually impair one's work.
The concluding chapter applies Peter's Principle to the entire human species at an
evolutionary level, and asks whether humanity can survive in the long run, or will
become extinct upon reaching its level of incompetence as technology advances.
Other Research
Other commenters made observations similar to the Peter principle long before Peter's
research. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1763 play Minna von Barnhelm features an army
sergeant who shuns the opportunity to move up in the ranks, saying "I am a good
sergeant; I might easily make a bad captain, and certainly an even worse general. One
knows from experience." Similarly, Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) wrote that "there is
nothing more common than to hear of men losing their energy on being raised to a
higher position, to which they do not feel themselves equal." Closely echoing Peter,
Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) wrote, "All public employees
should be demoted to their immediately lower level, as they have been promoted until
turning incompetent."
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A number of scholars have engaged in research interpreting the Peter principle and its
effects. In 2000, Edward Lazear explored two possible explanations for the
phenomenon. First is the idea that employees work harder to gain a promotion, and
then slack off once it is achieved. The other is that it is a statistical process: workers
who are promoted have passed a particular benchmark of productivity based on factors
that cannot necessarily be replicated in their new role, leading to a Peter principle
situation. Lazear concluded that the former explanation only occurs under particular
compensation structures, whereas the latter always holds up.
Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo used an agent-based
modelling approach to simulate the promotion of employees in a system where the
Peter principle is assumed to be true. They found that the best way to improve
efficiency in an enterprise is to promote people randomly, or to shortlist the best and the
worst performer in a given group, from which the person to be promoted is then
selected randomly. For this work, they won the 2010 edition of the parody Ig Nobel
Prize in management science.
In 2018, professors Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue analyzed sales workers'
performance and promotion practices at 214 American businesses to test the veracity of
the Peter principle. They found that these companies tended to promote employees to
management position based on their performance in their previous position, rather than
based on managerial potential. Consistent with the Peter principle, the researchers
found that high performing sales employees were likelier to be promoted, and that they
were likelier to perform poorly as managers, leading to considerable costs to the
businesses.
The Peter principle inspired Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, to develop a
similar concept, the Dilbert principle. The Dilbert principle holds that incompetent
employees are promoted to management positions to get them out of the workflow.
Adams explained the idea in his 1996 business book The Dilbert Principle, and it has
since been analyzed alongside the Peter principle. João Ricardo Faria wrote that the
Dilbert principle is "a sub-optimal version of the Peter principle," and leads to even lower
profitability than the Peter principle.
Response By Organizations
Companies and organizations shaped their policies to contend with the Peter principle.
Lazear stated that some companies expect that productivity will "regress to the mean"
following promotion in their hiring and promotion practices. Other companies have
adopted "up or out" strategies, such as the Cravath System, in which employees who
do not advance are periodically fired. The Cravath System was developed at the law
firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which made a practice of hiring chiefly recent law
graduates, promoting internally and firing employees who do not perform at the required
level. Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths have suggested the additive
increase/multiplicative decrease algorithm as a solution to the Peter principle less
severe than firing employees who fail to advance. They propose a dynamic hierarchy in
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which employees are regularly either promoted or reassigned to a lower level, so that
any worker who is promoted to their point of failure is soon moved to an area where
they are productive.
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IV. Organizational Conflict
Organizational Conflict, or Workplace Conflict, is a state of discord caused by the
actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working
together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash
between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There
are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done, and
how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements
among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are
subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role
definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals –
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etween competing needs and demands – to which individuals respond in different
ways.
Type
Conflict affecting organizations can occur in individuals, between individual and
between groups. Conflicts within work groups are often caused by struggles over
control, status, and scarce resources. Conflicts between groups in organizations have
similar origins. The constructive resolution of such conflicts can most often be achieved
through a rational process of problem solving, coupled with a willingness to explore
issues and alternatives and to listen to each other.
Personal Conflict
A personal conflict involves a conflict between two people, most often from a mutual
dislike or personality clash. According to Boston University FSAO, "Causes for
workplace conflict can be personality or style differences and personal problems such
as substance abuse, childcare issues, and family problems. Organizational factors such
as leadership, management, budget, and disagreement about core values can also
contribute." University of Colorado–Boulder cites as primary causes of workplace
conflict as poor communication, different values, differing interests, scarce resources,
personality clashes, and poor performance.
Many difficulties in this area are beyond the scope of management and more in the
province of a professional counselor or workplace mediator, but there are some aspects
of personal conflict that managers should understand and some they can possibly help
remedy. Social conflict refers to interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup differences.
Organizational conflict at the interpersonal level includes disputes between peers as
well as supervisor-subordinate conflict.
It was pointed out that there is a basic incompatibility between the authority and
structure of formal organizations and the human personality. Human behavior cannot be
separated from the culture that surrounds it.
Intragroup Conflict
Conflict arises in groups because of the scarcity of freedom, position, and resources.
People who value independence tend to resist the need for interdependence and, to
some extent, conformity within a group. People who seek power therefore struggle with
others for position or status within the group. Rewards and recognition are often
perceived as insufficient and improperly distributed, and members are inclined to
compete with each other for these prizes.
In western culture, winning is more acceptable than losing, and competition is more
prevalent than cooperation, all of which tends to intensify intragroup conflict. Group
meetings are often conducted in a win-lose climate — that is, individual or subgroup
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interaction is conducted for the purpose of determining a winner and a loser rather than
for achieving mutual problem solving.
Intergroup Conflict
Intergroup conflict occurs in four general forms. Horizontal strain involves competition
between functions, for example, sales versus production, research and development
versus engineering, purchasing versus legal, line versus staff, and so on. Vertical strain
involves competition between hierarchical levels, for example, union versus
management, foremen versus middle management, shop workers versus foremen. A
struggle between a group of employees and management is an example of vertical
strain or conflict. A clash between a sales department and production over inventory
policy would be an example of horizontal strain.
Certain activities and attitudes are typical in groups involved in a win-lose conflict. Each
side closes ranks and prepares itself for battle. Members show increased loyalty and
support for their own groups. Minor differences between group members tend to be
smoothed over, and deviants are dealt with harshly. The level of morale in the groups
increases and infuses everyone with competitive spirit. The power structure becomes
better defined, as the "real" leaders come to the surface and members rally around the
"best" thinkers and talkers.
In addition, each group tends to distort both its own views and those of the competing
group. What is perceived as "good" in one's own position is emphasized, what is "bad"
is ignored; the position of the other group is assessed as uniformly "bad," with little
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"good" to be acknowledged or accepted. Thus, the judgment and objectivity of both
groups are impaired. When such groups meet to "discuss" their differences,
constructive, rational behavior is severely inhibited. [9] Each side phrases its questions
and answers in a way that strengthens its own position and disparages the other's.
Hostility between the two groups increases; mutual understandings are buried in
negative stereotypes.
It is easy to see that under the conditions described above, mutual solutions to
problems cannot be achieved. As a result, the side having the greater power wins; the
other side loses. Or the conflict may go unresolved, and undesirable conditions or
circumstances continue. Or the conflict may be settled by a higher authority.
None of these outcomes is a happy one. Disputes settled on the basis of power, such
as through a strike or a lockout in a labor-management dispute, are often deeply
resented by the loser. Such settlements may be resisted and the winner defeated in
underground ways that are difficult to detect and to counter. When this happens, neither
side wins; both are losers. If the conflict is left unresolved, as when both sides withdraw
from the scene, intergroup cooperation and effectiveness may be seriously impaired to
the detriment of the entire organization. Disputes that are settled by higher authority
also may cause resentment and what is called "lose-lose" consequences. Such
settlements are invariably made on the basis of incomplete information — without data
that the conflict itself obscures — and therefore are poor substitutes for mutually
reasoned solutions. Again, both sides have lost. A specific approach to resolving
intergroup conflict is outlined in the next chapter on organization development.
Role Conflict
Causes
One fact of personal conflict includes the multiple roles people play in
organizations. Behavioral scientists sometimes describe an organization as a system of
position roles. Each member of the organization belongs to a role set, which is an
association of individuals who share interdependent tasks and thus perform formally
defined roles, which are further influenced both by the expectations of others in the role
set and by one's own personality and expectations. For example, in a common form of
classroom organization, students are expected to learn from instructors by listening to
them, following their directions for study, taking exams, and maintaining appropriate
standards of conduct. Instructors are expected to bring students high-quality learning
materials, give lectures, write and conduct tests, and set a scholarly example. Another
in this role set would be the dean of the school, who sets standards, hires and
supervises faculty, maintains a service staff, readers and graders, and so on. The
system of roles to which an individual belongs extends outside the organization as well,
and influences their functioning within it. As an example, a person's roles as partner,
parent, descendant, and church member are all intertwined with each other and with
their set of organizational roles.
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As a consequence, there exist opportunities for role conflict as the various roles interact
with one another. Other types of role conflict occur when an individual receives
inconsistent demands from another person; for example, they are asked to serve on
several time-consuming committees at the same time that they are urged to get out
more production in their work unit. Another kind of role strain takes place when the
individual finds that they are expected to meet the opposing demands of two or more
separate members of the organization. Such a case would be that of a worker who finds
himself pressured by their boss to improve the quality of their work while their work
group wants more production in order to receive a higher bonus share.
These and other varieties of role conflict tend to increase an individual's anxiety
and frustration. Sometimes they motivate him to do more and better work. Other times
they can lead to frustration and reduced efficiency.
Passive Aggressive Behavior
Passive aggressive behavior is a common response from workers and managers which
is particularly noxious to team unity and productivity. In workers, it can lead to sabotage
of projects and the creation of a hostile environment. In managers, it can end up stifling
a team's creativity.
De Angelis says "It would actually make perfect sense that those promoted to
leadership positions might often be those who on the surface appear to be agreeable,
diplomatic and supportive, yet who are actually dishonest, backstabbing saboteurs
behind the scenes."
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Office Romance
Office romances can be a cause of workplace conflict. 96 percent of human resource
professionals and 80 percent of executives said workplace romances are dangerous
because they can lead to conflict within the organization. Public displays of affection can
make co-workers uncomfortable and accusations of favoritism may occur, especially if it
is a supervisor-subordinate relationship. If the relationship goes awry, one party may
seek to exact revenge on the other.
Consequences
Unresolved conflict in the workplace has been linked to miscommunication resulting
from confusion or refusal to cooperate, quality problems, missed deadlines or delays,
increased stress among employees, reduced creative collaboration and team problem
solving, disruption to work flow, decreased customer satisfaction, distrust, split camps,
and gossip.
The win-lose conflict in groups may have some of the following negative effects:
Divert time and energy from the main issues
Delay decisions
Create deadlocks
Drive unaggressive committee members to the sidelines
Interfere with listening
Obstruct exploration of more alternatives
Decrease or destroy sensitivity
Cause members to drop out or resign from committees
Arouse anger that disrupts a meeting
Interfere with empathy
Incline underdogs to sabotage
Provoke personal abuse
Cause defensiveness
Conflict is not always destructive. When it is destructive, however, managers need to
understand and do something about it. A rational process for dealing with the conflict
should be programmed. Such a process should include a planned action response on
the part of the manager or the organization, rather than relying on a simple reaction or a
change that occurs without specific action by management.
Stress
Interpersonal conflict among people at work has been shown to be one of the most
frequently noted stressors for employees. Conflict has been noted to be an indicator of
the broader concept of workplace harassment. It relates to other stressors that might
co-occur, such as role conflict, role ambiguity, and workload. It also relates to strains
such as anxiety, depression, physical symptoms, and low levels of job satisfaction.
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Positive Outcomes
Group conflict does not always lead to negative consequences. The presence of a
dissenting member or subgroup often results in more penetration of the group's problem
and more creative solutions. This is because disagreement forces the members to think
harder in an attempt to cope with what may be valid objections to general group opinion.
But the group must know how to deal with differences that may arise.
True interdependence among members leads automatically to conflict resolution in the
group. Interdependence recognizes that differences will exist and that they can be
helpful. Hence, members learn to accept ideas from dissenters (which does not imply
agreeing with them), they learn to listen and to value openness, and they learn to share
a mutual problem-solving attitude to ensure the exploration of all facets of a problem
facing the group.
Intergroup conflict between groups is a sometimes necessary, sometimes destructive,
event that occurs at all levels and across all functions in organizations. Intergroup
conflict may help generate creative tensions leading to more effective contributions to
the organization's goals, such as competition between sales districts for the
highest sales. Intergroup conflict is destructive when it alienates groups that should be
working together, when it results in win-lose competition, and when it leads to
compromises that represent less-than-optimum outcomes.
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Resolution
Conflict Management
Constantino helps organizations design their own, ad hoc conflict
management systems, Tosi, Rizzo, and Caroll suggested that improving organizational
practices could help resolve conflicts, including establishing superordinate goals,
reducing vagueness, minimizing authority- and domain-related disputes, improving
policies, procedures and rules, re-apportioning existing resources or adding new,
altering communications, movement of personnel, and changing reward systems.
Most large organizations have a human resources department, whose tasks include
providing confidential advice to internal "customers" in relation to problems at work. This
could be seen as less risky than asking one's manager for help. HR departments may
also provide an impartial person who can mediate disputes and provide an objective
point of view. Another option is the introduction of the Ombudsman figure at the
organizational level, charged with surveying common causes of conflict and suggesting
structural improvements to address them.
Counseling - when personal conflict leads to frustration and loss of efficiency,
counseling may prove to be a helpful antidote. Although few organizations can
afford the luxury of having professional counselors on the staff, given some
training, managers may be able to perform this function. Nondirective counseling,
or "listening with understanding", is little more than being a good listener —
something every manager should be. Sometimes the simple process of being
able to vent one's feelings — that is, to express them to a concerned and
understanding listener, is enough to relieve frustration and make it possible for
the frustrated individual to advance to a problem-solving frame of mind, better
able to cope with a personal difficulty that is affecting their work adversely. The
nondirective approach is one effective way for managers to deal with frustrated
subordinates and co-workers. There are other more direct and more diagnostic
ways that might be used in appropriate circumstances. The great strength of the
nondirective approach (nondirective counseling is based on the client-centered
therapy of Carl Rogers), however, lies in its simplicity, its effectiveness, and the
fact that it deliberately avoids the manager-counselor's diagnosing and
interpreting emotional problems, which would call for special psychological
training. No one has ever been harmed by being listened to sympathetically and
understandingly. On the contrary, this approach has helped many people to cope
with problems that were interfering with their effectiveness on the job.
Conflict avoidance - non-attention or creating a total or partial separation of the
combatants allowing limited interaction
Smoothing - stressing the achievement of harmony between disputants
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Dominance or power intervention - the imposition of a solution by management at
a higher level than the level of the conflict
Compromise - seeking a resolution satisfying at least part of each party's position
Confrontation - a thorough and frank discussion of the sources and types of
conflict and achieving a resolution that is in the best interest of the group, but that
may be at the expense of one or all of the conflicting parties.
A trained conflict resolver can begin with an economical intervention, such as getting
group members to clarify and reaffirm shared goals. If necessary, they move through a
systematic series of interventions, such as testing the members' ability and willingness
to compromise; resorting to confrontation, enforced counseling, and/or termination as
last resorts.
Workplace conflict may include disputes between peers, supervisor-subordinate conflict
or intergroup disputes. When disputes are not dealt with in a timely manner, greater
efforts may be needed to solve them. Party-Directed Mediation (PDM) is a mediation
approach particularly suited for disputes between colleagues or peers, especially those
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ased on deep-seated interpersonal conflict or multicultural or multiethnic ones. The
mediator listens to each party separately in a pre-caucus or pre-mediation before ever
bringing them into a joint session. Part of the pre-caucus also includes coaching and
role plays. The idea is that the parties learn how to converse directly with their
adversary in the joint session. Some unique challenges arise when disputes involve
supervisors and subordinates. The Negotiated Performance Appraisal (NPA) is a tool
for improving communication between supervisors and subordinates and is particularly
useful as an alternate mediation model because it preserves the hierarchical power of
supervisors while encouraging dialogue and dealing with differences in opinion.
Change
Management is presumed to be guided by a vision of the future. The manager reflects
in their decision-making activities the values of the organization as they have developed
through time, from the original founder-owner to the present top-management
personnel. In navigating a path between the values of the organization and its
objectives and goals, management has expectations concerning the organization's
effectiveness and efficiency and frequently initiates changes within the organization. On
other occasions, changes in the external environment — market demand, technology,
or the political, social, or economic environment — require making appropriate changes
in the activities of the organization. The organization faces these demands for change
through the men and women who make up its membership, since organizational change
ultimately depends on the willingness of employees and others to change their attitudes,
behavior, their degree of knowledge and skill, or a combination of these.
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V. Narcissistic Leadership
& Control Freaks
Narcissistic Leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in
him/herself. Their priority is themselves – at the expense of their people/group
members. This leader exhibits the characteristics of a narcissist: arrogance, dominance
and hostility. It is a sufficiently common leadership style that it has acquired its own
name. Narcissism is most often described as unhealthy and destructive. It has been
described as "driven by unyielding arrogance, self-absorption, and a
personal egotistic need for power and admiration".
Narcissism and Groups
A study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests
that when a group is without a leader, a narcissist is likely to take charge. Researchers
have found that people who score high in narcissism tend to take control of leaderless
groups. Freud considered "the narcissistic type... especially suited to act as a support
for others, to take on the role of leaders and to... impress others as being
'personalities'.": one reason may be that "another person's narcissism has a great
attraction for those who have renounced part of their own... as if we envied them for
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maintaining a blissful state of mind—an unassailable libidinal position which we
ourselves have since abandoned."
According to the book Narcissism: Behind the Mask, there are four basic types of leader
with narcissists most commonly in type 3 although they may be in type 1:
1. authoritarian with task oriented decision making
2. democratic with task oriented decision making
3. authoritarian with emotional decision making
4. democratic with emotional decision making
Michael Maccoby stated that "psychoanalysts don't usually get close enough to
[narcissistic leaders], especially in the workplace, to write about them."
Corporate Narcissism
According to Alan Downs, corporate narcissism occurs when a narcissist becomes
the chief executive officer (CEO) or other leadership roles within the senior
management team and gathers an adequate mix of codependents around him (or her)
to support the narcissistic behavior. Narcissists profess company loyalty but are only
really committed to their own agendas, thus organizational decisions are founded on the
narcissist's own interests rather than the interests of the organization as a whole, the
various stakeholders, or the society in which the organization operates. As a result, "a
certain kind of charismatic leader can run a financially successful company on
thoroughly unhealthy principles for a time. But... the chickens always come home to
roost".
Neville Symington has suggested that "one of the ways of differentiating a good-enough
organisation from one that is pathological is through its ability to exclude narcissistic
characters from key posts."
Impact Of Healthy v. Destructive Narcissistic Managers
Lubit compared healthily narcissistic managers versus destructively narcissistic
managers for their long-term impact on organizations.
Characteristic Healthy narcissism Destructive narcissism
Self-confidence
Desire for power,
wealth and
admiration
Relationships
High outward self-confidence in
line with reality
May enjoy power
Real concern for others and their
ideas; does not exploit or devalue
others
Grandiose
Pursues power at all costs, lacks normal
inhibitions in its pursuit
Concerns limited to expressing socially
appropriate response when convenient;
devalues and exploits others
without remorse
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Ability to follow a
consistent path
Foundation
Has values; follows through on
plans
Healthy childhood with support
for self-esteem and appropriate
limits on behaviour towards others
Lacks values; easily bored; often changes
course
Traumatic childhood undercutting true
sense of self-esteem and/or learning that
he/she doesn't need to be considerate of
others
________
Control Freaks
In psychology-related slang, the term control freak describes an individual who
attempts to undermine other people based on how one dictates how everything is done
around them. The phrase was first used in the 1970s, an era when stress was laid on
the principle of 'doing one's own thing' and letting others do the same.
Personality Psychology
In the study of personality psychology, certain personality disorders display
characteristics involving the need to gain compliance or control over others:
Those with antisocial personality disorder tend to display a glibness
and grandiose sense of self-worth. Due to their shallow affect and lack
of remorse or empathy, they are well suited to con and/or manipulate others into
complying with their wishes.
Those with histrionic personality disorder need to be the center of attention, and
in turn, draw people in so they may use (and eventually dispose of) their
relationship.
Those with narcissistic personality disorder have an inflated self-importance,
hypersensitivity to criticism and a sense of entitlement that compels them
to persuade others to comply with their requests. To maintain their self-esteem,
and protect their vulnerable selves, narcissists need to control others' behavior –
particularly that of their children seen as extensions of themselves.
Vulnerability
Control freaks are often perfectionists defending themselves against their own
inner vulnerabilities in the belief that if they are not in total control they risk exposing
themselves once more to childhood angst. Such
persons manipulate and pressure others to change so as to avoid having to change
themselves, and use power over others to escape an inner emptiness. When a control
freak's pattern is broken, the controller is left with a terrible feeling of powerlessness but
feeling their pain and fear brings them back to themselves.
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Control freaks appear to have some similarities to codependents, in the sense that the
latters' fear of abandonment leads to attempts to control those they are dependent on.
Recovery for them entails recognizing that being a control freak helped paradoxically
preserve codependency itself.
In terms of personality-type theory, control freaks are very much the Type A personality,
driven by the need to dominate and control. An obsessive need to control others is also
associated with antisocial personality disorder.
In Management
In the corporate world, control freaks tend to publicly admonish their inferiors, especially
during meetings. More positively, the term can also refer to someone with a limited
number of things that they want done a specific way; professor of clinical
psychology Les Parrott wrote that “Control Freaks are people who care more than you
do about something and won't stop at being pushy to get their way”.
There may be a fine line between being a detail-oriented manager, who likes to have
things done 'right', and being a (destructive) control freak. Control freaks are usually a
cause of micromanagement.
In some cases, the control freak sees their constant intervention as beneficial or even
necessary. This can be caused by feelings of separation or departure from a loved one;
or by the belief that others are incapable of handling matters properly, or the fear that
things will go wrong if they do not attend to every detail. In other cases, they may simply
enjoy the feeling of power it gives them so much that they automatically try to gain
control of everything and everyone around them.
Wellington v. Napoleon
In History
Wellington as military commander was undoubtedly a hands-on micromanager, trusting
his subordinates as little as possible, and showing many of the characteristics of the
modern day control freak. In 1811 he wrote that “I am obliged to be everywhere and if
absent from any operation, something goes wrong … success can only be attained by
attention to the most minute details”.
By contrast, Napoleon gave his marshals much more tactical freedom. At the critical
meeting of the two generals at the Battle of Waterloo — where Wellington's close
supervision contrasted strongly with the effective delegation of operational management
by Napoleon to Marshall Ney — it was at least arguably Wellington's control mania that
played the decisive role in the Allied victory, justifying his claim the following day that “I
don't think it would have been done if I had not been there”.
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Queen Victoria
A series of three documentary programs on BBC2 in the UK in January 2013
called Queen Victoria's Children argued that Queen Victoria was a pathological control
freak by the way she controlled the welfare of all her children.
Steve Jobs and Closed Systems
Steve Jobs was a perfectionist who favored the closed system of control over all
aspects of a product from start to finish — what he termed the integrated over the
fragmented approach. As Steve Wozniak, his long-term collaborator and occasional
critic, put it: "Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there. The triumph of the
Windows PC over the Mac was a blow for that philosophy, a situation that was then
reversed by the successes of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad – only for the Android
challenge to reopen the debate."
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VI. Micromanagement
In business management, micromanagement is a management style whereby a
manager closely observes and/or controls the work of his/her subordinates
or employees.
Micromanagement is generally considered to have a negative connotation, mainly due
to the fact that it shows a lack of freedom in the workplace.
Definition
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines micromanagement as "manage[ment]
especially with excessive control or attention on details". Dictionary.com defines
micromanagement as "management or control with excessive attention to minor
details".
The online dictionary Encarta defined micromanagement as "attention to small details in
management: control [of] a person or a situation by paying extreme attention to small
details".
The notion of micromanagement can be extended to any social context where one
person takes a bully approach in the level of control and influence over the members of
a group. Often, this excessive obsession with the most minute of details causes a direct
management failure in the ability to focus on the major details.
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Symptoms
Rather than giving general instructions on smaller tasks and then devoting time to
supervising larger concerns, the micromanager monitors and assesses every step of a
business process and avoids delegation of decisions. Micromanagers are usually
irritated when a subordinate makes decisions without consulting them, even if the
decisions are within the subordinate's level of authority.
Micromanagement also frequently involves requests for unnecessary and overly
detailed reports ("reportomania"). A micromanager tends to require constant and
detailed performance feedback and to focus excessively on procedural trivia (often in
detail greater than they can actually process) rather than on overall performance, quality
and results. This focus on "low-level" trivia often delays decisions, clouds overall goals
and objectives, restricts the flow of information between employees, and guides the
various aspects of a project in different and often opposed directions. Many
micromanagers accept such inefficiencies as less important than their retention of
control or of the appearance of control.
It is common for micromanagers, especially those who exhibit narcissistic tendencies
and/or micromanage deliberately and for strategic reasons, to delegate work to
subordinates and then micromanage those subordinates' performance, enabling the
micromanagers in question to both take credit for positive results and shift the blame for
negative results to their subordinates. These micromanagers thereby delegate
accountability for failure but not the authority to take alternative actions that would have
led to success or at least to the mitigation of that failure.
The most extreme cases of micromanagement constitute a management pathology
closely related to workplace bullying and narcissistic behavior. Micromanagement
resembles addiction in that although most micromanagers are behaviorally dependent
on control over others, both as a lifestyle and as a means of maintaining that lifestyle,
many of them fail to recognize and acknowledge their dependence even when everyone
around them observes it. Some severe cases of micromanagement arise from other
underlying mental health conditions such as obsessive–compulsive personality disorder.
(Renee Kowalski)
Although micromanagement is often easily recognized by employees, micromanagers
rarely view themselves as such. In a form of denial similar to that found in addictive
behavior, micromanagers will often rebut allegations of micromanagement by offering a
competing characterization of their management style such as "structured", "organized",
or "perfectionistic".
Compared with Mismanagement
Micromanagement can be distinguished from the mere tendency of a manager to
perform duties assigned to a subordinate. When a manager can perform a worker's job
more efficiently than the worker can, the result is merely suboptimal management:
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although the company suffers lost opportunities because such managers would serve
the company even better by doing their own job (see comparative advantage). In
micromanagement, the manager not only tells a subordinate what to do but dictates that
the job be done a certain way regardless of whether that way is the most effective or
efficient one.
Causes
The most frequent motivations
for micromanagement, such as
detail-orientedness, emotional
insecurity, and doubts
regarding employees'
competence, are internal and
related to the personality of the
manager. Since manageremployee
relationships include
a difference in power and often
in age, workplace psychologists
have used models based
on transferencetheory to draw
analogies
between
micromanagement relationships
and dysfunctional parent-child relationships, e.g., that both often feature the frequent
imposition of double binds and/or a tendency by the authority figure to
exhibit hypercriticality. However, external factors such as organizational culture, severe
or increased time or performance pressure, severe demands of the regulatory
environment, and instability of managerial position (either specific to a micromanager's
position or throughout an organization) may also play a role.
In many cases of micromanagement, managers select and implement processes and
procedures not for business reasons but rather to enable themselves to feel useful and
valuable and/or create the appearance of being so. A frequent cause of such
micromanagement patterns is a manager's perception or fear that they lack the
competence and creative capability necessary for their position in the larger corporate
structure. In reaction to this fear, the manager creates a "fiefdom" within which the
manager selects performance standards not on the basis of their relevance to the
corporation's interest but rather on the basis of the ability of the manager's division to
satisfy them.
Such motivations for micromanagement often intensify, at both the individual-manager
and the organization-wide level, during times of economic hardship. In some cases,
managers may have proper goals in mind but place disproportionate emphasis on the
role of their division and/or on their own personal role in the furtherance of those goals.
In others, managers throughout an organization may engage in behavior that, while
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protective of their division's interests or their personal interests, harms the organization
as a whole.
Micromanagement can also stem from a breakdown in the fundamentals of delegation.
When a task or project is delegated in an unclear way, or where there is a lack of trust
between the manager and the person doing the work, micromanagement naturally
ensues. Clearer delegation, with a well defined goal, clear vision of the constraints and
dependencies, and effective oversight, can help prevent micromanagement. [8]
Less frequently, micromanagement is a tactic consciously chosen for the purpose of
eliminating unwanted employees: A micromanager may set unreachable standards later
invoked as grounds for termination of those employees. These standards may be either
specific to certain employees or generally applicable but selectively enforced only
against particular employees. Alternatively, the micromanager may attempt by this or
other means to create a stressful workplace in which the undesired employees no
longer desire to participate. When such stress is severe or pervasive enough, its
creation may be regarded as constructive discharge (also known in the United Kingdom
as "constructive dismissal" and in the United States as "constructive termination").
Effects
Regardless of a micromanager's motive for their conduct, its potential effects include:
Creation of ex post resentment in both vertical (manager-subordinate)
and horizontal (subordinate-subordinate) relationships
Damage to ex ante trust in both vertical and horizontal relationships
Interference with existing teamwork and inhibition of future teamwork in both
vertical relationships (e.g., via malicious compliance) and horizontal relationships
(e.g., exploitation of moral hazard created by poorly proportioned effort-reward
structures).
Because a pattern of micromanagement suggests to employees that a manager does
not trust their work or judgment, it is a major factor in triggering employee
disengagement, often to the point of promoting a dysfunctional and hostile work
environment in which one or more managers, or even management generally, are
labeled "control freaks." Disengaged employees invest time, but not effort or creativity,
in the work in which they are assigned. The effects of this phenomenon are worse in
situations where work is passed from one specialized employee to another. In such a
situation, apathy among upstream employees affects not only their own productivity but
also that of their downstream colleagues.
Severe forms of micromanagement can completely eliminate trust, stifle opportunities
for learning and development of interpersonal skills, and even provoke anti-social
behavior. Micromanagers of this severity often rely on inducing fear in the employees to
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achieve more control and can severely affect self-esteem of employees as well as
their mental and physical health. Occasionally, and especially when their
micromanagement involves the suppression of constructive criticism that could
otherwise lead to internal reform, severe micromanagers affect subordinates' mental
and/or physical health to such an extreme that the subordinates' only way to change
their workplace environment is to change employers or even leave the workplace
despite lacking alternative job prospects (see constructive discharge, supra).
Finally, the detrimental effects of micromanagement
can extend beyond the company itself, especially
when the behavior becomes severe enough
to force out skilled employees valuable to
competitors. Current employees
may complain about
micromanagement in
social settings or to
friend-colleagues (e.g., classmates and/or
former co-workers) affiliated with other firms in
a field. Outside observers such as consultants,
clients, interviewees, or visitors may notice the
behavior and recount it in conversation with friends and/or colleagues. Most harmfully to
the company, forced-out employees, especially those whose advanced skills have
made them attractive to other companies and gained them immediate respect, may
have few reservations about speaking frankly when answering questions about why
they changed employers; they may even deliberately badmouth their former employer.
The resulting damage to the company's reputation may create or increase insecurity
among management, prompting further micromanagement among managers who use it
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to cope with insecurity; such a feedback effect creates and perpetuates a vicious cycle.
It may follow the forced-out employee to the new job and create an environment of new
micromanagement.
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VII. Abusive Power & Control
Abusive Power and Control (also controlling behavior, coercive control and sharp
power) is the way that an abusive person gains and maintains power and control over
another person, as a victim, in order to subject that person
to psychological, physical, sexual, or financial abuse. The motivations of the abuser are
varied, such as personal gain, personal gratification, psychological
projection, devaluation, envy or just for the sake of it as the abuser may simply enjoy
exercising power and control.
Controlling abusers use tactics to exert power and control over their victims. The tactics
themselves are psychologically and sometimes physically abusive. Control may be
helped through economic abuse thus limiting the victim's actions as they may then lack
the necessary resources to resist the abuse. The goal of the abuser is to control
and intimidate the victim or to influence them to feel that they do not have an equal
voice in the relationship.
Manipulators and abusers control their victims with a range of tactics, including positive
reinforcement (such as praise, superficial charm, flattery, ingratiation, love
bombing, smiling, gifts, attention), negative reinforcement, intermittent or partial
reinforcement, psychological punishment (such as nagging, silent treatment, swearing,
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threats, intimidation, emotional blackmail, guilt trips, inattention) and traumatic tactics
(such as verbal abuse or explosive anger).
The vulnerabilities of the victim are exploited with those who are particularly vulnerable
being most often selected as targets. Traumatic bonding can occur between the abuser
and victim as the result of ongoing cycles of abuse in which the intermittent
reinforcement of reward and punishment creates powerful emotional bonds that are
resistant to change and a climate of fear. An attempt may be made
to normalize, legitimize, rationalize, deny, or minimize the abusive behavior, or blame
the victim for it.
Isolation, gaslighting, mindgames, lying, disinformation, propaganda, destabilisation and
divide and rule are other strategies that are often used. The victim may be plied with
alcohol or drugs or deprived of sleep to help disorientate them.
Certain personality types feel particularly compelled to control other people.
Personality Psychology
In the study of personality psychology, certain personality disorders display
characteristics involving the need to gain compliance or control over others:
Those with antisocial personality disorder tend to display glibness, giving them
a grandiose sense of self-worth. Due to their callous and unemotional traits, they
are well suited to con and/or manipulate others into complying with their wishes.
Those with borderline personality disorder tend to display black-and-white
thinking and no sense of self-worth.
Those with histrionic personality disorder need to be the center of attention; and
in turn, draw people in so they may use (and eventually dispose of) their
relationship.
Those with narcissistic personality disorder have an inflated self-importance,
hypersensitivity to criticism and a sense of entitlement that compels them
to persuade others to comply with their requests. To maintain their self-esteem,
and protect their vulnerable true selves, narcissists need to control others'
behavior – particularly that of their children seen as extensions of themselves.
Those with sadistic personality disorder derive pleasure from the distress caused
by their aggressive, demeaning and cruel behavior towards others. They have
poor ability to control their reactions and become enraged by minor disturbances,
with some sadists being more severely abusive. They use a wide range of
behaviors to inappropriately control others, ranging from hostile
glances, threats, humiliation, coercion, and restricting others' autonomy. Often
the purpose of their behavior is to control and intimidate others. The sadistic
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individual are likely rigid in their beliefs, intolerant of other races or other "outgroups",
authoritarian, and malevolent. They may seek positions in which they
are able to exert power over others, such as
a judge, army sergeant or psychiatrist who misuse their positions of power to
control or brutalize others. For instance, a psychiatrist may institutionalize a
patient by misusing mental health legislation.
Control Freaks
Control freaks are often perfectionists defending themselves against their own
inner vulnerabilities in the belief that if they are not in total control they risk exposing
themselves once more to childhood angst. Such
persons manipulate and pressure others to change so as to avoid having to change
themselves, and use power over others to escape an inner emptiness. When a control
freak's pattern is broken, the controller is left with a terrible feeling of powerlessness but
feeling their pain and fear brings them back to themselves.
In terms of personality-type theory, control freaks are very much the Type A personality,
driven by the need to dominate and control. An obsessive need to control others is also
associated with antisocial personality disorder.
Psychological Manipulation
Braiker identified the following ways that manipulators control their victims:
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Positive reinforcement: includes praise, superficial charm,
superficial sympathy (crocodile tears), excessive apologizing, money, approval,
gifts, attention, facial expressions such as a forced laugh or smile, and public
recognition.
Negative reinforcement: involves removing one from a negative situation as a
reward, e.g. "You won't have to do your homework if you allow me to do this to
you."
Intermittent or partial reinforcement: Partial or intermittent negative reinforcement
can create an effective climate of fear and doubt. Partial or intermittent positive
reinforcement can encourage the victim to persist.
Punishment: includes nagging, yelling, the silent treatment, intimidation,
threats, swearing, emotional blackmail, the guilt trip, sulking, crying, and playing
the victim.
Traumatic one-trial learning: using verbal abuse, explosive anger, or other
intimidating behavior to establish dominance or superiority; even one incident of
such behavior can condition or train victims to avoid upsetting, confronting or
contradicting the manipulator.
Manipulators may have:
a strong need to attain feelings of power and superiority in relationships with
others
a want and need to feel in control
a desire to gain a feeling of power over others in order to raise their perception
of self-esteem.
Emotional Blackmail
Emotional blackmail is a term coined by psychotherapist Susan Forward, about
controlling people in relationships and the theory that fear, obligation and guilt (FOG)
are the transactional dynamics at play between the controller and the person being
controlled.
Understanding these dynamics are useful to anyone trying to extricate from the
controlling behavior of another person, and deal with their own compulsions to do things
that are uncomfortable, undesirable, burdensome, or self-sacrificing for others.
Forward and Frazier identify four blackmail types each with their own mental
manipulation style:
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Type
Punisher's threat
Self-punisher's
threat
Sufferer's threat
Tantalizer's threat
Examples
Eat the food I cooked for you or I'll hurt you.
Eat the food I cooked for you or I'll hurt myself.
Eat the food I cooked for you. I was saving it for myself. I wonder what will
happen now?
Eat the food I cooked for you and you just may get a really yummy dessert.
There are different levels of demands - demands that are of little consequence,
demands that involve important issues or personal integrity, demands that affect major
life decisions, and/or demands that are dangerous or illegal.
Silent Treatment
The silent treatment is sometimes used as a control mechanism. When so used, it
constitutes a passive-aggressive action characterized by the coupling of nonverbal but
nonetheless unambiguous indications of the presence of negative emotion with the
refusal to discuss the scenario triggering those emotions and, when those emotions'
source is unclear to the other party, occasionally the refusal to clarify it or even to
identify that source at all. As a result, the perpetrator of the silent treatment denies the
victim both the opportunity to negotiate an after-the-fact settlement of the grievance in
question and the ability to modify his/her future behavior to avoid giving further offense.
In especially severe cases, even if the victim gives in and accedes to the perpetrator's
initial demands, the perpetrator may continue the silent treatment so as to deny the
victim feedback indicating that those demands have been satisfied. The silent treatment
thereby enables its perpetrator to cause hurt, obtain ongoing attention in the form of
repeated attempts by the victim to restore dialogue, maintain a position of power
through creating uncertainty over how long the verbal silence and associated
impossibility of resolution will last, and derive the satisfaction that the perpetrator
associates with each of these consequences.
Love Bombing
The expression has been used to describe the tactics used by pimps and gang
members to control their victims, as well as to describe the behavior of an
abusive narcissist who tries to win the confidence of a victim.
Mind Games
One sense of mind games is a largely conscious struggle for psychological oneupmanship,
often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or
dis-empower the thinking subject, making the aggressor look superior; also referred to
as "power games".
In intimate relationships, mind games can be used to undermine one partner's belief in
the validity of their own perceptions. Personal experience may be denied and driven
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from memory; and such abusive mind games may extend to denial of the victim's
reality, social undermining, and the trivializing of what is felt to be important. Both sexes
have equal opportunities for such verbal coercion, which may be carried out
unconsciously as a result of the need to maintain one's own self-deception.
Divide and Conquer
A primary strategy the narcissist uses to assert control, particularly within their family, is
to create divisions among individuals. This weakens and isolates them, making it easier
for the narcissist to manipulate and dominate. Some are favoured, others
are scapegoated. Such dynamics can play out in a workplace setting. [34]
Background
In An Intimate Relationship
The power and control "wheel" was developed in 1982 by the Domestic Abuse Program
in Minneapolis to explain the nature of abuse, to delineate the forms of abuse used to
control another person, and to educate people with the goal of stopping violence and
abuse.
The model is used in many batterer intervention programs, and is known as the Duluth
model. Power and control is generally present with violent physical and sexual abuse.
Control Development
Often the abusers are initially attentive, charming and loving, gaining the trust of the
individual that will ultimately become the victim, also known as the survivor. When there
is a connection and a degree of trust, the abusers become unusually involved in their
partner's feelings, thoughts and actions. Next, they set petty rules and exhibit
"pathological jealousy".
A conditioning process begins with alternation of loving followed by abusive behavior.
According to Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse, "These serve to confuse the
survivor leading to potent conditioning processes that impact on the survivor's selfstructure
and cognitive schemas."
The abuser projects responsibility for the abuse on to the victim, or survivor, and the
denigration and negative projections become incorporated into the survivor's self-image.
Traumatic bonding occurs as the result of ongoing cycles of abuse in which the
intermittent reinforcement of reward and punishment creates powerful emotional bonds
that are resistant to change.
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Gain
Trust
Overinvolvement
Petty Rules &
Jealousy
Manipulation, Power
& Control
Traumatic
Bonding
The potential
abuser is
attentive,
loving,
charming
The abuser becomes overly
involved in the daily life and
use of time
Rules begin to be
inserted to begin control
of the relationship.
Jealousy is considered
by the abuser to be "an
act of love"
The victim is blamed for the
abuser's behavior and
becomes coerced and
manipulated
Ongoing cycles of
abuse can lead to
traumatic bonding
Tactics
Tactics of Violent and Non-Violent Relationships
Controlling abusers use multiple tactics to exert power and control over their partners.
According to Jill Cory and Karen McAndless-Davis, authors of When Love Hurts: A
Woman's Guide to Understanding Abuse in Relationships: Each of the tactics within the
power and control wheel are used to "maintain power and control in the relationship. No
matter what tactics your partner uses, the effect is to control and intimidate you or to
influence you to feel that you do not have an equal voice in the relationship."
Coercion and Threats
A tool for exerting control and power is the use of threats and coercion. The victim may
be subject to threats that they will be left, hurt, or reported to welfare. The abuser may
threaten that they will commit suicide. They may also coerce them to perform illegal
actions or to drop charges that they may have against their abuser. Strangulation, a
particularly pernicious abusive behavior in which the abuser literally has the victim’s life
in his hands, is an extreme form of abusive control. Sorenson and colleagues have
called strangulation the domestic violence equivalent of waterboarding, which is widely
considered to be a form of torture.
At its most effective, the abuser creates intimidation and fear through unpredictable and
inconsistent behavior. Absolute control may be sought by any of four types of sadists:
explosive, enforcing, tyrannical, or spineless sadists. The victims are at risk
of anxiety, dissociation, depression, shame, low self-esteem and suicidal ideation.
Intimidation
Abused individuals may be intimidated by the brandishing of weapons, destruction of
their property or other things, or use of gestures or looks to create fear. For example,
threatening to use a gun or simply displaying the weapon is a form of intimidation and
coercive control.
Economic Abuse
An effective means of ensuring control and power over another is to control their access
to money. One method is to prevent the abusee from getting or retaining a job.
Controlling their access to money can also be done by withholding information and
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access to family income, taking their money, requiring the person to ask for money,
giving them an allowance, or filing a power of attorney or conservatorship, particularly in
the case of economic abuse of the elderly.
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse include name-calling, playing mind games, putting the victim down,
or humiliating the individual. The goals are to make the person feel bad about
themselves, feel guilty or think that they are crazy.
Isolation
Another element of psychological control is the isolation of the victim from the outside
world. Isolation includes controlling a person's social activity: who they see, who they
talk to, where they go, and any other method to limit their access to others. It may also
include limiting what material is read. It can include insisting on knowing where they are
and requiring permission for medical care. The abuser exhibits hypersensitive and
reactive jealousy.
Minimizing, Denying and Blaming
The abuser may deny the abuse occurred to attempt to place the responsibility for their
behavior on the victim. Minimizing concerns or the degree of the abuse is another
aspect of this control.
Using Children and Pets
Children may be used to exert control by the abuser threatening to take the children or
making them feel guilty about the children. It could include harassing them during
visitation or using the children to relay messages. Another controlling tactic is abusing
pets.
Using Privilege
Using "privilege" means that the abuser defines the roles in the relationship, makes the
important decisions, treats the individual like a servant and acts like the "master of the
castle".
In the Workplace
A power and control model has been developed for the workplace, divided into the
following categories:
overt actions
covert actions
emotional control
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isolation
economic control
tactics
restriction
management privilege
Bullying
An essential prerequisite of bullying is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an
imbalance of social or physical power.
Workplace Psychopaths
The authors of the book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work describe a five
phase model of how a typical workplace psychopath climbs to and maintains power: [46]
1. Entry – psychopath will use highly developed social skills and charm to obtain
employment into an organization. At this stage it will be difficult to spot anything
which is indicative of psychopathic behavior, and as a new employee you might
perceive the psychopath to be helpful and even benevolent.
2. Assessment – psychopath will weigh you up according to your usefulness, and
you could be recognized as either a pawn (who has some informal influence and
will be easily manipulated) or a patron (who has formal power and will be used by
the psychopath to protect against attacks)
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3. Manipulation – psychopath will create a scenario of "psychopathic fiction" where
positive information about themselves and negative disinformation about others
will be created, where your role as a part of a network of pawns or patrons will be
utilised and you will be groomed into accepting the psychopath's agenda.
4. Confrontation – the psychopath will use techniques of character
assassination to maintain his/her agenda, and you will be either discarded as a
pawn or used as a patron
5. Ascension – your role as a patron in the psychopath's quest for power will be
discarded, and the psychopath will take for himself/herself a position of power
and prestige from anyone who once supported them.
Caring Professions
According to anti-bullying author and activist Tim Field, bullies are attracted to the
caring professions, such as medicine, by the opportunities to exercise power
over vulnerable clients, and over vulnerable employees and students.
Institutional Abuse
Institutional abuse is the maltreatment of a person (often children or older adults) from a
system of power. This can range from acts similar to home-based child abuse, such as
neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and hunger, to the effects of assistance programs
working below acceptable service standards, or relying on harsh or unfair ways to
modify behavior.
Human Trafficking
The use of coercion by perpetrators and traffickers involves the use of extreme control.
Perpetrators expose the victim to high amounts of psychological stress induced by
threats, fear, and physical and emotional violence. Tactics of coercion are reportedly
used in three phases of trafficking: recruitment, initiation, and indoctrination. [49] During
the initiation phase, traffickers use foot-in-the-door techniques of persuasion to lead
their victims into various trafficking industries. This manipulation creates an environment
where the victim becomes completely dependent upon the authority of the
trafficker. Traffickers take advantage of family dysfunction, homelessness, and history
of childhood abuse to psychologically manipulate women and children into the
trafficking industry.
The goal of a trafficker is to turn a human being into a slave. To do this, perpetrators
employ tactics that can lead to the psychological consequence of learned
helplessness for the victims, where they sense that they no longer have any autonomy
or control over their lives. Traffickers may hold their victims captive, expose them to
large amounts of alcohol or use drugs, keep them in isolation, or withhold food or
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sleep. During this time the victim often begins to feel the onset of depression, guilt
and self-blame, anger and rage, and sleep disturbances, PTSD, numbing, and extreme
stress. Under these pressures, the victim can fall into the hopeless mental state of
learned helplessness.
Children are especially vulnerable to these developmental and psychological
consequences of trafficking because they are so young. In order to gain complete
control of the child, traffickers often destroy physical and mental health of the children
through persistent physical and emotional abuse. Stockholm syndrome is also a
common problem for girls while they are trafficked, which can hinder them from both
trying to escape, and moving forward in psychological recovery programs.
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust
manner.
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Zersetzung
The practice of repression in Zersetzung comprised extensive and secret methods of
control and psychological manipulation, including personal relationships of the target,
for which the Stasi relied on its network of informal collaborators, (in German inoffizielle
Mitarbeiter or IM), the State's power over institutions, and on operational psychology.
Using targeted psychological attacks the Stasi tried to deprive a dissident of any chance
of a "hostile action".
Serial Killers
The main objective for one type of serial killer is to gain and exert power over their
victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of
powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power- or control-motivated
killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is
not motivated by lust (as it would be with a lust murder) but as simply another form of
dominating the victim. (See article causes of sexual violence for the differences
regarding anger rape, power rape, and sadistic rape.) Ted Bundy is an example of a
power/control-oriented serial killer. He traveled around the United States seeking
women to control.
Law
In December 2015, controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship
was made illegal in England and Wales.
________
Fin-In or F***-Off
"Fit-in or f***-Off" ("FIFO") is an informal reference to a controversial human
resources philosophy whereby the employee is expected to conform to the prevailing
organizational norms or get fired. It is also used to impose conformity to perceived
racial, national, gender or societal norms.
Usage
The principle can directly affect hiring and retention decisions. In the world of television
news, there is a bias to hire those who have shared values and biases with the
organization. Likewise, executive producers of news shows tend to hire staff that share
their ideology and viewpoint, to the extent that FIFO is ruthlessly applied.
Writer Kevin Duncan, in his book titled The Business Bullshit Book: The world's most
comprehensive dictionary, suggests it is a "no-holds barred", "frank" and open
assessment by a supervisor, who maps the employee's chances and alternate career
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paths boldly, forthrightly and unhesitatingly. This is said to be "not necessarily" to the
employee's advantage.
Fitting in is not "a one way ticket." The Guardian newspaper quoted an anonymous
source, who was employed by a United Kingdom housing association, said that FIFO is
a rule of organizational life. It is an organizational paradigm whereby the members of
the team adopt 'protective coloration' and undergo a change in their behavior and
beliefs. It is a strong deterrent to whistle blowing, for example.
Corporate implementation of a FIFO policy was said to be coincidental, if not causallyrelated,
to a toxic tit-for-tat relationship with a union. As The Tyee opines:
"One of the few things that the union and management agree on is that there is a new
culture at Telus. Management describes it as the culture of a competitive meritocracy.
Some people in the union at Telus call it the 'FIFO war.'
"The term comes from Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, the Montreal-born executive who
came to Telus five years ago from a telecommunications company in the U.K. In a
profile of Entwistle that ran in B.C. Business magazine in May, Lori Bamber wrote this
about FIFO:
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"'In accounting it stands for 'first in, first out'; at Telus, after Entwistle's arrival, it stood for
'fit in or fuck off.' It wasn't something that endeared him to people who heard about it.
'You could get away with more in Europe,' he says when asked about this controversial
human resources philosophy. 'People expect you to tell it like it is there.'"
In the United Kingdom there were government proposals to statutorily
extend Employment-at-will and permit employers to have immunity for "Fit in or fuck off"
(not in those words) discussions with employees. Such proposals have met with vocal
opposition by organized labor, specifically Unite the Union.
Drift
The acronym "FIFO", the neologism, the phrase and meme "fit in or fuck off", and the
concept have been expanded and exported to other contexts. For example it is used as
a justification for racism, nationalism (e.g., jingoism), ethnic, nativist, immigrant
restriction and xenophobic reaction, regulation and action. It is a direction in the United
States to assimilate and be productive.
Sexist reactions and stereotypes are also justified under the rubric. Thus, female guests
on podcasts of This American Life have been often criticized for 'non-Alpha' speech
patterns, even though prominent males (e.g., Noam Chomsky) have exhibited similar
traits. Some have advised these women to "FIFO".
It has become a contentious anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant slogan in Canada.
________
My Way or The Highway
My Way or The Highway is a predominantly American idiom that dates back to the
1970s. [1] It suggests an ultimatum like "take it or leave it", which indicates that the
listener(s) (who are typically not in a position to challenge the options, e.g. employees
or those lacking money) must totally accept the speaker's decision or suffer negative
consequences such as being fired, asked to leave, or receive nothing. It may
sometimes be seen with other pronouns, for example, her way or the highway.
The idiom has been associated with narcissism and micromanagement.
Examples
One of former Hull hospitals boss Phil Morley's senior directors was reported as saying
"it's Phil's way or the high way".
As San Francisco Chief of Police, Anthony Ribera was known for his hair-trigger temper
and aggressive "my way or the highway" approach which was detested in the
Department.
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Meles Zenawi, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, was described by Donald
Yamamoto, United States Ambassador to Ethiopia, as a man thirsty for power who will
cling on to power till his last breath. His ideas were based on "it's my way or the
highway" best described by David Shinn, former Ambassador to Ethiopia. Sources close
to him and his family say he had a bad temper and liked to talk by telephone with
leaders even in the middle of the night.
Lawrence Biondi was a controversial figure over the span of his presidency at St. Louis
University. When asked about his approach to leadership for accomplishing his bold
vision, Biondi said he is a "my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy."
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VIII. Psychopathy In
The Workplace
The presence of Psychopathy in the workplace—although psychopaths typically
represent a relatively small percentage of the staff—can do enormous damage when in
senior management roles. Psychopaths are usually most common at higher levels of
corporate organizations and their actions often cause a ripple effect throughout an
organization, setting the tone for an entire corporate culture. Examples of detrimental
effects are increased bullying, conflict, stress, staff turnover and absenteeism; reduction
in productivity and in social responsibility. [2] Ethical standards of entire organizations can
be badly damaged if a corporate psychopath is in charge. A 2017 UK study found that
companies with leaders who show "psychopathic characteristics" destroy shareholder
value, tending to have poor future returns on equity.
Academics refer to psychopaths in the workplace individually variously as workplace
psychopaths, executive psychopaths, corporate psychopaths, business psychopaths,
successful psychopaths, office psychopaths, white-collar psychopaths, industrial
psychopaths, organizational psychopaths or occupational psychopaths. Criminal
psychologist Robert D. Hare coined the term "Snakes in Suits" as a synonym for
workplace psychopaths.
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General
Oliver James identifies psychopathy as one of the dark triadic personality traits in the
workplace, the others being narcissism and Machiavellianism.
Workplace psychopaths are often charming to staff above their level in the workplace
hierarchy but abusive to staff below their level.
Workplace psychopaths maintain multiple personas throughout the office, presenting
each colleague with a different version of themselves.
Hare considers newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell to have been a strong candidate as
a corporate psychopath.
Differentiation is made between:
successful psychopaths – corporate climbers involved in irregular crime who tend
to have had more privileged background, high IQ, and little risk of legal penalties.
unsuccessful psychopaths – involved in regular crime who tend to have had less
privileged backgrounds, low IQ, and much higher risk of legal penalties.
Incidence
Hare reports that about 1 percent of the general population meets the clinical criteria for
psychopathy. Hare further claims that the prevalence of psychopaths is higher in the
business world than in the general population. Figures of around 3–4% have been cited
for more senior positions in business. A 2011 study of Australian white-collar managers
found that 5.76 percent could be classed psychopathic and another 10.42 percent
dysfunctional with psychopathic characteristics.
The Organizational Psychopath
The organizational psychopath craves a god-like feeling of power and control over other
people. They prefer to work at the very highest levels of their organizations, allowing
them to control the greatest number of people. Psychopaths who are political leaders,
managers, and CEOs fall into this category.
Organizational psychopaths generally appear to be intelligent, sincere, powerful,
charming, witty, and entertaining communicators. They quickly assess what people
want to hear and then create stories that fit those expectations. They will con people
into doing their work for them, take credit for other people's work and even assign their
work to junior staff members. They have low patience when dealing with others, display
shallow emotions, are unpredictable, undependable and fail to take responsibility if
something goes wrong that is their fault.
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According to a study from the University of Notre Dame published in the Journal of
Business Ethics, psychopaths have a natural advantage in workplaces overrun by
abusive supervision, and are more likely to thrive under abusive bosses, being more
resistant to stress, including interpersonal abuse, and having less of a need for positive
relationships than others.
Careers with Highest Proportion of Psychopaths
According to Dutton, the ten careers that have the highest proportion of psychopaths
are:
1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (TV/radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergy
9. Chef
10. Civil servant
Behavioral Patterns
The workplace psychopath may show a high number of the following behavioral
patterns. The individual behaviors themselves are not exclusive to the workplace
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psychopath; though the higher number of patterns exhibited the more likely he or she
will conform to the psychopath's characteristic profile:
Public humiliation of others (high propensity of having temper tantrums or
ridiculing work performance)
Malicious spreading of lies (intentionally deceitful)
Remorseless, or devoid of guilt
Frequently lies to push his/her point
Produces exaggerated bodily expressions (yawning, sneezing, etc.) as a means
of gaining attention
Rapidly shifts between emotions – used to manipulate people or cause high
anxiety
Intentionally isolates persons from organizational resources
Quick to blame others for mistakes or for incomplete work even though he/she is
guilty
Encourages co-workers to torment, alienate, harass, and/or humiliate other peers
Takes credit for other people's accomplishments
Steals and/or sabotages other persons' works
Refuses to take responsibility for mis-judgements and/or errors
Responds inappropriately to stimuli, such as with a high-pitched and forced laugh
Threatens any perceived enemy with discipline and/or job loss in order to taint
employee file
Sets unrealistic and unachievable job expectations to set employees up for
failure
Refuses or is reluctant to attend meetings with more than one person
Refuses to provide adequate training and/or instructions to singled out victim
Invades personal privacy of others
Has multiple sexual encounters with other employees
Develops new ideas without real follow through
Very self-centered and extremely egotistical (often conversation revolves around
them – great deal of self-importance)
Often "borrows" money and/or other material objects without any intentions of
giving it back
Will do whatever it takes to close the deal (no regard for ethics or legality).
How a Typical Workplace Psychopath Climbs to and Maintains Power
The authors of the book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work describe a
five-phase model of how a typical workplace psychopath climbs to and maintains power:
1. Entry – psychopaths may use highly developed social skills and charm to obtain
employment into an organization. At this stage it will be difficult to spot anything
which is indicative of psychopathic behavior, and as a new employee one might
perceive the psychopath to be helpful and even benevolent.
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2. Assessment – psychopaths will weigh one up according to one's usefulness,
and one could be recognized as either a pawn (who has some
informal influence and will be easily manipulated) or a patron (who has formal
power and will be used by the psychopath to protect against attacks)
3. Manipulation – psychopath will create a scenario of “psychopathic fiction” where
positive information about themselves and negative disinformation about others
will be created, where one's role as a part of a network of pawns or patrons will
be utilized and will be groomed into accepting the psychopath's agenda.
4. Confrontation – the psychopath will use techniques of character
assassination to maintain their agenda, and one will be either discarded as a
pawn or used as a patron
5. Ascension – one's role as a patron in the psychopath's quest for power will be
discarded, and the psychopath will take for himself/herself a position of power
and prestige from anyone who once supported them.
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Why Psychopaths Readily Get Hired
Leading commentators on psychopathy have said that companies inadvertently attract
employees who are psychopaths because of the wording of their job advertisements
and their desire to engage people who are prepared to do whatever it takes to be
successful in business. However, in one case at least, an advert explicitly asked for a
sales executive with psychopathic tendencies. The advert title read "Psychopathic New
Business Media Sales Executive Superstar! £50k - £110k".
Corporate psychopaths are readily recruited into organizations because they make a
distinctly positive impression at interviews. They appear to be alert, friendly and easy to
get along with and talk to. They look like they are of good ability, emotionally well
adjusted and reasonable, and these traits make them attractive to those in charge of
hiring staff within organizations. Unlike narcissists, psychopaths are better able to
create long-lasting favorable first impressions, though people may still eventually see
through their facades. Psychopaths’ undesirable personality traits may be easily
misperceived by even skilled interviewers. For instance, their irresponsibility may be
misconstrued by employers as risk-taking or entrepreneurial spirit. Their thrill-seeking
tendencies may be conveyed as high energy and enthusiasm for the job or work.
Their superficial charm may be misinterpreted by interviewers as charisma. It is worth
noting that psychopaths are not only accomplished liars, they are also more likely to lie
in interviews. For instance, psychopaths may create fictitious work experiences or
resumes. They may also fabricate credentials such as diplomas, certifications, or
awards. Thus, in addition to seeming competent and likable in interviews, psychopaths
are also more likely to outright make-up information during interviews than nonpsychopaths.
Why Psychopaths Readily Get Promoted
Corporate psychopaths within organizations may be singled out for rapid promotion
because of their polish, charm, and cool decisiveness. They are also helped by
their manipulative and bullying skills. They create confusion around them (divide and
rule etc.) using instrumental bullying to promote their own agenda.
Bad Consequences
Boddy identifies the following bad consequences of workplace psychopathy (with
additional cites in some cases):
Workplace bullying of employees
Employees lose their jobs
Legal liabilities
Shareholders lose their investments
Wasted employee time
Suboptimal employee performance [31][32]
Increased workload
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Difficult working conditions
Poor levels of job satisfaction
Lower perceived levels of corporate social responsibility
Raised staff turnover
Absenteeism
Heightened level of workplace conflict – arguments, yelling, rudeness, divide and
conquer
Counterproductive work behavior
Counterproductive Work Behavior
Boddy suggests that because of abusive supervision by corporate psychopaths, large
amounts of anti-company feeling will be generated among the employees of the
organizations that corporate psychopaths work in. This should result in high levels of
counterproductive behavior as employees give vent to their anger with the corporation,
which they perceive to be acting through its corporate psychopathic managers in a way
that is eminently unfair to them.
According to a 2017 UK study, a high ranking corporate psychopath could trigger lower
ranked staff to become workplace bullies as a manifestation of counterproductive work
behavior.
Corporate Psychopath Theory of The Global Financial Crisis
Boddy makes the case that corporate psychopaths were instrumental in causing the
2007–08 global financial crisis. He claims that the same corporate psychopaths who
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probably caused the crisis by greed and avarice are now advising government on how
to get out of the crisis.
Psychologist Oliver James has described the credit crunch as a “mass outbreak of
corporate psychopathy which resulted in something that very nearly crashed the whole
world economy.”
For example, during the financial crisis, the behaviour of some key people at the top of
the world's largest banks came under scrutiny. At the time of its collapse in 2008
the Royal Bank of Scotland was the world's fifth largest bank by market capitalization.
CEO Fred "the Shred" Goodwin was known for taking excessive risks and showing little
concern for his mismanagement, which led to the bank's collapse. Goodwin's
demeanour toward colleagues was unpredictable and he is said to have lived a luxury
lifestyle while fostering a culture of fear, such that "colleagues suspected he was a
psychopath".
Renowned psychotherapist Professor Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries singled out Goodwin
and former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond as exhibiting psychopathic behaviours in his
working paper on the SOB, "seductive operational bully - or psychopath lite"
Screening
From an organizational perspective, organizations can insulate themselves from the
organizational psychopath by taking the following steps when recruiting:
conduct behavioural type interview
verify information contained in the curriculum vitae
conduct reference checks
obtain work samples
carry out criminal reference checks.
The following tests could be used to screen psychopaths:
Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV)
Psychopathy Measure – Management Research Version (PM-MRV)
Business-Scan (B-SCAN) test.
There have been anecdotal reports that at least one UK bank was using a psychopathy
measure to actively recruit psychopaths.
Workplace Bullying Overlap
Narcissism, lack of self-regulation, lack of remorse, and lack of conscience have been
identified as traits displayed by bullies. These traits are shared with psychopaths,
indicating that there is some theoretical cross-over between bullies and
psychopaths. Bullying is used by corporate psychopaths as a tactic to humiliate
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subordinates. Bullying is also used as a tactic to scare, confuse and disorient those who
may be a threat to the activities of the corporate psychopath. Using meta data analysis
on hundred of UK research papers, Boddy concluded that 36% of bullying incidents was
caused by the presence of corporate psychopaths. According to Boddy, there are two
types of bullying:
Predatory bullying – the bully just enjoys bullying and
tormenting vulnerable people for the sake of it
Instrumental bullying – the bullying is for a purpose, helping the bully achieve his
or her goals.
A corporate psychopath uses instrumental bullying to further his goals of promotion and
power as the result of causing confusion and divide and rule.
People with high scores on a psychopathy rating scale are more likely to engage in
bullying, crime, and drug use than other people. Hare and Babiak noted that about 29
per cent of corporate psychopaths are also bullies. Other research has also shown that
people with high scores on a psychopathy rating scale were more likely to engage in
bullying, again indicating that psychopaths tend to be bullies in the workplace.
A workplace bully or abuser will often have issues with social functioning. These types
of people often have psychopathic traits that are difficult to identify in the hiring and
promotion process. These individuals often lack anger management skills and have a
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distorted sense of reality. Consequently, when confronted with the accusation of abuse,
the abuser is not aware that any harm was done.
In fiction
Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street and its sequel
Patrick Bateman in the 1991 novel American Psycho and its 2000 film
adaptation American Psycho (film)
Dave Matthews, the star character in the 2009 film Freefall
Lou Bloom in the 2014 film Nightcrawler
Cyril Magnus in the novel, The Tyranny of Psychopaths, a satire
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IX. Machiavellianism In
The Workplace
Machiavellianism In The Workplace is the employment of cunning and duplicitous
behavior in a business setting. The term Machiavellianism is from the book The
Prince by Machiavelli which lays out advice to rulers how to govern his or her subjects.
Machiavellianism has been studied extensively over the past 40 years as a personality
characteristic that shares features with manipulative leadership tactics. It has in recent
times been adapted and applied to the context of the workplace and organizations by
many writers and academics. The Machiavellian typically manipulates on occasions
where it is advantageous to achieve the required objectives.
Oliver James identifies Machiavellianism as one of the dark triadic personality traits in
the workplace, the others being narcissism and psychopathy.
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A new model of Machiavellianism based in organizational settings consists of three
factors:
maintaining power
harsh management tactics
manipulative behaviors.
The presence of Machiavellianism in an organization has been positively correlated
with counterproductive workplace behavior and workplace deviance.
Job Interviews
Individuals who are high in Machiavellianism may be more willing and more skilled at
lying and less likely to give honest answers during interviews. Individuals high in
Machiavellianism have stronger intentions to use deception in interviews compared to
psychopaths or narcissists and are also more likely to see the use of lying in interviews
as fair. Men and women high in Machiavellianism may use different tactics
to influence interviewers. In one study, which examined the how much applicants
allowed the interviewers to direct the topics covered during the interview, women high in
Machiavellianism tended to allow interviewers more freedom to direct the content of the
interview. Men high in Machiavellianism gave interviewers the least amount of freedom
in directing the content of the interview. Men high in Machiavellianism were also more
likely to make up information about themselves or their experiences during job
interviews.
Workplace Bullying Overlap
According to Namie, Machiavellians manipulate and exploit others to advance their
perceived personal agendas and to maintain dominance over others.
The following are the guiding principles of Machiavellianism:
Never show humility
Arrogance is far more effective when dealing with others.
Morality and ethics are for the weak: Powerful people feel free to lie, cheat and
deceive others when it suits them.
It is much better to be feared than loved.
High Machiavellians may be expected to do the following:
Neglect to share important information.
Find subtle ways of making another person look bad to management.
Fail to meet their obligations.
Spread false rumors about another person.
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In studies there was a positive correlation between Machiavellianism and workplace
bullying. Machiavellianism predicted involvement in bullying others. The groups of
bullies and bully-victims had a higher Machiavellianism level compared to the groups of
victims and persons non-involved in bullying. The results showed that being bullied was
negatively related to the perceptions of clan and adhocracy cultures and positively
related to the perceptions of hierarchy culture.
In research, Machiavellianism was positively associated with subordinate perceptions
of abusive supervision (an overlapping concept with workplace bullying).
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Page 100 of 155

X. References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_dysfunction
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder%27s_syndrome
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_conflict
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_leadership
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_freak
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromanagement
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abusive_power_and_control
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_way_or_the_highway
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism_in_the_workplace
12. https://www.karlalbrecht.com/downloads/Albrecht-SeventeenSyndromes.pdf
13. http://www.worldscientificnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/WSN-89-2017-32-
38.pdf
14. http://www.lesaffaires.com/uploads/references/1281_DysfunctionalLeadershipDysfunctio
nalOrganizations.pdf
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Attachment A
Seventeen Syndromes
of Organizational Dysfunction
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Attachment B
Organizational Culture
As A Source of Dysfunction
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Attachment C
Dysfunctional Leadership
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Advocacy Foundation Publishers
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Advocacy Foundation Publishers
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The e-Advocate Monthly Review
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The e-Advocate Juvenile Justice Report
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The e-Advocate Newsletter
Genesis of The Problem
Family Structure
Societal Influences
Evidence-Based Programming
Strengthening Assets v. Eliminating Deficits
2012 - Juvenile Delinquency in The US
Introduction/Ideology/Key Values
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Pardons & Clemency
Examples/Best Practices
2013 - Restorative Justice in The US
2014 - The Prison Industrial Complex
25% of the World's Inmates Are In the US
The Economics of Prison Enterprise
The Federal Bureau of Prisons
The After-Effects of Incarceration/Individual/Societal
The Fourth Amendment Project
The Sixth Amendment Project
The Eighth Amendment Project
The Adolescent Law Group
2015 - US Constitutional Issues In The New Millennium
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2018 - The Theological Law Firm Academy
The Theological Foundations of US Law & Government
The Economic Consequences of Legal Decision-Making
The Juvenile Justice Legislative Reform Initiative
The EB-5 International Investors Initiative
2017 - Organizational Development
The Board of Directors
The Inner Circle
Staff & Management
Succession Planning
Bonus #1 The Budget
Bonus #2 Data-Driven Resource Allocation
2018 - Sustainability
The Data-Driven Resource Allocation Process
The Quality Assurance Initiative
The Advocacy Foundation Endowments Initiative
The Community Engagement Strategy
2019 - Collaboration
Critical Thinking for Transformative Justice
International Labor Relations
Immigration
God's Will & The 21st Century Democratic Process
The Community Engagement Strategy
The 21st Century Charter Schools Initiative
2020 - Community Engagement
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Extras
The Nonprofit Advisors Group Newsletters
The 501(c)(3) Acquisition Process
The Board of Directors
The Gladiator Mentality
Strategic Planning
Fundraising
501(c)(3) Reinstatements
The Collaborative US/ International Newsletters
How You Think Is Everything
The Reciprocal Nature of Business Relationships
Accelerate Your Professional Development
The Competitive Nature of Grant Writing
Assessing The Risks
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About The Author
John C (Jack) Johnson III
Founder & CEO
Jack was educated at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rutgers
Law School, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1999, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue
greater opportunities to provide Advocacy and Preventive Programmatic services for atrisk/
at-promise young persons, their families, and Justice Professionals embedded in the
Juvenile Justice process in order to help facilitate its transcendence into the 21 st Century.
There, along with a small group of community and faith-based professionals, “The Advocacy Foundation, Inc." was conceived
and developed over roughly a thirteen year period, originally chartered as a Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Educational
Support Services organization consisting of Mentoring, Tutoring, Counseling, Character Development, Community Change
Management, Practitioner Re-Education & Training, and a host of related components.
The Foundation’s Overarching Mission is “To help Individuals, Organizations, & Communities Achieve Their Full Potential”, by
implementing a wide array of evidence-based proactive multi-disciplinary "Restorative & Transformative Justice" programs &
projects currently throughout the northeast, southeast, and western international-waters regions, providing prevention and support
services to at-risk/ at-promise youth, to young adults, to their families, and to Social Service, Justice and Mental
Health professionals” everywhere. The Foundation has since relocated its headquarters to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and been
expanded to include a three-tier mission.
In addition to his work with the Foundation, Jack also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law & Business at National-Louis
University of Atlanta (where he taught Political Science, Business & Legal Ethics, Labor & Employment Relations, and Critical
Thinking courses to undergraduate and graduate level students). Jack has also served as Board President for a host of wellestablished
and up & coming nonprofit organizations throughout the region, including “Visions Unlimited Community
Development Systems, Inc.”, a multi-million dollar, award-winning, Violence Prevention and Gang Intervention Social Service
organization in Atlanta, as well as Vice-Chair of the Georgia/ Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership, a state-wide
300 organizational member, violence prevention group led by the Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University and The
Original, Atlanta-Based, Martin Luther King Center.
Attorney Johnson’s prior accomplishments include a wide-array of Professional Legal practice areas, including Private Firm,
Corporate and Government postings, just about all of which yielded significant professional awards & accolades, the history and
chronology of which are available for review online. Throughout his career, Jack has served a wide variety of for-profit
corporations, law firms, and nonprofit organizations as Board Chairman, Secretary, Associate, and General Counsel since 1990.
www.TheAdvocacy.Foundation
Clayton County Youth Services Partnership, Inc. – Chair; Georgia Violence Prevention Partnership, Inc – Vice Chair; Fayette
County NAACP - Legal Redress Committee Chairman; Clayton County Fatherhood Initiative Partnership – Principal
Investigator; Morehouse School of Medicine School of Community Health Feasibility Study - Steering Committee; Atlanta
Violence Prevention Capacity Building Project – Project Partner; Clayton County Minister’s Conference, President 2006-2007;
Liberty In Life Ministries, Inc. – Board Secretary; Young Adults Talk, Inc. – Board of Directors; ROYAL, Inc - Board of
Directors; Temple University Alumni Association; Rutgers Law School Alumni Association; Sertoma International; Our
Common Welfare Board of Directors – President)2003-2005; River’s Edge Elementary School PTA (Co-President); Summerhill
Community Ministries; Outstanding Young Men of America; Employee of the Year; Academic All-American - Basketball;
Church Trustee.
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www.TheAdvocacy.Foundation
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