In 2005, psychologists Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon at the University of Surrey, UK, interviewed and gave personality tests to high-level British executives and compared their profiles with those of criminal psychiatric patients at Broadmoor Hospital in the UK. They found that three out of eleven personality disorders were actually more common in managers than in the disturbed criminals:
histrionic personality disorder: including superficial charm, insincerity, egocentricity and manipulation
narcissistic personality disorder: including grandiosity, self-focused, lack of empathy for others, exploitativeness and independence.
obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: including perfectionism, excessive devotion to work, rigidity, stubbornness and dictatorial tendencies.
They described the business people as successful psychopaths and the criminals as unsuccessful psychopaths. [4]
According to leading leadership academic Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, it seems almost inevitable these days that there will be some personality disorders in a senior management team.[14]
4. ^ Board, B.J. & Fritzon, Katarina, F. (2005). Disordered personalities at work. Psychology, Crime and Law, 11, 17-32
14. ^ Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries The Dark Side of Leadership - Business Strategy Review 14(3), Autumn Page 26 (2003).
