Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
5 - The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
Summary
Individuals with obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) attempt to maintain a sense of control through painstaking attention to rules, trivial details, procedures, lists, schedules … to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost. They are excessively careful and prone to repetition and … oblivious to the fact that other people tend to become very annoyed at the delays and inconveniences that result from this behavior.
(APA, 2000, p. 725)TOXICITY SUMMONS
The need to assess and respond to the dysfunctional organizational system and destructive leader becomes particularly pressing when toxicity sets in and threatens workplace stability (e.g., see Goldman, 2006a,b; Hirschhorn, 1988; Kets de Vries, 2006; Kets de Vries & Associates, 1991; Lubit, 2004; Korzybski, 1950; Minuchin, 1974). At Johnstone-Mumford International Bank a change in leadership signaled ensuing turbulence. Upheaval came in the form of an expatriate senior manager, Dr. Raymond Gaston. Abruptly hired from a competitor without a thorough background check, Johnstone-Mumford became increasingly perplexed by the obsessive perfectionism of the new leader. Colleagues and subordinates debated behind closed doors whether his seemingly destructive behavior was deeply embedded in the personality of Dr. Gaston or whether it was more a function of a discombobulated organizational restructuring and a traumatic and failing expatriation.
Fully committed to hiring leaders from within the ranks of their own organizational system, the hiring of Dr. Gaston marked a complete departure from Johnstone-Mumford protocol.
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- Information
- Destructive Leaders and Dysfunctional OrganizationsA Therapeutic Approach, pp. 86 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009