Irish horrible bosses under review for their toxic traits

PSYCHOLOGISTS at Dublin City University are trying to identify some of Ireland’s nastiest bosses as part of a study of ‘toxic leadership’ in Irish organisations.

Their results will be presented to a European conference on ‘the dark side of leadership’ in Oslo in three months’ time.

Details of the research were outlined to the Psychological Society of Ireland last week.

The study reveals that some top-paid bosses are part of ‘the dark triangle’ that exhibit ‘psychopathic, Machiavellian or narcissist characteristics’, which can make life hell for line-managers or other lowerpaid employees.

Research leader Dr Melrona Kirrane said this weekend that such bosses were often supported by sycophants too scared to question them.

When combined with shortterm pressures, lack of checks and balances and a corporate culture like in The Wolf of Wall Street, it leads to chaos in some Irish workplaces.

Toxic bosses and weak checks and balances contrib- uted to the collapse of the economy and the wipe-out of many people’s savings in 2009, Dr Kirrane said. Finance houses with short-term goals were most at risk of ‘toxic leaders’ bringing them down, she claimed.

It is estimated that these ‘snakes in suits’ in the boardroom can cost organisations $1.5m to $2.7m per failed manager. Among the other costs are a disengaged or disillusioned workforce.

The Oslo conference will look at how horrible Irish bosses compared to similar types abroad.