Evaluating the 'Doofus Factor' In Corporate Governance 204
PolygamousRanchKid writes with this quote from an article in the Economist:
"The directors of Yahoo! were 'so spooked by being cast as the worst board in the country' that they fired Carol Bartz as chief executive 'to show that they're not the doofuses that they are.' That was Ms Bartz's typically blunt verdict, offered to Fortune after she was dismissed with a phone call by the internet firm's chairman, Roy Bostock, on September 6th. She would say that. Yet Ms Bartz's criticisms of the board have been sympathetically received. Firing a chief executive by phone smacks of hasty, panicky decision-making. And Yahoo!'s board already had a poor reputation, having turned down an offer from Microsoft that valued the firm at several times what it is worth today. It is not just Yahoo!'s board that is feeling the heat. The directors of HP, another stumbling Silicon Valley giant, have been accused of serial ineptitude spanning the appointment and dismissal of Carly Fiorina as chief executive, the firing of her successor, Mark Hurd, and the selection of his replacement, Léo Apotheker. ... There is growing demand for boards to undergo a formal evaluation process, to assess both the performance of each individual board member and how they work together as a group. The European Union is considering new regulations that would require an independent evaluation of the board every three years."
Re:Do a test to find the psychopaths/sociopaths... (Score:3, Informative)
Your "reversible argument" test would work about as well as the "see if they have two eyes and a nose" test. For a test to be useful, you need to ensure:
a) If a person meets the criteria of the test, they are a psychopath.
b) If a person isn't a psychopath, they won't meet the criteria of the test.
Reversible arguments are really common in all humans, not just psychopaths. It's a common belief that when other people do something, it's bad, but when I do the same thing, it's OK. Generally this is justified by the already-established belief that I'm right, and the other people are wrong.
Psychopaths are defined by a lack of empathy and emotional depth, and they are generally really good at faking empathy and emotions. They are extremely hard to test for.
Re:Do a test to find the psychopaths/sociopaths... (Score:4, Informative)
The reversible argument is just a common pastime that allows people to try to dump blame for something on others. It is not unique to sociopaths. What you are looking for is a systematic disregard for the rules and standards of society and violating the rights of others, especially including breaking those in such a way as they do not usually get punished for it. This can be either because of careful planning, manipulation of peers, making it a hassle for others to stop them, appealing to pity, political influence, etc...
To put it frankly, you are looking for a pervasive, but not necessarily omnipresent, pattern.
A few things to help you out though:
- They do not honor commitments unless it is specifically in their self interest to do so, such as to impress someone important.
- When they are confronted, they will almost never admit responsibility unless they themselves recognize it is advantageous to do so. They will usually either fly off into a rage to scare you away or others into stopping you or launch into a ridiculous appeal for pity, complete with all sorts of BS mind-games like the one you mentioned.
- They get board easy and are frequently impulsive. So, they like to find people to brag about their exploits to if they cannot find something or someone new to torment and destroy, bonus points if they can torment someone while bragging to them.
- They feel that being antisocial makes them smarter than everyone else, because having a conscience retards us and makes us easy to mess with.
- They like collecting tools to do their dirty work for them. But, will actively eliminate anyone deemed to be a competitive threat to them, often using the aforementioned.
- They can mimic complex emotional expressions, but the top half of their face frequently does not match the rest of the body.
- One tell tail I have noticed is the wicked "I have won!" gleeful smile accompanied by hollow eyes when they are actively terrorizing someone or something and getting away with it.
That ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would...
Re:boards don't really make any sense (Score:5, Informative)
The function of a board is oversight. You can't run a company by committee, and you can't run it with an unaccountable CEO either. More shareholder transparency would be good, but shareholders can't play this role because (a) they have even less time than boards do and (b) competitors could buy a single share of stock and gain access to all of a company's sensitive strategy.
So, boards are actually a pretty good idea. But that doesn't mean the implementation is always good. If you are CEO, you want a weak, uninvolved board.
Re:Do a test to find the psychopaths/sociopaths... (Score:4, Informative)
Speaking of bullshit-artistry, you just constructed a nearly-incoherent post that consists of slapping a new name on hypocrisy and claiming that you can pick psychopaths (a group of people known for their ability to lie) out almost instantly, and you got a +4 insightful mod out of it. Way to go!
By the way, you should contact the psychiatric association of whatever country you live in, I'm sure they'll be interested in your amazing ability to diagnose mental ailments.