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Corporate Werewolves in Your Company?

Underestimate the Organisational Psychopath at your peril!

If werewolves only resorted to killing sheep and eating the occasional baby, they would pass almost unnoticed. It is the human form of werewolves that make them so dangerous.

The werewolves I am referring to are characters in a well-known on-line forum game called Werewolf, where several players are evil werewolves. Their aim is to convince the other players they are not werewolves and instead have innocent people "lynched". The werewolves seek to cause the ordinary players in "the village" to act in a chaotic manner. This allows the werewolves to push the lynch to a target of their choosing. The werewolves are usually quite successful but are invariably caught out by the inconsistency of their lies.

An accomplished werewolf is not at all easy to identify. They adopt an overtly "conservative" disguise because they can create chaos and confrontation for a long period without being suspected. They thrive on the excitement of the chase, seeing "who blinks first" and they will throw any amount of other people's money at a campaign or litigation to create hysteria. Yet, werewolves themselves will say anything they want to without restriction -- truth, nonsense, disinformation and barefaced lies. They are not concerned in the least about being found out for their lies. In fact, werewolves' main distinguishing characteristic is that they have no remorse. They use accusations, lying, bluffing, bullying and character assassination. They become expert at casting "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" by offhandedly making allegations that are without merit or are merely implied. This smear tactic is often used where the initial publicity surrounding claims vastly overshadow any subsequent retraction. They use any technique they can to create pressure, such as incessant delay, preventing routine things being finished and determinedly side-tracking discussions. Defamation is their last refuge when they are finally ousted.

You may have a werewolf in your company. They are technically known as "organisational psychopaths". We will call them werewolves.

So, what common features are there for werewolves in both the corporate environment and in the game?

It is clear that the three best strategies for a successful werewolf are:

  1. To kill the the team leader and independent referee as quickly as possible and replace them with werewolves or their agents.

  2. To represent themselves as the leader or independent referee and try to have the rest of the team group lynch the real leader or referee.

  3. When cornered, pretend to be an independent referee. The werewolf has good chance of being believed when falsely naming several innocents as werewolves. Even if this does not work, it makes declarations by a real referee about to be lynched less likely to be believed.

If you have an accomplished werewolf in your company, the first thing you may discover is that the person constantly makes unverifiable attributions to third parties. This can happen from the moment the werewolf walks into a room and is the most reliable indicator that the person is a werewolf. It does not depend upon recognising lies, which takes much longer because you need to have a great familiarity with the werewolf's work area. We have already referred to the infamous marketing tactic of casting "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" or FUD for short. FUD is based on "third party attribution" in which untrue, vague or mischievously misrepresenting statements about a person (or product) are attributed to a supposedly reliable third party source. This third party misrepresentation is a very sophisticated tactic because the apparent "evidence" is usually accepted without question, for example, as secret defamatory or inside information. After a while you may even be able to rely on a werewolf's "third party attribution" being 180 degrees different to the actual situation!

A second clue about a werewolf is the realisation something being said is inconsistent with something the werewolf said earlier, and that one of the statements must be lie. Then it happens again and again. In fact, the lying accelerates and you might begin to notice that the werewolf actually prefers to lie rather than tell the truth. These lies are the most important and conclusive evidence that eventually catches out the werewolf.

So the two early triggers are constantly making attributions to third parties and lying. The third is a total lack of remorse. The werewolf is amoral and the person's word is not their bond. You can see it in the werewolf's eyes, that is if you dare to look and risk being recognised as someone who has spotted the werewolf.

A werewolf may target people for organisational "kills" merely because it is the exciting job that the werewolf has chosen for a living! Therefore, a "kill" can be entirely without additional motive. However, the werewolf will generally have the belief that it will earn a reward sometime in the future. It was mentioned above that the best strategy for a werewolf is to kill the leader or referee and plant the werewolf's own person in the job. This is someone who is familiar with the way the werewolf operates and is prepared to amplify and accelerate the werewolf's devastation in return for favours. The new leader or referee supports the werewolf's actions from a seemingly independent standpoint, which is extraordinarily successful. In the original version of the Werewolf game called Mafia, the Mafia secretly select an innocent player to kill and the game commences. With groups of up to five innocents, one Mafia player has a better than 50% mathematical probability of winning by killing the selected innocent player before the Mafia is identified. When a second Mafia is added, this rises to a probability of winning of 90%. In fact, two Mafia have better than a 50% chance of winning in groups of up to about 16 innocents. So the addition of a second, secret werewolf, perceived by the innocents as a leader or independent referee dramatically increases the effectiveness of the original werewolf.

How can the lies be made to work in an organisational "kill"? In the real world, a werewolf may begin by telling each of two different people lies about the other using unsubstantiated "third party attribution". These two people will begin to mutually distrust each other and probably will not even enquire about the truth. This technique is then broadened to separate the intended kill from its support network, such as other colleagues who would otherwise step in to stop the forthcoming intimidation, victimisation and organisational "kill". Often a werewolf will plan well ahead and test various "whiteanting" strategies over a period of many weeks or months before beginning the execution. At the same time, the werewolf will actively target the rest of the group with selective favouritism. They are naturally flattered by the attention and believe the werewolf is a really good person. Initially, when the werewolf's "kill" commences, the support network stands back and even regards the increased level of bullying as proper organisational development!

It is only when the objective results come in - that is, the good people leave, the werewolf is promoted to a higher level where non-delivery becomes evident and the werewolf's lies become increasingly inconsistent and apparent to everyone that the decision makers decide to remove the werewolf. Unfortunately, the werewolf is normally paid to move on! Furthermore, no-one is permitted to say anything about this unsavoury character because it would be defamatory and truth is no defense in defamation.

In fact, the previous employer is no doubt so pleased to see the back of this person that they help the werewolf achieve a new position by implicitly, if not explicitly, whitewashing the reason for the werewolf leaving their company. So the werewolf moves on and the cycle starts all over again, probably at a higher level so that over the years, the werewolf has quite a successful career.

Werewolf characteristics are not merely subjective choices by a person. There is recent scientific support for the fact that werewolves, or pathalogical liars, can not control their habitual impulse to lie, cheat and manipulate others. In the October 2005 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, Yaling Yang and Adrian Raine of the University of Southern California demonstrated proof of brain abnormalities in pathological liars. Their study into the prefrontal cortex area of the brain showed that pathological liars have a 22% increase in white matter and a 14% decrease in gray matter compared to normal controls. When people are asked to make moral decisions, they rely on the prefrontal cortex of the brain and it has long been associated with the ability in most people to feel remorse or learn moral behaviour. In normal people, it's the grey matter (the brain cells connected by the white matter) that help to keep the impulse to lie in check. The results of this study are consistent with previous studies on autistic children, who find it extremely difficult to lie and have an opposite but complementary combination of white and grey matter.

The University of Southern California researchers suggest that lying takes a lot of effort and the 22% more white matter in the brains of pathological liars provides them with enhanced verbal skills to master the complex art of deceit. In addition, the 14% less grey matter means they don't have the same moral disinhibition as normal people for misrepresentation. The researchers commented that there is quite a lot to do in suppressing the truth. Lying is almost mind reading in so far as the liar needs to understand the mindset of the other person and the liar needs to suppress his or her own emotions so as not to appear nervous. Their practical observations were that pathological liars could not always tell truth from falsehood and would contradict themselves in an interview; that they were manipulative and admit to preying on people; that they are very brazen in terms of their manner, but very cool when talking about this. Aside from having histories of conning others or using aliases, habitual liars also admitted to malingering, or telling lies to obtain sickness benefits.

What do you do if you are confronted by a werewolf, a referee that is actively supporting the werewolf and, say, a second referee that has fallen under the werewolf's charm? The answer is fourfold. There is a seed of truth in the saying that "the only people that are bullied are those that allow themselves to be bullied." So firstly, you need to control your own thinking and emotions. This is necessary but obviously insufficient in the face of active and targetted group malevolence. Secondly, as in Judo, you need to use the werewolf's own strength against him or her. For example, by deflecting the attacks as adroitly as possible, appealing to bystanders to help stop the bullying and recording those things that will in the end identify the werewolf, such as the lies and the willful failures. Thirdly, you need to take professional advice as quickly as possible. Many larger companies now have whistle-blower and bullying protection schemes and this may be a way forward. In smaller companies, you may well be on your own.

Finally, a good reference book is recommended, such as John Clarke's exceptionally good paperback Working with Monsters - How to identify and protect yourself from the workplace psychopath Random House Australia 2005. This book will help you identify the werewolf's vulnerabilities, which, unfortunately, will be very few.

People may eventually recognise the werewolf for what he or she is, but in the very existence of corporate werewolves we have a classic case of drama. There is a permanent loss to society. Everyone with whom the werewolf comes in contact with has lost, not just the werewolf's "kills". A particular victim is the company that mistakenly supports the werewolf. It has lost good people, sales and profits, and perhaps even its most valuable asset of all -- its reputation.

Antimony Capital is a division of Taliesin Investments Pty Ltd ABN 80003512614