Corporate psychopathy: can ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Hearts and Minds’ military metaphors inspire HRM solutions? (2014)

Marshall, Ashleigh et al. “Military planners have for decades worked to balance ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Hearts and Minds’ strategies. A similar balance may be the best defence against corporate psychopathy.

Alasdair J. Marshall, Melanie J. Ashleigh, Denise Baden; Centre for Risk Research, School of Management, University of Southampton: 
Udechukwu Ojiako; Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg: 
Marco G. D. Guidi; Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

Journal of Business Ethics, published online 05 March 2014

Military planners have for decades worked to balance ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Hearts and Minds’ strategies to deal with terrorist and guerrilla insurgencies. The authors argue that a similar balance may be the best HR management (HRM) defence against corporate psychopathy.

A ‘Search and Destroy’ approach would be appropriate for the ethically irredeemable psychopaths typically found in small groups in prominent corporate positions; at the same time, ‘Hearts and Minds’ would also make sense when considering entire corporate cultures need to be better designed to ensure they do not promote psychopathy.

The paper describes corporate psychopathy as “perhaps the most significant threat to ethical corporate behaviour around the world”. As lead researcher Dr Alasdair Marshall points out in his pre-press article, the growing significance of this and associated issues is reflected in the status of the publishing vehicle. “The Journal of Business Ethics is now ranked 18th on the Financial Times Top 45 list of business school journals.”

Access the full paper here: Corporate psychopathy: can ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Hearts and Minds’ military metaphors inspire HRM solutions?

Dr Marshall’s pre-press article is here: How risk research can help to manage corporate psychopathy