The Antisocial disordered individual is somewhat easy to recognize. They are the persons who do not conform to social norms typically resulting in crimes, they are aggressive and violent, they are impulsive, have no regard for the truth, are reckless, and they lack remorse and empathy. Embedded in this disorder is the “psychopath” and “sociopath” and all the interest in examining the most disordered people who make the news and become the models for some of the scariest movies.

Because my focus is on what I might call the 'normal' workplace, with the Antisocial personality I will limit the discussion to how the Antisocial “trait”, the normal worker with the psychological characteristics or structure of Antisocial personality, behaves in the workplace. Remember also, that personality structure is just one way to look at behavior. Everyone also has defenses and lots of other what we call “Axis I” (depression, anxiety, drugs, etc.) conditions well as other relational issues such as marital problems that affect behavior in the workplace.  As a result, it is not easy to isolate antisocial traits.

One of the first indicators of a person with an antisocial trait is you can feel them before you even know anything about them. Imagine Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup in “A Few Good Men” walking into your office. They have an assertive quality that creates a felt physical presence. This is the softer precursor of the disordered criteria of aggressiveness in criteria 4, DSM-IV (http://www.dsmivtr.org/). I’ll get to comparisons in a later post; however, a Compulsive personality type employee can have a similar physical presence. The difference is the Compulsive person’s presence is associated with the inherent urgency of his/her work (that deer in the headlights look) and the Antisocial person’s presence is associated with their persona (you’re the deer).

Another indicator of an employee or supervisor with an antisocial trait is behavior that shows non-conformity with social norms. Whereas the disordered Antisocial person will constantly violate social norms and violate the law (criminal activity), those with this trait will consistently explain violations of norms with their own value statements, e.g. “only the strong survive”, especially following or associated with some form of psychological abuse to another employee.

A classic example of an Antisocial supervisor might be one that give two employees the same assignment without telling them the game and seeing who finishes the task first. The employee who looses, of course, will be shamed as a result of loosing the game. The Antisocial supervisor does not feel the same shock the rest of the employees feel witnessing this game, in fact, he/she view the game as some form of enlightened motivational exercise.

Other characteristics include being slippery with the truth (“silver-tongued”), are impulsive, engage in risky behavior, irritable/angry, highly competitive and distrustful of others, poor losers, develop superficial relationships and are callous toward the suffering of others, argumentative, problems planning and sticking with plans, tend to be sensation-seekers, and look out for themselves and use others to meet their needs while being dismissive of them.

Persons with an Antisocial Disorder show evidence of Conduct Disorder before the age of 15. Those with the Antisocial trait show problems in school, bullying, and other more normative juvenile delinquency issues. There is also a strong correlation between Antisocial Disorder and substance abuse.

As with all disorders, the future Antisocial individual suffered from poor parenting. The future Antisocial individual typically experiences very harsh, neglectful parenting and physical abuse with little or no emotional bonding. This harsh environment restricts the development of the super-ego, that moral conscience developed through parental guidance (injunctions), and the Antisocial individual is left being dominated by the immediate needs of the Id (e.g. sex and aggression) while being morally bankrupt. This type of parenting not only provides a model for behavior, but also the lack of parental control does not allow the child to learn to control aggression. This also leads to a resentment of control. The parent that is neglectful and then overcompensates by being a superauthoritarian using blame gives the child a deep resentment for any type of control (L. S. Benjamin in “Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders”, 1996, is a good source for understanding parenting contexts and upbringing dynamics for the various disorders. Her SASB software assessment model is terrific, however, the one I used was a difficult DOS-like version).

People with Antisocial traits are attracted to such occupations as politicians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, sales persons, and other similar professions. As a result, they tend to be in charge rather than being submerged in the workplace. Like the Narcissist boss, the workplace is a sick and unhealthy as a result of their character structure and manner of dealing with employees. With both the Antisocial and Narcissistic boss, it is impossible to consult with them to create change in the workplace. The Antisocial boss, as opposed to the Narcissistic one, will have a great deal of fun manipulating a naïve consultant trying to help an organization create an authentic, healthy workplace. The consultant will be angrily confronted with the chaos they are causing in the workplace.

In the workplace, an employee with Antisocial traits may display dramatic expressions of regret and dismay when confronted with infractions of the rules. Antisocials have been rejected all their lives, being rejected by the boss is nothing new and they know how to play the game. The Compulsive boss with his/her attachment to autocratic rules is particularly vulnerable to a run in with an employee with Antisocial traits.

A more non-defensive and relaxed interpersonal style works best with employees with Antisocial traits. Nonetheless, the supervisor should maintain a consistent, benevolent workplace context and make sure the employee knows in advance the consequences of negative behavior (called good parenting). Also, coaching the employee by moving them from a rigid perspective of self-interest to one that includes the recognition of the affects of their behavior on others. Helping the worker with Antisocial traits gain the insight that their more prosocial actions with others has a reciprocal positive result for them helps a great deal.

This approach is the opposite of trying to control behavior in the workplace. The supervisor, rather than trying to stop behavior motivated by character weaknesses, accepts the reality that all employees have a rich variety of weaknesses and accepting them coaches and encourages the employee to self-manage them. In a workplace striving to build an authentic work environment, an employee with an Antisocial trait might typically engage their coworkers with: “Do you really see me as into my own self-interest and manipulative?” A coworker in an authentic context would react respectfully in the affirmative and may agree to point out such behavior in the future. A respectful, authentic workplace will then become an opportunity for growth rather than abuse.

Of course, an authentic workplace does engage in employee terminations. More on that later, however, the authentic workplace focuses more on violations of common and consistently applied company values than on isolated individual behavior.