How Managerial Psychopathy Contributes to Employee Mental Health and Illness

Through the lens of corporate psychopathy theory, this chapter integrates theoretical perspectives on abusive supervision, workplace civility, dark humor, employee autonomy, and managerial psychopathy to examine the processes through which these variables influence employee mental health and illness. Findings from quantitative studies of the effects of working under psychopathic managers are integrated with qualitative research on the same phenomena, to gain a robust understanding of the ways managerial psychopathy contributes to employee mental health and illness. This chapter presents information regarding how psychopathic employees use incivility, bullying, aggressive humor, and close employee control to manage their environment via creating a climate of fear and disengagement and that this results in deteriorating employee mental health.