Explaining Corporate Culture Through "The Office" 224
Writing in the ribbonfarm.com blog, Venkatesh Rao uses The Office to explain and illustrate a theory of management he calls the Gervais Principle (after the TV series's creator). Taking off from Hugh MacLeod's cartoon laying out a corporate hierarchy in layers of Sociopaths, the Clueless, and Losers, Rao riffs on and updates the Peter Principle, in these terms: "Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing losers into [clueless] middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths, and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves." Don't know about you, but this analysis suddenly makes sense of much that mystified me in my sojourn in corporate America.
Re:Yes men (Score:5, Informative)
From the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, the premier psychological dictionary of Britain:
sociopathy n. Another name for antisocial personality disorder. sociopath n. A person with sociopathy.
And here's the definiton of antisocial personality disorder:
antisocial personality disorder n. A personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, beginning in childhood or early adolescence and continuing into adulthood, with such signs and symptoms as failure to conform to social norms, manifested by repeated unlawful behaviour; deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying or swindling [confidence trickery] for pleasure or personal gain; impulsivity or failure to plan ahead; irritability and aggressiveness involving frequent assaults or fights; reckless disregard for the safety of self or others; consistent irresponsibilty involving failure to hold down jobs or to honour financial obligations; and lack of remorse for the mistreatment of others, as indicated by indifference or rationalization.
Please note that not all of these indicators need necessarily be present for a diagnosis of sociopathy, but my apologies, I don't have a copy of the DSMIV with me right now. In any case, jandersen is talking out of his arse, and has apparently made up a definition of sociopathy by watching some TV shows.
... but that is only a layman's opinion.
Yes, jandersen, it is a layman's opinion. Perhaps you have heard the saying "'tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt"?
Re:Hanlon's razor (Score:4, Informative)
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity" -Hanlon's razor [wikipedia.org]
"When you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better." -Occam's razor [wikipedia.org]
Re:Yes men (Score:4, Informative)
That's why a large, ignorant electorate is BAD! (Score:1, Informative)
Lately in the US we've been obsessed with cultivating as large of an electorate as possible, no matter how ignorant (see MTV's Rock the Vote campaign for but one example), when what the founders intended was for a small but representative educated electorate - the kind of people who usually have a stake in the legislation at hand. That is why only property owners were originally allowed to vote. But once again the liberal concept of compassion has provided an unintended avenue of weakness and has lead to all manner of idiotic decisions in the name of compassion.
"I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy."
-Thomas Jefferson
Re:Yes men (Score:2, Informative)
You, sir, are either clueless or an authoritarian manipulator yourself.
May I suggest that you go and read some of the works of Dr Hare and Dr Hervey M. Cleckley; they contain a number of case studies that will show you what the typical psychopath is like. My 'definitions' are merely summaries of these descriptions.
A sociopathic bureaucrat acting solely to benefit (Score:0, Informative)
> Sadly, all are lofty goals eventually come down to a sociopathic bureaucrat acting solely to benefit himself.
Just be sure to remember that when the bureaucrats installed by ObamaCare are making life and death decisions over you...