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Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

uk.reuters.com

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Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#111

Post by meaty »

dpark wrote: post #89
meaty wrote: post #8

Probably throws chairs at them... To be serious, this is normal in most corporates. It starts when you let the MBA* with the personality disorder in, you're fucked. I've watched three companies fall at the hands of such people. * This is not true of all MBAs, but I seem to see a trend where there are more borderline psychopaths.

> This is not true of all MBAs, but I seem to see a trend where there are more borderline psychopaths. You "seem to see a trend"? On what is this observation based? On your detailed survey of the published clinical literature? Maybe on all the research you collated while assisting in the latest revision of the DSM? Perhaps on the personality assessments you've performed as part of a dissertation for your doctorate in…

I'm not qualified to make that claim at all.

However, there is plenty of literature that backs up my claims by people who do have the qualifications. Someone actually posted a good reference in another reply:

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#112

Post by meaty »

PeterisP wrote: post #103
meaty wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should have made the more generic point "MBA types" (high business, executives etc). Not specifically MBAs.

The vast majority of MBA's are not executives, but work in either mid-management or finance-specialist jobs (accounting, audit, financing, etc). Are you sure that MBA-typical people are really what you call "MBA types" ? In mass media you'd be seeing only a small, very nonrepresentative, very biased sample of them.

Yes entirely. I work in the financial sector and deal with ALL levels of management that you mention above. In fact, I regularly deal with an organisation that has 2500 managerial staff.

I've been on the end of management politics for 20 years as well so I know how it works. I've watched climbers and sinkers and the climbers are ruthless and have a statistically higher quantity of MBAs between them (it's amazing what you can suck out of linkedin).

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#113

Post by dpark »

meaty wrote: post #111
dpark wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is not true of all MBAs, but I seem to see a trend where there are more borderline psychopaths. You "seem to see a trend"? On what is this observation based? On your detailed survey of the published clinical literature? Maybe on all the research you collated while assisting in the latest revision of the DSM? Perhaps on the personality assessments you've performed as part of a dissertation for your doctorate in…

I'm not qualified to make that claim at all. However, there is plenty of literature that backs up my claims by people who do have the qualifications. Someone actually posted a good reference in another reply: http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...

Plenty of literature and the best example is a trade paperback? How about some journalistic publications? While I do not doubt that Hare and Babiak have the credentials, the linked book seems rather fluffy. It specifically does not discuss any actual psychopaths, merely fictional ones, nor does it seem to quantify any actual increase in the number of psychopaths in the business world. Rather, it seems instead to discuss how psychopaths can thrive in the business world, which is a very different question from how many. (I have not read the book, though, merely the previews and excerpts that I could find.)

And of course, let us not forget that an increase (if there is one) in psychopaths in business is not the same as psychopathy being "normal in most corporates". Nor should we pretend that all business people are MBAs or that all MBAs are even working in the business world.

In short, you've got little to no evidence for an increase in psychopathy, even less evidence for the jump to it being common, and basically no reason for the link to MBAs.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#114

Post by dpark »

PeterisP wrote: post #105
ryanmolden wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People that rank on the Hare scale of psycopathy are over-represented (relative to prevalence in broader society) in corporate C-suites, controlling for age, gender, race, etc...[0] I am not sure what the representation of MBAs is in the C-suite but I assume it is also fairly high. I do not believe the book examines the representation amongst MBAs specifically, though. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psyc…

There are several orders of magnitude less people in C-suite positions than in MBA programs. If most needles are found in haystacks, it doesn't mean that haystacks consist mostly of needles.

"Over-representation" is also pretty vague and the leap to anything like "common" is completely unjustified. A paper co-authored by Hare (referenced below) cites a prevalence of 1.2% for "potential psychopathy" (couldn't find a number for strong psychopathy). So if 2% of C-level execs were exhibited potential psychopathy, then psychopathy would be way over-represented, but still quite uncommon.

http://www.hare.org/references/NeumannandHareJCCP2008.pdf

Just for completeness, another study found the prevalence even lower, at 6%.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160252709...

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#115

Post by chongli »

ladzoppelin wrote: post #101
chongli wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is losing the new operating system war in a big, BIG way. Just because the boat is still afloat doesn't mean it's not rotting below the water line.

I would not be so sure about that. I know a lot of people who like Windows 8 and others eager to get a Windows 8 tablet Pro(Intel). The one OS across different devices could turn out to be a powerful choice.

Microsoft fired the guy who created Windows 8. That doesn't strike me as a positive move.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#116

Post by vijayr »

nanook wrote: post #67

In a parallel universe: Gates returns, fires Ballmer and turns MS around. Reality: He's probably happier solving much bigger problems in the world. But still, it sucks to see someone drive his company to the ground. Has Ballmer ever done anything right for Microsoft? I can't think of anything.

I hope he doesn't come back, and he keeps working for his foundation. What he is doing is much more important than a single for-profit company

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#119

Post by vorg »

dmk23 wrote: post #5

I am not sure why this is considered news. Guess just because this guy went on the record to state the obvious? Every large company develops internal politics with various degrees of harm to itself and its performance. If the business is led by a non-founder, non-technical, non-performing CEO it is a given that he will always feel like an insecure usurper/impostor more concerned about protecting their job from rivals…

> Every large company develops internal politics with various degrees of harm to itself and its performance. If the business is led by a non-founder, non-technical, non-performing CEO it is a given that he will always feel like an insecure usurper/impostor more concerned about protecting their job from rivals than actually leading.

Not just large companies, but also small businesses, even open source software projects, and even those projects building a programming language.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#120

Post by genwin »

ladzoppelin wrote: post #101
chongli wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is losing the new operating system war in a big, BIG way. Just because the boat is still afloat doesn't mean it's not rotting below the water line.

I would not be so sure about that. I know a lot of people who like Windows 8 and others eager to get a Windows 8 tablet Pro(Intel). The one OS across different devices could turn out to be a powerful choice.

> I know a lot of people who like Windows 8...

My experience is the opposite. The reaction I see to Win8 is a lot more negative than the reaction to Vista. They are all power users though, or former power users considering that none of us can figure out how to do basic tasks in Win8.

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