A merchant manager with the Dutch East India Company may have been the earliest documented example of a “corporate psychopath”, according to a new study that traces the origin of toxic traits in corporate leaders.
Some of these traits may have been present at the very birth of global capitalism 400 years ago, say researchers from Anglia Ruskin University in the UK.
The Dutch East India Company, the world’s first multinational shareholder-owned company, started what became one of the world’s first stock exchanges in Amsterdam in 1602.
Jeronimus Cornelisz, a merchant manager with the company at the time, displayed all 10 of the core characteristics associated with corporate psychopaths, according to the study published in the Asian Journal of Business Ethics.
These toxic traits include the use of charm to gain trust, surrounding oneself with loyal supporters and removing potential challengers, creating divisions among rivals, establishing a climate of fear, and avoiding responsibility when things go wrong in pursuit of power, money, and control.
The latest research suggests that individuals motivated by power, wealth, and personal advancement were attracted to commercial enterprises from the earliest days of capitalist business.
Researchers assessed historical records from the aftermath of the infamous wreck of the Batavia in 1629 on reefs off the coast of Western Australia, which left 200 survivors stranded across a group of isolated islands.
Cornelisz, an under-merchant employed by the company at the time, became the most senior corporate figure among the survivors.
The 1629 Batavia ship remains on display (Patrick E. Baker/Western Australian Museum via Eurekalert)
Historical records suggest Cornelisz quickly consolidated power by replacing council members with loyal supporters, requiring personal oaths of allegiance and isolating potential opponents.
Around 100 men, women and children were murdered under his leadership, and some women were also subjected to sexual violence, reports say.
Cornelisz justified the killings as a means of conserving food and water supplies, but the murders also removed his perceived rivals.
“What makes this case remarkable is that when we analysed Cornelisz using a modern management psychopathy framework, he displayed every major characteristic associated with corporate psychopaths,” explains Clive Boddy, an author of the study from Anglia Ruskin University.
“The same playbook we see in toxic workplaces today appears in this case from 1629. He removed opponents, rewarded loyalists, created fear, manipulated followers and pursued power at any cost,” Dr Boddy said.
Some survivors stranded by Cornelisz on a different island were led by a leader named Wiebbe Hayes.
Hayes, on the other hand, had organised thorough hunts and obtained fresh water, seabird eggs for food, as well as plentiful fish, wallabies and seals for meat for those stranded with him, reports reveal.
This shows that another leader facing the same circumstances could achieve completely different outcomes.
“Hayes built cooperation, discovered new resources and kept people alive. This was effectively a natural experiment in leadership,” Dr Boddy said.
“One group prospered while the other descended into murder and abuse,” he said.
The study highlights the significant threat posed by psychopathic leadership to even modern organisations, including workplace bullying, harassment, reduced employee well-being, higher staff turnover, and organisational failure, researchers say.