ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that psychopathic organizational and political leadership is a very important barrier to achieving good corporate citizenship and global sustainability. Psychopathic traits may confer on individuals the heightened ability to rise boldly and purposefully to the top of organizations, unassailed and unencumbered by emotional considerations. However, due to psychopaths’ lack of empathy for people or the environment and hence their profound disinterest in corporate social responsibility, psychopathic leadership may be detrimental to organizational citizenship, ecosystems, sustainability and society, especially in the longer term. In cases where psychopathic leaders are the key decision-makers, all the scientific evidence on sustainability in the world matters not a jot because psychopathic leaders simply do not care. Thus, psychopathic leadership is arguably the crucial, but so far largely unacknowledged obstacle to achieving sustainability.
