The Prevalence of Machiavellianism - Essay Example

Machiavellianism and its consequences: A case Study of Johnson & Johnson Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian, who witnessed renaissance, and also contributed towards it glory with his literary skills, and with an eye to see beyond the veil of public diplomacy. He was patronized by the Medici family that is known for maintain Florentine Banks and treasury. His novel “The Prince” is among the classics of world literature. The theme of this book is ruling diplomacy(Machiavelli). Machiavelli has explained the relationship between socio-political environment and the challenges that a ruler has to face in varying circumstances. Further he explains the strategy for the rulers and executives regarding leadership and management. In this article attempts will be made to analyze the prevalence of Machiavellianism in a multinational company. The company that will be discussed in detail is none other than Johnson & Johnson. The company has been providing its services and products to the people for 128 years. The company runs its offshore production units in more than 56 countries all across the globe. The company specializes in pharmaceutics and cosmetics. In 2013 the company became the seventh largest pharmaceutics provider on the international scale. The company outlines its strategy in form of three prong objectives that include: the provision of scientifically sound high quality products that help to heal; curing the diseased; and improving the quality of life. Though it has been over five centuries when Machiavelli presented his literary masterpiece, but since then various studies and responses in favor as well as against his work have been published. The term Machiavellianism is used as negative epithet; it is used to define leaders, managers and administrator who tend show duplicity, narcissism, and pragmatic diplomacy. The social scientists of the twentieth century along with industrial psychologists have revisited the work of Niccolo Machiavelli in order to undermine the technical aspects of his work. These attempts of researchers show that why this work is rated as a classic. The storyline of the novel may be restricted to the courts of Italy of the Sixteenth Century, but its application is observed all across the globe in governance of a country or an organization. Duplicity is one of the many traits that are common in the leaders of today. Their words differ from their actions, or even their later statements may contradict their previous statements. This is a matter of their policy. Machiavelli in his book “The Prince” elaborated this fact in quiet detail. Usually, when people perform the discourse analysis of people with authority, they often attribute duplicity with mistake of facts, or loss of memory, but they overlook the fact that a person can do it on purpose(McGuire and Hutchings.). The purpose of applying duplicity is related to the need of obtaining the maximum out of a given situation. By maximum it refers to the achievement of self-oriented goal at the sake of contradiction in statements, or contradiction between actions. If one analyzes the case of duplicity in the real life, there will be countless examples when individuals sharing executive powers exhibit this trait. For instance, when politicians or policy makers come onto the media their response to the questions of journalists do not contain any harsh words for their rivals, but at the back of the scene this politicians, who follow different school of thought tend to plot against each other for scoring maximum personal benefit. Similar cases can be observed within a business organization, where employees tend to prove themselves better than the others. Even the simple model of pay per performance induces such traits into employees(Jay). They may act as a unit when they have to represent an organization to the world, but their dedication to personal desires overrules their gesture of harmonious co-existence(Harrison and Akinc). Duplicity is very closely related with pragmatic morality. The term pragmatic morality has two parts, and they are pragmatism and morals. Morals are considered as universal norms that a person in the right state of mind is supposed to follow, while pragmatism is apparently a word that has a positive route, which suggest suitability. However, when these not too offensive terminologies are united into one i.e. pragmatic morality, it changes the whole tone. It refers to the fact that a person having a pragmatic morals, shifts gears according to his or her needs. In other means that such individuals manipulate the universal codes of morality for gaining access to their goals. For instance, when an executive official forbids corruption on the public forums, and at the same time accepts special privileges or favors for making particular decisions. Johnson & Johnson may have set high standards for research and service provision but there have been certain cases where the Machiavellianism seems quite apparent. Just analyze the fact that health officials and researchers have been asking for the removal of toxic carcinogenic compounds from the baby products, and adult products of Johnson & Johnson for past twenty years. The implementation of which is still under way. It clearly shows the reluctance of the company to undo their mistake. For past two decades children and adults, who have been using the products manufactured by the company have been exposed to the risk of cancer and tumors; while the company prefers to pay the lawyer fee to prolong the case instead of removing the problematic substance from its products. This is a clear case of duplicity and pragmatic morality. At one hand the company claims to offer the state of the art technology for healing the diseased, and on the other hand it has shown reluctance in undoing its own mistake. It was not until 2012 that judgment was passed in the favor of the people. The company may regarded as criminal in this sense for causing public nuisance, as it to put threat lives of the hundreds of thousands of the customers all across the globe. The company might have not withdrawn its claims from the court, if the policy makers would have not pressurized it. It was FDA that suspended the license of the company, demanded the company to pay damages of worth $ 2.2 billion. As Machiavelli has suggested in his book that socio-political environment, and other advancements affects the methods of ruling. This seems the case with Johnson & Johnson; people started raising their voices only after they had the technology to determine the presence of cancer causing ingredients. If they did not possessed the technology to analyze the samples they would have not raised the issue, and the company would have not continued its use of toxic substances(Harrison and Akinc). The first two traits affect others, but in case of narcissism, the leader himself is obsessed by his personal traits and accomplishments. To him every decision that he makes is logical, and every aspect of his personality appears to be better than rest of the fish in pool. It is a derogatory state that influences almost every aspect of human dealing. When a person considers himself to be better than others he closes his ears to others’ suggestion, the element of improvement in the current skills get eliminated. A stationary state is obtained, from where a person can neither move forward, nor could divert. Most of the people sharing this trait tend to show a bit of overconfidence, and social scientists along with other psychologists have determined a positive correlation between narcissism and over confidence. The presence of narcissists in the organization becomes very problematic(Graham). An empire needs an emperor; one cannot imagine a dominion without a head. The diversity in the goals of individuals, and then their skills and other attributes are different from one another. There is definitely a need for a person to monitor and order the people. A good administrator is perhaps one who knows his duty, authority and rights. Organizations are not much different from an empire, as it is made up of different personnel, everyone different from the other, some might share similar ranks and duties, but their dedication and sincerity towards their company may vary. The environment and the socio-political conditions prevalent in the setup also play a crucial role in the working of an organization(Galie and Bopst.). What is the role of a ruler or a CEO? Both act as executive bodies that are entrusted with the power to make decisions, organize the masses or team, and to channelize the resources for maximum advantage. They may bring changes in the machinery or they can stick to the conservative approach. All depends on their vision, and the goals they desire to achieve. There are multiple kinds of leaders, some are aggressive; some just crave for power; others like to enjoy the luxuries available to them; some act as puppeteers; and some are honest. Honesty may be the best policy but it is not case when it comes managing a throne or an executive position. There are certain things that are preferred if they are conducted in the dark. Transparency may be a part of democratic setup, but it does not need to be hundred percent. Confidentiality is key instrument that an organization or a dominion may utilize whenever it feels necessary(Gemmill and Heisler). Aggression at a higher position may prove detrimental for the organization. By being aggressive it means that the person applies all the available energy is acquiring a particular goal, provided that there is risk for loss. Aggressive leaders sometimes do perform well, and they might end up scoring more than expected(Corzine). These kinds of leaders are more ambitious than others, and they are optimistic as well. However, too much optimism coupled with aggression may lead to a disaster. The lust for power and demonstration of authority is another trait which is often observed among the leaders. No one wants to be subjected to such an authority, because the leaders who have the lust for power or authoritarian approach towards their subjects are usually short of patience, and are intolerant. Any activity against their will or challenging their authority becomes a bone of contention, rather a matter of ego. Further, these leaders do not like innovation, and they try to snub all the factions that try to breakthrough their authority(Chonko). The term corpus means body, and corporation is the derivation of corpus, which means like a body. A body or an organism is composed of different organs; similarly an organization is made of different departments(Calhoon). Each department in an organization is headed by a director, who is there to determine the future direction for development. Directors of all the departments unite to form board of directors which is an executive body. Considering the case of use toxicants in the products must have been dealt by the company’s board of directors and CEOs at the first hand. The delay to response to the health hazards of their own products not only shows that they were reluctant in bringing the change in the policy. They were too inflexible in forming new policy, and they could not accept the objection from the outside world. This one reason the value of Johnson & Johnson’s stock has dropped to -2.22%. Further, the rift against the company by the health scientists and civilians have been a proof that people are not satisfied by the company’s output. Machiavelli’s analysis of the ruling class is indisputably one of the best evaluation and explanation human nature; it shows the inflexibility that develops into an individual once he or she obtains a higher rank that offers decision making. This is due to the fact that when people are promoted to the top echelon in the hierarchal pyramid they tend to find themselves superior from others due to their position. As a result of which they become over obsessed by their accomplishments, the tendency to improve and openness to suggestion narrows down. Further, when organizations have such team leaders they often have to face losses of a massive proportion. At the end of the day it becomes one man show, which not only affects the organization as a whole, but all other people attached to the organization, and in case of Johnson & Johnson it included law enforcement agencies, health official, scientists, and last but not the least the customers of the company. References Calhoon, Richard P. "Niccolo Machiavelli and the twentieth century administrator." Academy of Management Journal (1969): 205-212. Chonko, Lawrence B. "Machiavellianism: Sex differences in the profession of purchasing management." Psychological Reports (1982): 645-646. Corzine, Janice Baker. "Machiavellianism and management: A review of single-nation studies exclusive of the USA and cross-national studies." Psychological reports (1997): 291-304. Galie, Peter J and Christopher Bopst. " "Machiavelli & Modern Business: Realist Thought in Contemporary Corporate Leadership Manuals*." Journal of Business Ethics (2006): 235-250. Gemmill, Gary R. and W. J. Heisler. "Machiavellianism as a factor in managerial job strain, job satisfaction, and upward mobility. ." Academy of Management Journal (1972): 51-62. Graham, J. H. " Machiavellian project managers: do they perform better?" International Journal of Project Management (1996): 67-74. Harrison, J. Kline and Helen Akinc. "Lessons in leadership from the arts and literature: A liberal arts approach to management education through fifth discipline learning." Journal of Management Education (2000): 391-413. Jay, Antony. Management and Machiavelli: Discovering a new science of management in the timeless principles of statecraft. Pfeiffer, 1994. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Yale University Press, 1997. McGuire, David and Kate Hutchings. "A Machiavellian analysis of organisational change." Journal of Organizational Change Management (2006): 192-209. Read More