CEO greed is the topic of studies by UD's Katalin Takacs Haynes and collaborators from Texas A&M University and the University of Cincinnati.
But how do you define greed? Are compassionate CEOs better for business? How do you know if the leader is doing more harm than good? And can anybody rein in the I-Me-Mine type leader anyway?
University of Delaware researcher Katalin Takacs Haynes and three collaborators - Michael A. Hitt and Matthew Josefy of Texas A&M University and Joanna Tochman Campbell of the University of Cincinnati - have chased such questions for several years, digging into annual reports, comparing credentials with claims and developing useful definitions that could shed more light on the impact of a company's top leader on employees, business partners and investors.
They test the assumption that self-interest is a universal trait of CEOs (spoiler alert: it's alive and well), show that too much altruism can harm company performance, reveal the dark, self-destructive tendencies of some entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses and provide a way to measure and correlate greed, arrogance and company performance.
Comment: Those who are addicted to greed are typically found in business as entrepreneurs, investors, speculators, lenders, CEOs. Often their successes contribute little or nothing to society, while their actions frequently inflict considerable damage on others. Their undertakings are cunningly contrived to transfer money out of the pockets of others and into their own. Exceedingly competitive and aggressive, they take ruthless advantage of every opportunity to turn a profit - and not shy away from turning against others in the process.