Abstract
As noted in the call for papers for this conference, leadership in organisations and communities is fundamental for the well-being of individuals. Transformational leadership is perhaps the ideal model, as it fosters a collaborative and supportive environment, whereas more selfish and darker forms of leadership result in sub-optimal well-being outcomes at best. This paper examines two contrasting leadership styles during an extreme crisis: transformational and psychopathic. It identifies the world's first documented corporate psychopath: Jeronimus Cornelisz, a merchant manager with the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC)). In 1629, after the flagship Batavia shipwrecked off the Australian coast, on Beacon Island, Cornelisz, and a council of four advisors gained command of approximately 200 survivors. Psychopathic leadership is the darkest form of leadership, and the Batavia disaster provides a unique case study of this phenomenon.
A further 45 survivors, including the senior leaders, sailed off to find help, and another 40 or so drowned in the shipwreck. After acquiring control, Cornelisz replaced his ruling council with fellow mutineers to consolidate power. Using the divide-and-conquer tactics typical of psychopathic leaders, he created a climate of fear involving hunger, rape, and murder. To conserve resources, he systematically ordered the massacre of 96 survivors—including 7 children and 12 women—first on Beacon Island, then on Seals Island. His forces attempted to invade West Wallabi Island to kill the soldiers stationed there, but coordinated resistance repulsed them. When a rescue ship finally arrived, the defenders reached it first, preventing the mutineers from capturing it for piracy.
The mutineers were eventually captured, tried, and executed. From the historical records, it is clear that Jeronimus Cornelisz established an authoritarian and tyrannical form of leadership known as psychopathic leadership. Via the lens of corporate psychopathy theory, the current paper identifies Cornelisz as a prototypical primary or corporate psychopath.