The Asshole Effect

Sort of a follow-up to my post on “How to Reset a Broken Culture?”, I was recently directed to this great blog post on the “Asshole Effect” – which promotes the maxim that, basically, really successful companies don’t employ assholes.

It brought a smile to my face. Particularly the multiplication effect of having hired one idiot, you’ll end up with more, so you want to avoid hiring any in the first place, if at all possible.

So maybe this is the way to fix a broken culture? Systematically purge the organisation of the people who are dragging it down, starting at the top.

I guess the question here is can your already battered brand withstand the short-term unrest in the time it takes to purge the non-desireables from your employ?

It’s an interesting theory. Would love to see it in practice.