LR3:
I'm totally astounded at the arogance (sic) of this P@#*k.
I'm not astounded at all. I've been studying P@#*ks like this for five years after running into three of them, two holding positions of high authority and one in private life.
The world of business is just waking up to the phenomenon of narcissisists in management positions and the damage they do to organisations. The mainstream media have coined the term "Industrial Psychopaths" for these people (in the medical but not criminal sense). And their activities are coming under study, but as yet we don't have a test to weed them out.
The driver for their behaviour is a lack of self esteem that must be constantly reinforced by having other people recognise them in some way - narcissism is not about self love it is about love of the "reflection" of themselves as seen by others.
Main characteristics (this is not exhaustive).
1. Inability to empathise with humans.
2. Huge sense of entitlement.
3. Grandiose vision of self.
4. Inability to form long term relationships.
These people are often very hard working and intelligent. They rise far up the management tree very quickly by the simple process of stabbing their competitors in the back and managing "up" (ie sucking up) all the time and very effectively. Once in senior management roles, they hire others like them, because they like being sucked up to.
Their behaviours then become very like the overall behaviour of QF management, total disdain and contempt for their staff and sucking up still further - hence Dixon's total contempt for anyone but shareholders - including employees and the travelling public (remember the letter he sent to the residents of Hamilton Island? - classic narcissism!). Then of course there was the APA bid - classic sense of entitlement!
Usual symptoms in an organisation are "good" managers leaving in droves and their replacement with incompetent suckholes. After that, the workforce becomes demoralised as it is consistently talked down to, manipulated, treated badly, abused and generally ignored. Remember QF toying with it's engineering staff about whether they were going to outsource some of their operations overseas and then giving them twelve month reprieves? Classic narcissism, why would anyone but a narcissist be so deliberately cruel?
Of course, for a while HR folk have thought that in some cases having a psychopath in charge of an ailing company is a good thing. They can sack thousands and close plants at the stroke of a pen with absolutely no bad conscience at all. They do "ruthless" very well and still sleep well at night. But they have to be removed after they have performed surgery on the company otherwise they will eventually destroy the organisation just for fun and to watch the pain they cause.
That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why Mr. Dixon can see no inconsistency between his own bloated remuneration, record profits, and offering his own employees an increase that is less than the rate of inflation..... he really doesn't see it, and wouldn't care if he did.
To put it another way, remember the joke about the lawyer who is visited by the devil and promised riches, power and a place in legal history books in exchange for the souls of his wife and unborn children? The punchline is the lawyer asking the devil "What's the catch?" That's the way narcissists think.
The reason we have got this way is through our good intentions - specifically making "merit" the only criterion for management appointments and turning a blind eye to gender, religion, university and school affiliations, club membership and class. Just remember narcissists do "merit" very, very well.
Of course making management appointments by "religion, university and school affiliations, club membership and class" implies that the people making the appointment have had the opportunity to actually know who they are appointing, having golfed or played school football with them over many years - that means that they know who is a P@#*k and who isn't. But they aren't allowed to do this these days.
It's fun, although sometimes disappointing, to spot them. Any time you see a high profile person get caught in criminal activity, and you find yourself asking "why ferchrissake would some one with his money and profile do something so bone shatteringly stupid?" you are looking at a narcissist.
Examples include, the late Rene Rivkin, also a certain judge who has allegedly covered up speeding fines by attributing the use of his car to foreign dead people and a media personality who was caught making a tiny but stupid insider trading deal.
What happens next at QF is predictable, just ask yourself what actions taken by QF would most aggrandise Mr. Dixon and his managers? My guess is that he will tell Sharan Burrows to (expletive deleted).