These three dimensions in fact reinforced one another and meant that Gwede had a significant blind spot when it came to identifying threats, flaws, potential problems and downsides. We would expect his behaviour to be characterised by a lack of scrutiny and vigilance and in the right circumstances over – hasty decision making. On the Internal Locus of Control dimensions, counterproductive behaviours are the tendency to act too independently without consultation, to take action with initiative at the expense of protocols and red tape.

Gwede met Natasha at a Sales Expo in Johannesburg. Gwede was immediately taken with her bubbly, outgoing personality. Natasha was engaging and self – expressive. Gwede immediately recognised that she was a natural salesperson and began to quiz her about her career background. Natasha was very persuasive and convincing in relating her many sales exploits to Gwede. The more they spoke, the more Gwede became convinced that she was the perfect candidate for the National Retail Sales Manager role and decided to offer Natasha the job on the spot, bypassing Powerband’s normal recruitment process.

This process involved a panel interview, and should the candidate be vetted by the panel, this would be followed up by a battery of psychometric tests. Gwede informed his HR Director that he had offered Natasha the position. The HR Director pointed out that company policy dictated that an interview and psychometric assessment be conducted. Gwede indicated that he was convinced that Natasha was the ideal candidate for the job and that the interview and psychometric test could be conducted as a formality once she had relocated to the Eastern Cape and started working at Powerband. A few months after starting at Powerband Natasha was sent to me for the psychometric assessment. Several issues were picked up with respect to her emotional capabilities. Extremely high scores were obtained on the following dimensions: