Machiavellianism in the workplace Machiavellianism in the workplace Machiavellianism in the workplace is the employment of cunning and duplicitous behavior in a business setting. The term "Machiavellianism" is from the book "The Prince" by Machiavelli which lays out advice to rulers how to govern his or her subjects. Machiavellianism has been studied extensively over the past 40 years as a personality characteristic that shares features with manipulative leadership tactics. It has in recent times been adapted and applied to the context of the workplace and organizations by many writers and academics. The Machiavellian typically manipulates on occasions where it is advantageous to achieve the
Mayberry Machiavelli Mayberry Machiavelli Mayberry Machiavelli is a satirically pejorative phrase coined by John J. DiIulio Jr., a former George W. Bush administration staffer who ran the President's Faith-Based Initiative. After DiIulio resigned from his White House post in late 2001, journalist Ron Suskind quoted him in an "Esquire" magazine article describing the administration of the Bush White House as follows: "What you've got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis." In a 2002 letter to Suskind (but not published until 2007), DiIulio wrote that the "Mayberry Machiavellis" were the junior and