Are Managers More Machiavellian Than Other Employees?

Abstract

Concerns about corporate scandals and abusive leadership suggest that individuals with an opportunistic and manipulative personality take advantage of incomplete incentive and control systems to get their way into managerial positions. Against this background, the authors examine whether there is an association between Machiavellianism and occupying a managerial position. They suggest that the psychological concept of Machiavellianism can serve as a behavioral foundation of agency theory and hypothesize that individuals scoring high on Machiavellianism are more likely to attain and keep a managerial position. Using a large and representative panel data set from Germany, the empirical analysis confirms a strong and positive relationship between Machiavellianism and occupying a managerial position. This result holds in various robustness checks and in instrumental variable estimations accounting for possible endogeneity. Furthermore, the analysis provides evidence that the relationship is monotonic; that is, those with the highest scores of Machiavellianism are most likely to be managers. Findings also suggest that the direction of influence runs from Machiavellianism to occupational status and not vice versa.