Race Effects on the Employee Assessing Political Leadership: A Review of Christie and Geis' (1970) Mach IV Measure of Machiavellianism

Abstract

Machiavellianism has commonly been defined as the need to develop and defend one's power and success (Machiavelli, 1513/1902). Scholars have adopted the perspective of Machiavelli to examine political dynamics in organizations (Andersson, 2000; Harrell-Cook, 1999; Harrison, 1998; Hochwarter, 2000; Shankar, 1994). The Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1970) has been the primary measure of Machiavellianism as a distinct personality construct. The purpose of this paper is to review the use of the Mach IV in organizational behavior research. Given the inadequacies of the current version of the Mach IV this paper suggests a revised measure of Machiavellian personality be developed and used in conjunction with other measures of political behavior and skills.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adorno, T.W. , Frenkel-Brunswick, E. , Levinson, D.J. , & Sanford, R.N. (1950) The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper.

Ahearn, K.K. , Ferris, G.R. , Hochwarter, W.A. , Douglas, C. & Ammeter, A.P. (in press). Leader political skill and team performance. Journal of Management.

Ahmed, S.M.S. , & Stewart, R.A.C. (1981) Factor analysis of the Machiavellian scale. Social Behavior and Personality, (9) l, 113-115.

Ammeter, A.P. & Douglas, C. (2004). An examination of leader political skill and its effect on ratings of leader effectiveness. (In Press).

Ammeter, A.P. , Douglas, C. , Gardner, W.L. , Hochwater, W.A. , & Ferris, G.R. (2002) Toward a political theory of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 751-796.

Andersson, L.M. , & Bateman, T.S. (2000) Individual environmental initiative: championing natural environmental issues in U. S. business organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 548-570.

Aziz, A. , May, K. , & Crotts, J.C. (2002) Relations of Machiavellian behaviors with sales performance of stockbrokers. Psychological Reports, 90, 451-460.

Aziz, A. , & Meeks, J. (1990) A new scale for measuring Machiavellianism. (Unpublished paper, School of Business and Economics, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC).

Barbuto, J.E. , & Moss, J.A. (2002) Dispositional antecedents of intra-organizational influence tactics: a meta-analysis. Conference Proceedings, Tenth annual meeting of the Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management, Denver, Colorado.

10.

Barbuto, J.E. & Wheeler, D.W. (2004). Putting some steak behind the sizzle: development and preliminary validation of new scales to measure and refine a theory of servant leadership. Paper presented at the Eastern Academy of Management Regional Conference, Providence, Rhode Island, May.

11.

Berlin, I. (1955) " The Originality of Machiavelli," in Against the Current: essays in the History of Ideas. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

12.

Cheng, J.L. (1983) Organizational context and upward influence: an experimental study of the use of power tactics. Group and Organizational Studies, 8(3), 337-355.

13.

Christie, R. , & Geis, F. (1970) Studies in Machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.

14.

Christie, R. , & Lehman, S. The structure of Machiavellian orientations. In R. Christie & F. Geis (Eds.), Studies in Machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press, 1970. pp. 359-387.

15.

Eysenck, H.J. (1954) The Psychology of Politics. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

16.

Fedor, D. , Maslyn, J. , Farmer, S. , & Bettenhausen , (2003). Perceptions of positive politics and their impact on organizational outcomes. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual National Conference, Seattle.

17.

Ferris, G.R. , Treadway, D.C. , Kolodinsky, R.W. , Hochwarter, W.A. , Kacmar, C.J. , Douglas, C. & Frink, D.D. (In Press) Development and validation of the political skill inventory .

18.

Harrell-Cook, G. , Ferris, G.R. , & Dulebohn, J.H. (1999) Political behaviors as moderators of the perceptions of organizational politics - work outcomes relationships . Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 1093-1105.

19.

Harrison, A.W. , Hochwater, W.A. , Perrewe, P.L. , & Ralston, D.A. (1998) The ingratiation construct: An assessment of the validity of the measure of behaviors in organizational settings. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(6), 932-943.

20.

Hochwarter, W.A. , Pearson, A.W. , Ferris, G.R. , Perrewe, P.L. , & Ralston, D.A. (2000) A reexamination of Schriesheim and Hinkin's (1990) measure of upward influence. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60(5), 755-771.

21.

Hunter, J.E. , Boster, F.J. , & Gerbing, D.W. (1982) Machiavellian beliefs and personality: Construct invalidity of the Machiavellian dimension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43(6), 1293-1305.

22.

Kautilya (1909) Arthasastra. (Shamasastry, R., Trans.). Mysore: Wesleyan Mission Press. (Original work published circa 300 B.C.).

23.

King, W.C. Jr., & Miles, E.W. (1995) A quasi-experimental assessment of the effect of computerizing non-cognitive paper and pencil measurement: a test of measurement equivalence. Journal of Applied Psychology , (80), 643-651.

24.

Kolodinsky, R.W. (2003) The role of political skill in intra-organizational outcomes: an initial empirical examination. Paper presented at the Academy of Management National Conference, Seattle.

25.

Kumar, K. , & Beyerlein, M. , (1991) Construction and validation of an instrument measuring ingratiatory behaviors in organizational settings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(5), 619-627.

26.

Kung-san Yang. (1928) The Book of Lord Shang. (Duyvendak, J. J. L., Trans.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published circa 300 B.C.).

27.

Kuo, H.K. , & Marsella, A.J. , (1977) The meaning and measurement of Machiavellianism in Chinese and American college students. Journal of Social Psychology, 101, 165-173.

28.

Ledeen, M. (1999) Machiavelli on Modern Leadership. New York: St. Martin's Press.

29.

Lombardo, M.M. & McCauley, C.D. (1988). The Dynamics of Management Derailment. (Technical Report 34) Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

30.

McCall, M.W. & Lombardo, M.M. (1983). Off the track: why and how successful executives get derailed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

31.

Luthans, F. & Avolio, B.J. (2003). Authentic leadership: A positive development approach . In Cameron, K. S. & Quinn, R. E. (2003). Positive Organizational Scholarship. San Francisco: Berritt-Koehler.

32.

Machiavelli, N. (1902) The Prince. (W. K. Marriott, Trans.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (Original work published 1513).

33.

Mintzberg, H. (1983). Power in and around organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

34.

Moss, J.A. , & Barbuto, J.E. , (2002) The Machiavellian disposition and its moderating effect between sources of motivation and influence tactics. Conference Proceedings, Tenth annual meeting of the Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management, Denver, Colorado .

35.

Pfeffer, L. (1992). Managing with power: politics and influence in organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

36.

Panitz, E. (1989) Psychometric investigation of the Mach IV scale measuring Machiavellianism. Psychological Reports (64). 963-968.

37.

Ramanaiah, N.V. , Byravan, A. , & Detwiler, F.R.J. (1994) Revised NEO personality inventory profiles of Machiavellianism and non-Machiavellian people. Psychological Reports, 75, 937-938.

38.

Shankar, A. , Ansari, M. , & Sasena, S. (1994) Organizational context and ingratiatory behavior in organizations. The Journal of Social Psychology, 134(5), 641-647.

39.

Tucker, L.R. , & Lewis, C. (1973) A reliability coefficient for Maximum Likelihood Factor Analysis. Psychometrika, 38, 1-10.

40.

Vecchio, R.P. , & Sussmann, M. , 1991 Choice of influence tactics: individual and organizational determinants. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 12, 73-80.