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.
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