Do Bad Guys Get Ahead or Fall Behind? Relationships of the Dark Triad of Personality With Objective and Subjective Career Success

Abstract

This study analyzed incremental effects of single Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) on objective (i.e., salary and leadership position) and subjective (i.e., career satisfaction) career success. We analyzed 793 early career employees representative of age and education from the private industry sector in Germany. Results from multiple and logistic regressions revealed bright and dark sides of the Dark Triad, depending on the specific Dark Triad trait analyzed. After controlling for other relevant variables (i.e., gender, age, job tenure, organization size, education, and work hours), narcissism was positively related to salary, Machiavellianism was positively related to leadership position and career satisfaction, and psychopathy was negatively related to all analyzed outcomes. These results provide evidence that the Dark Triad plays a role in explaining important career outcomes. Implications for personality and career research are derived.

Keywords

Dark Triad narcissism psychopathy Machiavellianism career success

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abele

A. E.

Spurk

(2009). The longitudinal impact of self-efficacy and career goals on objective and subjective career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 53–62. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.10.005

Ames

D. R.

Rose

Anderson

C. P.

(2006). The NPI-16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 440–450. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.03.002

Babiak

Hare

R. D.

(2006). Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work. New York, NY: Regan Books.

Boddy

C. R.

Ladyshewsky

R. K.

Galvin

(2010). The influence of corporate psychopaths on corporate social responsibility and organizational commitment to employees. Journal of Business Ethics, 97, 1–19. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0492-3

Campbell

W. K.

Hoffman

B. J.

Campbell

S. M.

Marchisio

(2011). Narcissism in organizational contexts. Human Resource Management Review, 21, 268–284. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.10.007

Campbell

W. K.

Reeder

G. D.

Sedikides

Elliot

A. J.

(2000). Narcissism and comparative self-enhancement strategies. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 329–347. doi:10.1006/jrpe.2000.2282

Dahling

J. J.

Whitaker

B. G.

Levy

P. E.

(2008). The development and validation of a new Machiavellianism scale. Journal of Management, 35, 219−257. doi:10.1177/0149206308318618

DeSimone

J. A.

Harms

DeSimone

A. J.

(2014). Best practice recommendations for data screening. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 171–181. doi:10.1002/job.1962

Elliot

A. J.

Thrash

T. M.

(2001). Narcissism and motivation. Psychological Inquiry, 12, 216–219.

10.

Ferris

G. R.

Treadway

D. C.

Kolodinsky

R. W.

Hochwarter

W. A.

Kacmar

C. J.

Douglas

Frink

D. D.

(2005). Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31, 126–152. doi:10.1177/0149206304271386

11.

Greenhaus

J. H.

Parasuraman

Wormley

W. M.

(1990). Effects of race on orgnizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 64–86. doi:10.2307/256352

12.

Hall

D. T.

(2002). Careers in and out of organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13.

Hirschi

Jänsch

V. K.

(2015). Narcissism and career success: Occupational self-efficacy and career engagement as mediators. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 205–208. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.01.0029

14.

Jonason

P. K.

Slomski

Partyka

(2012). The Dark Triad at work: How toxic employees get their way. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 449–453. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.008

15.

Jonason

P. K.

Webster

G. D.

(2010). The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22, 420. doi:10.1037/a0019265

16.

Judge

T. A.

Bretz

R. D.

(1992). Effects of work values on job choice decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 261–271. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.77.3.261

17.

Judge

T. A.

Higgins

C. A.

Thoresen

C. J.

Barrick

M. R.

(1999). The Big Five personaltiy traits, general mental ability, and career success across the life span. Personnel Psychology, 52, 621–652. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x

18.

Judge

T. A.

LePine

J. A.

(2007). The bright and dark sides of personality: Implications for personnel selection in individual and team contexts. In Langan-Fox

Cooper

Klimoski

(Eds.), Research companion to the dysfunctional workplace: Management challenges and symptoms (pp. 332–355). Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.

19.

Kessler

S. R.

Bandelli

A. C.

Spector

P. E.

Borman

W. C.

Nelson

C. E.

Penney

L. M.

(2010). Re-examining Machiavelli: A three-dimensional model of Machiavellianism in the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 1868–1896.

20.

Kiazad

Restubog

S. L. D.

Zagenczyk

T. J.

Kiewitz

Tang

R. L.

(2010). In pursuit of power: The role of authoritarian leadership in the relationship between supervisors’ Machiavellianism and subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervisory behavior. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 512–519. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.06.004

21.

Kubicek

Paškvan

Korunka

(2014). Development and validation of an instrument for assessing job demands arising from accelerated change: The intensification of job demands scale (IDS). European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24, 1–16. doi:10.1080/1359432X.2014.979160

22.

McCrae

R. R.

Costa

P. T.

(1996). Toward a new generation of personality theories: Theoretical contexts for the five-factor model. In Wiggins

J. S.

(Ed.), The five factor model of personality: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 51–87). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

23.

Menard

(2002). Applied logistic regression analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

24.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O

. (1998–2012). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Author.

25.

Myers

R. H.

(1990). Classical and modern regression with applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Duxbury.

26.

T. W.

Eby

L. T.

Sorensen

K. L.

Feldman

D. C.

(2005). Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 58, 367–408. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00515.x

27.

T. W. H.

Feldman

D. C.

(2010). The effects of organizational embeddedness on development of social capital and human capital. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 696–712. doi:10.1037/a0019150

28.

O’Boyle

E. H.

Forsyth

D. R.

Banks

G. C.

McDaniel

M. A.

(2012). A meta-analysis of the dark triad and work behavior: A social exchange perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 557–579. doi:10.1037/a0025679

29.

Paulhus

D. L.

Williams

K. M.

(2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556–563. doi:10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6

30.

Rhodewalt

Morf

C. C.

(1998). On self-aggrandizement and anger: A temporal analysis of narcissism and affective reactions to success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 672–685. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.672.

31.

Roberts

B. W.

Kuncel

N. R.

Shiner

Caspi

Goldberg

L. R.

(2007). The power of personality: The comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 313–345. doi:10.1111/J.1745-6916.2007.00047.X

32.

Rosenbaum

J. E.

(1984). Career mobility in a corporate hierarchy. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

33.

Schein

E. H.

(1971). The individual, the organization, and the career: A conceptual scheme. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 7, 401–426. doi:10.1177/002188637100700401

34.

Sedikides

Rudich

E. A.

Gregg

A. P.

Kumashiro

Rusbult

(2004). Are normal narcissists psychologically healthy? Self-esteem matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 400–416. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.3.400

35.

Smith

S. F.

Lilienfeld

S. O.

(2013). Psychopathy in the workplace: The knowns and unknowns. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18, 204–218. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2012.11.007

36.

Spain

S. M.

Harms

LeBreton

J. M.

(2014). The dark side of personality at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35, 41–60. doi:10.1002/job.1894

37.

Spurk

Abele

A. E.

(2011). Who earns more and why? A multiple mediation model from personality to salary. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26, 87–103. doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9184-3

38.

Spurk

Abele

A. E.

Volmer

(2011). The career satisfaction scale: Longitudinal measurement invarience and latent growth analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 84, 315–326. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02028.x

39.

Sutin

A. R.

Costa

P. T.

Miech

Eaton

W. W.

(2009). Personality and career success: Concurrent and longitudinal relations. European Journal of Personality, 23, 71–84. doi:10.1002/per.704

40.

Ullrich

Farrington

D. P.

Coid

J. W.

(2008). Psychopathic personality traits and life-success. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1162–1171. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.11.008

41.

Wille

De Fruyt

De Clercq

(2013). Expanding and reconceptualizing aberrant personality at work: Validity of five-factor model aberrant personality tendencies to predict career outcomes. Personnel Psychology, 66, 173–223. doi:10.1111/peps.12016

42.

Zettler

Friedrich

Hilbig

B. E.

(2011). Dissecting work commitment: The role of Machiavellianism. Career Development International, 16, 20–35. doi:10.1108/13620431111107793