The Dark Side of High-Fliers: The Dark Triad, High-Flier Traits, Engagement, and Subjective Success

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between bright-side, High Potential and dark-side Dark Triad traits, as well as work engagement on judgements of perceived success. In all, 290 working adults completed questionnaires assessing their High Potential Personality Traits (HPTI), their dark-triad traits, job engagement and self-rated success at work. The data showed that the three dark-triad traits (Narcissism, Psychopathy, Machiavellianism) were systematically and significantly correlated with High Potential traits Adjustment/neuroticism, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Conscientiousness. Three HPTI traits, namely curiosity, Conscientiousness, and courage, were systematically positively correlated with all three engagement measures. Narcissism was strongly related to all measures of engagement. Those with higher scores Adjustment, Courage, and Narcissism and of the male sex, rated their success highest. Job engagement mediated between high-flier and dark-side traits and success ratings. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Beyond the Big Five: The effect of machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic personality traits on stakeholder engagement

“…Our analyses, therefore, extend the work of authors, including Furnham and Treglown (2021), Filipkowski and Derbis (2020), and Purwati et al (2019), who address the dark triad's impact on a particular stakeholder's (e.g., employee's/customer's) engagement, which we broaden to incorporate any stakeholder's role‐related engagement (Viglia et al, 2018), thus unlocking more generalizable, omni ‐stakeholder‐based insight (Hollebeek et al, 2020). Moreover, by exploring the effect of stakeholders' dark triad‐based personality traits on their, and their interactee's, role‐related engagement, this paper also extends the work of Hollebeek et al (2021), which examines the effect of social influence on stakeholders' engagement behavior, as follows.…”

Cynical people desire power but rarely acquire it: Exploring the role of cynicism in leadership attainment

“…Yet, broad conceptualizations of Machiavellianism include various other dimensions as well, such as agency and planfulness (Collison et al., 2018) or seeking control and status (Dahling et al., 2008), while more narrow conceptualizations define it as the use of deceit, manipulation and exploitation and leave cynical worldviews out of the picture (Jonason & Webster, 2010; Kessler et al., 2010). Consequently, most studies of Machiavellianism and career success do not explicitly include the dimension of cynicism and—in their theorizing—put emphasis on the role of manipulative interpersonal tactics as either leading ‘high Mach’ people to success or failure, an approach that provided largely mixed findings (Furnham & Treglown, 2021; Kückelhaus et al., 2021; Kückelhaus & Blickle, 2023; Paleczek et al., 2018; Spurk et al., 2016). Herein, we contribute to the study of ‘dark personality’ by zooming in on cynical worldviews and exploring their role in power attainment in organizations.…”

“…The construct of Machiavellianism is diverse: some conceptualizations encompass a cynical worldview, agency and status‐seeking (Collison et al., 2018; Dahling et al., 2008; Monaghan et al., 2020), while more narrow definitions restrict Machiavellianism to the utilization of tactics involving deceit, manipulation and exploitation (Jonason & Webster, 2010; Kessler et al., 2010). The majority of investigations examining Machiavellianism and its relationship with career success have centred their theoretical frameworks on manipulative interpersonal strategies (Furnham & Treglown, 2021; Kückelhaus & Blickle, 2023). Consequently, although the psychological literature has extensively examined the effectiveness and shortcomings of Machiavellian tactics (Kückelhaus & Blickle, 2023; Spurk et al., 2016), little is known about the role of cynical worldviews in power attainment.…”

Linking dark triad traits, psychological entitlement, and knowledge hiding behavior

“…The exploitive, amoral, and aggressive nature of Machiavellians, the tendency of violating social norms, impulsivity, and lack of guilt-feeling of psychopaths, and the excessive sense of superiority and lack of empathy of narcissists stimulate them to engage in counterproductive behaviors ( Lata and Chaudhary, 2020 ) and deter them from revealing relevant knowledge at the workplace ( Pan et al., 2018 ; Karim, 2020 ). DT personalities are socially aversive and insensitive to others ( Furnham and Treglown, 2021 ; Rogoza et al., 2021 ). From the social exchange viewpoint, they usually lack emotional commitment to others, overlook obligations and reciprocity, injure interpersonal relationships over time, and are thus more prone to participate in interpersonal types of counterproductive behavior ( O'Boyle et al., 2012 ), such as knowledge hiding.…”