PSYCHOLOGY

Why Bad Guys Win at Work

by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
NOVEMBER 02, 2015

Not all psychopaths are in prison some are in the board room, Robert Harefamously said
during his aptly titled lecture, The Predators Among Us.

Psychopathy is one of three dark triad traits, the other two being narcissism and
Machiavellianism. It should be noted that, unlike clinical personality traits, these traits are
normally distributed in the population e.g., you can score low, average or high and

perfectly indicative of normal functioning. In other words, just because you score high
doesnt mean that you have problems, either at work or in your personal life. And despite the
antisocial implications of the dark triad, recent research has highlighted a wide range of
career-related benefits for these personality characteristics.

Psychopathic individuals are generally more dishonest, egocentric, reckless, and cruel than
the population average. Machiavellianism is somewhat more related to superficial charm,
interpersonal manipulation, deceit, ruthlessness, and impulsivity. People who score highly
on this trait are morally feeble and likely to endorse the idea that the end justifies the
means or agree that it is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there.
Narcissism relates to unrealistic feelings of grandiosity, an inflated though often unstable
and insecure sense of self-worth, and a selfish sense of entitlement coupled with little
consideration for others. As the term, and the legend of Narcissus, suggests, narcissistic
individuals are so self-indulged that they may end up drowning in their own self-love this
makes it harder for them to focus on others. Narcissists are often charming, and charisma is
often the socially desirable side of narcissism: Silvio Berlusconi, Jim Jones, and Steve Jobs
personified this.

In a recent study on representative German businesses, narcissism was positively linked to

salary, while Machiavellianism was positively linked to leadership level and career
satisfaction. These associations were still significant even after controlling for the effects of
demographics, job tenure, organization size, and hours worked.

Previously, an impressive 15-year longitudinal study found that individuals with

psychopathic and narcissistic characteristics gravitated towards the top of the organizational
hierarchy and had higher levels of financial attainment.In line with those findings, according
to some estimates, the base rate for clinical levels of psychopathy is three times higher among
corporate boards than in the overall population. This is also consistent with earlier
conceptualizations of psychopathy among businessmen. In his classic 1940s book The Mask

of Sanity, Hervey Cleckley noted that the psychopathic businessman works industriously and
appears rather normal, except for his periodic sprees of marital infidelity, callousness, wild
drinking, and risk-taking.

So why do these bad guys win?

In part, because there is clearly a bright side to their dark side. As found in a study examining
the overlap between positive and negative personality characteristics, extraversion, openness
to new experience, curiosity, and self-esteem are generally higher among dark triad
personalities. In addition, dark triad traits tend to enhance competitiveness, if only by
inhibiting cooperation and altruistic behaviors at work. In addition, studies have shown that
psychopathic and Machiavellian tendencies facilitate both the seduction and intimidation
tactics that frighten potential competitors and captivate bosses. This explains why
individuals with these personality characteristics are often great actors, as well as succeeding
in (short-term) sexual relationships.

Yet it is important to understand that all these individual gains come at the expense of the
group.

Although there is clearly an adaptive element to the dark triad which explains why bad guys
often win their success comes at a price, and that price is paid by the the organization. In
evolutionary terms, dark triad personality characteristics constitute the essence of the
freeriding. And the more polluted or contaminated the environment in a political sense the
more these parasitic personalities will thrive.

Not surprisingly, a number of studies have linked the dark triad to higher incidents of
bullying. Moreover, meta-analytic studies have shown significant associations between the
dark triad and counterproductive work behaviors (theft, absenteeism, turnover, sabotage,
etc.). In an impressive analysis of all the scientific studies published between 1951 and 2011,
Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were all positively linked with
counterproductive work behaviors and poor organizational citizenship, and Machiavellianism

and psychopathy were also negatively linked to actual job performance (as opposed to career
success). As reviews have highlighted, Ponzi schemes, internet fraud, embezzlement, insider
trading, corruption, and malfeasance can all be attributed to dark triad personality traits.

But as the saying goes, everything is better in moderation (except of course moderation). For
example, studies have shown that an intermediate rather than low level of
Machiavellianism predicts the highest level of organisational citizenship, perhaps because
Machiavellian individuals are politically savvy and good at networking and managing
upwards. In another study that examined military leadership, the best leaders displayed the
bright-side features of narcissism while inhibiting its dark-side traits: they were high in
egotism and self-esteem but low in manipulativeness and impression management.

So perhaps one may think about dark-side tendencies as overused strengths tendencies that
are fairly adaptive and conducive of short-term success, but may nonetheless lead to
problems in the long term, especially if one is not aware of them. That is, the dark side
represents the toxic assets of our personality. You can certainly turn them into career
weapons, but the group will generally lose the more you win. Furthermore, when the primary
Why Bad Guys Win at Work
goal is to ensure that a group or organization outperforms its rivals, it will be generally
advantageous to minimize the incidence of dark triad leaders. Personality is an important
career lubricant, but dark-triad traits are effective at the individual rather than group level.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, a

Professor of Business Psychology at University College London, and a faculty member at
Columbia University.

This article is about PSYCHOLOGY

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Related Topics: LEADERSHIP

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Pemmaraju Snehil

7 hours ago

How do non pyscopath people handle these elements in organization and not get affected/disturbed by them
?
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