Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.38190/ope.12.2.3
Dark personality traits and successful leadership: does being bad pay?
Elena Matijaš
; Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb
Abstract
In recent years, scientists have become more and more interested in studying bad or dark behaviors in the organizational environment. One of the most interesting dark traits is the dark triad: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. When looking at leadership effectiveness, the good qualities and personality traits of leaders are always emphasized. Despite the growing interest, there is limited research on the connection between the dark triad and leadership. Successful leadership is not a one-size-fits-all concept, and a low level of dark traits in leaders can contribute to successful leadership. This paper will first define the concept of personality with an emphasis on dark personalities, and will compare it with leadership in an organization. Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to examine whether dark personality traits are necessary to successfully lead an organization. For the purpose of researching the main objective, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire and situational testing on a small sample of the management of the selected company. The results of the research showed that the dark triad has a negative correlation with the long-term success of leadership in the organization. When we take into account the short term and the small percentage of dark traits, we get positive results in leadership performance.
Keywords
leadership; psychopathy; narcissism; Machiavellianism; dark personalities
Hrčak ID:
290027
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2022.
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