Destructive Leadership in Organizations: Empirical Studies on the Dark Triad of Personality and Its Interplay With Motivation, Satisfaction, and Development
For more than two decades, researchers have been showing an increasing interest in the construct of the Dark Triad of personality and its impact on organizations and individuals. The Dark Triad includes the subclinical dimensions of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, and has been empirically linked to destructive leadership and its malevolent outcomes. Much of the existing research has focused on the impact of leaders with high scores on the Dark Triad and their role in the organizational context. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to examine the underlying and regulatory influences, with a focus on the effects these leaders have on followers in terms of their motivation, satisfaction, and career development. For this purpose, an extensive literature review on destructive leadership, Self-Determination theory, and overarching prevalent theories was carried out; this was followed by four empirical studies. The first study (N = 469) focused on the role of followers¿ psychological capital and psychological safety and revealed a serial mediation for the relationship between dark leadership and the work-related basic need satisfaction of followers. The second study (N = 575) examined differences between two occupational groups, namely individuals in social jobs and non-social jobs regarding their types of motivation, and how they were influenced by destructive leadership. Several findings were drawn from this study. First, the two groups differed in nearly all the motivational types, but not in their levels of leaders¿ dark traits. Also, their autonomous types of motivation were found to be a mediator of the relationship between the Dark Triad of their leaders and their level of amotivation. For further examination, the sample was divided into four groups depending on the job type and the Dark Triad level of leaders. Results revealed significant differences among those four groups regarding individuals¿ life satisfaction, agreeableness, their own dark traits, and the Light Triad traits of themselves and their leaders. The third study (N = 647) focused on the impact of leaders¿ Dark Triad of personality on their followers¿ career development, with a focus on the influence on their core self-evaluations as an underlying mechanism. Results revealed that the influence of dark leaders on their followers¿ career development was almost entirely explained by their core self-evaluations, their intrinsic motivation, and their own light and dark character traits. Furthermore, the Dark Triad of personality was demonstrated as a moderator of the relationship between followers¿ intrinsic motivation and their career success, revealing its impact on their development within the organization. The fourth study consisted of data collected in the previous studies, as they all measured both the Dark Triad traits of leaders, as well as that of followers. The aim of this study was to examine the interplay of dark leaders and dark followers, and it was demonstrated that followers¿ dark traits mediated relationships in the workplace and beyond. Besides drawing overarching conclusions from the empirical studies and considering their implications for science and practice, the last section illustrates their limitations and suggestions for future research.
Destructive leadership, Dark Triad of personality, Self-Determination theory, Motivation, Satisfaction, Development, Liderazgo destructivo, Tríada Oscura de la personalidad, Teoría de la autodeterminación, Motivación, Satisfacción, Desarrollo
Universidad Catolica de Murcia - Doctoral
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