Effects of Big Five, HEXACO, and Dark Triad on Counterproductive Work Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates the effects of Big Five, HEXACO, and Dark Triad personality traits on counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), and examines the moderating effects of countries where the studies were carried out, gender rate of samples, and scales used to measure personalities. Method: Following the rules of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), we include 74 empirical studies published between 2007 and September 2022 with 83 samples and 394 correlations. Studies are selected from both English databases such as Web of Science and Chinese databases such as CNKI. The meta-analysis and metaregression analysis were both performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) program, version 3.7. Results: Although emotionality is irrelevant to CWBs, other Big Five, HEXACO, and Dark Triad personality factors are all significant predictors of CWBs. The effect of Dark Triad (ρ = 0.412) is stronger than that of Big Five (ρ = −0.176) and HEXACO (ρ = −0.221). Gender negatively moderates the positive relationship between Dark Triad traits (total and subdimensions) and CWBs. The moderating effects of countries and scales are only significant for very few personalities. Conclusion: Personality traits are important antecedents of CWBs, and gender ratio plays a role as moderator for some personality traits. We propose that organizations should pay more attention to the mental health of employees and future studies could investigate other types of characteristics and moderators.