Abstract
The dark triad, composed of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism, refers to negative personality traits, which may influence business processes. While negative traits could be an important factor explaining the relationship between a CEO’s immoral and unethical behavior and corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has been minimal research focusing on this relationship. This paper thus attempts to investigate how a CEO exhibiting these negative traits affects CSR, and if an employee’s perception of ethics and social responsibility would mediate the relationship. In addition, this paper considers the moderating effects of an individual performance-based compensation system (IPBCS) between employee’s CSR perception and CSR activities. The data are collected through a survey conducted on 165 employees (companies) in twelve industries. The regression result indicates an inverse relationship between the negative traits of a CEO and an employee’s perception of ethics and social responsibility and CSR activities, and the mediating effect of the perception in the relationship between the negative traits and CSR activities. It also indicates that an IPBCS moderates the relationship between CSR perception and activities. Implications for the study, future research directions, and management approach are discussed.
Highlights
corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a matter of choice and as part of strategic decision making
This study considers the dark triad composed of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism as a CEO’s negative trait
A CEO with Ma-Psy traits is likely to influence negatively the employee’s perception of ethics and social responsibility and place less importance on CSR activities (Hypothesis 1 and 2), consistent with previous literature. These results verify the negative relationship between Machiavellianism and psychopathy with CSR in the business context of South Korea. These results show that Machiavellianism is identical to psychopathy and that an employee’s perception of CSR mediates the relationship between a CEO’s Ma-Psy trait and CSR activities (Hypothesis 3)
Summary
CSR has emerged as a matter of choice and as part of strategic decision making. Despite considerable attention and research on CSR, few studies have examined the effect of an organization’s internal resources, leadership, and organizational culture on its CSR activities [1]. This suggests the need for better understanding of CSR and top management issues because CEOs have a powerful influence on the introduction, management, and performance of strategies [2] and CEO characteristics are related exemplary corporate social performance [3]. Given the development of mass media, CEOs are likely to feel substantial pressure from stakeholders to do more ethical decision makings and may place greater emphasis on a positive public image [5]
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