In Leaders We Trust, or Should We? Supervisors' Dark Triad Personality Traits and Ratings of Team Performance and Innovation.

Nicoleta Meslec,Petru L. Curşeu,Oana C. Fodor

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.650172

Abstract

Our study tests in a sample of 87 organizational groups (297 employees and 87 supervisors) the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) and collective narcissism in the relationship between supervisors’ dark triad (SDT) personality traits and ratings of team outcomes made by supervisors and team members. We show that LMX mediates the association between SDT and team performance and innovation as rated by team members, while collective narcissism mediates the association between SDT and supervisory ratings of team innovation and team performance. Moreover, collective narcissism also mediates the association between SDT and team innovation as rated by team members. Results show that team-level performance appraisal is influenced by supervisory attributes and that the quality of relational exchanges and collective narcissism are plausible mechanisms explaining this association. The use of supervisory ratings of team outcomes in empirical research should also account for the supervisory attributes.

Highlights

A key job requirement for managers is to evaluate the performance of the individuals and groups they supervise
Supervisors’ Dark Triad and Team Outcomes: The Mediating Role of leader-member exchange (LMX) In line with the social exchange theory (Blau, 1968; Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005), we argue that organizational teams are arenas in which transactions occur, whereby social actors exchange rewards and obligations based on interdependence and reciprocation norms
We look into the role of LMX and team level collective narcissism as two mechanisms explaining the relation between supervisors’ dark triad (SDT) and team outcomes

Summary

Introduction

A key job requirement for managers is to evaluate the performance of the individuals and groups they supervise. Low performance outcomes or inaccurate team performance ratings made by supervisors might undermine members’ belief in the team’s capacity to accomplish its tasks in the future, as well as team members’ willingness to spend time and effort on future tasks. Such detrimental effects on team motivational and regulatory processes are likely to impede team performance in subsequent performance episodes (Marks et al, 2001; Jung and Sosik, 2003). It is important to explore whether supervisory ratings of team performance are influenced by supervisors’ personality traits that are independent of the task performance

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