The dark side of MEE: The dark triad of personality and employee entitlement

Abstract

This study explores how the Dark Triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) relate to entitlement in the workplace. Participants (N = 461) completed standard self-report measures of the Dark Triad, along with the Measure of Employee Entitlement scale (MEE; Westerlaken, Jordan and Ramsay, 2017) which includes a total scale as well as three subscales: Reward as a Right, Self-Focus, and Excessive Self-Regard. Each of the dark traits correlated positively with total entitlement. Several positive correlations were also found between the dark traits and the MEE subscales. These results show that specific entitled views held by individuals are related to malevolent personality traits, which has implications for the workplace and may be of use for employers in making appropriate selection and management decisions to avoid workplace problems.