The dark triad personality traits and work behaviors: A person-centered approach

Abstract

To date, research on the dark triad has mainly adopted a variable-centered perspective to investigate work-related outcomes of each dimension of the dark triad, thus not considering their potential combined effects. To overcome this issue, authors have begun to examine the dimensions of the dark triad by adopting a person-centered approach. Because the existing literature on this topic is still scarce, more person-centered studies are needed. Accordingly, by relying on a person-centered approach, we explored the latent profiles of 447 French employees' dark triad traits, characterized by their levels of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. This research also investigated the associations between these profiles and work behaviors (i.e., job performance and counterproductive work behaviors). Latent profile analysis identified four latent profiles (i.e., benevolent, high Machiavellianism, high psychopathy, and malevolent), which differentially predicted individuals' work behaviors. More interestingly, the results showed that the malevolent profile was associated with the highest job performance. Overall, our findings provide important contributions to the literature on the dark triad and pave the way for future research.