The Dark Triad

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THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Manifesting the worst of all worlds in the realm of personality lies the Dark Triad that is subject to imperial distinction albeit overlapping each other. Despite distinguished differences—narcissism or having a grandiose view of oneself, Machiavellianism as the art of being deceptive to get ahead, and psychopathy that is being considered as the social reinforcer to adhere on committing immorality—integrates into a character that exhibits selfishness, emotional coldness, duplicity, and manipulation (Furnham, Richards, & Paulhus, 2013; Paulhus, 2014; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Concurrently, the Dark Triad of Personality possesses a firm binding force toward interpersonal behaviors with obtaining power over people …show more content…

For a long time, leadership research has primarily focused on “good” leadership and has until recently ignored the “bad” or “dark side” of leadership (Higgs, 2009). The dark side refers to negative aspects, which is characterized by a selfish orientation. This is similar to the concepts of good against evil, yin and yang, bright against dark and hero versus anti-hero—they all describe antagonistic pairs. Investigating the dark triad in the context of leadership is a promising ground of research. Also, studying the dark side of leadership can help us understand the role of leaders’ dark triad personality traits and dark leadership style; it could promote understanding in the complex field of leadership research, which for long time has only been fascinated of “good” and “idealized” leadership behaviors. The Dark Personality: What is …show more content…

For many, dark personality tends to emerge because of one’s failure to adhere on social constructs and policies that instigate a high level of stress on an individual and later result to impulses to harm oneself or others. However, to deviate from the clinical pathologies being linked to dark personality traits, it is substantial to highlight the ability of people having these behaviors to function normally and such attributions may indicate or expose effectual approaches in handling particular situations (Jones, 2014). Emotional disinhibition, sociopathic behavior, lack of empathy, and dishonesty are just few of the possible traits that are deemed to benefit people in innumerable engagements because of the exertion of self-control these can induce into one’s environment. As confirmed by Wu and LeBreton (2011), although traits that are considered as negative features in nature could be somewhat problematic and challenging, these may not deter or impede one’s day-to-day functioning (Hogan & Hogan, 2001). In a study, it was determined that the components of a dark personality could be beneficial at some very particular circumstances (Harms, Spain, & Hannah, 2011a) due to the apparent boost brought by these in an individual’s performance and leadership

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