At Zircon, we pride ourselves on Talent Management, Consulting, & Assessment; directing our efforts to attract, select, recruit, and develop top-quality candidates to align with the strategy and business objectives of our extensive client base. A major avenue in attaining this goal is by understanding ‘personality fit’ – the fine alignment between a candidate’s combined qualities and the needs of our clients. By carefully evaluating the ‘fit’ of an individual, we provide the optimum calibration between client requirements and candidate skills.
For many of us, our time is often spent pursuing strong, healthy interpersonal relationships. We value virtues such as harmony, trust, cohesion, tolerance, and compassion – focussing on all of the positives that human interaction brings to the table. Research in Psychology is similarly met with an optimistic outlook, describing human behaviour using broad models (or taxonomies) that categorise human nature by their ‘bright’ elements. Traditionally, personality is often described within a constellation of 5 independent, yet interrelated, socially-desirable constructs. This model, otherwise known as the ‘Big 5’ is comprised of: Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. Some other positive attributes are also regularly included such as high self-esteem, core self-evaluations, and proactivity. At work, these traits are often linked to successful leadership, strong job performance, creativity, as well as emotional resilience in dealing with stressful working environments.
The major problem with such an optimistic outlook on personality and interpersonal relationships, is that for many of us, and for much of the time, relationships are one of life’s biggest frustrations. Workplace quarrels, conflicts, disputes, and arguments are all too common, as is workplace incivility, exploitation, manipulation, and selfish intentions. These are just some of the difficulties that affect us on a regular basis, and are unfortunately all too familiar. In order to paint an accurate picture of real human behaviour, we must venture into the ‘dark side’ of personality.
WHAT IS THE DARK SIDE OF PERSONALITY?
The Dark Side of Personality refers to a collection of socially malevolent, aberrant, and dysfunctional personalities found hidden away within each and every one of us. These aversive personalities are said to bring out the worst in human behaviour, and have a profound impact on the process of social interaction. They are thought to undermine healthy working relationships as they are characterised by callousness, reduced empathy, exploitation, manipulation, and self-centeredness. Several distinct clusters of Dark personality have been discovered.
THE DARK TRIAD OF PERSONALITY
The Dark Triad of Personality consists of three prominent, offensive and aggressive personalities; Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy. First introduced by Psychologists Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams, in their seminal paper, The Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy, the Dark Triad remains the most popular, and most rigorously tested form of aversive personality. The Dark Triad constellation, although measured independently, remain interrelated through a number of aversive traits, typified by a socially malevolent character with self-promoting behaviours, emotional coldness, duplicity, and aggression.
NARCISSISM
Narcissism is characterised by an inflated view of the self, grandiosity, self-entitlement and perceived authority. Narcissists are highly self-centred, self-absorbed, and egotistical, craving interpersonal relationships where their self-love is reaffirmed by others. Delusions of grandeur, elitism, and hyper-competitiveness are also key requisites of the Narcissism profile. Narcissists typically engage in frequently exaggerating their own achievements, blocking criticism (constructive or otherwise), refusing to compromise, as well as seeking interpersonal relationships with admiring individuals only. While Narcissists usually dismiss negative feedback, they are very likely to respond aggressively when publicly censored or criticised in a bid to shield their egocentrism. Narcissism has been linked to unsavoury practices in the workplace such as unsatisfactory task performance, job dissatisfaction, as well as toxic leadership.
MACHIAVELLIANISM
Machiavellianism, otherwise known as the manipulative personality, is named after the philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli, a political advisor to the Medici Family during the Italian Renaissance, argued that even a morally righteous man must make deliberative use of ruthless, amoral, and fundamentally deceptive methods when dealing with unscrupulous men. Machiavellianism, may be defined as; an avowed belief in the effectiveness of manipulative tactics, a cynical view of human nature, and a moral outlook that posits expediency above moral principle. Like Narcissism, the exploitative nature of Machiavellianism leads them to engage in a number of spiteful practices, including; seeking revenge, dishonesty to co-workers and friends, abuse of authority, theft, and workplace sabotage. Ultimately, a Machiavellian sees humanity as manipulable, fallible, cowardly, and self-serving, reflecting this cynical ideology in their behaviour.
PSYCHOPATHY
Psychopathy is typically considered the most malicious Dark Triad trait. Psychopathy is defined by high impulsivity and thrill-seeking behaviours, combined with low empathy and anxiety. Psychopaths convey emotional insensitivity, deceitfulness, and remorseless, thought to stem from a lack of self-conscious emotion, conscience, and guilt. Their defective emotionality allows Psychopaths to demonstrate keen impression management skills, remaining glib and charismatic in the short term. Despite this, the somewhat attractive elements of Psychopathy are heavily outweighed by their consequences; commonly being linked to a number of vindictive workplace behaviours such as academic dishonesty, and cheating, the formation and exploitation of short term interpersonal relationships, and a preference for explicit or otherwise antisocial media.
In summary, aversive personalities are without a doubt an invasive and influential force within the workplace, and this force is not always a positive one. Unchecked, these characteristics can undermine healthy reciprocal relationship. These behavioural tendencies and underlying characteristics can potentially impair the collaborative operation of a business. While some speculate on the possible advantageous nature of a select few traits (such as charm, and risk-taking) these potentially destructive personality traits can result in derailment.
Written by Simon Davies, Business Psychologist
November 2014
