Graduation Term

2020

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Dan Ispas

Abstract

Contemporary organizations often use personality measures when selecting new employees. Recent developments in the literature have shown that measures of the dark tetrad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) provide additional benefits (e.g., incremental validity) over measures of normal personality (e.g., Big Five) in predicting counterproductive work behavior (CWB). The purpose for this study was to identify factors that may affect the positive relationship between higher levels the dark tetrad and CWB. We proposed that perceptions of supervisor’s bottom-line mentality (their focus on prioritizing profits over other goals) serves as a moderator, whereas one’s job satisfaction and perceptions of organizational politics (POP) serve as mediators of the relationships between the dark tetrad and CWB. Our results showed that BLM serves as a moderator of the relationship between sadism and CWB; job satisfaction partially mediated the link between all dark tetrad traits and CWB; and we identified POP as a partial mediator of the relationship between sadism and CWB. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2020.1604319246721

Included in

Psychology Commons

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