SAM ADVANCED MANAGEMENT JOURNAL

Crafting Work Relationships Using "Dark Motives": A Multilevel Model

Huda Masood and Allan Grogan

DOI:

Citation: Masood, H. & Grogan, A. (2023). Crafting work relationships using ‘Dark Motives’:A multilevel model. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 88(2),34-46.

Abstract

In this conceptual piece, we aim to investigate the role of the Dark Triad in informing a leader’s tendency to engage in relational job crafting, which is defined as self-initiated work behaviors designed to tailor one’s social environment by expanding or contracting the interactions to maximize employee performance. There has been a growing interest in understanding leadership processes using the dark triad lens (or a constellation of three, partially overlapping, socially averse traits of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy). Notably, all three dark triad traits are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal behaviors. However, little is known about how a leader’s manipulative work relationships impact the organizational performance. The interaction between the Dark Triad and leadership processes is more complicated than just derailing individuals at work. Drawing on the social exchange framework, the current research provides a theoretical model investigating a leader’s strategic engagement in relational job crafting as driven by the traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, to manipulate organizational performance. The proposed model contribute to the leadership literature in three distinct ways.  First, we consider relational job crafting as a counter-intuitive outcome of the Dark Triad personality traits. Second, it expands the boundary conditions of relational crafting motivations by providing a trait-level explanation of an individual engagement in relational crafting. Third, it provides an interdisciplinary approach to studying the disparate yet connected discourses on leadership, Dark Triad, and relational job crafting.

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