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The Taming of Machiavellians: Differentiated Transformational Leadership Effects on Machiavellians’ Organizational Commitment and Citizenship Behavior

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Abstract

This study seeks effective ways for managing employees with a high Machiavellian personality in organizations by identifying how to enhance their pro-organizational attitudes (organizational commitment) and behaviors [organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)] through transformational leadership (TFL). Drawing upon the dual-focused model of TFL, we suggest that exerting TFL upon employees high in Machiavellianism involves ethical dilemmas in that individual-focused and group-focused TFL have contrasting effects on leading pro-organizational attitudes/behaviors among these pro-individual employees. Analysis of data from 184 employees working in South Korea shows that Machiavellianism negatively relates to affective commitment, OCB toward the organization (OCB-O), and OCB toward individuals (OCB-I), but positively to continuance commitment. More importantly, the results reveal that group-focused TFL can effectively manage employees high in Machiavellianism by mitigating the negative relations between Machiavellianism and affective commitment and between Machiavellianism and OCB-O. However, individual-focused TFL strengthens these negative relations as well as the negative relation between Machiavellianism and OCB-I. This study thus shows that to lead employees high in Machiavellianism in a pro-organizational direction, group-focused TFL rather than individual-focused TFL needs to be employed.

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Notes

  1. We further note that in their meta-analysis, Stanley et al. (2007) indicated that the correlation between affective and normative commitment is higher in collectivistic than in individualistic societies. Because our data are from South Korea, which has a highly collectivistic culture (Hofstede 1984), the discriminant validity between affective and normative commitment is even more likely to be ambiguous, further justifying our exclusion of normative commitment from consideration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning, 2F, 1339 Wonjung-ro Maengdong-myeon, Eumseong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, 27740, South Korea

    Bonjin Koo

  2. School of Business Administration, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 06974, South Korea

    Eun-Suk Lee

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  1. Bonjin Koo
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  2. Eun-Suk Lee
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Correspondence to Eun-Suk Lee.

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Koo, B., Lee, ES. The Taming of Machiavellians: Differentiated Transformational Leadership Effects on Machiavellians’ Organizational Commitment and Citizenship Behavior. J Bus Ethics 178, 153–170 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04788-2

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