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Dark Leadership: The Role of Leaders’ Dark Triad Personality Traits

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Leader Development Deconstructed

Part of the book series: Annals of Theoretical Psychology ((AOTP,volume 15))

Abstract

For a long time, leadership research has focused too much on idealized, romantic, and “good” forms of leadership (e.g., transformational, empowering, authentic, and ethical leadership), but neglected the antagonistic part: the dark side of leadership. Current personality and leadership literature suggests that, due to their high need for power and social dominance orientation, a variety of dark triad personalities (narcissists, Machiavellians, and psychopaths) can be found in leadership positions. Accordingly, dark leadership reflects a part of leadership reality. Nevertheless, the dark side of leadership is still relatively understudied. This chapter combines dark triad personality with dark leadership research to describe narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic leadership. Additionally, the role of the dark triad in leader development is described. Dark leaders may be selfish, impulsive, exploitative, and toxic but still be as effective or successful as prosocial, self-controlled, and “good” leaders. The focus on leaders’ dark traits and leadership could improve our understanding of the complex, dynamic, and challenging field of leadership research. Thus, knowledge on the strengths and weaknesses of the dark triad can be utilized in leader development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Marco R. Furtner Ph.D. & Thomas Maran M.Sc.

  2. University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Marco R. Furtner Ph.D.

  3. Alps Adria University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria

    Thomas Maran M.Sc.

  4. Humboldt-University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    John F. Rauthmann Ph.D.

  5. Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    John F. Rauthmann Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Marco R. Furtner Ph.D.
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  2. Thomas Maran M.Sc.
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  3. John F. Rauthmann Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco R. Furtner Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Matthew G. Clark

  2. College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Craig W. Gruber

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Furtner, M.R., Maran, T., Rauthmann, J.F. (2017). Dark Leadership: The Role of Leaders’ Dark Triad Personality Traits. In: Clark, M., Gruber, C. (eds) Leader Development Deconstructed . Annals of Theoretical Psychology, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64740-1_4

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