Dark Personality Triad, Work Motivation and Outcomes in an Academic Setting: A Study of University Employees in Germany and Uganda

This study assesses the impact of the dark personality traits on work motivation and work outcomes, particularly on objective and subjective career success. the personality traits examined included three dimensions of narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism.

The sample included 245 academic and administrative staff of selected universities in Germany and Uganda. Objective career success was measured only for academic staff using number of publications as an indicator of success. Subjective success was measured with career satisfaction.

Partial findings reveal that adaptive grandiose narcissism is positively associated with intrinsic work motivation and subjective career success. On the other hand, maladaptive grandiose narcissism is positively associated with amotivation (lack of motivation) and extrinsic motivation. In addition, vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with amotivation and extrinsic motivation but negatively related to intrinsic motivation, subjective career success, and objective career success. Psychopathy was also positively correlated to amotivation, while marchiavellianism was positively related to amotivation and extrinsic motivation but negatively related to objective success. Interestingly, motivation and extrinsic motivation were both negatively related to objective and subjective success. However, findings indicate that intrinsic motivation is also only significantly related to subjective success.

A cross-cultural analysis will be applied to establish the differences between Germany (individualistic and developed country) and Uganda (collectivistic and less developed country)

The practical and theoretical implications of these findings will be discussed.