How Machiavellianism engenders impression management motives: The role of social astuteness and networking ability
Introduction
Over the past few years, Machiavellianism has emerged as a crucial dark personality trait that is positively associated with unethical and counterproductive behaviors (DeShong et al., 2015; O'Boyle et al., 2012). Individuals with a high level of Machiavellianism (Machs) are characterized by amoral manipulation, emotional detachedness, cynical worldview, pragmatic beliefs, agentive motives, and long-term strategic planning in pursuit of self-beneficial goals (Christie & Geis, 1970; Dahling et al., 2009; Rauthmann & Will, 2011). Machiavellianism consists of malevolent characteristics and shares a common “dark” core with other dark traits such as narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, and greed (Paulhus, 2014; Sekhar et al., 2020).
Despite their malevolent characteristics, Machs maneuver smoothly through social situations and organizational hierarchy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) and tend to acquire leadership positions and earn a high salary (Lindley, 2018; Spurk et al., 2016). Research attributes the success of Machs in organizations to their ability to manage impressions and influence others (Bolino & Turnley, 2003). Impression management (IM) is the behavior that people engage in to control the image that others have of them (Bolino et al., 2016). Machs adeptly succeed in managing and forming politically suitable impressions because of their ability to effectively implement influencing and deceptive tactics (Barbuto & Moss, 2006) and leapfrogging strategies (Segrest et al., 2020).
Machs may engage in strategic pro-role behaviors to appear in good light, create an impression of being a committed employee, impress influential people, and gain available rewards (Bolino et al., 2008; Zettler & Solga, 2013). Rioux and Penner (2001) named such self-serving objectives as IM motives. Later, scholars (e.g., Bolino et al., 2008; Detert & Edmondson, 2011) have determined the relevance of IM motives for various individual behaviors such as willingness to proactively make suggestions, speaking out regarding controversial organizational issues, and advocating for organizational change.
Machiavellianism is reported to be positively associated with IM motives (Becker & O'Hair, 2007; Bourdage et al., 2012). Machs are highly ambitious and strive for status and power. Machs believe that they can achieve their goals in organizations by attracting the attention of influential people who control crucial resources and by remaining politically connected with them. Machs, being master manipulators (Christie & Geis, 1970; Dahling et al., 2009; Rauthmann & Will, 2011), strive to appear positive and helpful in the eyes of these influential people and thus engage in pro-role behaviors to manage impressions.
Although studies have provided substantial insights into the relationship between Machs and IM motives, the mechanism through which Machs associate with IM motives has received minimal attention. Machs believe in strategic long-term planning; therefore, they have a strong urge to recognize and appraise the objectives and benefits of impression formation before they actively engage in IM (Blickle et al., 2020; Christie & Geis, 1970; McAllister et al., 2018). Machs likely make efforts to form favorable impressions on targeted recipients only in proportion to available and recognizable opportunities and benefits. Hence, Machs likely engage in opportunity recognition and assessment before striving to create favorable impressions.
Research on political skills suggests that social astuteness and networking ability play crucial roles in the choice of IM tactics (Ferris et al., 2007; Ferris et al., 2012). Recently, in their conceptual article, McAllister et al. (2018) suggested that social astuteness and networking ability enable individuals to recognize and evaluate IM opportunities. The theory and research of IM indicate that factors such as the goal relevance of impressions and the value of image enhancement affect IM motivation (Bolino, 1999; Leary & Kowalski, 1990). Social astuteness and networking ability enable individuals to assess personal resources and appraise others and situations. Assessments include the evaluations of motivations, self-efficacy, opportunity recognition, and goal setting (Ferris et al., 2007; McAllister et al., 2018; Munyon et al., 2015). Thus, individuals utilize social astuteness and networking ability to evaluate the goal relevance of impressions and assess the value of image enhancement.
Owing to the political roots of the trait Machiavellianism (Christie & Geis, 1970; Dahling et al., 2009), we adopt the literature on organizational politics (Ferris et al., 2007) and social influence (McAllister et al., 2018) to elucidate the mechanism through which Machiavellianism leads to IM motives. In particular, we hypothesize that networking ability and social astuteness act as mediators in the relationship between Machiavellianism and IM motives. Thus, to confirm this hypothesis, we analyzed longitudinal survey data (N = 404) obtained in two waves with a three-month time interval from young professionals in India.
Section snippets
Theoretical background and hypotheses
The construct of Machiavellianism was derived from Machiavelli's writings and later developed by Christie and Geis (1970) based on their works in which they studied how political leaders manipulated their subordinates for personal gains. Mintzberg (1985) visualized organizations as political entities. Owing to the political roots of Machiavellianism, Machs are suggested to be well equipped to manage themselves in organizations (Dahling et al., 2009). Machs are master manipulators and pragmatic,
Participants
In this study, we surveyed professionals who worked at different organizations in India. We contacted participants when they were part of training programs at a leading management training institute in India. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study with a three-month time interval. Participants received detailed information regarding the study purpose, and participation in the study was voluntary. As motivation to participate in the study, we provided participants a coupon through which they
Results
Descriptive statistics, reliability coefficients, and zero-order correlations for study variables are listed in Table 1. Machiavellianism was positively associated with networking ability (r = 0.163, p < 0.01), social astuteness (r = 0.182, p < 0.01), and IM motives (r = 0.262, p < 0.01). Both networking ability (r = 0.297, p < 0.01) and social astuteness (r = 0.271, p < 0.01) were positively associated with IM motives.
After checking for the conformity of data to regression assumptions, we
Discussion
Studies have provided insights into the relationship between Machiavellianism and IM motives (Becker & O'Hair, 2007; Bourdage et al., 2012). However, the mechanism through which Machiavellianism associates with IM motives has not been explicitly studied. In the present study, we determined a mechanism through which Machiavellianism leads to IM motives. Machs utilize the political skills of networking ability and social astuteness to foster IM motives. Machs use social astuteness to keenly
Conclusion
Our findings serve as the first step in explaining the mechanism between Machiavellianism and IM motives. We adopted the literature from organizational politics and social influence and demonstrated that social astuteness and networking ability mediate the positive relationship between Machiavellianism and IM motives. Machs utilize social astuteness for scanning the environment for cues and networking ability for forming networks with influential people. With cues from the environment and
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Ankit:Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Software, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.Nishant Uppal:Conceptualization, Validation, Writing - review & editing, Resources, Supervision, Project administration.
Declaration of competing interest
None.
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