IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v200y2025ics0148296325004321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dark personality traits and workplace recommendations: Does job dissatisfaction trigger the trait-specific dominant Effect?

Author

Listed:
  • Yousaf, Salman
  • Hyun, Soonchul
  • Kim, Jong Min

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between Dark Triad (DT) traits—psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism—and employees’ likelihood to recommend their workplace to a friend (RTF) and understand whether job dissatisfaction triggers the trait-dominant effect for DT traits. The study analyzed 2,473,968 employee reviews from Glassdoor.com using the Language Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. We found a significant negative relationship between DT traits and RTF. The situational cue of job dissatisfaction triggered trait-specific responses for psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism in distinct ways. This research contributes to the scholarship of Trait Activation Theory (TAT) by enriching our understanding of RTF in the context of differential triggering effects of workplace dissatisfaction on DT traits. The findings provide practical insights for managers to moderate the situational cues triggering the activation of these traits.

Suggested Citation

  • Yousaf, Salman & Hyun, Soonchul & Kim, Jong Min, 2025. "Dark personality traits and workplace recommendations: Does job dissatisfaction trigger the trait-specific dominant Effect?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004321
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325004321
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115609?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.