When do the ‘dark personalities’ become less counterproductive? The moderating role of job control and social support

Figures & data

Figure 1. Theoretical model. Expected direct effect of the Dark Triad and moderation effects of job control and social support on CWB.

Note: CWB = counterproductive work behavior.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics, reliability and correlations for study variables.

		1	2	3	(a)	(b)	(c)	4	5	6	M	SD	α
1	Age	–									38.82	8.73	–
2	Gender	−0.02	–								–	–	–
3	Dark Triad	−0.12**	0.25***	–							23.71	8.66	0.91
(a)	Machiavellianism	−0.09*	0.24***	0.91***	–						7.30	3.31	0.89
(b)	Narcissism	−0.11**	0.18***	0.84***	0.64***	–					8.84	3.46	0.91
(c)	Psychopathy	−0.14***	0.23***	0.86***	0.74***	0.53***	–				7.60	3.16	0.87
4	Job control	−0.01	−0.09*	−0.09*	−0.16	0.02	−0.08*	–			34.07	4.94	0.79
5	Social support	0.04	0.06	0.08*	0.07	0.09*	0.04	0.15***	–		22.98	4.04	0.73
6	CWB	−0.11**	0.10**	0.40***	0.39***	0.32***	0.35***	−0.07	−0.12*	–	37.80	7.57	0.90
7	Approval	0.13***	−0.04	−0.28***	−0.28***	−0.25***	−0.20***	0.07	−0.04	−0.22***	40.50	4.75	0.71

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (two-tailed test significance).

Note: CWB = counterproductive work behavior.

Figure 2. Moderation effect of job control and social support on the DT–CWB relation.

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. Note: F(8, 647) = 22.49; R² = 0.22; p < 0.01. CWB = counterproductive work behavior; DT = Dark Triad.

Figure 3. Two-way interaction effect of the Dark Triad and job control on the DT–CWB link.

Note: CWB measured on a scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = every day. CWB = counterproductive work behavior; DT = Dark Triad.

Figure 4. Three-way interaction effect of the Dark Triad, job control and social support on the DT–CWB link.

Note: CWB measured on a scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = every day. CWB = counterproductive work behavior; DT = Dark Triad; JC = job control; SS = social support.

Table 2. Results of regression analyses: job control and social support as moderators of the relationship between the three Dark Triad traits and CWB.

	CWB
	Machiavellianism			Narcissism			Psychopathy
Variable	B	SE	95% CI	B	SE	95% CI	B	SE	95% CI
Constant	0.10*	0.09	[0.01, 0.19]	0.09*	0.08	[0.01, 0.18]	0.12*	0.10	[0.03, 0.20]
Age	−0.03	0.03	[−0.09, 0.04]	−0.03	0.03	[−0.09, 0.04]	−0.01	0.03	[−0.07, 0.06]
Gender	0.02	0.07	[−0.10, 0.14]	0.01	0.06	[−0.11, 0.16]	0.05	0.06	[−0.02, 0.12]
Social approval	0.19***	0.04	[0.12, 0.26]	0.21***	0.03	[0.10, 0.28]	0.19***	0.03	[0.12, 0.26]
Dark Triad (DT)	0.33***	0.04	[0.26, 0.39]	0.25***	0.04	[0.18, 0.31]	0.32***	0.04	[0.185, 0.39]
Job control (JC)	0.01	0.04	[−0.08, 0.09]	−0.05	0.04	[−0.12, 0.02]	−0.01	0.04	[−0.08, 0.06]
Social support (SS)	−0.09*	0.04	[−0.16, −0.02]	−0.10*	0.04	[−0.17, −0.03]	−0.10*	0.04	[−0.17, −0.03]
DT × JC	0.12**	0.04	[0.05, 0.18]	0.09*	0.04	[0.02, 0.15]	0.14**	0.04	[0.07, 0.21]
DT × SS	−0.04	0.03	[−0.10, 0.03]	−0.05	0.04	[−0.12, 0.02]	−0.04	0.04	[−0.10, 0.03]
JC × SS	0.06	0.03	[−0.02, 0.14]	0.04	0.04	[−0.03, 0.11]	0.05	0.04	[−0.02, 0.12]
DT × JC × SS	0.03	0.02	[−0.03, 0.09]	0.04	0.03	[−0.03, 0.09]	0.09*	0.03	[0.03, 0.15]

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Note: CI = confidence interval; CWB = counterproductive work behavior.