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Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between Machiavellianism, a predisposition toward manipulative behavior, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), defined by being helpful, cooperative, and conscientious. Given past findings that Machiavellians seek opportunities for impression management to obtain personal benefit, we hypothesized that the negative association between Machiavellianism and organizational citizenship behaviors toward the organization (OCBO) is stronger than the negative association between Machiavellianism and organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals or groups (OCBI). Additionally, we hypothesized that Machiavellianism is associated with the OCB motive of impression management, but negatively associated with the OCB motives of organizational concern and prosocial values. Participants were 606 working adults (as well as their supervisors and co-workers) from various organizations in the U.S. South and West. Results generally confirmed the predicted relationships, which were consistent across supervisor and co-worker perceptions as well. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
A previous version of this manuscript was presented to the Organizational Communication Division at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Chicago, November 11–15, 2004.
A previous version of this manuscript was presented to the Organizational Communication Division at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Chicago, November 11–15, 2004.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Jonathon Halbesleben, Tony Wheeler, and Matt Bowler for their assistance.
Notes
A previous version of this manuscript was presented to the Organizational Communication Division at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Chicago, November 11–15, 2004.
1. Christie (Citation1970) claimed that a chief characteristic of Machs is an absence of psychopathology. Subsequent researchers have found that Machiavellianism is related to psychopathy and anxiety (McHoskey, Worzel, & Szyarto, Citation1998) as well as general personality dysfunction and many personality disorders, including the borderline, negativistic, and antisocial personality disorders (McHoskey, Citation2001).
2. “Closest” was defined as the co-worker who had the greatest social knowledge of the participant (as opposed to a co-worker with frequent but impersonal interaction). We believed that this definition would allow us to measure the perceptions of those who were most attuned to participants’ motives.
3. We decided to sum the items of the Mach IV because the majority of past research on Machiavellianism has followed this procedure, and this will facilitate better comparison of our results with the extant body of research. We should note, though, that Hunter, Gerbing, and Boster (Citation1982) identified four factors in a confirmatory factor analysis of the Mach IV: deceit, flattery, immorality, and cynicism. They argued that these factors represent distinct beliefs and must be treated independently. However, inspection of their findings reveals that many items cross-loaded and that the subscales are highly intercorrelated (as high as .78 in their study). Moreover, given that the predicted relationships between the four factors and the outcome variables in this study would be identical, we thought it more parsimonious to aggregate the items into one score of Machiavellianism.
4. The notion of personality as a predictor of communicative behavior is most forcefully articulated by Beatty and McCroskey (Citation2001). They argue that communication scholars should reconsider the role of predispositions in interpersonal communication situations.