Machiavellianism
“He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner
effects his ruin than his preservation.”
Outline
• Background:
• Machiavelli the man
• The Prince
• Characteristics of Machiavellianism
• Usefulness of the Construct
• Mach Instruments
• Mach IV/V
• Mach B
• MPS
Machiavelli
• Lived during the 1500s
• Renaissance
• Political writer / philosopher
• Sought to describe political life as
it really was, that is to understand
it rationally
• Most famous work:
• The Prince
Machiavelli and The Prince
• The Prince
• First work of modern philosophy
• Practical guide for ruling
• How to gain and keep power
• General themes:
• The ends justify the means
• Unethical behavior is acceptable, even necessary, if it helps
attain goals or protect political position.
• Better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both
• Prince (leader) may be perceived to be merciful, faithful, humane,
frank, and religious, but most important is only to seem to have
these qualities.
What is Machiavellianism?
• “Conceptualized as one’s propensity to distrust others,
engage in amoral manipulation, seek control over others and
seek status for oneself ” (Dahling, Whitaker, &Levy, 2009).
• Leadership: unethical behavior is acceptable, even necessary, if it
helps attain goals or protect political position.
-OR• Leadership as a pursuit that serves the needs of the common
good rather than self-interest
• Taking a realistic view of leadership: you do what needs to be
done
Four General Characteristics:
1.
A relative lack of affect in interpersonal relationships
(lack of empathy for others).
2.
A lack of concern with conventional morality
(utilitarian rather than moral view)
3.
A lack of gross psychopathology (instrumentalist
rather than rational view of others)
4.
Low ideological commitment (focus on task
completion rather than long-range ideological goals)
Usefulness of Machiavellianism
as a Construct
• Many scholars have adopted the perspective of Machiavelli
to examine and understand political dynamics in
organizations
• High levels of Machiavellianism has been tied to (Dahling,
Whitaker, & Levy, 2009):
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Theft
Economic opportunism
Influence tactics (strategic self-disclosure & ingratiation)
Low levels of job satisfaction
Low levels of helping behavior
More legal and management careers
Personality characteristics: charismatic, adaptable, unsupportive
Scales:
• Mach Instruments:
• Mach IV/V
• Cognitive
• Mach B
• Behavioral
• MPS
• Mix: cognitive/behavioral
Mach IV/ V
• Christie and Geis (1970)
• 20-item Likert scale that assess adults ages 18-65 years.
• Developed to measure political personality orientation of leaders in
organizations.
• Political personality: “a disposition in which formal and informal power
is used to control and/or manipulate others” (Christie & Geis, 1970).
• Three distinct constructs were identified: interpersonal tactics,
cynical views, and abstract morality.
• Questions were pulled directly from The Prince:
• “Most men forget more easily the death of their father than the
loss of their property”
• Mach V: 10-item forced choice
Psychometrics: Mach IV
• Inconsistent reliability (split-half):
• Large variability in scale reliability across demographic groups
• Men: .73
• Women: .39
• Internal consistency coefficients:
• .59 - .88
• Validity
• No significant correlation with other measures: IQ tests and
measures of authoritarianism
• Distinct construct
• Overall, low levels of reliability warrant concern
• What could affect reliability?
Other Issues
• Poor Items—
• Items are double-barreled
• E.g., "All in all, it is better to be humble and honest than to be important
and dishonest.”
• May evoke defensiveness
• Items are needlessly controversial, and better wording could have been used
• Dimensionality: Mixed results
• Three purported, two found: interpersonal tactics and cynical views
• Some found five unique dimensions, while others found a single dimension
• Panitz (1989) states, "The issue is not whether
Machiavellianism is a single or multidimensional construct, but
whether the construct is measurable using the Mach IV scale”
• Any issues with defining the construct validity of this instrument?
Mach B
• Aziz and Meeks (1990)
• The Machiavellian Behavior
• Behaviorally examines interpersonal situations in contrast to
measuring cognitive constructs
• Utilizes scenarios designed to be behavioral manifestations of
Machiavellianism
• Psychometrics:
• Alpha of .70 - .88
• Single factor emerging from the factor analysis
• Studies have found that this scale correlates with sales
performance, while Mach IV does not
Machiavellian Personality Scale
(MPS)
• Dahling et al. (2010)
• Conceptualization of Machs includes dimensions of
observable behaviors, internal beliefs, and motivations
• 5-point Likert scale with 16 items that cover four
dimensions:
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Tendency to distrust others
Willingness to engage in amoral disruptions
Desire for status
Desire to maintain interpersonal control
Four Dimensions
• 1. Distrust of others: Cynical outlook on the
motivations and intentions of others with a concern for
the negative implications that those intentions have for
the self.
• 2. Amoral Manipulation: a willingness to disregard
standards of morality and see value in behaviors that
benefit the self at the expense of others.
• They are selectively willing to deviate from moral
standards when the opportunity for gain presents itself
Four Dimensions
• 3. Desire for control: a need to exercise dominance over
interpersonal situations to minimize the extent to which
others have power.
• 4. Desire for status: desire to accumulate external
indicators of success
• Not intrinsically motivated
• Measure success in terms of extrinsic goals
MPS: Reliability and Validity
• Good reliability
• α = .82
• Convergent Validity: compared with political skill, selfmonitoring, narcissism, and need for achievement measures
• Only narcissism and NACH supported, explained 26% and 27 %
of the variance, respectively
• Discriminate validity: wasn’t related to GMA or NACH-E
(need for achievement excellence)
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Criterion-oriented Validity:
• Negatively related to self-reported levels of job satisfaction
• Positively related to CWBs
Conclusions
• Unclear whether Machiavellianism is a dispositional
characteristic or a behavioral preference
• Measures of Machiavellianism could be useful in
applied settings as a tool for understanding behavior:
• Mach relates to major CWBs,
• Potential to help identify individuals especially prone to
incivility, bullying, theft, etc.
• Machs tend to be dissatisfied with their job
• Tool to understand who may be especially prone to frequent
turnover
Conclusions
• Could utilize for placement decisions:
• The ability to make unpopular decisions in order to
preserve the common good for the organization (integrity)
• The ability to decipher situations in which it is more
important to be feared than loved in order to meet a goal
(authority)
• The ability to be flexible by accurately assessing which
actions will meet with the highest success (selfmonitoring)
Questions?
Discussion Question
• Do you think Machiavellianism has a place in
today's business environment? Why?