Dark triad in teams: the Bermuda Triangle of organization?

Organizations’ work climate is influenced by individuals who are aggressive, bold, and manipulative, with little shame or guilt about their behaviors. These individuals usually generate a toxic work climate in which members rarely communicate with each other, have low commitment to the team and organization, and often engage in counterproductive work behaviors. The unpleasant consequences of employees’ maladaptive behaviors attract interests about dark side of personality in the organization science studies. These studies usually refer to the dark triad concept, which is built on three different but correlated constructs: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. “Dark Triad in Teams: The Bermuda Triangle of Organizations?” aims to clarify the ways in which the team dark triad shapes a firm’s innovation performance. It contributes to the dark triad literature in various ways. First, the research here explains the influence of individuals’ dark triad on the team climate. Second, it clarifies the influence of a toxic team climate on various antecedents of firm innovation, such as autopoiesis and international business ideas, and last, it sheds light on the influence of a team dark triad on firms’ innovation performance within emerging markets. The research applies a mixed-method design to evaluate its conceptual model. It uses in-depth interviews, as a qualitative research approach, to improve the understanding concerning the team dark triad. Following to the findings of qualitative research, the research conducts a quantitative study. The quantitative study evaluates the constructs in the team level by aggregating the values of different team members rather than merely relying on a team member’s data. Firm level constructs are evaluated by referring to the information that is collected from team leaders. The observations are evaluated and analyzed by applying structural equation modeling and using Mplus 7.2. The findings prove that team narcissism positively influences and team psychopathy negatively influences the innovation performance of the firm while team Machiavellianism has no influence. Similarly, team autopoiesis and international business ideas are positively influenced by team narcissism, negatively influenced by team psychopathy, and not influenced by team Machiavellianism. The research evaluates the findings and builds relevant discussion by referring to the various aspects of Iran’s culture.