From dawn to dusk: The role of personality in different organisational contexts

Robert Hogan was the first person who distinguished between the “bright” side and the “dark” side of personality. Hogan, Curphy and Hogan (1994) noted that the Five Factor Model (FFM) represented the bright side of personality. The dark side traits can be understood as those dysfunctional tendencies that tend to surface when people are under stress or are off their guard. The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) was designed in order to identify individuals who have the potential to be derailed (Hogan & Hogan, 2001). The characteristics of the bright and dark sides co-exist; individual differences have an impact on both functional and dysfunctional behaviours. This thesis aimed to validate and investigate the role of personality, especially the dark side, in different organisational contexts. Firstly, I examined the bright side and dark side of CEOs. I found that they have significantly higher scores in Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Bold and Colourful behaviour compared to the working norms of people in their sector who were more Neurotic, Excitable, Cautious, Leisurely and Dutiful (Chapter 2). Validating the bright side and the dark side in a different organisational context, I showed that Ambition, Prudence and Adjustment predicted both negative and positive organisational attitudes. Moreover, the dark side explained more variance for both organisational attitudes, with Bold being a consistent predictor (Chapter 3). Finally, I examined the updated subscale structure of the HDS, which has relatively low internal consistency and fits relevantly well in the three higher order factors. I also found that Fantasied Talent, Public Confidence and Conforming were positive strong predictors for work success, whereas Fearful and Manipulative were negative predictors (Chapter 4). The findings of this thesis validated Hogan’s distinctions between the bright and the dark side of personality as well as Hogan’s instruments, and provided a deeper understanding of the role of personality in various organisational contexts