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The Dark Tetrad of Personality Traits

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The Dark Side of Leadership

Abstract

The dark side personality traits consists of four elements that summarize the dark side of human nature. These elements are narcissism, Machiavellianism, sub-clinical psychopathy and everyday sadism. What makes these interesting is that people who are high in the dark tetrad of personality traits are more common at senior levels than junior levels within organizations. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the true nature of dark leaders by introducing each of these traits. By doing so, the chapter aims to answer the question why dark leaders act the way they do. Perhaps the answer is as simple as that it is their nature to be dark.

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  1. Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş

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  1. Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş
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Kurtulmuş, B.E. (2019). The Dark Tetrad of Personality Traits. In: The Dark Side of Leadership. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02038-5_3

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