Most organizations have goals they wish to achieve, but there are clearly different lengths they are prepared to go to in order to meet those objectives. New research from San Diego State University highlights the risks involved in having a win at all costs culture.
The research found that employees who have a predominantly Machiavellian personality would often be successful, but would gladly be so at the expense of their colleagues.
“Employees with Machiavellian personalities tend to not trust others; show a willingness to engage in amoral behavior; and exhibit a desire to maintain interpersonal control,” the researchers say. “They tend to believe that a coworker’s success is risky, so they become motivated to see others lose. Often times, they feel that when co-workers lose, they win.”
The researchers cite Enron as a prime example of a culture where ethics was forgone by management in pursuit of profit-related goals, with disastrous consequences.
The findings emerged from an analysis of 500 employees and their supervisors in India, with another couple of hundred in the United States. Each participant was asked about the importance of profitability in their business, together with questions on their job satisfaction and other workplace behaviors.
The data suggests that Machiavellian employees would often have such a profit-focused mentality, especially when they think their boss supports such an outlook.
Such employees would be less likely to cooperate with their peers, and indeed would probably deviate from various organizational rules, norms and practices.
“Overall, we found that employees focused on the bottom-line are more likely driven to see others lose and less likely to engage in behaviors that may help others succeed,” the authors conclude. “Clearly, when bottom-line outcomes are valued over everything else, employees may be encouraged to act in their own self-interest, even if it means engaging in unethical behaviors. If the examples set by Enron and the mortgage industry are considered, this behavior can have dire consequences in the long-term if left unchecked.”
