How Leaders With Dark Personality Shape Their Climates: Developing a Theory of Influence Tactics and Follower Responses

Abstract

Despite burgeoning attention to dark leaders, we lack understanding about how they shape their climates. Using the dark triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy), we integrate social psychology and leadership research on interpersonal, romantic and leader–follower relationships to identify two predominant influence strategies: adversarial treatment and cunning deception. Developing a typological framework, we advance four influence scenarios and follower types: discerning observers, direct targets, devoted believers and ambivalent oscillators. These types determine constructive (voice, loyalty) or destructive (exit, neglect, retaliation) responses towards one's leader. These follower responses serve as social cues that influence the social power of the leader's ingroup and outgroup. Retaliatory responses, such as speaking up, will weaken the ingroup's relative social power, while constructive and other destructive responses will strengthen the ingroup's social power. These social power dynamics will determine work‐related and affective norms, whereby a wide power imbalance favouring the ingroup will produce high convergence on work‐related norms and high divergence on affective norms. Conversely, greater balance will produce high divergence on work‐related norms and high convergence on affective norms. Our theory contributes a holistic framework highlighting a complex and varying range of leader–follower interactions, which subsequently shape group member perceptions of social power and climate norms.