Abstract
The interaction of the Dark Side of personality is something that has not been significantly explored within the South African context. The primary objective of the study was to investigate whether emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and subjective career success. The researcher made use of a cross-sectional research design for the selection of the research sample (n = 382) across South Africa, making use of platforms such as LinkedIn and Prolific to source participants. The sample consisted of 48% males and 52% females all currently working in South Africa. The research findings indicated that there were some correlations between the Dark Triad, career success, and emotional intelligence factors. Machiavellianism and, to some extent Narcissism, did not correlate with emotional intelligence. Psychopathy was a good predictor of all the subjective career success factors except Authenticity and Satisfaction, while Machiavellianism and Narcissism only predicted Meaningful Work and Recognition respectively. Other-Focused Emotional Regulation frequently moderated relationships involving Narcissism, including Quality Work, Influence, and Authenticity. Self-Focused Emotion Regulation moderated Psychopathy’s link to Quality Work and Narcissism’s link to Personal Life, with Other-Focused Emotional Appraisal also moderating certain Narcissism outcomes. The research contributes to ongoing research on how we understand the Dark side of personality and its interactions – both significant and non-significant – with measures of success in the workplace. The findings also helped us to better understand how emotional intelligence can act as a buffer to mitigate the effects of the Dark side of personality on subjective career success.
Keywords: Career Success; Dark Triad; Emotional Intelligence, South Africa.