We sometimes associate the rise to power with negative personal characteristics such as aggressiveness, selfishness, manipulation. What about in the corporate world? Do unpleasant personalities, who dominate others and put their personal interests above those of the collective, have a greater chance to reach positions of power?

That is the thorny question that Berkeley researchers tackled in conducting two studies with hundreds of master’s degree and MBA students. They gave them a personality test to assess their tendency to be “disagreeable” (aggressive, selfish, manipulative). They then evaluated their level of power within their respective companies fourteen years later. Their conclusion: there is no correlation between a selfish or aggressive personality and an elevated level of power. And this remains true whether the organization is characterized by a competitive or cooperative culture.

Indeed, these toxic personalities generally underperform on other strategies that are equally important for rising within an organization, notably altruistic behaviors—which show others that we are driven by the general interest rather than by self-interest. Reassuring news for our social regulation mechanisms, but which does not absolve us from the responsibility to monitor and sanction unacceptable behavior.

Source: People with disagreeable personalities (selfish, combative, and manipulative) do not have an advantage in pursuing power at work, Cameron Anderson, Daron L. Sharps, Christopher J. Soto, Oliver P. John, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), August 2020