OB MACHIAVILISM:
What is Machiavellianism?
Machiavellianism also know as Mach , is a personality trait that describes a cutthroat, self-centered, and ends justifying the means type of` behavior or perceptions. Usually, such a negative and self-oriented mindset can lead to very negative outcomes, especially in team-oriented settings. From a human nature perspective, Machiavellian the ability to skillfully emotionally manipulate people or resources to accomplish the goals. To get the outcome they want and to achieve the opportunities, Machiavellians are more likely to change resources and situations to benefit themselves and for the same reasons they use manipulative tactics. For instance, according to Darwin’s concept, “Survival for the Fittest One” perfectly describes Machiavellianism because it states how important succeeding is and the how people with Mach characteristics will do anything to survive and succeed.
The concept of Machiavellianism is comes from the writings of sixteenth century Italian author Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavellianism in psychology, was first brought up by Christie and Geis (1970). Machiavellianism, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the employment of cunning duplicity in strategies or in general conduct, deceiving from the Italian Renaissance, diplomat and writer. Machiavellianism is defined by Wilson et al. (1996), as a strategy of social conduct that involves manipulating others for personal gain, often against the other’s self interest. According to Gies (1970), Machiavellianism term is dependent on the usage of the tactics by the people. If these skills are used to meet the personal goals then it may be termed as manipulation but if same skills are used to achieve the group goals and company goals these skills are termed as leadership skills. People, who score high on Machiavellianism, use deception and manipulation as tactics for their personal gains (Jackobwitz & Egan, 2006).
Main personality characteristics of Machiavellianism:
Machiavellianism is manipulative behavior. Those with Machiavellianism can easily project themselves into thoughts of others people and can understand their intentions, beliefs and the knowledge they have .They use this information and ability to efficiently for achieving their own goals than people with weaker, more naïve and mindreading capacity. Because of this, humans with amazing mental skills are always at least a step ahead of others and can mislead them easily than those with poor mental ability ability. However, this theory is not confirmed. Despite of the Machiavellians’ successful strategies in exploitation and manipulating others for their own benefit, they show cognitive deficiencies, especially reduced mindreading skill. Theory of a mind is usually regarded as the ability to make sudden inferences about the mental states of others and that’s how they predict their behavior. This is motivation in relations to make efforts and to explore the thoughts and intentions of others that are motivated to make hypotheses about the mental state of the person they want to manipulate or use.
Someone with the trait of Machiavellianism will tend to have many of the following tendencies:
- Are only focused on their own ambition and interests.
- They priorities benefiting themselves, also money and power come above relationships.
- They come across as charismatic, charming and very confident.
- They exploit and manipulate others to be ahead in life.
- They tend to be deceitful and lie when necessary.
- Try to flatter others.
- The lack in principles and values.
- Can come across as aloof or hard to really get to know.
- They are very capable of causing others harm to achieve their means.
- Have extremely low levels of empathy.
- They often avoid commitment or any emotional attachments.
- They tend to be very patient due to their calculating nature.
- Don’t reveal their true intentions.
- Are good at reading social situations and others.
- They lack warmth in social interactions.
- Not very much aware of the consequences of their actions.
- Might struggle to identify their very own emotions.