Check Out the “Dark Side” or Personality when Hiring or Promoting

July 14, 2009 5830 Comments2009-07-14+09%3A00%3A18Ben+Nash

“Commercial enterprises are rife with myriad narcissistic personalities” according to Joan Lachkar, author of an interesting little book called “How to Talk to a Narcissist”.

Dr. Lachkar describes a condition she calls “Narcissistic Entitlement Syndrome” (NES) as people who:

Disregard the feelings of others

Continually inflate themselves while putting others down

Are driven by fantasies of limitless power, achievement, and success – reaching the top is a relentless goal, and they will do anything and everything to achieve it.

Lack empathy and are clueless to the needs and concerns of others.

Envy others, need constant approval, and can not tolerate criticism or the success of anybody but themselves.

Sounds a bit extreme – but if you have not encountered such behaviors in corporate life (in varying degrees of severity) then count yourself lucky – it is out there in plentiful supply.

Of course some organizational cultures tolerate, or even encourage, such behaviors (Wall St. before the crash?). For most organizations, however, such behaviors are problematic and disruptive, and result in high staff turnover and low morale.

So what can organizations do to try and screen out these tendencies in job candidates or people up for promotion? A screening tool that is very helpful is the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). The HDS is a valid and reliable psychometric instrument that looks at the “dark side” of personality – behavioral tendencies that come out under stress and pressure.

For more information about the “dark side of personality” screening, and other pre-hire assessments that can help you make more informed hiring and promotion decision, contact an organizational psychologist, preferably a member of SIOP (The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology).