Work Addiction and Its Relation with Dark Personality Traits: A Cross-sectional Study with Private Sector Employees

Abstract

Personality traits have been extensively studied to understand different behavioral addictions. However, less is known about the relationship of employees’ dark personality traits and work addiction. The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations between the Big Five personality traits (i.e., extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness) and dark personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism, and spitefulness) with work addiction. A total of 514 private sector employees completed a survey that included psychometric assessment tools for the aforementioned variables. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that lower extroversion, lower openness to experience, higher narcissism, and higher spitefulness were positively associated with work addiction among private sector employees. The findings of the present study suggest that dark personality traits should also be taken into account in order to better understand work addiction among employees.