The moderating effect of the dark triad traits in the relationship between career ambition and motivation among academic staff in public and private universities in Kampala

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the moderating effects of the dark triad traits on the relationship between career ambition and motivation among academic staff in public and private universities in Kampala. The study was intended to achieve the following objectives; to investigate the relationships between: career ambition and motivation of academic staff, career ambition the dark triad personalities, the dark triad personalities and motivation and to establish whether the relationship between academic staffs’ career ambitions and motivation are moderated by the dark triad personalities. A correlational survey research design was adopted to assess the relationships between career ambition, the dark triad personalities and motivation from a randomly selected sample of academic lecturers. The relationships between career ambition, motivation and the dark triad personalities were tested using Pearson-product moment correlation to find out the extent to which the variables are related. The moderating effect of the dark triad on the relationship between career ambition and motivation was tested using regression analysis in PROCESS Macro. The results revealed that the interactive effect of career ambition and narcissism on extrinsic motivation were not significant. However, the interactive effect of career ambition and narcissism on amotivation and intrinsic motivation were significant. The results also revealed that the results revealed that the interactive effect of career ambition and Machiavellianism on amotivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were not significant. Finally, the results revealed that the results revealed that the interactive effect of career ambition and psychopathy on amotivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were also not significant. The findings of this study enrich our understanding of the relationship between career ambition and motivation among higher level academic staff and how the dark triad personalities affect this relationship. Our findings imply that out of all three personalities, narcissism has the most significant effect on the relationship between career ambition and motivation followed by psychopathy which is less significant.