Psychometric validation of dark tetrad at work scale in an Indian context

Abstract

Dark Tetrad at Work (DTW) scale is a relatively new instrument used for assessing four dark personality traits, namely; Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy and Sadism. In an attempt to psychometrically validate and check its suitability for exploring dark traits among Indian employees, we carried out this two phased study. In the first phase, a total of N = 526 participants working in the government run businesses responded to the scale that was distributed via an online and offline approach. We performed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on the phase one dataset to test the factor structure and additionally ran correlations and multiple regressions to check the criterion-related validity with organizational constructs such as job burnout and flourishing. We resumed data collection after a small gap and initiated second phase of data collection acquiring a new dataset of N = 222 respondents. We performed Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on this dataset to examine and validate the factor structure obtained through exploratory factor analysis. The results from the first phase suggested a four-factor solution with best fit and significant factor loadings for all the four factors of the scale, including acceptable convergent and discriminant validity ratios. Our second phase results validated the four-factor solution highlighting good fit indices and suggesting the dark tetrad at work scale can be used to check dark traits in Indian milieu. We highlight limitations of this research and provide future research recommendations advocating translations, cross-cultural, multi-sectoral, exhaustive explorations of the scale to better comprehend the phenomenon.