The dark side of personality predicts positive and negative work attitudes

•This study looked the relationship between organisational attitudes and the dark traits.•Excitable, Sceptical and Bold were predictors for both organisational attitudes.•Leisurely was a predictor for positive organisational attitudes and Cautious for negative.•Moving Away from Others was the strongest predictor for both types of work attitudes.•Moving Against and Moving Towards Others were related to positive attitudes.

This exploratory study examined the relationship between positive and negative organisational attitudes and the dark side of personality. In all, 451 employees working in the medical sector completed a number of questionnaires including the Hogan Development Survey and well-established organisational measures. We found that Excitable, Sceptical and Bold dark-side traits were predictors for both positive and negative organisational attitudes, whereas Leisurely was a predictor for positive organisational attitudes and Cautious for negative. We also found that the higher order factor Moving Away from Others was the strongest predictor for both types of work attitudes whereas Moving Against and Moving Towards Others were positive predictors for positive organisational attitudes. Implications and limitations are considered.