Dark Triad Traits and the Endurance of Toxic Professional Relationships in Organisational Settings

Dark personality traits have emerged as important determinants of interpersonal functioning in organisational settings. Yet the extent to which such traits predict the sustained maintenance of toxic professional relationships, defined as the continued engagement with harmful, stressful, or dysfunctional workplace ties, remains underexplored. This study investigates the direct effects of the three Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) on the Endurance of Toxic Professional Relationships (ETPR), as well as the conditional effects of organisational culture. Data were collected from 396 respondents across corporate, academic, and student populations using a structured self-report questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed that Machiavellianism (β = 0.433, p < 0.001) and narcissism (β = 0.516, p < 0.001) were significant positive predictors of ETPR. In contrast, psychopathy (β = −0.234, p < 0.001) exerted significant negative effects. When accounting for individual personality variance, organisational culture emerged as a significant negative covariant (β = −0.122, p = 0.004). The overall model explained 50.7% of the variance in ETPR. Moderation analysis revealed no significant interaction between organisational culture and any Dark Triad trait (ΔR² = 0.007; all p > 0.20), indicating that within this sample, institutional culture functions primarily as a direct contextual baseline rather than a boundary condition. Findings advance understanding of personality-driven relational endurance in toxic workplace environments and carry implications for human resource management, organisational culture design, and employee well-being interventions.