It’s getting HOT in here: Do hazardous organizations encourage workplace deviance?

Purpose This study examines how hazardous organizational cultures, characterized by permissive norms for unethical behavior, moderate the relationship between dark personality traits and various forms of counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Building on trait activation theory (TAT), we investigate how environmental cues influence the expression of deviant tendencies. Design/methodology/approach We assessed hazardous organizational culture with the Hazardous Organization Tool and measured dark traits using validated inventories for the Dark Triad (D3). CWBs were categorized by type (active versus passive) and evaluated alongside key controls (i.e. age, gender and Big Five personality traits). We conducted a hierarchical linear regression analysis to test the interactive effects of personality and hazardous organizational culture. Findings Working in hazardous organizational cultures strengthened the relationship between both narcissism and psychopathy and active CWBs. Narcissism, but not psychopathy, also interacted with hazardous work culture to predict increased passive CWBs. Machiavellianism did not predict active or passive CWBs above and beyond Big Five traits, and its interaction with hazardous culture negatively predicted active CWBs only when considering all D3 traits as simultaneous predictors. Originality/value This study advances TAT by demonstrating how permissive organizational cultures signal moral license for deviance, particularly for narcissistic and psychopathic personalities. This research provides actionable insights for mitigating workplace deviance and fostering ethical organizational climates.