The presents study aims to evaluate the moderating role of participatory management in the relationship between the influence of the dark triad of personality on organizational citizenship behavior and mediating role of rudeness in the workplace. This study is considered as applied and descriptive-survey in terms of objective and nature, respectively. The population included 400 faculty members and 391 managerial employees, among which 259 people were estimated as a sample based on Cochran's formula. Then, about 200 people answered the questionnaire items applying the convenient sampling method. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire taken from Johnson and Webster (2010), Cortina et al. (2010), Podaskoff et al. (1990), and Webster and Smith (2019). Finally, the data were analyzed utilizing partial least squares (PLS) method. The results indicated that the dark triad of the personality affects the organizational citizenship behavior and rudeness in the workplace directly. In addition, rudeness in the workplace and participatory management affect organizational citizenship behavior significantly. Further, rudeness in the workplace moderates the relationship between dark triad of the personality and organizational citizenship behavior. Finally, participatory management moderates the relationship between the dark triad of personality and organizational citizenship behavior.Extended abstractIntroductionEach person's personality is regarded as universal and essential for individual, group, departmental, or organizational achievements. The dark triad of personality is considered as a cluster with three distinct dimensions of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (Ebrahimi & Azami, 2019), leading to differences between social relations (Salman Chughtai & Ali Shah, 2020). In addition, rudeness in the workplace is among the forms of misbehavior in the organization so that a large number of employees face the rude behavior of their colleagues at work. Such harmful behaviors stem mostly from the personality traits of humans, not external environmental factors (Hadizadeh Moghadam et al., 2022). Today, participatory management is among the issues raised in the organizations. High participatory management atmosphere emphasizes organizational participation and knowledge, collaborative decision-making, and cooperation, as well as allowing the employees to exhibit independence in the workplace (Butts et al., 2009). Organizational citizenship behaviors are among the issues which indicate the positive behaviors of people in the workplace not directly required by the organization. No direct reward system supports such type of behavior, despite its significance for planning the psychological performance of employees (Aldbyani & Al-Abyadh, 2022). No study has been conducted to examine the dark aspects of personality on such behaviors in Iran and investigate the rudeness in the workplace as a mediating role and participatory management as a moderating moral factor, despite all of the positive effects of organizational citizenship behavior. This study can be useful in University of Mohaghegh Ardabili with its wide range of activities and employees including simple, semi-skilled, and expert ones, as well as appropriate access and cooperation of employees in distributing and collecting information. The present study seeks to analyze whether the dark triad of personality for employees in University of Mohaghegh Ardabili affects organizational citizenship behavior or whether rudeness in the workplace and participatory management play a critical role in this regard.Theoretical literatureThe dark side of the personality for the people in the organization affects the administrative and personal consequences at the workplace significantly because a set of different characteristics of the dark person such as "narcissism", "psychosis", and "Machiavellianism" affect the organizational behavior (Jensen et al., 2022). In addition, organizational citizenship behavior is regarded as a special form of behavior, which is known as useful for business as voluntary actions stemming from the peoples’ tendency in this regard (Nazari et al., 2020). Rudeness in the workplace is considered as an unhealthy behavior with low intensity and ambiguous intention manifested by its perpetrator in order to harm the target person (Hadizadeh Moghadam et al., 2022), while organizational citizenship behavior is concerned with the positive behavior of people which is not required by the organization in terms of their duties (Podsakoff et al., 2018). Managers may create environmental conditions which increase employee engagement and alter any of the dark personality traits in organizational citizenship behavior (Richardson & Vandenberg, 2005).Participatory management is regarded as a practice, which prioritizes participation, communication, and employee empowerment (Butts et al., 2009). Such management emphasizes the delegation of four main elements in the workplace including power, information, reward, and knowledge (Riordan et al., 2005). Thus, participatory management is applied as a moderator to bridge the research gap.Rezazadeh et al. (2022) indicated that people with psychological capital exhibit less dark traits in their personality, postpone the immediate gratification of the impulse, persevere, and produce and create efficiently. In addition, Javaezi Shishavan & Zeinali (2022) argued that a positive and significant relationship is observed between psychological schemas with four dark personality traits in students. Finally, Zafaranchizadeh Moqadam et al. (2022) claimed that no significant relationship is reported between dark personality traits with cold empathy, while a significant relationship is observed between the dark personality traits with theory of emotional and cognitive mind.MethodologyThis study is considered as applied and descriptive-survey in terms of objective and method, respectively. The population included 791 employees in University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, among which 200 people were selected as a sample based on the Cochran's formula using convenient sampling method. Finally, "dark triad of personality" (Johnson and Webster, 2010), "rudeness at workplace" (Cortina et al., 2001), "organizational citizenship behavior" (Podaskoff et al., 1990), and "participatory management" (Webster and Smith, 2019) were utilized to collect the data.ResultsThe method of structural equation modeling (SEM) with the partial least squares approach was applied with the help of SmartPLS software to check the hypotheses of the study. Based on the first hypothesis, dark triad affects organizational citizenship behavior with a path coefficient (PC) of 0.268. According to the second hypothesis, dark triad affects rudeness in the workplace with a PC of 0.901. The third hypothesis indicated that rudeness in the workplace affects organizational citizenship behavior significantly with a PC of 0.108. Based on the fourth hypothesis, rudeness in workplace mediates the relationship between dark triad and organizational citizenship behavior with a PC of 0.907. According to the fifth hypothesis, participatory management affects organizational citizenship behavior significantly with a PC of 0.621. Finally, the sixth hypothesis indicated that participatory management moderates the relationship between dark triad and organizational citizenship behavior with a PC of 0.040.ConclusionThe present study aims to assess the moderating role of participatory management in the relationship between the impact of the dark triad of personality on organizational citizenship behavior with the mediating role of rudeness in the workplace. The results of this study are in line with those reported by Salman Chughtai & Ali Shah (2020) and Webster & Smith (2019). Managers should present necessary policies and charters for organizational citizenship behaviors of employees considering the role and impact of dark personality traits on citizenship behavior at the level of organizations.Such people should reduce dark personality traits and increase organizational citizenship behaviors such as altruism, politeness, and grace by increasing independence, participation, and communication with employees. Managers should recruit forces with organizational citizenship behaviors by passing the personality tests, oblige the organization to explain organizational behaviors, and help strengthen the organizational citizenship behaviors among employees by promoting moral spirit considering the significant effect of rudeness in the workplace. Teaching the style of polite behavior in the organization through training courses can be helpful. In addition, employees appointed to managerial positions should believe in polite behavior styles and benefit from the criteria set for a polite manager regardless of any political and factional views.Managers should draw new horizons in the path of forming participatory management by trusting and delegating authority to the employees to expand their ideas in line with the development of participatory management at the organization level. Finally, managers should alter the culture of educational organizations to that encouraging the innovation and its institutionalization, as well as considering mistakes as educational opportunities and the first step in this path.