Being selfish ‘does not get you ahead’

BEING selfish does not get you ahead and “nice guys” do not always finish last after all, a study has found.

Disagreeable people who are selfish, combative and manipulative may be intimidating but their lack of social skills means they are no more careerwise than nice people, scientists said.

People who believe being ruthless is the fastest way to the top will be bitterly disappointed no matter what industry they work in, unlike extroverts who are the first to climb the corporate ladder, researchers discovered.

Selfish, deceitful and aggressive people were no further in their careers than people who were generous, trustworthy and nice, according to the study findings.

Any advantages to being intimidating were offset by the disadvantages of having poor personal relationships with others.

Extroverts, on the other hand, were most likely to have climbed the ladder, backing up previous research that people who are social, outgoing and assertive tend to do better at work, it was revealed.

Co-author of the study, Professor Cameron Anderson, at University of California, Berkeley, said: “I was surprised by the consistency of the findings.

“No matter the individual or the context, disagreeableness did not give people an advantage in the competition for power--even in more cutthroat, ‘dog-eat-dog’ organisational cultures.

“That’s not to say that jerks don’t reach positions of power. It’s just that they didn’t get ahead faster than others, and being a jerk simply didn’t help.”

The findings come after nearly 450 undergraduate and MBA students at three universities were asked to complete two personality assessments: the Big Five Inventory and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised.