Leader Narcissism and Team Burnout: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Study

Abstract

There is evidence to suggest that leader narcissism is negatively linked to employee well-being. However, it is not known whether this effect also expands to team-level burnout. Given the team-based nature of work in many organizations, we explore this through drawing on social identity threat theory and using data from a three-wave longitudinal survey (293 employees in 87 teams from multiple organizations at time 3), we examined the effects of leader narcissism on team burnout via core self-evaluations (CSE) at the team level, using nested data (individuals nested in teams). We additionally explored the moderating role of team cohesiveness in the leader narcissism-team CSE link. Results generally supported the hypothesized relationships insofar as team member ratings of leader narcissism were negatively related to team CSE and team CSE was positively related to team burnout. However, team CSE did not mediate the leader narcissism-team burnout link. Interestingly, when accounting for the moderating effect of team cohesiveness, team CSE did mediate the effect of leader narcissism on team burnout. The effect of leader narcissism on team CSE was weaker for teams with high cohesiveness than for teams with low cohesiveness. Our findings emphasize that organizations should provide team-building opportunities to ensure teams enjoy high cohesiveness which is protective against the negative effects of leader narcissism.