Linking grandiose and vulnerable narcissism to managerial work performance, through the lens of core personality traits and social desirability

Abstract

While grandiose narcissism is well-studied, vulnerable narcissism remains largely unexplored in the workplace context. Our study aimed to compare grandiose and vulnerable narcissism among managers and people from the general population. Within the managerial sample, our objective was to examine how these traits diverge concerning core personality traits and socially desirable responses. Furthermore, we endeavored to explore their associations with individual managerial performance, encompassing task performance, contextual performance, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Involving a pool of managerial participants (N = 344), we found that compared to the general population, managers exhibited higher levels of grandiose narcissism and lower levels of vulnerable narcissism. While both narcissistic variants had a minimal correlation (r = .02) with each other, they differentially predicted work performance. Notably, grandiose narcissism did not significantly predict any work performance dimension, whereas vulnerable narcissism, along with neuroticism, predicted higher CWB and lower task performance. Conscientiousness emerged as the strongest predictor of task performance. This study suggests that organizations might not benefit from managers with vulnerable narcissism. Understanding these distinct narcissistic variants offers insights into their impacts on managerial performance in work settings.