Narcissistic Leaders Research Articles

I Alone Can Fix It: Examining interactions between narcissistic leaders and anxious followers on Twitter using a machine learning approach

AbstractDue to their confidence and dominance, narcissistic leaders oftentimes can be perceived favorably by followers, in particular during times of uncertainty. In this study, we propose and examine the relationship between narcissistic leaders and followers who are prone to experience uncertainty intensely and frequently in general, namely highly anxious followers. We do so by applying machine learning algorithms to account for personality traits in a large sample of leaders and followers on Twitter. We find that highly anxious followers are more likely to interact with narcissistic leaders in general, and male narcissistic leaders in particular. Finally, we also examined these interactions in the context of highly popular leaders and found that as leaders become more popular, they begin to attract less anxious followers, regardless of leader gender. We interpret and discuss these findings in relation to previous work and outline limitations and future research recommendations based on our approach.

Large-Group Psychology: Racism, Societal Divisions, Narcissistic Leaders, and Who We Are Now, by Vamik D. Volkan, Phoenix Publishing House Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK, 2020, 139 pp.

Large-Group Psychology: Racism, Societal Divisions, Narcissistic Leaders, and Who We Are Now, by Vamik D. Volkan, Phoenix Publishing House Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK, 2020, 139 pp.

Does narcissistic leadership enhance employee resilience? A moderated mediation model of goal-directed energy and psychological availability

PurposeDrawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study highlights the mediating role of goal-directed energy as a critical psychological resource. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effect of goal-directed energy on the relationship between narcissistic leadership and employee resilience. The study also explores the moderating effect of psychological availability on the relationship between narcissistic leadership and goal-directed energy.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 857 employees and their supervisors at 137 enterprises in China. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis and path analysis were adopted to analyze the data.FindingsThe results indicate that narcissistic leadership has a positive effect on goal-directed energy, which, in turn, enhances employee resilience. Furthermore, the effect of narcissistic leadership on goal-directed energy becomes more prominent in the context of lower psychological availability.Practical implicationsFirst, narcissistic leadership is supposed to play an effective role in helping employees gain resources. Second, organizations should attach importance to implementing resilience-building programs on employees to cope with uncertainty. Third, organizations should offer multiple training opportunities to stimulate employees’ goal-directed energy.Originality/valueFirst, the findings suggest that employee resilience is influenced by narcissistic leadership, which provides more possibilities for the study on the antecedents of resilience. Second, the study offers novel insights regarding the effect of narcissistic leadership on employee resilience through goal-directed energy. Finally, it also examines psychological availability as the boundary condition between narcissistic leadership and goal-directed energy.

The mediating role of organizational trust in the effect of toxic leadership on job satisfaction

Toxic leadership refers to the sum of the negative aspects of leaders within their leadership traits. Narcissistic leadership is a multidimensional structure that includes charismatic leadership and authoritarian leadership types. Toxic leaders can harm the organization, employees, and society in which they work. This research aims to determine the toxic characteristics of leaders working in public universities and to extract the attribute of organizational trust in job satisfaction. Turkey's Istanbul made the data collected through face-to-face survey research methods in 470 people working in the public university hospital in the province were analyzed by analysis methods used in social sciences. As a result of the analysis, a negative significant relationship between toxic leadership and organizational trust, a negative significant relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction and its sub-dimensions, and a positive significant relationship between organizational trust and job satisfaction and its sub-dimensions were found. Toxic leadership affects managerial job satisfaction and company policy-based job satisfaction through the full set of organizational trust. In addition, toxic leadership has also been found to be effective on job satisfaction arising from employees through partial organizational trust

Narcissistic leadership and employees’ innovative behaviour: mediating roles of job embeddedness and job engagement

ABSTRACT Organisations need innovation in products and services to grow and survive in competitive environments. Development of innovation in organisations is achieved by human resources. Employees’ innovative behaviour is influenced by various factors, including leadership styles and leaders’ characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the effect of narcissistic leadership on employees’ innovative behaviour by introducing employees’ job embeddedness and job engagement as the mediating variables. A narcissistic leader never allows employees to participate in decision-making processes, which affects their corporation's intention and creativity and makes them do what they are expected to do. The data were collected from 455 employees and managers of the governmental organisations located in the eastern provinces of Iran. According to the results, managers’ narcissism negatively affected employees’ job embeddedness and job engagement. Besides, leaders’ narcissism had a negative impact on employees’ innovative behaviour. Other research findings indicated the mediating roles of job embeddedness and job engagement. The interaction of leaders’ narcissism and leaders’ humility is associated with job engagement and job embeddedness. The proposed model provided new insights into the analysis of contradictions in leaders’ characteristics. In other words, their characteristics influence employee attitudes, including job embeddedness and job engagement, and employee behaviour and performance.

Narcissistic leadership and behavioral cynicism in the hotel industry: the role of employee silence and negative workplace gossiping

Purpose Building on leader-member exchange and social cognitive theories, this paper aims to propose a model of the influence of narcissistic leadership on hotel employees’ behavioral cynicism through the mediating roles of employee silence and negative work-related gossiping on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The model was examined using covariance-based structural equation modeling using data collected from 468 employees working in several different departments in Italian hotels. Findings The findings illustrate that narcissistic leadership positively affects behavioral cynicism. Furthermore, employee silence and negative work-related gossiping are shown to have a significant mediating effect on this relationship. Practical implications The study may be of use for hotel managers as it demonstrates how narcissism can be very damaging to their organizations and employees. Originality/value To date, this study is the first to examine negative work-related gossiping and employee silence as mediator variables in the relationship between narcissistic leadership and behavioral cynicism in the hotel industry. Further, this research makes a significant contribution to the hospitality literature as the topic of narcissistic leadership has not, to date, been adequately investigated in the sector.

Effects of rectors’ narcissism on academics’ silence and commitment in the context of public universities

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on academics’ in four public universities located in Egypt to explore the effect of narcissistic leadership on affective, continuance and normative commitment approaches with and without the mediating effect of academics’ silence.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a convenience sampling in which academics were handed a questionnaire form to fill. In total, the authors distributed 280 forms and collected 214 completed questionnaire forms. A structural equation was used to determine the effect of narcissistic leadership on the organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) of academics. The same measure was later used to assess the mediating role of the academics’ silence on the aforementioned relationship.FindingsThe authors of this paper found that narcissistic leadership positively associates with academics’ silence. Moreover, their perceptions of the narcissism of their leaders alleviate academics’ emotional attachments (affective commitment) and moral obligations (normative commitment) toward their universities, whereas the same perceptions of the narcissism of their leaders have no effect on their continuance commitment. Finally, the authors discovered a significant role for academics’ silence in mediating the negative relationship between narcissistic leadership and their affective and normative commitments.Originality/valueThis paper contributes by filling a gap in leadership, HR management and organization literature in the higher education sector, in which empirical studies on the relationship between narcissistic leadership, academics’ silence and organizational commitment have been limited until now.

Why are grandiose narcissists more effective at organizational politics? Means, motive, and opportunity

Research over the past decade has shown that grandiose narcissists are often successful at attaining leadership positions in organizations. However, there is no evidence that narcissists lead higher performing firms, and while they see themselves as more competent leaders, there is no evidence for this, either. In fact, research shows that narcissistic leaders have numerous negative effects on the entities they lead. This raises a question: Why are narcissists so successful in attaining leadership positions? We suggest that the defining characteristics of grandiose narcissism (grandiosity, self-confidence, entitlement, and a willingness to exploit others for one's own self-interest) may make them more effective organizational politicians than those who are lower in narcissism. We report the results of three studies that show: (1) those higher in narcissism are more likely than those who are lower to see organizations in political terms (opportunity), (2) they are more willing to engage in organizational politics (motive), and (3) they are more skilled political actors (means). We discuss the implications of these results for organizational dynamics and career processes.

Impact of Narcissistic Leadership on Employees Counterproductive Work Behavior under Mediating Role of Psychological Contract Breach and Moderating Role of Psychological Capital

This study investigates the effect of narcissistic leadership on employees’ counterproductive work behavior under the lens of social exchange theory. The mediating role of psychological contract breach and moderating effect of psychological capital is also analyzed in said causal relationship. Using convenience sampling technique, data was collected from 302 middle tier employees working across banking sector of Pakistan. Data was analyzed through statistical techniques in SPSS. The results disclosed that narcissistic leader (NL) behavior significantly affects psychological contract breach (PCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) of employees. PCB positively effects CWB and partially mediates between NL and CWB. Contrary to expectation the moderation role of psychological capital (PsyCap) between NL and CWB is not established. Thus, implications are provided for targeted sector and discussion is elaborated for similar sectors as well. Keywords: Narcissistic Leadership (NL), Psychological Capital (PsyCap), Psychological Contract Breach (PCB), Counterproductive work Behavior (CWB).

Impact of narcissistic leadership on employee work outcomes in banking sector of Pakistan

BackgroundNarcissism has been studied as a positive as well as a negative trait. It is a personality disorder in which a person is preoccupied with power, self and vanity. Narcissists often pursue leadership and work for their personal interests which ultimately affect others’ well-being. It affects employee performance and leads toward turnover. The purpose of this study is to examine how narcissistic leadership can impact subordinates’ job-related outcomes.MethodData are collected from 310 banking professionals using Likert scale survey questionnaire and analyzed through SEM using AMOS.ResultsResults show that narcissistic leadership has a negative impact on subordinate job satisfaction and well-being, whereas a positive relationship with stress and intentions to quit. However, its relationship with job performance was observed to be insignificant.ConclusionBosses with narcissistic tendencies drive hardworking employees away. The initial problem in narcissistic individuals is their elevated ego. To reverse the trend of narcissism, changes should be made at different levels, i.e., home, school, college or university. In order to tackle narcissism at work place, different established strategies can be used to deal with such individual/leader.

Does leader narcissism hinder employees taking charge? An affective events theory perspective

Prior studies have shown that leaders' personality traits potentially have positive effects on employees' taking-charge behaviors; however, in this context, the negative influence of leaders' dark personality traits has largely been neglected in research. On the basis of affective events theory, we proposed a moderated mediation model to explain the impact of leader narcissism on employees' taking-charge behavior Through a 3-stage leader–follower dyadic research design, we collected 195 responses to a survey. The results indicate that leader narcissism had a significant negative effect on employees' taking-charge behavior via the mediator of employees' work engagement, and that leader narcissism decreased employees' work engagement when employees' self-reported proactive personality was low. In addition, the indirect effect of employee work engagement on leader narcissism and taking charge was stronger when employees' self-reported proactive personality was low. Our results have implications for preventing the negative effects of narcissistic leadership and promoting employees' taking-charge behavior.

When “Me” Trumps “We”: Narcissistic Leaders and the Cultures They Create

Research has shown that a leader’s personality can affect organizational culture. We focus on leader narcissism and examine how it affects two specific organizational culture dimensions—collaborati...

The influence mechanism of narcissistic leadership on the formation process of team creativity: A multi-perspective study

The influence mechanism of narcissistic leadership on the formation process of team creativity: A multi-perspective study

I'm simply the best, better than all the rest: Narcissistic leaders and corporate fundraising success

We examine the relationship between leader grandiose narcissism, composed of admiration and rivalry, and corporate fundraising success in a sample of 2377 organizational leaders. To examine a large sample of leaders, we applied a machine-learning algorithm to predict leaders' personality scores based on leaders' Twitter profiles. We found that admiration was positively related to - while rivalry was negatively related to corporate fundraising success (in '000s). Analyses also showed that leader gender does not moderate this relationship, unlike initially expected. We discuss and compare our findings to previous work on narcissism and crowdfunding.

Stuck in the Past or Striving for the Future? When Leader Narcissism Trigger Team Radical Creativity

Employing a construal level framework, the current research examines how leader narcissism and leader future orientation interact to shape leader willingness to cannibalize, and the downstream implications of these effects for team radical creativity. Data from a multisource (leaders and followers), time-lagged survey of 82 teams shows that the interaction of leader narcissism and leader future orientation is associated with team radical creativity via leader willingness to cannibalize. Specifically, narcissistic leaders having future orientation particularly prefer to cannibalize, and the willingness to cannibalize helps increase team’s radical creativity as a result.

Socialization from Socializing: Interpersonal Influences on Newcomer Socialization

Interpersonal influences, such as those from veteran employees, supervisors, and fellow newcomers, may significantly impact newcomers’ socialization effectiveness. This symposium presents four papers that particularly focus on how these socialization agents’ individual characteristics, cognition toward newcomers, and social networks with newcomers shape the progress of newcomer socialization. Dim Receptions: How Newcomer Competence in the Eyes of Their Veteran Peers Affect Socialization Presenter: Artemis Boulamatsi; Southern Methodist U. Presenter: Nikolaos E. Dimotakis; Oklahoma State U. Presenter: Songqi Liu; Georgia State U. Presenter: Blake Runnalls; U. of Nebraska, Lincoln Narcissistic Leaders and Their Newcomers? The Interplay between Different Facets of Narcissism Presenter: Haiyang Liu; London School of Economics and Political Science Presenter: Jack Ting-Ju Chiang; Peking U. Presenter: Mo Wang; U. of Florida Presenter: Siting Wang; Hong Kong Baptist U. Is Socializing Newcomers Stressful? Examining the Effect of Socialization Behavior on Veteran Stress Presenter: Lilang Chen; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presenter: Yihao Liu; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presenter: Yijue Liang; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presenter: Yuan Sun; ZheJiang GongShang U. Interpersonal Relationships among Peer Newcomers and Newcomer Adjustment Process Presenter: Le Zhou; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Jin Sung Park; Carlson School of Management Presenter: John Kammeyer-Mueller; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Pri Pradhan Shah; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Elizabeth Margaret Campbell; U. of Minnesota

Narcissism and Leadership: What we can learn from a case-study of Silvio Berlusconi

There has been a sustained interest in personality of politicians, in particular aversive personality traits such as psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism. To overcome the hurdle of limited acces when studying political leaders, it is argued that psychodiagnostic meta-analysis methodologies can be applied in combination with validated psychological instruments. In this study the focus will be on a hypothesised narcissistic leader: Italy’s ex prime-minister Silvio Berlusconi. Using the Million Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC) by Immelman (2004) as the at-a-distance psychodiagnostic meta-analysis tool to assess the overall personality, scales associated with narcissism will be compared to results on the well established Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to test the usability and relevance of an extended psychodiagnostic meta-analysis scale to specifically assess narcissism in political leaders. Results of the study verify that the ambitious scale of the MIDC, which is defined as the correlate with narcissism, is not sufficient to verify the presence of narcissistic traits, as hypothesised by expert-opinions. Implications of these findings are further discussed.

Double binds, dissociation, and attachment to the perpetrator in families and oppressive groups

Dependence on a traumatising, narcissistic leader creates double binds for members of oppressive religious and political groups much as it does for the children of a traumatising caregiver. These double binds result in disorganised attachment to the perpetrator. In order to survive, the dependent person must focus, with exquisite attention, on every word, action, thought, and desire of the narcissist. In the process, the dependent often loses all sense of self and agency. To cope with the competing demands of this double bind, two dissociated self-states are developed: 1) a subservient, idealising state to maintain attachment, and 2) a self-protective state that preserves power by identifying with the aggressor. A similar process may take place when members of oppressive groups become dependent on a traumatising leader. Members are kept in a state of fear, continuously activating their attachment systems, which motivates them to stay close and look to the leader for protection. They may be induced to accept the leader's unethical behaviour blindly and doubt their own perceptions of reality. Examples of attachment to the abuser in families and in two cult-like groups, the Nation of Islam, led by Malcolm X, and the Naropa Institute under Chögyam Trungpa, are discussed.

“AYNA AYNA, SÖYLE BANA! VAR MI BENDEN GÜZELİ BU DÜNYADA?” ÖRGÜTLERDE NARSİST LİDERLER VE ONLARIN ÇALIŞANLARIN İŞ DAVRANIŞLARINDAKİ ÖNEMLİ ETKİLERİ

The destructive aspects of leadership and how dysfunctional leaders can jeopardize an organization’s culture and values have been a trend topic in business management recently. The personality traits that are associated with leader failure mainly come with the Dark Triad traits: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Narcissism covers some attitudes and behaviors such as an admiration for oneself, self-love, extreme selfishness, arrogance, grandiosity and superiority upon others. As narcissism is described as one of the undesired personality traits, unhealthy conditions and destructive consequences can easily be occurred when the narcissistic leaders get authorization and come into action in organizations. It’s clear that narcissistic leaders are only interested in him/herself and they usually think that the world is revolving on the axis of “self” and without their leadership, the organization cannot reach its full potential and disappear in the end. In this conceptual paper, narcissism and narcissistic leaders will be identified and their tactics will be revealed in detail. Then, the common attitudes and behaviors they engage in and reflect others will be outlined and in the conclusion section, the precautions that can be taken to prevent form narcissistic leaders and the ways to reduce their negative effects on employee work behaviors in organizations will be listed and recommendations will be made thoroughly

Narcissistic Leadership, Employee Silence, and Organizational Cynicism: A Study of Physicians in Egyptian Public Hospitals

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on physicians in four public hospitals located in Egypt to explore the effect of narcissistic leadership on cognitive, affective and behavioral cynicism dimensions with and without the mediating effect of physician silence.The authors employed a convenience sampling in which every physician was handed a questionnaire form to fill. This targeted a decrease in the likelihood of research bias. In total, the authors distributed 320 forms and collected 229 completed questionnaires forms. The structural equation was employed to determine the effect of narcissistic leadership on physicians’ organizational cynicism dimensions (cognitive, affective and behavioral). The same equation was later employed to assess the mediating role of the physicians’ silence on the aforementioned relationship. The authors found that narcissistic leadership has a positive effect on physicians’ silence. Moreover, physicians’ perceptions of the narcissism of their leaders stimulate their cynicism behavior and negative feelings towards these narcissists. Lastly, the authors discovered a significant role for physicians’ silence in mediating the relationship between narcissistic leadership and physicians’ cognitive, affective and behavioral cynicism.