Leaders behaving badly: the relationship between narcissism and unethical leadership

Purpose Narcissism is often cited as a construct that is likely related to unethical leadership. Still, only a handful of empirical studies have examined the relationship between narcissism and workgroup outcomes, and practically none have linked narcissism to leader behaviors. The purpose of this p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLeadership & organization development journal Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 333 - 346
Main Authors Blair, Carrie A, Helland, Katherine, Walton, Bill
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 01.01.2017
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Subjects
Behavior
Citizenship
Communication
Corporate culture
Ethics
Leadership
Narcissism
Performance appraisal
Personality
Ratings & rankings
Studies
Leader derailment
Leadership
Leader development
Narcissism
Assessment center
Unethical leadership
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Summary:Purpose Narcissism is often cited as a construct that is likely related to unethical leadership. Still, only a handful of empirical studies have examined the relationship between narcissism and workgroup outcomes, and practically none have linked narcissism to leader behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to use narcissism scores to predict behaviors associated with unethical leadership in a controlled setting. Design/methodology/approach Participants completed a measure of narcissistic personality. Participants also completed an administrative assessment center (AC). Qualitative analysis was used to code the behaviors in the AC into dimensions associated with unethical leader behavior. Findings Narcissism was related to the display of unethical behaviors during the AC. Scores on the narcissism scale correlated positively with behaviors associated with unethical leadership, including one-way communication, control of power, insensitivity to others, an unrealistic assessment of the environment, manipulative communication, and pseudo-transformational behaviors. Originality/value This is one of only a few studies that demonstrate a relationship between narcissism and observed unethical “bad” leader behaviors. Quantifying this relationship suggests that measures of narcissism could be used in leadership selection. Quantifying this relationship could also be used by coaches as they work to improve leader behavior.
ISSN:0143-7739
1472-5347
DOI:10.1108/LODJ-09-2015-0209