Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Living Edition
| Editors: Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Todd K. Shackelford

Narcissism and Leadership

  • Anna Z. CzarnaEmail author
  • Barbara Nevicka
Living reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2334-1
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Synonyms

Dark triad and leadership; Destructive leadership; Narcissism and power; Narcissistic leaders

Definition

Close your eyes and imagine an ideal leader. What would that image look like? What kind of characteristics come to mind? Dominance, confidence, high self-esteem, and extraversion are characteristics that are most commonly associated with people’s image of a leader. Interestingly, narcissistic individuals fit this leader image fairly well, which might explain why they tend to emerge as leaders in groups. However, merely rising to a leadership position is not enough – it matters whether narcissists are effective as leaders. Importantly, in addition to their leader-like characteristics, narcissists possess a host of negative characteristics, such as lack of empathy, exploitativeness, arrogance, inability to deal with criticism, and aggressive tendencies. It is because of these characteristics that the behavior of narcissistic leaders can have negative ramifications for their...

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Notes

Acknowledgments

The present work was supported by grant no. 2015/19/B/HS6/02214 from the National Science Center, Poland, awarded to the first author.

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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Social CommunicationJagiellonian UniversityKrakowPoland
  2. 2.Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural SciencesUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands

Section editors and affiliations

  • Virgil Zeigler-Hill
    • 1
  1. 1.Oakland UniversityRochesterUSA