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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–9Cite as

Narcissism and Leadership

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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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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.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Anna Z. Czarna

  2. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Barbara Nevicka

Authors
  1. Anna Z. Czarna
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  2. Barbara Nevicka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Z. Czarna .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

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Czarna, A.Z., Nevicka, B. (2019). Narcissism and Leadership. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2334-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2334-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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