Narcissists successfully emerge as leaders. However, the processes by which this occurs are mostly unknown. Following a dual-pathway approach and differentiating between agentic (narcissistic admiration) and antagonistic (narcissistic rivalry) narcissism, we investigated the behavioral processes underlying narcissists’ leadership emergence in social groups. We applied data from a multimethodological laboratory study ( N = 311) comprising three groups of variables: personality traits, expressed interaction behaviors, and interpersonal perceptions. Prior to the laboratory sessions, participants provided self-reported answers to various narcissism measures. Interpersonal perceptions were obtained from round-robin ratings after participants completed the Lost on the Moon task in small groups. Participants’ behaviors during the group discussion were videotaped and coded by trained raters. Results supported the notion of a pathway from agentic narcissism to leadership (measured as target effects of being seen as a leader) determined by narcissistic admiration, dominant-expressive behavior, and being seen as assertive. To clarify narcissism’s relationship to leadership emergence, the effects were (a) contrasted with narcissism’s effects on popularity and (b) set in relation to process pathways leading from intelligence and physical attractiveness to leadership. The findings underscore the benefits of a behavioral pathway approach for unravelling the impact of narcissism on leadership emergence.

Boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, more than ever, an organization’s success depends on its teleworkers’ performance. However, little attention has been paid to the individual strategies implemented by teleworkers to achieve goals such as drawing boundaries between work- and private-life, working task-oriented and productively, and keeping social contact. We collected quantitative survey data of 548 teleworkers indicating their implementation of 85 telework strategies derived from scientific literature and popular media (e.g., working in a separate room, wearing work clothes at home), self-reported job performance, boundary management preferences, and telework experience. We identified (a) the implementation of telework strategies, (b) associations with job performance, (c) divergences between the implementation and the performance association, and (d) moderating influences of boundary management preferences and telework experience. The results suggest that the most implemented telework strategies tend to be the ones most positively associated with job performance. These telework strategies serve goals related to working task-oriented and productively by adopting a conducive work attitude as well as keeping social contact by using modern communication technology rather than goals related to drawing boundaries between work- and private-life. The findings underscore the benefits of expanding a narrow focus on telework strategies stemming from boundary theory to unravel telework strategies’ puzzling impacts on (tele-) work outcomes. Also, taking a person-environment fit perspective appeared to be a promising approach to tailor evidence-based best practice telework strategies to teleworkers’ individual preferences and needs (boundary management preferences and telework experience).

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