Hubristic leadership: A review

Abstract

Hubristic leaders over-estimate significantly their own abilities and believe their performance to be superior to that of others; as a consequence, they make over-confident and over-ambitious judgements and decisions. The fact that hubristic leaders tend to be resistant to criticism, and invulnerable to and contemptuous of the advice of others further compounds the problem. In this article, we review conceptual, theoretical and methodological aspects of hubristic leadership research. We examine hubristic leadership from two standpoints: first, from a psychological and behavioural perspective, we review hubris in terms of over-confidence and its relationship to core self-evaluation and narcissism; second, from a psychiatric perspective, we review hubris as an acquired disorder with a distinctive set of symptoms (Hubris Syndrome), the onset of which is associated with the acquisition of significant power. In doing so, we draw distinctions between hubris and several related constructs, such as over-confidence, narcissism, core self-evaluation and pride. Methodologically, we review how hubris and Hubris Syndrome can be recognised, diagnosed and researched, and we explore some of the unique challenges and opportunities hubris research presents. We conclude by offering some directions for future inquiry and recapitulate the practical and pedagogical significance of this vitally important but under-researched leadership phenomenon

The Influence of CEO Hubris on Firm Performance in Indonesia: The Moderating Effects of CEO Power and Board Vigilance

“…The definition of hubris often overlaps with the term high self-esteem (Sadler-Smith et al, 2017), core-self-evaluation (Hiller and Hambrick, 2005), and narcissism (Chatterjee and Hambrick, 2007). High self-esteem is the belief that an individual can carry out a task and that they are entitled to gain benefits from other people's resources, which lack the specific overconfidence features such as excessive pride or arrogance (J. H. Park et al, 2018;Sadler-Smith et al, 2017). Meanwhile, core-self-evaluation (CSE) specifically states that the measure of CSE aligns closely with hubris, but only when the level is high, (i.e Hyper-CSE) (Hiller and Hambrick, 2005;Sadler-Smith et al, 2017).…”

“…Thus, to satisfy a CEO's main objective of keeping his/her position, hubristic CEOs focus on increasing their firms' value and investing in profitable investments, such as innovations or product development, as a way to make sure they are not subject to a takeover (Hirshleifer et al, 2012;J. H. Park et al, 2018;Sadler-Smith et al, 2017). In short, in an active capital market, CEOs' hubris is beneficial for firms' performance.…”

Opportunity creation: Entrepreneurial agency, interaction, and affect

“…Entrepreneurship research has often touched on the issue of hubris (and interest is likely to rise in response to the recent emergence of flamboyant populist politicians) where it is usually associated with overconfidence (Hayward et al, , ) as well as overambition, overweening pride, and contempt for the advice and criticism of others (Claxton, Owen, & Sadler‐Smith, 2014; Sadler‐Smith, Akstinaite, Robinson, & Wray, ). In the guise of overconfidence, hubris has often been seen as a stimulus to opportunity creation (Knight, ).…”

The Value of Autoethnography in Leadership Studies, and its Pitfalls

“…I am aware of only one contemporary case study of a leader who has been claimed to possess strong psychopathic traits (Boddy 2017). Whilst his behaviour appears to differ markedly from those of others that have been reported in the autoethnographic literature on bad leadership, a common element may be a lack of humility, a quality that has been associated with good leadership (Sadler-Smith et al 2016).…”