Is employee narcissism always toxic? – The role of narcissistic admiration, rivalry and leaders’ implicit followership theories for employee voice

Helfrich, Hannah; Dietl, Erik

doi:10.1080/1359432x.2019.1575365

Cited by 34 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…In this context, destructive relationships at work, also called toxic, are a wide range of negative acts of violence manifesting themselves as bullying, intolerance, harassment in the workplace, and the like (Neuman, 2000 ; Goldman, 2008 ; Hollis, 2015 ; Milosevic et al, 2019 ). Research also emphasizes toxic employees (Jonason et al, 2012 ; Esaulova and Nagibina, 2017 ; Helfrich and Dietl, 2019 ) initiating destructive interrelationships, the most radical form of which is workplace mobbing—a phenomenon encompassing a wide range of consequences (Topa Cantisano et al, 2007 ; Kozakova et al, 2018 ; Pheko, 2018 ; Erdis et al, 2019 ). The victims experience strong emotional and/or physical suffering (Vartia, 2001 ; Duffy and Sperry, 2007 ; Merilainen et al, 2016 ), and in extreme cases—mobbing—they feel helpless and unable to defend themselves (Nielsen et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Search for Spiritual Assistance in Religious Organizations: What Are the Motives of Persons Who Have Experienced Destructive Relationships at Work?

Vveinhardt

Deikus

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Religious assistance is an effective tool in helping the victims of violence, but so far, it has not been investigated that what promotes the persons aggrieved in the workplace to seek such assistance. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the motives of persons who have experienced destructive relationships, which inspire the search for spiritual assistance in religious organizations, seeking to develop the provision of such service. After the analysis of the scientific literature, a questionnaire “Motives of Persons Aggrieved at Work for Seeking Spiritual Assistance (MP-SSA-40)” was developed and validated. In this study, a survey was conducted on 463 persons working in Lithuanian organizations using the questionnaire survey method. The correlation and regression analyses were performed. The study has shown that the religiosity of the victim is not the only condition for seeking spiritual assistance. Significant factors are the congruence of values borne by the person and the religious organization, the motives arising from the relation with the person providing assistance, and the motives determined by circumstances that create an important contextual background. The established trends show that by solving work-related problems and problems of interpersonal relationships of assistance providers, obstacles hindering the implementation of intrinsic motives of the victim to apply for spiritual assistance to the religious organization, providing it can be removed. The value of the article is demonstrated by the fact that it fills the existing gaps of knowledge about the motives of victims of destructive relationships at work, seeking religious spiritual assistance. In addition, a new and reliable instrument to measure such motives is proposed.

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Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Search for Spiritual Assistance in Religious Organizations: What Are the Motives of Persons Who Have Experienced Destructive Relationships at Work?

Vveinhardt

Deikus

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…Employees tend to perceive higher job meaningfulness if their assessments of the work roles correspond to their desires and values (Steger et al , 2012). As narcissistic employees seek positive stimuli to reinforce their inflated egos (Back et al , 2013; Pincus and Roche, 2011), favorable situational cues can enhance feelings of self-worth and highlight their importance to the organization, therefore strengthening their inclination to feel possessive about their jobs (Helfrich and Dietl, 2019). When perceiving high job meaningfulness, narcissistic employees see themselves as occupants of important and influential work roles (Nevicka et al , 2016).…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Narcissism, a personality trait characterized by inflated self-views and self-centeredness (Back et al , 2013), has drawn increasing attention from organizational researchers (Helfrich and Dietl, 2019). Primarily, narcissists’ egocentric values can lead them to act self-interestedly, aggressively and counterproductively that impede organizational functioning (Grijalva and Newman, 2015; Liu et al , 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bright side of narcissism: elevated ownership and initiative

Mao

Quan

Chiang

et al. 2020

NBRI

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Purpose A plethora of organizational studies have found employee narcissism to be an unfavorable trait that impedes job functioning. Yet, the elevated confidence and self-assuredness associated with the narcissistic personality can also drive individuals to show initiative behavior. This paper aims to investigate how and when employees with narcissistic personalities can potentially contribute positively to effective functioning. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 91 supervisors and 273 subordinates in a corporate setting in central China. To account for the nesting effects, multilevel path analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings Employee narcissism is positively related to psychological ownership, which in turn is positively related to initiative behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, job meaningfulness moderates the indirect effect of employee narcissism on initiative behavior through psychological ownership. Specifically, the indirect effect is more salient when the employee perceives higher, rather than lower, job meaningfulness. Originality/value This study examines how employees with narcissistic personalities can show initiative at work. Specifically, this research uncovers the underlying psychological mechanism as well as the boundary condition that facilitate this process. This study affirms the importance of self-determination for narcissistic employees and sheds light on how these employees can potentially contribute positively to effective functioning. Insights for theory, practice and future research are also discussed.

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“…Different explanations have been proposed for this ‘narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle.’ Recent research has introduced promising new theories into the narcissism leadership landscape: For example, Liu et al (2017) used trait-activation-theory to explain the relation between leader narcissism and self-interested behaviors, others argue that the sub-dimensions of narcissism need to be taken into consideration ( Macenczak et al, 2016 ; Helfrich and Dietl, 2019 ). Yet, the two most promising avenues to explain the narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle are that whether narcissism in leaders is helping or hindering performance depends on (1) the level of narcissism ( Grijalva et al, 2015 ) and (2) the context ( Braun, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narcissistic Leaders–Promise or Peril? The Patterns of Narcissistic Leaders’ Behaviors and Their Relation to Team Performance

2021

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Leader narcissism has attracted substantial attention in leadership research and organizational practice. Yet, the exact relationship between leader narcissism and performance remains unclear. In this paper, we set out to illuminate the narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle. We build on research that points to a curvilinear relationship between leader narcissism and performance and open the black box behind this curvilinear relationship. Thereby, we take into consideration the context, in which narcissistic leaders act, and explore their leadership behaviors in a compelling context: entrepreneurial teams. In a quantitative study, we found that a moderate level of leader narcissism was associated with the best team performance as assessed by the quality of a business plan. In a qualitative follow-up interview study, we explored the patterns of leadership behaviors shown by narcissists to better understand how different behaviors combine into effective versus destructive leadership, shaping team performance eventually. Finally, in an experimental online study using the scenario technique, we investigated the relevance of these leadership patterns associated with different levels of narcissism across contexts. The results of our multi-method and multi-source studies suggest that the most promising avenue to understand the narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle is that it depends on the levels of narcissism and more specifically that it depends on the patterns of behaviors narcissistic leaders show—the context seems to play a less important role.

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Is employee narcissism always toxic? – The role of narcissistic admiration, rivalry and leaders’ implicit followership theories for employee voice

Cited by 34 publications

References 105 publications

Search for Spiritual Assistance in Religious Organizations: What Are the Motives of Persons Who Have Experienced Destructive Relationships at Work?

Search for Spiritual Assistance in Religious Organizations: What Are the Motives of Persons Who Have Experienced Destructive Relationships at Work?

Bright side of narcissism: elevated ownership and initiative

Narcissistic Leaders–Promise or Peril? The Patterns of Narcissistic Leaders’ Behaviors and Their Relation to Team Performance

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