The magnificent “I” in business education: evidence from Greece

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the level of narcissism and its individual traits in students who study business, in the particular context of a regional country such as Greece; and, second, to test how several demographic variables are related to narcissism levels. Design/methodology/approach The study consists of a theoretical part on narcissism in business education and an empirical part that was based on a survey conducted with the use of a questionnaire. The analysis includes hypothesis testing and basic statistical tests. Findings Findings suggest that sex, study levels, years of business experience and (personal/family) income do impact specific narcissistic dimensions, which may be a cause for concern both for employers and higher education providers. Research limitations/implications The study was conducted in a regional country, the participants were students of public higher education institutions only and the questionnaire was self-reported, which could lead to likely social desirability effects. Practical implications The investigation of narcissism in the Greek business education might be of interest to business education providers (for providing curriculum that help future managers/leaders to deploy the positive characteristics of narcissism and avoid or not to develop the negative ones) and to future employers to apply more effective human resource practices, i.e. selection, training, rewarding. Originality/value The study at hand aimed to investigate the presence of narcissism and its individual (narcissistic) behavioral dimensions in students studying business in Greece.