The Two Faces of Narcissistic Leaders: An Examination of the Roles of Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry in Understanding When and How Leader Narcissism Relates to Leadership Effectiveness

Ph.D. Candidate Jae Young Choi of Management Department will be defending his dissertation titled, “The Two Faces of Narcissistic Leaders: An Examination of the Roles of Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry in Understanding When and How Leader Narcissism Relates to Leadership Effectiveness” on 06/17/2021.

The time and location of his dissertation defense is 10:30AM – 12:30PM, ZOOM.

Many thanks to Jae Young’s dissertation committee: • Committee Chair: Christian Resick – Associate Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: Jonathan Ziegert – Associate Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: Lauren D’Innocenzo – Associate Professor- Drexel University • Committee Member: Jade Lo – Associate Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: In-Sue Oh – Professor – Temple University

Abstract Previous research has produced inconsistent findings on whether narcissism is beneficial or detrimental for leader success. While narcissistic leaders are sometimes perceived as unique and charming, they often fail to develop and maintain social, interpersonal relationships with their employees. Do narcissistic traits aid or derail leadership effectiveness is a question that largely remains unanswered. The study aims to disentangle the relationship between leader narcissism and leadership effectiveness. I postulated that the reason for the inconsistent finding is three-fold. First, prior leadership research has treated narcissism as a unitary construct, overlooking the potential for differential effect among its facets. Second, leader narcissistic traits are expressed as responses to trait-relevant cues provided by subordinate’s behaviors toward the leader. Third, leader behaviors are more proximal to effectiveness outcomes than leader traits and, thus, would be more predictive of leadership effectiveness. In this study, I draw on the narcissistic admiration and rivalry concept, trait activation theory, and the integrated model of leader traits, behaviors, and effectiveness to address those three reasons. I proposed that the interaction effect of leader narcissistic admiration and employee ingratiation is positively related to leader individualized supportive behavior. In contrast, the interaction effect of leader narcissistic rivalry and employee challenge voice is positively related to leader authoritarian behavior. Furthermore, I proposed that those leader behaviors are differently related to leadership effectiveness and mediate the conditional effects of narcissistic admiration and rivalry on leadership effectiveness. To test the hypothesized relationship, I conducted a two-wave study with a sample of 98 employees and their 31 leaders from three firms in South Korea. This study builds on prior theoretical and empirical work on leader narcissism to identify and test the dualistic nature of leader narcissism and the differential effects of narcissistic admiration and rivalry on leadership effectiveness. Furthermore, this study probes deeper into the leader narcissism−leadership effectiveness relationship by suggesting the underlying mechanism of leader behavior moderated by employee behavior toward the leader. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, along with limitations and directions for future research.