Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam.
J Appl Psychol. 2018 Jul;103(7):703-723. doi: 10.1037/apl0000298. Epub 2018 Mar 19.
Although narcissists often emerge as leaders, research has thus far shown inconsistent results on the relationship between leader narcissism and effectiveness in the eyes of followers. Here we draw on leader distance theory (Shamir, 1995) and implicit leader theory (Lord & Maher, 1991) to propose that followers' assessment of a narcissistic leader and followers' overall job attitudes depend on the leader's visibility to the followers. The more opportunities followers have to observe narcissistic leaders the more they will experience these leaders' toxic behavior (e.g., exploitativeness) and the less they will perceive the leader as effective. To test our hypotheses we collected multisource, longitudinal data from 175 retail stores and obtained subjective (followers' perceptions of leader effectiveness and their overall job attitudes) as well as objective (leaders' organizational experience at time of hire, employee absenteeism trends) indices of leader functionality. Results showed that narcissistic leaders had less organizational experience at the time they were hired. Moreover, when followers had fewer opportunities to observe their leader, leader narcissism was positively related to perceived leadership effectiveness and job attitudes. However, when followers had more opportunity to observe their leader, the positive relationship disappeared. Finally, leader narcissism was neither positively nor negatively associated with absenteeism, whereas absenteeism declined over time under non-narcissistic leaders. These findings advance our knowledge of how followers respond to narcissistic leaders and how these leaders function in organizational settings where they have legitimate positions of power. (PsycINFO Database Record
虽然自恋者通常会成为领导者，但迄今为止的研究表明，领导者自恋与追随者眼中的有效性之间的关系并不一致。在这里，我们借鉴领导距离理论（Shamir，1995）和内隐领导理论（Lord & Maher，1991），提出追随者对自恋型领导者的评价和追随者的整体工作态度取决于领导者对追随者的可见度。追随者有更多机会观察自恋型领导者，他们就会更多地体验到这些领导者的毒性行为（例如，剥削性），而对领导者的有效性的感知就会越少。为了检验我们的假设，我们从 175 家零售店收集了多源、纵向数据，并获得了领导者功能的主观（追随者对领导者有效性的看法和他们的整体工作态度）和客观（领导者在招聘时的组织经验、员工缺勤趋势）指标。结果表明，自恋型领导者在被聘用时的组织经验较少。此外，当追随者观察领导者的机会较少时，领导自恋与感知的领导有效性和工作态度呈正相关。然而，当追随者有更多机会观察他们的领导时，这种积极的关系就消失了。最后，领导自恋既与缺勤无关，也与缺勤无关，而在非自恋型领导者的领导下，缺勤率随着时间的推移而下降。这些发现增进了我们对追随者如何回应自恋型领导者以及这些领导者在他们拥有合法权力地位的组织环境中如何发挥作用的认识。
