Nevicka Barbara, De Hoogh Annebel H B, Den Hartog Deanne N, Belschak Frank D
Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2018 Mar 29;9:422. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00422. eCollection 2018.
Narcissistic leaders are self-absorbed and hold beliefs of entitlement and superiority. Their aggressive tendencies in the face of criticism and inclinations to validate their self-worth by derogating others may lead others to perceive them as being abusive. Here, we test the relationship between leader narcissism and followers' perceptions of abusive supervision. Drawing upon research related to the behavioral plasticity hypothesis, we propose that followers with low self-esteem will perceive narcissistic leaders as more abusive than those with high self-esteem. Followers low on self-esteem are more insecure, more in need of approval from their supervisor and are more likely to interpret the haughty, derogatory attitude of narcissistic leaders as abusive. Such followers also make for 'easier targets' and thus may actually suffer more abusive behavior from their narcissistic leaders. In a first multi-source study of 85 leaders and 128 followers, we found support for the moderating role of follower self-esteem in the relationship between leader narcissism and perceived abusive supervision: Narcissistic leaders were rated as more abusive by followers who were low on self-esteem, but not those higher on self-esteem. In a second multi-source field study among 177 leader-follower dyads, we tested a moderated mediation model and showed that this finding also holds for the broader concept of follower core self-evaluations as a moderator. Abusive supervision, in turn, was related to lower follower performance and followers experiencing more burnout symptoms. Thus, followers low on self-esteem or low on core self-evaluations seem to suffer most from narcissistic leaders as they perceive them to be abusive and, in turn, these followers show reduced performance and more burnout symptoms when working for such leaders. This research thus identifies an important moderator that might help reconcile previous inconsistent findings regarding perceptions of narcissistic leaders.
自恋型领导者自我专注，秉持着权利和优越感的信念。他们面对批评时的攻击性倾向，以及通过贬低他人来验证自我价值的倾向，可能会让他人觉得他们具有辱骂性。在此，我们检验领导者自恋与下属对辱骂性监督的认知之间的关系。基于与行为可塑性假设相关的研究，我们提出，自尊水平低的下属会比自尊水平高的下属更将自恋型领导者视为具有辱骂性。自尊水平低的下属更缺乏安全感，更需要上级的认可，并且更有可能将自恋型领导者傲慢、贬低的态度理解为辱骂。这类下属也更容易成为“目标”，因此实际上可能遭受来自自恋型领导者更多的辱骂行为。在第一项针对85名领导者和128名下属的多源研究中，我们发现了下属自尊在领导者自恋与感知到的辱骂性监督之间的关系中所起的调节作用：自尊水平低的下属认为自恋型领导者更具辱骂性，而自尊水平高的下属则不然。在第二项针对177对领导-下属二元组的多源实地研究中，我们测试了一个有调节的中介模型，并表明这一发现对于作为调节变量的下属核心自我评价这一更宽泛概念同样适用。反过来，辱骂性监督与下属较低的绩效以及经历更多倦怠症状相关。因此，自尊水平低或核心自我评价低的下属似乎最容易受到自恋型领导者的影响，因为他们认为这些领导者具有辱骂性，进而，这些下属在为这类领导者工作时表现出绩效下降和更多的倦怠症状。这项研究因此确定了一个重要的调节变量，这可能有助于调和先前关于对自恋型领导者认知的不一致研究结果。
