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Cited by 407Job Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorPersonality Traits and PsychologyEmployee Performance and Leadership

Leader narcissism and follower outcomes: the counterbalancing effect of leader humility.

Owens, Bradley P., Wallace, Angela S., Waldman, David A.·2015·Journal of Applied Psychology
DOI 10.1037/a0038698
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Abstract

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 100(4) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2015-29666-001). The last name of the second author was misspelled in the Online First version of the article. All versions of this article have been corrected.] In response to recent calls to theorize and examine how multiple leader characteristics may work together in their effects, the current research examines how leader narcissism and humility interact to predict perceived leader effectiveness and follower (i.e., direct-report) job engagement and performance. Although an examination of leaders who are narcissistic yet humble may seem oxymoronic and even paradoxical, researchers have suggested that seemingly contradictory personal attributes may exist simultaneously and may actually work together to produce positive outcomes. Results from survey data from followers and leaders working for a large health insurance organization showed that the interaction of leader narcissism and leader humility is associated with perceptions of leader effectiveness, follower job engagement, and subjective and objective follower job performance. Together, these results suggest that narcissistic leaders can have positive effects on followers when their narcissism is tempered by humility.

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Crossref · 10.1037/a0038698

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  • The NPI-16 is psychometrically sound and frequently used to measure narcissism in normal populations.

    “This measure is based on the original 40-item NPI (Raskin and Hall, 1979, 1981), was shown to be psychometrically sound (Ames et al., 2006) and is frequently used to measure narcissism in normal populations (e.g., Peterson et al., 2012; Owens et al., 2015).”

    From Narcissistic Leaders and Their Victims: Followers Low on Self-Esteem and Low on Core Self-Evaluations Suffer Most (2018) · cites this paper as Owens et al., 2015

  • The finding that follower personality moderates the perception of narcissistic leaders provides one explanation for inconsistencies in prior research on followers' evaluations of narcissistic leaders.

    “This provides one explanation as to why prior research has tended to find inconsistencies when looking at followers’ evaluations of their narcissistic leaders, with followers sometimes perceiving narcissistic leaders positively or neutrally (Judge et al., 2006; Nevicka et al., 2011b; Owens et al., 2015) and sometimes negatively (Judge et al., 2006; Martin et al., 2016).”

    From Narcissistic Leaders and Their Victims: Followers Low on Self-Esteem and Low on Core Self-Evaluations Suffer Most (2018) · cites this paper as Owens et al., 2015

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Related

Authors
Owens, B. P., Wallace, A. S., & Waldman, D. A.
Affiliations
  • Brigham Young University (US)
  • University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
  • Arizona State University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Applied Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2015-07
Volume
100
Issue
4
Pages
1203-1213
ISSN
  • 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1854
DOI
10.1037/a0038698
OpenAlex
W2003186364
Cited by
407
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1
FWCI
60.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
correction (2015-07-13)
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
John Templeton Foundation (29630)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employee Performance and Leadership
Keywords
leader narcissism, leader humility, leader-follower interaction
MeSH terms
Work Performance, Adult, Employment, Female, Humans, Leadership, Male, Narcissism, Personality

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