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Employee narcissism and promotability prospects
Barbara Nevicka1, Constantine Sedikides2
1Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Journal of Personality
|January 23, 2021
Summary
Narcissistic employees are perceived as more powerful, leading to higher promotability ratings. Their demonstrated sense of power, not self-promotion, explains their rise in organizations.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Narcissistic individuals frequently attain influential positions.
- Upward mobility in organizations often depends on supervisor evaluations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between employee narcissism and supervisor-assessed promotability.
- To test whether perceived power or self-promotion explains this relationship.
Main Methods:
- Two multisource studies (N=166 employees, 93 supervisors; N=128 employees, 85 supervisors) measured narcissism, sense of power, impression management, and promotability.
- An experiment (N=181) tested the causal effect of sense of power on promotability.
Main Results:
- Narcissism positively predicted both self-promotion and sense of power.
- Sense of power, not self-promotion, significantly explained the positive link between narcissism and promotability.
Conclusions:
- Employees high in narcissism project a greater sense of power.
- This perceived power influences supervisor ratings, explaining narcissistic individuals' career advancement.
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