Leadership Foundational and Critical Perspectives - Literature review Example

Leadership Foundational and Critical Perspectives First and Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………….... 3 Understanding narcissistic leadership……………………………………………….... 3 Central ideas in the leadership literature……………………………………………….6 Pros and cons of a narcissist leader within organization……………………………….6 Character traits and narcissistic leadership………………………………………….... 8 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………. 12 Works cited…………………………………………………………………………… 14 Introduction With numerous leaders that known to the world from times of Ancient Rome and Greece legends and to the present individuals who are the example to follow for millions of people, there is a great purpose of studying the leadership. It allows one to learn from the history not to repeat the mistakes of others or ignore the lessons for further success (Zehndorfer, 2013). Along with it, the study of leadership enables people to understand the complex interplay of situations where leadership contributes to and consider what role of leader plays in the modern society and how one should identify and cultivate good leadership skills and capabilities. The other purpose to study leadership is to understand whether effective leaders possess certain traits that make one effective or whether there are destructive characteristics that cause conflicts within certain environment. Lipman-Blumen (2004) states that leadership is often perceived as the action directed toward or against others, however, it should be viewed as the interaction between leaders and their followers if such exist. However, being a destructive leader, it causes poor managerial decisions and demeaning of others, control and inability to accept themselves as destructive individuals. Thus, personalized and socialized leaders search for self-meaning and self-worth in the way of resorting to force and threats to sustain their leadership. They use strength of charismatic trait which is closely to quality of narcissistic leader, the destructive tendencies of which emerge as sensitivity to criticism, poor listening and lack of empathy. Understanding narcissistic leadership Brunell et al (2008) identify the main role of charisma in the connection of narcissistic leadership to be more successful in positions where such extraversion trait is important during mass events such as political campaigns and during the instable times. What is peculiar to narcissistic leader is the desire to feel self-worthiness and expectations of admiration of others while they foster a belief in their own superior intelligence. They are also able to establish relationship-initiations skills and have a desire for social status and power in the situations that are ego involving. Brunell et al (2008) state that while being self-oriented, narcissistic leadership leads in an autocratic, exploitative and self-serving manner, where it has opportunity to display unethical and despotic behavior. Despite many accusations toward narcissistic leaders, however, researchers state charisma allows such leaders to be great visionaries (Rugg-Gunn, n.d.). It is represented in the ability of a leader to communicate, persuade, influence and listen to others. It also positively impacts the subordinates’ motivation. At the same time, narcissism related to charisma and despotic type of leadership reflects either despotic or challenging behavior of certain person and brings on as positive as negative outcome for the followers. Most leaders have rare beliefs in presence of leadership styles and systems. However, that does not free the notion of “narcissistic grandiosity” (Rosenthal, 2005). In the past years the notion of narcissism suggested by numerous scholars was associated with the independent developmental sequence that stretched from early childhood. When it was developed in a healthy way, mature narcissistic structures produced creative and humor behavior, however, according to Rosenthal (2005), pathological narcissism appeared in case if one was unable to integrate the idealized views to the common sense of being normal and relation to adequateness. Rosenthal and Pittinsky (2006) state that the application of narcissism in the study of leadership was derived from the reflection of the term narcissism which was characterized by the unflappable strength, confidence and arrogance sometimes that transformed into self-inflation and self-admiration. However, there were considerations of narcissism as not the pathological one that occurred of one’s inability to adjust to changes. In different historic times, visionary business leaders were facing challenges of meeting new ideas and accepting revolutionary technology and innovations. In the present, the continual technological and social change the narcissistic leadership emerges to capture the opportunities and new visions that make the followers to be a part of something bigger. Narcissistic leaders transformed into obsessive leaders who called organizations to combine mature operations with risky innovation (Maccoby, 2012). Besides, in the societal crisis, narcissistic leaders are essential as they are able to group people of the ideal-hungry followers and then separate the wounded society. Suggestions are also about that chaotic business world needs leaders who instead of playing the role of foundation to the companies, could promote changes and were great at visionaries and innovations. In such case, these leaders are productive narcissists that shape the future rather than understand it (Rosenthal, 2005). While leadership has been the topic of jot debated in the last decades, the wrong leadership within certain organization predisposes some misinterpretations of the leaders. For that reason, there is a need to closely examine the bad leadership and understand what occurred within organization that such situation appeared. Schyns and Hansbrough (2010) argue that excessive narcissism leads to the self-focus and pursuits the unreal fantasies of the power need and dominance. With such dangerous specification, the leader’s charisma is something that attracts the followers. However, they are involved into activities that are not stated by themselves, rather action are imposed by the narcissistic leader. The high esteem is built then in weak foundation and as a result often dismisses the feedback, externalize blame and turns into aggressive challenge. The importance of studying about leadership narcissism comes from the potential negative impact of such trait toward today’s organizational performance. It is essential to realize the behavior of executives dictated by many factors within and outside the organization as leaders still have many options for their strategic choices and such latitude attracts narcissistic leaders to execute their work as they wish serving their personal needs for control. In addition, the attention should also be given to executive narcissism with the understanding of narcissistic leader’s tendencies and styles (Schyns & Hansbrough, 2010). Central ideas in the leadership literature Pynnönen and Takala (2013) state there is no clear vision or definition of a bad leader, rather there are numerous negative consequences of wrong organized work and abuse as the result of such situation. One of way in categorization of bad leadership is divided into such groups as tyranny, abusive supervision, different types of destructive leadership and research related to personalized charisma. The study is based in theoretical framework where organization ethics, which constitute values, morale and motives, are divided into four segments. Thus, tyrants are obsessed with power and despotically type of leadership, the destructive leaders are those derailed and laissez-faire types of leadership. Additionally, there is a dark side of leaders’ personality where personalized charisma and narcissism are placed. Rosenthal and Pittinsky (2006), Moradi (2013) and Samier and Schmidt (2010) consider narcissism when applied negatively within certain organization is the most destructive personality trait that effect leadership as the ability of person to lead others. It is associated with arrogance and envy; there are evidences of feeling of entitlement and weak self-esteem which bear hostility in the leader authority. Being motivated by personal needs, such leaders do not pay attention on needs of others and neglect supporting them. Besides, the narcissistic leader is unable to reflect and evaluate own actions and behavior due to the self-rightness (Hamstra, n.d.). Pros and cons of a narcissistic leader within organization Numerous evidence from literature show that narcissism is the bad type of leadership that harmfully impacts the performance of any team or organization. However, it is also seen as the common good leadership where focus is made on the prominent leaders such as Larry Ellision, the Oracle CEO or other famous leaders, such as Steve Jobs. While Rosenthal and Pittinsky (2006) state about the need for strong-willed people to succeed in changeable times, it is often he followers who pick such leaders and follow their style where narcissism is the part of leadership behavior. In the modern context of leadership, being innovative and be able to inspire others is the great advantage for the organization. Here the ability of narcissistic leaders is represented in the ability to show off good sides of charisma and confidence. Healthy display of charisma can have positive effect on followers. Brunell (2008) states that it is because of the narcissists have skills to meet the challenge, this type of leaders is able to have more followers and shape the future where the new rules will be developed. Maccoby (2012) points out that narcissistic leader has a strong level of charisma that can stir i=up the reaction of the audience and thus inspire the vision of people. Such skills are getting often through turbulent times and are the needed options for the present time leaders. In addition, modern companies should be more risk takers to be achievement oriented and meet more needs. For that purpose, narcissistic leaders can bring the most into the business landscape of a particular organization. Maccoby (2004) stated about the recognition of narcissism as the dark side of leadership where there are emotionally isolated and highly distrustful activities of one person directed toward others. He states that Freud pointed on the narcissists to be the hardest types of people to analyze. Yes, Maccoby (2004) shifted Freud’s views about narcissism and recognized all people to be narcissistic. Examining productive side of narcissism, the evidence is for the creative strategists to see the bigger picture and find meaning in the risky conditions and meeting challenges. Such activities are associated with the nature of narcissist. In addition, it is up to narcissist to push the idea into mass and transform the society toward new changes. Within organization, narcissists are charmers able to convert people with their rhetoric. The only negative side of productive narcissists can be seen when such leaders have no self-knowledge, because then they set the unrealistic targets and act more like dreamers (Maccoby, 2004). It is also worth mentioning that narcissists within organization are the “helm” of modern companies that face challenges. However, in leading the entire company, these types of leaders are not able to make fast decisions and virtually it is complicated to make such decisions alone. Character traits and narcissistic leadership The growing interest to narcissistic leadership has emerged in the last several years. The effect of their impact on organizational performance left questions without answers. It is called by the characteristics of narcissistic leaders and traits such as dominance, self-confidence and low empathy, where the evidence reveals that individuals with these characteristics become leaders more often. In addition, they are capable to make more risky decisions. OReilly, Doerr, Caldwell and Chatman (2013) suggest that such traits may be called by the level of compensation which is allocated within certain management team. While there is certain some controversy in narcissism to be the most accurately assessed and dimension for effective leader, clinical evaluations of narcissism point out the two broad forms of grandiose narcissism that reflects traits related to grandiosity and dominance the vulnerable narcissism of which is defined by defensive responses of negative affect (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003). In terms of personality dimensions, grandiose narcissism has the higher extraversion level and lower agreeableness in connection with anxiety, self-consciousness, depression and low levels of self-esteem. Individuals with high on measures of grandiose narcissism are perceived as narcissistic; at the same time those of high on vulnerable narcissism are not considered narcissists. Studies (Mainah & Perkins, n.d ) have also revealed that leaders hold implicit theories about the attributes of an effective leader and embody many of such attributes as they have the necessary characteristics to be effective leaders. In addition, such traits as energy, dominance, self-confidence and charisma are reliably associated with the leader effectiveness. Studies of leader emergence have also shown narcissists to be chosen as leaders within situations in which their characteristics of the narcissist outweigh the disadvantages. Such traits are most noticeably during periods of crisis, when narcissistic leaders have confidence to assert a point of view to others that allow all to succeed and the leader to be more self-reflective. At the same time Rosenthal and Pittinsky (2006) mention that while empathy is rather an inability of narcissistic leaders to understand others, it can be inimical to good leadership. This is the result of emotional intelligence trait where leadership quality is more important as other harder traits such as toughest. Evidence shows that not emotional abilities are necessary for the leader but a precursor to other emotional abilities. Narcissism traits are also compared to Machiavellianism and realpolitik, the participants of which are able to think flexibility and behave the certain way. However, contrary to Machiavellianism and realpolitik, leadership with narcissism pattern is associated with fantasies more grounded as they are providing such leaders the part of personality to consider. Campbell, Hoffman, Campbell and Marchisio (2011) connect the traits of narcissism with those as a personality disorder, where arrogant and haughty behaviors are among the major symptoms of narcissism. What is more interesting, narcissism is able to cause distress or impairment, where lack of empathy and exploitation of others and the normal and reasonable work is considered the predisposition of narcissism as a personality disorder. Day (2014) states, that the most negative aspect of narcissism within organization is that leaders’ act in the angered manner, they jealous of others who obtain any attention and respect. They start believing themselves to be misunderstood. In such a case colleagues found the narcissistic leaders to distort the perspective of themselves as good leaders. While the healthy narcissism allows the manager to be a good citizen within a company, excessive narcissism is negatively related to the completion of leaders’ work. Boutelle (2015) considers arrogant, grandiose visions, wrong sense of fulfillment and special unique skills of narcissist leader to be the main qualities that most people do not want to see in their leader. For any company such set of bad traits inflict damage to the organization activities. However, it is up to leader with narcissistic tendencies to be capable to achieve the highest potential of leadership. In addition, charisma and ability to persuade others gives this side of leadership ability to build something new and innovative. The leader with narcissism tendency is usually good in short-term situation, during the meeting with people one sees for the first time. They are also great in interview situations because are capable to come over the frames of usual discussion. However at personal level they behave not in a friendly manner, while their professional involvement looks like gambling because they consider themselves right and accept no failures. Within the modern business environment, more CEO’s are those narcissists regarding their behavior toward subordinates and peers (Gims, 2014). One article (Jackson, 2012) reported about the findings of the modern business participants in what means to work with the narcissistic CEO. The findings revealed that while organizational researchers do not believe in executive narcissism, it has effects on substantive organizational outcomes that potentially include the strategic and submissive top management team. Within business performance, such narcissism effects strategy, structure and staffing. Such leaders see the entitlement as getting more respect, they use authority to be in the center of attention, arrogance- to show that they are better, self-admiration for preoccupying themselves as special working unit. However, as Jackson (2012) reports, more narcissistic leaders spend more on advertising and research and development, they are at ease to take more dept. More narcissistic CEOs use acquisitions and pay many premiums for the companies they purchase. At the same time, Forbes (Jackson, 2012) reports that narcissistic leaders are less responsive to the recent objective measures, instead they continue to make more acquisitions. In addition, highly narcissistic CEOs are committed to the social praise and increase the pace of acquisitions to respond the social praise. Another article (Hettinger, 2014) reported about the narcissism’s traits to be helpful in leadership positions as they are appealing in the initial stages of acquaintanceship and leadership roles. During the interviews they are not afraid to tell others about the accomplishments and achievements. In the last years the topic of narcissism within organization came under multiple debates, partially because new influential leaders have emerged in the business scale. Hence, there is a reason to discuss the narcissism relationship with the leadership effectiveness and find out whether it promotes good leadership or it makes the organizational processes move slower. After the death of Steve Jobs, much is being talked about his charisma that enabled one man to risk greatly but to achieve as much as few people have in the last decades. Yest, for all the positive traits, Jobs was criticized for the arrogance and abrasive interpersonal style, peculiar for narcissistic leader (Grijalva & Harms, 2014). His mistreating of employees who did not meet the expectations, abusive treatment of subordinates as well as insulted behavior speak about Jobs to be the type of narcissistic leader. Researchers are more aware about the personality traits to play great role in establishing relationships of extraversion, dominance, ambition and excitement-seeking. These traits should be taken into account in the modern business, as new conditions require modern business people to be adjusted to the needs of their stakeholders. For that reason such things like hypersensitivity to criticism, fantasies of unlimited success, entitlement are paid much attention. Despite the achievements of most narcissistic leaders, like Steve Jobs, there is a sense to consider how these people are going to adjust their self-centered ambitions to the ever changeable environment. The other reason for paying much attention to the question of narcissistic leadership is its robust relationship with organizational outcomes, which depend upon the level of leader’s commitment and engagement of its followers. If there is an excessive narcissism within an organization, the company fails to meet any goals and its all participants are left with their failures. Moreover, narcissists’ difficulty in maintaining healthy long-term relationships is called with the high expectations, self-admiring and other elements of leadership narcissism. The current socio-historical context in which organizations are embedded, according to (Grijalva and Harms, 2014), requires leaders be able to react adequately to the changes and make right ethical decisions. For narcissistic leaders such tasks may be unbearable due to selfish business decisions, which highlight the importance of personality traits rather than act in the interests of the community. Some of the positive characteristics of narcissistic leadership are still speaking about the leaders’ abilities to be achievement oriented and stay ahead of other competitors. Their visionary, innovativeness, charisma and ability to shape future are the biggest advantages (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). Studies show that narcissistic leaders may have a big positive impact on a company’s outcome since there is an inspiration thing that makes people to follow and accomplish certain tasks. However, due to the excessive narcissistic nature, this is often only for limited time and leaders tend to live in a hostile environment where there will be strict subordination and no freedom of actions without certain approval. Then, the whole process of organizational activity will be characterized by low effectiveness and low employee satisfaction (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). Conclusion Narcissism as the leadership trait is connected to such negative characteristics such as arrogance, lack of integrity; leader is a poor listener and fail to sympathize its employees (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). That does not stop companies, especially in the present time to prefer more narcissistic leaders, according to Maccoby (2004). They are chosen as they can better cope with the changes of today business if they are aware of own limitations in order to be the best. However, within the ethical climate of organizational culture, codes of conduct and beliefs, most organizational members should hold the ethically currant behavior. Here narcissistic leaders can fail in meeting the ethical behavior as the main objective for them is self-esteem and expression of satisfaction with jobs they consider have high status and more opportunities for self-enhancement. Currently there is a need to study the relationship between the narcissism and entrepreneurial activities and whether the narcissistic traits can be associated with the organizational failure. While many researches give narcissism negative pattern, it is also known that it has positive impact on the modern business environment. While narcissistic traits bring success in entrepreneurial starting, every particular situation of leadership narcissism should be considered. The startups will be more cohesive, if narcissistic leaders will have more submissive subordinates. While in the present time, more employees wish to be free in their ability to make decisions to certain extent, such submissive condition is hard to achieve to the narcissist leader. So far there should be suggested areas for management that will have positive outcome for incorporating narcissism as the measure for respective organizational outcomes. Works cited Brunell, A. 2008. Leader emergence: the case of the narcissistic leader, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Boutelle, C. 2015. Narcissistic Leadership: Good Over the Long Haul? Society for industrial and organizational psychology. Web. April 24, 2015 Campbell, W., Hoffman, B., Campbell, S. and Marchisio, G. 2011. Narcissism in organizational contexts, Human Resource Management Review 21 Day, D. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations, Oxford University Press Dickinson, K. and Pincus, A. 2003. Interpersonal analysis of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, Journal of Personality Disorders, 17(3), 188-207 Grijalva, E. and Harms, P. 2014. Narcissism: An Integrative Synthesis and Dominance, Harms Publications Complementarity Model Gims, C. 2014. Narcissus and Leadership Potential. Norwegian Business School Hamstra, C. n.d. The Dynamic Interplay of Narcissistic Leadership. Web. April 24, 2015. Hettinger, C. 2014. University study finds narcissistic traits may be helpful in leaders, The Daily Illini. Web Jackson, E. 2012. Why narcissistic CEO’ kiss their companies, The Forbes, Web April 25, 2015 Lipman-Blumen, J. 2004. The Allure of Toxic Leaders. Web. April 24, 2015. Maccoby, M. 2004. Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons, Harvard Business Review, Maccoby, M. 2012. Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails, Crown Publishing Group Mainah, F. and Perkins, V. n.d. Narcissism in Organizational Leadership. Web. April 25, 2015 Moradi, M. 2013. Investigating the impact of narcissism on ethical climate in organization, International Journal of Economics, Business and Finance Vol. 1, No. 6 OReilly, C., Doerr, B., Caldwell, D. and Chatman, J. 2013. Narcissistic CEOs and executive compensation, The Leadership Quarterly, 3 Elsevier Inc Rosenthal, S. 2005. Narcissism and Leadership, Center for public leadership. Web. April 25, 2015 Rosenthal, S. and Pittinskiy, T. 2006. Narcissistic leadership, The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 617-633. Rugg-Gunn, M. n.d. Why charismatic leaders are not always the answer? Norman Broadbent Leadership Consulting, Web. April 25, 2015 Schyns, B. and Hansbrough, T. 2010. When Leadership Goes Wrong: Destructive Leadership, Mistakes, and Ethical Failures, IAP Samier, E. and Schmidt, M. 2010. Trust and Betrayal in Educational Administration and Leadership, Routledge Zehndorfer, E. 2013. Leadership: A critical introduction, Routledge Read More