Hardly any group of individuals has received more attention than Chief Executive Officers. They are the most important decision-makers within firms: Leadership & Innovation Management Essay, MU, Ireland

Hardly any group of individuals has received more attention than Chief Executive Officers. They are the most important decision-makers within firms and are accountable for the successes and failures of the companies they lead. Additionally, some CEOs, also known as “CEO superstars” have garnered a substantial following among the general public and have become the faces of their firms.

Due to the prominent and consequential role associated with the CEO position, scholars have increasingly focused their efforts on studying leaders at the top of the hierarchy. In particular, an emergent field of research on CEOs has generated a wealth of insights into their personality traits, with special attention to narcissism.

Narcissism consists of the degree to which an individual expresses a grandiose conception of the self, fantasies of power and success, the envy of
others, manipulative behaviors, and a charming appearance that often
masks maliciousness and little empathy. Because research has shown that
CEOs are particularly prone to narcissistic tendencies.

CEO narcissism rapidly became a hot topic in both academic and practitioner literature, generating a solid foundation of knowledge around the pervasive influence that narcissistic CEOs have on the organizations they lead. The literature has focused on firm-level outcomes, such as strategy and performance, organizational image, and compensation. For instance, narcissistic CEOs have been found to manage higher valued firms and to be willing to commit crimes to make their firm’s performance appear more prosperous.

The strategies they adopt are more likely to be similar to those they have already experienced because they have the tendency to overvalue prior experience and their firms undergo strategic change more frequently. As for compensation, narcissistic CEOs are better remunerated and have a broader pay gap with the executive team, which more likely consists of younger and lower-status individuals who are deferential and easier to control.