Narcissistic Leaders Can Reduce Collaboration

Prof. Jennifer Chatman, along with her colleagues conducted research that revealed that narcissistic leaders can reduce collaboration within the organization and lower the organization’s effectiveness.

Chatman and her colleagues studied the CEOs of large companies through experiments and a field study to find that narcissistic leaders work against collaborative and ethical behaviors. They do not support pay equity or promote teamwork. Rather, their behaviour encourages exactly the opposite and they also do not take action against team members who behave the same way.

The exploitative behavior of narcissistic leaders can reduce collaboration and can continue to affect the organization when they are gone. The effect of their behavior can lead to dramatically lower levels of collaboration and a sense of ethics.