Last modified: 2017-08-21
Abstract
Many CEOs and corporate senior executives are afflicted with the trait of narcissism. In the last decade, narcissism and its influence on leader behaviors and their organizations has gained attention in scholarly research. Research on trait narcissism among corporate leaders adheres to two camps. In the first, narcissism is only negative and harmful to the business and its stakeholders.  The alternative perspective is that narcissism can be beneficial for organizations and argues that managing and not restraining narcissistic leaders is the optimal path. Some of the problem is that research has not fully investigated narcissism’s relationship to objective measures of corporate performance. Only then, can the scholar understand its true impact. This paper is an effort to augment knowledge by exploring the association between the trait narcissistic CEO and specific corporate objective measures. The paper explores the relationship between the narcissism ratings of 67 CEOs and corporate performance measures of their respective organizations.