When CEOs Are All About Themselves: Perceived CEO Narcissism and Middle Managers' Workplace Behaviors Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kim, Jooyoung; Lee, Hun Whee; Gao, He; Johnson, Russell E.
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; Michigan State University's Broad College of Business; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000965
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1283-1298
• 关键词: COVID-19 pandemic; CEO narcissism; social information processing; laissez-faire leadership; Impression management

摘要

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted how businesses operate, creating high levels of uncertainty for organizational members. Drawing on social information processing and implicit leadership theories, we developed and tested a model that explains how middle managers' perceptions of CEO narcissism shape their perceived uncertainty in the workplace, particularly when COVID-19 threatens a firm's survival and growth. Managers' sense of uncertainty leads to their engagement in uncertainty-based coping responses, including laissez-faire leadership (i.e., escape coping) and impression management (i.e., control coping). We collected data from 200 middle managers (Study 1; field survey) and 318 working adults (Study 2; online experiment) in North America and the U.K. and found general support for our model. Our research bridges the gap between micro and macro perspectives and provides novel insights into how perceived CEO narcissism can shape managers' behaviors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby contributing to the literatures on CEO narcissism, leadership, and crisis management.