Different Forms of Narcissism and Leadership

Prior research has revealed relevant associations between narcissism and leadership, but most studies have focused on narcissism as a personality trait and its grandiose dimension. However, other forms of narcissism (e.g., vulnerable, pathological, and communal narcissism) might also be relevant for leadership but have mainly been neglected in leadership research. Therefore, in this research spotlight, I investigate the link between alternative forms of narcissism and leadership criteria such as leader emergence and leader effectiveness. Along with theoretical considerations, I will derive suggestions for future research on these forms of narcissism and leadership.

Motivation to Lead as Mediator of Relations Between the Dark Triad, Big Five, and Leadership Intention

This study seeks to enhance the distal-proximal modeling of personality trait–leader emergence relationships by (1) distinguishing between the motivation to lead (i.e., the reasons why a person seeks leadership roles) and leadership intention (i.e., one’s expressed desire to claim a leadership role) and by (2) examining how the Dark Triad traits add to the Big Five personality factors in predicting three motivation to lead factors and leadership intentions. Using personality and careers aspiration data collected from 750 university students, we found that affective-identity and social-normative motivation to lead mediate the effects of distal traits on intentions. In contrast, non-calculative motivation to lead does not contribute to leadership intentions, which has important implications for organizations seeking selfless leaders. Narcissism explains variance in leadership intentions over and above that explained by extraversion; this contrasts with the studies of leader emergence, where the effect of narcissism disappears once extraversion is controlled. Overall, our findings validate the three-factor conceptualization of motivation to lead and illuminate the roles of both bright and dark personality factors in understanding individual desire to attain leadership roles.

The Emergence of Creative Leaders Within Social Networks: The Case of Andy Warhol in the Art World of New York

The creative leadership literature has identified personality traits, skills, states, and behaviours which are effective within creative contexts and organisations, but it is yet to address how creative leaders emerge from social networks. This conceptual paper delineates the processes of creative leader emergence within the context of contemporary visual arts. Using a relational view of creative leader emergence, this paper incorporates the leader emergence processes of achievement and ascription, and then adjusts them to the context of the art world. We argue that both competence and identity contribute to the status construction of creative leaders by enabling their emergence within social networks. In addition to the processes of leader prototypicality through which leaders emerge within groups, we also identify processes of leader atypicality through which creative leaders emerge within network structures. Finally, our conceptual analysis is illustrated by the case of Pop artist Andy Warhol, focusing on his emergence as a creative leader within the art world of New York and his art studio, the factory.

Becoming a Leader: Emergence of Leadership Style and Identity

This conceptual paper presents a model for understanding how new leaders’ styles of leadership emerge and self-identity changes. New leaders’ interpersonal orientation, power motivation, and regulatory focus along with organizational expectations are predicted to influence their beliefs about how to exert power and their motivation to lead (MTL). New leaders’ power beliefs, MTL, and perceptions of situational needs affect their engaging in transactional and transformational behaviors. This is the emergence of leadership style and the development of identity as a leader. Over time, new leaders’ behaviors, outcomes, and identity formation alter their power beliefs and MTL. This model suggests directions for human resource development research and practice supporting new leader development and building a culture of leadership consistent with the organization’s expectations.

EXPRESS: From Empathic Leader to Empathic Leadership Practice: An Extension to Relational Leadership Theory

Does empathy merely take place in leaders’ mind? How does it help us better understand and practice leadership? In the past, entitative relational leadership studies have mainly drawn on a mind-based understanding of empathy and focused on the association between individual empathy trait and leader emergence and effectiveness. Such an approach overlooks leadership practice of empathy as a constructive process. By integrating emerging research from diverse disciplines from philosophy to communication, the paper first offers a constructionist view of empathy, based on which empathic leadership practice is conceptualized. The paper explicates how leadership practice of empathy construction is rooted in relational ethics and takes place in both synchronic dyadic interaction through conversation as well as diachronic narrative practice with a collective other. By conceptualizing empathic leadership practice through a social constructionist approach to empathy, the paper makes significant contributions to our understanding of relational leadership.