Narcissism and leadership: A meta-analytic review of linear and nonlinear relationships
Emily Grijalva and four colleagues meta-analyse the link between narcissism and leadership, separating leadership emergence from leadership effectiveness, testing whether leader extraversion explains the emergence link, comparing observer ratings with self-ratings of effectiveness, and testing for a curved relationship. Narcissism was positively related to emergence, and extraversion appeared to account for that. It showed no relationship with effectiveness rated by observers, while self-rated effectiveness did rise with narcissism. The flat overall relationship masked a curved one, which the authors read as an optimal, moderate level of leader narcissism. This page cites the paper for the emergence and effectiveness distinction.
Emily Grijalva and four colleagues meta-analyse the link between narcissism and leadership, separating leadership emergence from leadership effectiveness, testing whether leader extraversion explains the emergence link, comparing observer ratings with self-ratings of effectiveness, and testing for a curved relationship. Narcissism was positively related to emergence, and extraversion appeared to account for that. It showed no relationship with effectiveness rated by observers, while self-rated effectiveness did rise with narcissism. The flat overall relationship masked a curved one, which the authors read as an optimal, moderate level of leader narcissism. This page cites the paper for the emergence and effectiveness distinction.
Written from the abstract on the university research repository, read 2026-10-24.
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Grijalva, E., Harms, P. D., Newman, D. A., Gaddis, B. H., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Narcissism and leadership: A meta-analytic review of linear and nonlinear relationships. Personnel Psychology, 68(1), 1-47. doi:10.1111/peps.12072