5 research outputs found
Narcissistic coaches and athletes’ individual rowing performance
Full text linkNarcissism, a personality trait marked by an excessively self-aggrandizing, entitled, and dominant orientation, has been associated with high performance under competitive pressure, as these contexts afford the opportunity to self-enhance. Narcissism is often characteristic of organizational and political leaders, yet little is known about narcissism in sports coaches. We propose that in a competitive context narcissistic coaches could inspire and motivate their athletes to raise their performance. We investigated the association between coach narcissism and athletes’ performance, and the role of athletes’ perceived self-enhancement opportunity as a potential mediating mechanism. We examined coach narcissism, athletes’ individual end times (i.e., performance), and athletes’ perceptions of self-enhancement opportunity during annual national indoor rowing competitions in 266 national level competitive rowers from 52 rowing clubs. Results of multilevel analyses showed that coach narcissism positively predicted athlete performance, and this was explained by athletes’ perceived opportunity to self-enhance during the competition. Thus, narcissistic coaches seem to reinforce athletes’ perceptions that competition provides them with an opportunity to show off their skills, which in turn accounts for athletes’ better performance in comparison to athletes who do not train with narcissistic coaches. The findings point to a potentially functional side of narcissism in coaching
When you can't follow the leader:Inconsistency: Its antecedents and outcomes
Full text linkIn order for leaders to respond flexibly to today's rapidly changing world, they must have a wide variety of behaviors at their disposal and be able to switch quickly depending on what the situation requires. At the same time, they are expected to behave consistently and predictably, something that seems problematic after the first statement. The solution to this problem seems to lie in distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate variation. In the first variant, the reasons for variable behavior are clear (the new behavior fits the situation) or leaders explain why they exhibit certain behavior. However, not every leader is able and/or willing to demonstrate this behavior. In such cases leaders might be perceived as inconsistent: they exhibit varying behavior without a clear reason in the eyes of the follower, inappropriate variation. While the positive side of behavioral variability has received a lot of attention in research, research into the negative, dark side is scarce. In four empirical chapters, this dissertation shows that inconsistent leader behavior is an important construct that shares overlap with, but is not identical to, other constructs on the dark side of the leadership literature. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of perceptions of inconsistent leader behavior and provide insight into factors that strengthen or attenuate the relationships between antecedents, inconsistent leader behavior, and outcomes
When you can't follow the leader:Inconsistency: Its antecedents and outcomes
No full textIn order for leaders to respond flexibly to today's rapidly changing world, they must have a wide variety of behaviors at their disposal and be able to switch quickly depending on what the situation requires. At the same time, they are expected to behave consistently and predictably, something that seems problematic after the first statement. The solution to this problem seems to lie in distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate variation. In the first variant, the reasons for variable behavior are clear (the new behavior fits the situation) or leaders explain why they exhibit certain behavior. However, not every leader is able and/or willing to demonstrate this behavior. In such cases leaders might be perceived as inconsistent: they exhibit varying behavior without a clear reason in the eyes of the follower, inappropriate variation. While the positive side of behavioral variability has received a lot of attention in research, research into the negative, dark side is scarce. In four empirical chapters, this dissertation shows that inconsistent leader behavior is an important construct that shares overlap with, but is not identical to, other constructs on the dark side of the leadership literature. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of perceptions of inconsistent leader behavior and provide insight into factors that strengthen or attenuate the relationships between antecedents, inconsistent leader behavior, and outcomes
When you can't follow the leader:Inconsistency: Its antecedents and outcomes
Full text linkIn order for leaders to respond flexibly to today's rapidly changing world, they must have a wide variety of behaviors at their disposal and be able to switch quickly depending on what the situation requires. At the same time, they are expected to behave consistently and predictably, something that seems problematic after the first statement. The solution to this problem seems to lie in distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate variation. In the first variant, the reasons for variable behavior are clear (the new behavior fits the situation) or leaders explain why they exhibit certain behavior. However, not every leader is able and/or willing to demonstrate this behavior. In such cases leaders might be perceived as inconsistent: they exhibit varying behavior without a clear reason in the eyes of the follower, inappropriate variation. While the positive side of behavioral variability has received a lot of attention in research, research into the negative, dark side is scarce. In four empirical chapters, this dissertation shows that inconsistent leader behavior is an important construct that shares overlap with, but is not identical to, other constructs on the dark side of the leadership literature. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of perceptions of inconsistent leader behavior and provide insight into factors that strengthen or attenuate the relationships between antecedents, inconsistent leader behavior, and outcomes
Gender differences in the perceived behavior of narcissistic leaders
Full text linkAlthough narcissists often emerge as leaders, the relationship between leader narcissism and follower performance is ambiguous and often even found to be negative. For women, narcissism seems especially likely to lead to negative evaluations. Since narcissists have the tendency to be impulsive and change their minds on a whim, they may come across as inconsistent. We propose “inconsistent leader behavior” as a new mechanism in the relationship between leader narcissism and follower performance and argue that leader gender plays an important role in whether narcissistic leaders are perceived as inconsistent. Specifically, we expect leader narcissism to have a negative relationship with follower performance through perceived inconsistent leader behavior, especially for female leaders. Thus, we examine leader gender as a personal factor moderating the relationship between narcissism and perceived inconsistent behavior. Also, as perceived inconsistency is likely less problematic when a good relationship exists, we examine leader–member exchange (LMX) as a contextual condition moderating the relationship between leader behavior and follower performance. We test our moderated mediation model in a multi-source study with 165 unique leader–follower dyads. As expected, leader narcissism was positively related to perceived inconsistent leader behavior, and this relationship was stronger for female leaders. Inconsistent leader behavior was negatively related to follower performance, but only when LMX was low. Our research highlights that perceived behavioral inconsistency can be problematic and—for female leaders—provides an explanation of the negative relation of leader narcissism with follower performance and of the inconsistencies in evaluations of narcissistic leaders’ effectiveness
