Is climbing the corporate ladder making you a worse person?
A study of 172 Italian CEOs has shown that people with stronger narcissistic traits end up much higher on the corporate hierarchy.
Being manipulative, self-centered, domineering and authoritarian can get results, but often at the cost of inter-personal relationships, mental health and true long term productivity.
Yet, we all know how companies tend to overlook this obvious reality, to not think too deeply about their high performers, or to brush it off as the “cost of doing business”.
The study explains why corporate environments have become toxic, stressful and often counter-productive. But more so, it provides an important signal about our economic system of corporate capitalism.
“Our results are somewhat worrying — in fact, they imply that organizations and boards favor the emergence of narcissistic individuals to key leadership positions,” psychologist Paola Rovelli
More narcissistic, more likely to be promoted?
“Narcissism is known to be a dark trait, and individuals who are characterized by higher levels of narcissism are known to procure negative outcomes for the firm, such as financial crime, tax avoidance, less collaborative cultures and more.”
Driven by short-term profits and the attitude that humans are expendable inputs (costs), companies are designed to select for and encourage an attitude of ruthlessness and service-to-self.
Exceptions occur, but they remain exceptions.
Put another way, as a super-organism, companies are quite narcissistic. Especially with regards to its quest for profit.
That being said, as people make their way up the ranks, they are more likely to take on narcissistic traits (whether consciously or not) as this would result in the least friction and make one qualified for the most promising opportunities.
Why should you think deeper about this?
- Most people have had, or are in, a corporate job. This idea explains your experiences with self-serving and abrasive personalities, as well as confusion at how the company can allow such people within, let alone to be promoted.
- If you’re vying for a promotion in your company it’s important to know what characteristics are more likely for promotion. It’s not so much what you do as it is how you do things.
- While we all may be prone to narcissistic moods, if we’re in an environment that selects and rewards for this, it will increasingly become a part of our personality. Do you actually want to become narcissistic?
- If success in corporate means moving away from your higher self and becoming someone you like less, why are you doing it?
Caveats and conclusion
Personality is not fixed, and the study does not look at the stability of narcissistic traits over time.
Clinical narcissism is thought to emerge in early childhood and remain with a person through adulthood. As mentioned above, there is a high likelihood that these Italian CEOs are accruing narcissistic personality traits in order to and as they gain power in a business.
This would especially be true in larger organizations where the power of the corporate culture would overwhelm any individual tendencies that run counter to it.
It would also be important to assess the effect of the economic environment, to see whether narcissistic individuals are more likely to be appointed in periods of economic boom or bust
As the authors of the study conclude, “experiences of power might, to a certain extent, stimulate narcissism.”
Reminds me of that quote…
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” — Lord Acton
No job is without its risks.
Choose wisely.
