Research from TU Dortmund University suggests that the adage “birds of a feather flock together” holds even in the realm of corporate leadership, particularly among narcissistic managers. The study reveals that narcissistic CEOs tend to surround themselves with other narcissists on the management board.

To investigate this phenomenon, researchers delved into thousands of LinkedIn profiles belonging to top managers in the United States. Narcissism in leadership can manifest in various ways, ranging from self-confidence and charisma to detrimental self-absorption and a lack of empathy.

Constructing the leadership team

While previous studies have explored narcissistic traits in individual CEOs, little attention has been given to how these traits influence the broader makeup of senior management teams. This knowledge gap motivated the study, which sought insights from the analysis of LinkedIn profiles of top executives.

“Narcissists want to show a broader audience that they are superior. Earlier studies have found that this is also reflected in corporate press releases or letters to shareholders, among other things,” the researchers explain.

The research team scrutinized a substantial pool of 11,705 LinkedIn profiles belonging to top managers in U.S. firms. Their findings unveil a striking trend: CEOs with elevated levels of narcissism tend to populate their management boards with individuals who share similar character traits—specifically, a propensity for narcissism. Remarkably, for every one standard deviation increase in a CEO’s narcissism, there is an associated 18% uptick in narcissistic tendencies among newly appointed executives.

This pattern doesn’t just shape the composition of the team; it also influences its dynamics and stability. Management boards featuring a higher proportion of narcissistic managers experience notably elevated turnover rates, incurring substantial costs for the company. Narcissistic tendencies fuel intra-board power struggles, leading to conflicts that, in turn, contribute to increased executive team fluctuation.

“The results of the study show that it is important for CEOs and supervisory boards to understand the dynamics in their executive teams better and to review the selection process for managers,” the researchers conclude. “This can be achieved if the personality traits of managers are also viewed in a balanced way.”