UF study: people who adore themselves get little admiration on the job

September 7, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — People who have a high opinion of themselves are unlikely to have that view shared by their co-workers, a new University of Florida study on narcissism in the workplace finds.

Conceited, vain and self-absorbed employees tend to have an inflated opinion about their job skills but actually are sub-par performers in the view of their supervisors and colleagues, said Timothy Judge, a UF management professor, whose research is scheduled to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

“It’s one thing to think you’re better than other people when in fact you’re no better; quite another to think you’re better when you’re actually worse,” he said. “Not recognizing your own limitations in the workplace is going to keep you from trying to develop skills that would help you improve and make your organization more effective.”

Although clinical studies show that people who excessively admire themselves have difficulty forming close intimate relationships, little research has been done on the effects of narcissism in the workplace, Judge said.

Judge, along with UF management professor Jeffery LePine and graduate student Bruce Rich, examined how people who scored high on a psychological measure for narcissism rated their leadership and job skills compared with reviews by bosses and co-workers of how well they did. The 2004 surveys were completed by 139 University of Florida graduate students in business administration who held jobs outside the classroom, as well as 143 lifeguards between the ages of 18 and 48 in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Although narcissists were no happier or unhappier than other people in their jobs, they considered themselves superior at doing them, Judge said. But those they worked for and with reported they did an inferior job compared with other employees, he said.

“We expect people to be self-confident to succeed in business — even to the point of idolizing the Donald Trumps of the world — because we see some real limitations in the shrinking-violet type,” he said. “The paradox is most of us would agree that being arrogant and overly obsessed with yourself are not positive qualities.”

Because narcissists lack empathy and have self-serving motives, they are less likely to contribute positively to the office social climate by helping others, being a good sport and going above and beyond the call of duty for the greater good, he said.

Studies suggest that narcissists unnecessarily perceive threats, Judge said, which could result in aggressive behavior at work if their self-concept is challenged. For instance, if a co-worker gets a better performance rating or a higher raise, the narcissist may try to undermine that person with derogatory remarks or by reacting in some other angry way, he said.

In short, it appears that narcissists report themselves as better out of an honest belief, but also as a defensive strategy to maintain appearances, he said.

“Given the social undesirability of narcissism – few would wish to be described as vain, self-absorbed, egotistical, selfish, conceited and grandiose – organizations might be expected to screen out narcissists, at least implicitly, in hiring decisions,” Judge said.

Some consulting firms offer special training programs in developing empathy for managers who may be technically competent but deficient in interpersonal skills, Judge said. “It would be interesting to see if the people sent to these training programs in order to save their jobs and careers are disproportionately narcissistic,” he said.

Whether one must atone for self-aggrandizing behavior may ultimately depend on an employee’s place in the company hierarchy, Judge said. “It may be easier to get away with being narcissistic if you’re kind of the kingpin of the organization,” he said.

Gender was not a factor in whether an employee was likely to be narcissistic.

“Some evidence suggests that women are more interested in building relationships and men are more interested in getting ahead,” he said. “I thought men would be more likely to be narcissistic and exploitive of other people because of their macho image, which may just be a stereotype.”

Taken to an extreme, the lack of a realistic appraisal of oneself can have dangerous consequences, Judge said. “A lot of tragedies in the world have been committed by people with grandiose views of their capabilities,” he said. “Most delusional rulers and dictators tend to think they’re invulnerable and have an inflated view of who they are.”

Michigan State University psychology professor Ann Marie Ryan said Judge’s research is important to organizations because it suggests that “simply providing people with information on how others view them may not lead to any appreciable change in self-perceptions.”