Paradoxical effects of narcissism on creative performance: Roles of leader–follower narcissism (in)congruence and follower identification with the leader

Abstract

What is the effect of trait narcissism on creative performance? Although both constructs share an emphasis on uniqueness and novelty, prior investigations of the narcissism–creative performance relationship have produced inconsistent findings and failed to provide conclusive answers to this question. One possible reason for the seemingly contradictory evidence is that extant research has examined the influences of leader and follower narcissism separately rather than simultaneously. In this study, we address this issue by investigating leader–follower narcissism (in)congruence to comprehensively understand when and why leader or follower narcissism is beneficial or detrimental to creative performance. Integrating the self-orientation model of narcissism and narcissistic-tolerance theory, we posit that leader and follower narcissism jointly influence creative performance via identification with the leader, and that different leader–follower narcissism (in)congruence combinations exhibit distinct effects. The analyses of two-wave, two-level, and multi-source data from 421 followers and 54 direct leaders, using cross-level polynomial regressions, support our hypotheses: (1) identification with the leader is maximized when leader narcissism and follower narcissism are congruent; (2) identification with the leader is minimized when leader narcissism is higher than follower narcissism; and (3) identification with the leader mediates the effects of leader–follower narcissism (in)congruence combinations on creative performance.