Narcissism, span of supervision, and outcomes in a municipality context

Abstract

Purpose: To enhance the understanding of the complex interplay between leaders and followers we examined the link between narcissistic leadership and two follower outcomes; loyalty and job satisfaction in a Norwegian municipality context. We further investigate whether span of supervision can moderate the hypothesized negative relationship between leader narcissism and the follower outcomes and function as a buffer. Design: The present study relied on cross-sectional research design where 224 respondents from various municipalities answered electronic questionnaires. Data was collected separately from leaders and followers. Findings: Our findings revealed negative correlations between narcissistic leadership and both job satisfaction and loyalty. However, the HML analysis did not find support for moderating effects of span of supervision. Implications: First, our results show that higher levels of leader narcissism result in lower levels of loyalty and job satisfaction in a Norwegian Municipality setting. Second, consistent with Affective Events Theory our data imply a process where a negative work event in terms of narcissistic leadership, results in affective responses in terms of lower scores on loyalty and job satisfaction. Value: To our knowledge, this is the first study connecting narcissistic leaders to decreased loyalty and job satisfaction in a municipality context. Thus, our results imply that municipalities are yet another arena where narcissists can unfold, despite the prevalent focus on the private business sector. Second, this is the first study connecting lower levels of loyalty to higher of narcissism, adding knowledge about the detrimental effects narcissistic leaders can have for the associated employees.