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DOI 10.1007/s10551-013-1651-0
J. J. Sosik
Department of Management, Great Valley School of
Graduate and Professional Studies, The Pennsylvania
State University, 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA
19355, USA e-mail: jjs20@psu.edu
J. U. Chun (&)
Management Department, Korea University Business
School,
Korea University, Anam-Dong,
Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-701, South
Korea e-mail: juchun@korea.ac.kr
W. Zhu
Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations,
The Pennsylvania State University, 003 Keller
Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA e-mail:
wzhu@psu.edu
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Leader charisma
Psychological
empowerment
Moral identity
Fig. 1 Research model of leader charisma and constructive and destructive narcissism and follower psychological empowerment and moral
identity
motivation and idealized influence. Prior factor
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68
Narcissism
Building upon self-concept based explanations
of charismatic leadership (Shamir et al. 1993),
Sosik and Dinger (2007) demonstrated that
charismatic corporate managers expressed
aspects of their personality in the content of their
visions and behavior. Rosenthal and Pittinskys
(2006) review of the charismatic leadership
literature
concluded
thatnarcissismisaprominentpersonalitytraitofchar
ismatic leaders. However, the American
Psychiatric Association (APA) identifies
narcissism as a personality disorder involving
antagonism of others characterized by
grandiosity (i.e., feelings of entitlement, either
overt
or
covert;
selfcenteredness;firmlyholdingtothebeliefthatoneisb
etter than others; condescending toward others),
and attentionseeking involving excessive
attempts to attract and be the focus of the
attention of others through admiration seeking.
Narcissism results in impairments in selffunctioning as manifested by deficiencies in
identity (e.g., excessive referencetoothersforselfdefinitionandself-esteemregulation)or
selfdirection (e.g., goal-setting based on gaining
approval from others), and interpersonal
functioning as manifested by deficiencies in
empathy (e.g., impaired ability to recognize or
identify with the feelings and needs of others) or
intimacy (e.g., relationships that are largely
superficial and exist to serve self-esteem
regulation) (APA 2012).
There are both advantages and disadvantages
of being a narcissist. While narcissists may be
very popular and successful in the short-run,
they are likely to falter over time (Rosenthal
and Pittinsky 2006, p. 624) due to their
impairments in self- and interpersonal
functioning. For example, the narcissists
deficient self-identity and selfdirection processes
may result in arrogance, feelings of inferiority,
and an insatiable need for recognition and
superiority.
The
narcissists
deficient
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J. J. Sosik et al.
and
Follower
Psychological
69
Interactive Effects
Narcissism
of
Leader
Charisma
and
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70
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J. J. Sosik et al.
71
Methods
Participants and Procedure
We asked a research service company to issue an
internetbased survey to 2,200 potential participants
across a broad variety of industries throughout the
United States. Participation in the survey was limited
to those who had been in leaderfollower
relationships as direct reports at least for 3 months.
Voluntary participation was ensured but the
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J. J. Sosik et al.
Results
Preliminary Analyses
73
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Table 1 Means, standard deviations, intercorrelations, and alphas of variables
Variables
SD
1. Age
47.78
10.80
2. Gender
3. Education
4. Gender composition
J. J. Sosik et al.
.45
.50
-.23**
4.57
1.40
.03
-.10**
.64
.48
.11**
-.41**
.03
.90
.05
-.05
.04
6. Constructive narcissism
4.96
1.11
.07
-.01
7. Destructive narcissism
2.96
1.61
-.11**
8. Psychological empowerment
4.20
.68
9. Moral identity
4.41
.67
.06
.08*
.09*
(.93)
.61**
-.01
-.01
.22**
.01
-.07
-.03
.37**
.36**
-.42**
.24**
.03
-.01
-.02
.39**
.36**
-.28**
Tests of Hypotheses
To test the hypothesized research model of
mediated moderation, we followed the
procedure suggested by Edwards and Lambert
(2007) and used the application developed by
Preacher et al. (2007). The application involves
the following four steps to test our research
model. At the first step, the mediator (follower
psychological empowerment) is sequentially
regressed on the independent variable
(charisma), the moderator (narcissism), and the
interaction (charisma 9 narcissism), and the
interaction effect should be significant in the
regression. A simple slope test is also conducted
to probe the pattern of interaction effect (Aiken
and West 1991). At the second step, the
dependent variable (moral identity) is regressed
on the mediator (psychological empowerment)
in addition to the independent variable, the
moderator, and the interaction. In this regression,
the mediator should have a significant effect on
the dependent variable. Finally, the third and
-.53**
(.72)
.01
3.72
Descriptive Statistics
5. Charisma
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-.15**
(.93)
(.92)
.59**
667 *
p\.05, ** p\.01
(.90)
75
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Table 2 Results for the mediated moderation: constructive narcissism
Predictors
J. J. Sosik et al.
Step 1
Psychological empowerment
Model 1
Step 2
Moral identity
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
Controls
Age
.23**
.22**
.21**
.20**
.14**
Gender
.04
.04
.03
.03
.06
.02
Education
-.07
-.08*
-.09*
-.09*
Gender composition
-.04
-.06
-.07
-.07
-.03
Independent variable
Charisma
.37**
.23**
.27**
.17**
.22**
.22**
.07
Moderator
Constructive narcissism
Interactive effect
Charisma 9 constructive narcissism
.20**
-.04
Mediator
Psychological empowerment
.48**
F
R2
2
Adjusted R
9.68**
30.51**
30.38**
32.45**
57.10**
.06
.19
.22
.26
.41
.05
.18
.21
.25
.40
.13**
.03**
.04**
DR2
Constructive narcissism
SE
.03
.02
1.85
.16
.02
6.92**
.03
.02
1.74
.16
.03
5.47**
Discussion
A substantial amount of research on charismatic
leaders has been concerned with their traits,
behaviors, and the motivational mechanisms
they use to influence followers to produce
individual, group, and organizational outcomes
(Conger and Kanungo 1998; Howell and Shamir
2005). The main goal of the current study was to
focus on the ethics and morality of charismatic
leaders and their motivational influences on
followers morality by examining on a
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77
(BrownandTrevino2006;Zhu2008;Zhuetal.2011).
Given that moral identity is part of an
individuals overall selfconcept (Aquino and
Reed 2002; Weaver 2006), this result also
provides empirical support for self-concept
based theories of charismatic leadership (e.g.,
Shamir et al. 1993). Moreover, this result also
suggests that leaders may not necessarily have to
display all four behavioral components
Step 1
Psychological empowerment
Model 1
Step 2
Moral identity
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
Controls
Age
.23**
.22**
.19**
.16**
.15**
Gender
.04
.04
.04
.01
.06
Education
-.07
-.08*
-.07*
-.06
Gender composition
-.04
-.06
-.05
-.06
Independent variable
Charisma
.37**
Moderator
Destructive narcissism
.21**
-.29**
.03
-.02
.30**
.24**
-.28**
.07
-.25**
.01
Interactive effect
Charisma 9 destructive narcissism
Mediator
Psychological empowerment
.50**
9.68**
30.51**
35.94**
40.58**
56.85**
R2
.06
.19
.25
.30
.41
Adjusted R2
.05
.18
.24
.29
.40
.13**
.06**
.06**
DR2
Destructive narcissism
SE
.19
.03
7.57**
.03
.02
1.76
.20
.03
5.86**
.03
.02
1.57
Bootstrap
667.
N
5,000 * p\.05, **
p\.01
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J. J. Sosik et al.
Destructive
narcissism
High
narcissism
Destructive
Low
narcissism
High
Constructive
Constructive
narcissism
Low
Psychological empowerment
4
6
3
5
2
Psychological empowerment
Low charisma
High charisma
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Low charisma
High charismathan
79
123
80
123
J. J. Sosik et al.
81
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