If you’re unlucky enough to work for a narcissist, they’ll expect compliments – and they’d prefer them in person, according to new research that suggests egotistical managers are opposed to home working.
Psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania, in the US, set out to investigate why some bosses support remote working while many are firmly against it.
First, they collected records on 259 high-profile bosses from the Fortune 500 list of CEOs and looked for signs of narcissism in their public statements and company files. They compared these with their stance on remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the second part of their research, the University of Pennsylvania team conducted surveys with a further 100 leaders, 359 in all, to better assess their attitudes.
The results were striking. The only trait that consistently predicted objections to remote work was narcissism – the tendency to be self-centred and entitled. The higher the opinions of themselves that the leaders expressed, the more they coveted power and status – and the more they favoured mandatory office working.
The authors argue that remote working hinders a boss’s ability to massage their own ego; it reduces the visible presence of subordinates and impedes the leader’s ability to reassure themselves of their influence, status and control.
And they note that “sycophantic reassurances from employees just don’t have the same effect if they’re on Slack”.
They note evidence that remote and hybrid work can help many organisations attract and retain key staff. “Our findings show that narcissistic leaders’ cravings for power and status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility,” they conclude.
“It’s a great paper,” says Dr Claire Hart, an associate professor researching personality psychology at the University of Southampton. “This helps explain why leaders who score higher in narcissism are more resistant to remote working… it comes back to a central feature of grandiose narcissism: the motivation to fulfil needs related to status, power and self-enhancement.”
She notes, however, that some leaders may prefer office-based working for legitimate purposes, including training, mentoring, innovation, and team cohesion.
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