Research for the Real World: Hierarchy, Bonuses and Narcissism

Linda Barrington's new Research for the Real World article focuses on 

in this month's Octobers issues of Workspan.

Narcissism: For or Against?

The maturing “Me Generation,” the Millennial workforce, society’s increasing focus on personalities of fame and fortune, or just the expanse of studies looking for it whatever the reason, narcissism seems to be increasingly pervasive.

One meta-analysis of 85 studies found that scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) of American college students have increased over time — to be precise, a 30 percent increase from the early 1980s to 2006. (See Twenge, et al. “Egos Inflating Over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory,” Journal of Personality, 2008.) My hypothesis would be that the trend hasn’t reversed itself during the past 10 years either. Is this increasing narcissism a good or bad thing? Some of the questions used to measure narcissism certainly don’t sound negative in the context of trying to encourage employees to take ownership of their careers and be leaders in whatever job they hold.

Check out the full article here: