Narcissism and Narcissistic personality disorder in the work place

Narcissists in the workplace principally make others unhappy, often leading to those employees exhibiting healthy worker syndrome and moving their employment to another organisation, either because they are unable or unwilling to articulate the problem or that HR or managers will not listen or act on their deputations. Narcissism and Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) in the workplace is partially understood and documented both by psychologists and HR organisations. Narcissistic traits (exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, a lack of empathy, seeking abusive power over others) run counter to desirable personality in work traits (e.g. inclusivity, openness, sharing). But paradoxically, narcissists frequently enjoy promotion. Desire for admiration, grandiose self-belief, inability to take criticism, lack of empathy, fickleness of decision making, poor mentoring make for poor leaders. However many narcissists do achieve positions of authority chiefly perhaps due to self-promotion, impulsiveness masquerading as decisiveness, and their obsessive need for admiration. However, narcissism is directly related to counterproductive workplace behaviours; lying, initiating rumours, sabotage and ridicule of others efforts, aggression, bullying, secrecy, wasting other employees time, and very poor team behaviour. Experienced and trained employee raters evaluate narcissists more favourably, at least initially. UK Psychologist Oliver James identifies narcissism as one of three dark triadic personality traits in the workplace. Narcissists rely on narcissistic supply (harnessing other peoples good will to feed their vision of themselves). Any challenge to that belief may be met with aggression as it strikes at the core of the narcissists fantasy of themselves.

Narcissistic personality disorder is thought to originate in young childhood in response to either neglectful or abusive parenting or excessive parental cosseting and praise. However although this is taken as read by many psychologists, the evidence actually linking this to adult narcissism is actually sparse in the authors view. In any case there is no evidence that taking the individual back to their childhood trauma as a therapy is effective. Whatever the origin, it is generally accepted that the narcissist require others to view their idealised self not their actual self. Both reward and coercion are used to achieve this. There is deep and unmoveable belief in the narcissist that to reveal the true self would invite disgust and ridicule and they will bring considerable forces to bear to prevent this happening. However there is no evidence to date that this false belief is amenable to therapy or change through a supportive and secure romantic relationship. Narcissistic personality does not typically respond to talking therapy as the narcissist does not see that there is anything wrong with them. The narcissist believes that others deficits are the problem, not their own. They may well try to sabotage the therapy process by devaluing the therapist or simply fail to attend beyond a few sessions. Essentially, the devastating effects of this personality disorder are exported for other individuals to endure, in order for the narcissist to maintain their idealised vision of themselves that is at odds with reality. This enduring delusional belief has led some to claim that NPD should actually be classified as a psychosis and not as a personality disorder at all. In the authors clinical experience some of these narcissistic individuals end up being referred to occupational health as their effect on other employees well being can be profound. However the narcissistic employee is very unlikely to cooperate with this process and will seek to devalue the examining clinician or otherwise sabotage the process altogether. Although NPD is a clinical diagnosis, an organisation should probably focus on the behaviours in assessing the employees future viability: A good HR department is capable of performance managing such an individual by addressing the behaviours head on (such as lying, poor team working, rumour mongering, criticising colleagues etc) and inviting the employee to identify paths by which they can improve those behaviours and measuring those improvements. A narcissistic individual is unlikely to achieve those targets on a sustained basis. Moreover such an employee would likely find the process itself unbearable (as it is critical of them and asks them to respond constructively to those criticisms) and seek severance from the organisation. It is worth looking at the diagnostic criteria and other aspects of NPD in more detail and noting that some of these may present as narcissistic trait. Lying: I have put this in here because although this is actually not a diagnostic criteria, the narcissists need for control and admiration, against all evidence to the contrary, inevitably leads to extensive fabric of lying around past achievements and the present status quo. From a workplace perspective lying is extremely unhelpful and organisations will already have procedures in place to deal with this. Lies are more easily proved than adverse behaviours and an HR department have at their legitimate disposal a plethora of written email evidence of a narcissistic individual misrepresenting events or achievements or even maligning other employees. This evidence is often overlooked. Also, narcissists are often careless as they are over confident of their own abilities. Expense claims are an obvious first scrutiny. An obsessive need for control in both work and social situations. This very often manifests itself in in casual encounters as odd conversations where the recipient comes away feeling uncomfortable or infuriated, not listened to and belittled by a comparative stranger. This is almost certainly the narcissists need for control and superiority rearing its head. A personal sense of self-importance that exceeds the norm or what might be considered warranted by others. Any challenge to that perception will be met with fierce (and perhaps long-lasting vengeful) resistance. Managers and appraisers should be alert to an employee who (for example) in 360 degree appraisal rate their own abilities significantly above the scores given to them by other colleagues. This is comparatively rare and should warrant further questioning. Any highly defensive or aggressive response to this is arguably a further red flag. Low empathy for others: Narcissists can seem oblivious to others distress and suffering and even seem to take some pleasure in both. Inability to perceive criticism as constructive (any criticism deflates their unique sense of self importance and specialness). They may also find it impossible to back down in an argument or even concede another persons viewpoint; making any team work difficult. Narcissistic supply. Use others good will to feed their own fantastical image of themselves being superior (the so called narcissistic supply). The narcissist will always recruit loved ones to perform this role but friends may be involved too. Unfortunately this particular personality feature lends itself to abuse in the workplace: a narcissistic manager may demand loyalty and praise from subordinates and punish those that do not give it. Subordinates may for example find their presentations interrupted by their own manager who cant bear for their own employee to command the audiences attention and will seek to bring that attention back to themselves frequently. A need for admiration that may present as boasting, exaggeration of achievements or seeking high office. The narcissist expects to be recognised as superior and will fight hard to achieve positions that will afford that view. In the workplace (as in social life outside) narcissists will employ bullying and humiliation to silence employees who do not apparently recognise them as superior. Needless to say : it can be the best and most insightful employees who have immediately recognised this as fact. This may bring them within the sights of HR as such put downs may have a sexual or otherwise protected characteristic component to their nature. Obsessing about and openly claiming selfish qualities such as beauty, success, sexual prowess etc Monopolising conversations and failure to listen to a contrary view to their own. Condescending behaviour towards those the narcissist perceives to be below their status. This can even be for shallow reasons such as the car they drive or their choice of partner. The narcissist will always look for a criteria by which they can compare themselves in a favourable light. This results in extensive criticism of others and their behaviours. Envious of some others and nervous or avoidant or inexplicably hostile in their company: If the narcissist perceives they are outranked by another they may try to devalue that person by whatever means they can or failing that, avoid them. In the workplace however, superiors will be courted and flattered until such time as they can be discarded. Insist on having and displaying the best of everything : friends with status, education, home, office, car, phone, wealth, golf course, partner. Secrecy: Unwarranted secrecy as a means of control. Socially a narcissist may hide covert affairs with other sexual partners in order to feed a self-sense of superiority over all the sexual partners and that their infidelity allows them to rise above the highest social status of any of those partners. Similarly in the workplace the narcissist may conspire with willing colleagues or withhold essential information or company plans from colleagues or even the company itself believing this confers status upon them or do it in order to impede colleagues progress. Although it can be tempting to consider narcissists as conspirators, in the authors view this is not correct. In fact narcissists elevated view of their own prowess and abilities often leads them to commit careless mistakes: They are more driven by impulse and short termism than by a grand malevolent plan. This can prove their undoing over time. Their life is beset by a life-long craving for admiration from as many sources as possible in order to preserve their idealised self. In the enclosure of an organisation this behaviour is frequently disliked and becomes widely visible over time. Although narcissists initially achieve high positions partly due to their exaggeration of their own abilities and their craving for status, they are generally not even adequate performers in these roles: Their poor listening skills, impulsivity, fickle decision making, desire for admiration, lack of humility, vindictiveness and condescending behaviour take their toll on the organisation.