Leaders’ narcissism and organizational cynicism in healthcare organizations

• Date: 02 October 2017
• Pages: 346-363
• Published date: 02 October 2017
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-12-2016-0090
• Author: Hakan Erkutlu,Jamel Chafra
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Healthcare management,HR & organizational behaviour,Human resource policy,Employee welfare

Leaders’narcissism and

organizational cynicism in

healthcare organizations

Hakan Erkutlu

Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Nevsehir University,

Nevsehir, Turkey, and

Jamel Chafra

Department of Tourism and Hotel Management,

School of Applied Technology and Management, Bilkent Universitesi,

Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

Purpose –Drawing on the social exchange theory and the stressor-strain framework, the purpose of this

paper is to examine the relationship between leaders’narcissism and employees’organizational cynicism.

Specifically, the authors take a relational approach by introducing employees’psychological strain as the

mediator. The moderating role of psychological capital in the relationship between leaders’narcissism and

employees’cynicism is also considered.

Design/methodology/approach –The data of this study encompass 1,215 certified nurses from 15 university

hospitals in Turkey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the proposed model.

Findings –The statistical results of this study supported the positive effect of leaders’narcissism on

employees’cynicism as well as the mediating effect of employees’psychological strain. Moreover, when the

level of psychological capital is high, the relationship between leaders’narcissism and organizational

cynicism is weak, whereas the effect is strong when the level of psychological capital is low.

Practical implications –The findings of this stud y suggest that manager s in the healthcare indus try

should be sensitive in t reating their subordi nates, as it will lead to po sitive interperson al relationship,

which, in turn, will red uce employee cynicism. Moreover, managers s hould pay more attentio n to the

buffering role of psycho logical capital for thos e employees with high psyc hological strain and sho wing

organizational cynicism.

Originality/value –As the healthcare sector continues to go through a transformational change, it is

important to identify organizational factors that affect employee attitudes. There is limited empirical evidence

about the determinants of cynicism, particularly in the healthcare sector environment. This study contributes

to the literature on organizational cynicism by revealing the relational mechanism between leaders’

narcissism and employee cynicism. The paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in the healthcare

management and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing leader-employee relationship and

reducing organizational cynicism.

Keywords Psychological capital, Organizational cynicism, Psychological strain, Leaders’narcissism

Paper type Research paper

International Journal of Workplace

Health Management

Vol. 10 No. 5, 2017

pp. 346-363

© Emerald PublishingLimited

1753-8351

DOI 10.1108/IJWHM-12-2016-0090

Received 31 December 2016

Revised 14 April 2017

15 May 2017

10 July 2017

Accepted 27 July 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/1753-8351.htm

The publisher wishes to retract the articleHakan Erkutlu and Jamel Chafra (2017), “Leaders’narcissism

and organizational cynicism in healthcare organizations”, published in the International Journal of

Workplace Health Management, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp. 346-363, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-12-2016-0090.

This is because a substantial portion of the article is taken, without attribution, from earlier articles.

These sources are Hak an Erkutlu and Jamel Chafra (2017), “Lead er narcissism and subordinate

embeddedness: the moderating roles of moral attentiveness and behavioral integrity”, published in

the EuroMed Journal o f Business, Vol. 12 No. 2 , pp. 146-162, https: //doi.org/10.1 108/EMJB-04-201 6-

0012 and Hakan Erkutlu (2014), “Exploring the moderating ef fect of psychologica l capital on

the relationship between narcissism and psychological wellbeing”, published in the Procedia –

Social and Behavio ural Sciences, Vol . 150, pp. 1148-1156. www.sciencedirect.com/s cience/article/ pii/

S18770428140517 99?via%3Dihub

The International Journalof Workplace Health Managementguidelines makeit clear that articles must

be original andmust not infringe any existingcopyright. The journal sincerelyapologises to its readers.

346

IJWHM

10,5

Retracted

1. Introduction

Despite positive psychology’s emphasis on human strengths and virtues, studies of

counterproductive work behavior, cynicism (Andersson and Bateman, 1997), abusive

supervision (Tepper, 2007), leadership derailment and excessive organizational

politicking (Poon, 2003) attest to the darker side of human nature. Optimism, integrity,

and self-authenticity may predict health and happiness, but personality traits such as

narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy may predict misbehavior (O’Boy le et al.,

2012). Paulhus and Williams (2002, p. 100) named these three traits the Dark Triad, for

“individuals with these traits share a tendency to be callous, selfish, and malevolent in

their interpersonal dealings.”

Being one of the Dark Triad personality traits, narcissism is an increasingly popular

topic in organizational research, as evidenced by several recent articles in top organizational

journals (e.g. Judge et al., 2006; O’Boyle et al., 2012). These research works have documented

the importance of narcissism by establishing its relation to workplace outcomes,

particularly leadership and cynicism. For example, substantial evidence shows that

narcissists tend to emerge as leaders and do occupy positions of power such as CEOs and

presidents (Chatterjee and Hambrick, 2011). Furthermore, narcissism has been linked to

workplace deviance and various specific unethical and exploitative behaviors

such as tendencies to cheat, a lack of workplace integrity, and even white-collar crime

(Blair et al., 2008; O’Boyle et al., 2012). When followers perceive their leaders to be unethical,

they are more likely to experience psychological strain, pressure and depression in the

workplace, and to develop negative follower attitudes such as cynicism, turnover intention,

low job satisfaction and commitment (Hoyt et al., 2013). In the past decade, studies

conducted on management have focused on examining the role of narcissistic leadership

and its impact on followers’attitudes and behaviors such as organizational citizenship

behaviors (Campbell et al., 2006), counterproductive work behaviors (Campbell and

Foster, 2002) and task performance (Soyer et al., 1999). Yet, to date, no study, to our

knowledge, has contributed to an understanding of how narcissistic leadership is related to

followers’organizational cynicism, despite the fact that negative or poor leadership is one of

the most influential predictors of employee cynicism (Bommer et al., 2005); thus, the first

goal of this study is to address this very untapped issue.

In addition, this study investigates psychological capital as the boundary condition for

psychological strain, i.e. the organizational cynicism relationship. The existing theories and

research indicate that leadership and psychological capital significantly influence individual

cynicism (e.g. Avey et al., 2008; Bommer et al., 2005). Prior researchers have emphasized that

psychological capital is an important preventive source of undesirable outcomes such as

workplace cynicism and deviant behaviors (Avey et al., 2008), yet scholars have not

considered the interactive effects of leadership and psychological capital on cynicism;

this relates to how leadership and organizational members are able to decrease cynicism

(Avey et al., 2008).

The present research is intended to contribute to the existing literature in several ways.

First, our research seeks to fill the knowledge gap concerning the link between leader

narcissism and organizational cynicism. Previous research has demonstrated that negative

or poor leadership is one of the most influential factors affecting organizational cynicism.

This paper is designed to be one of the first studies to consider the link between leader

narcissism and employees’cynicism. Second, determining how psychological strain

increases employees’organizational cynicism has received little empirical attention in

psychological strain related literature (Chiaburu et al., 2013). A large body of research in this

area follows the stressor-strain perspective, which argues that many different factors serve

as stressors each of which can create a strain on the individual that can result in a variety of

(mostly negative) outcomes. For example, research on cynicism suggests that contextual

347

Narcissism and

cynicism in

healthcare

organizations

Retracted