Abusive Supervision

There are two types of Narcissism healthy and destructive. We are going to focus primarily on the destructive. Throughout the paper I am going to refer to destructive narcissism as DN. There are pros and cons of DN management but first I would like to explain what DN is. Narcissism has a Greek origin about a youth that was not getting affection from others so fell in love with his own reflection. DN builds on that being defined as someone that is arrogant, has a high level of self importance, has no issue walking all over others to get what they want, and has a high level of entitlement. What could be attractive about DN characteristics? Typically DN Managers are the ones that have a great deal of confidence and drive to succeed. They want to be the ones in power so will do whatever it takes to achieve that. Some organizations are built by people with those exact characteristics. DN Managers also know how to work the system to climb the organizational ladder. They treat their subordinates horribly and maintain good but fake relationships with the decision makers. There are some cons to DN management. People do not want to work with them so they can lose a very strong talent pool. They may make bad decisions because they are making decisions based on what is best for them and not for the organization.

The difference in healthy and destructive narcissism comes down to self-esteem. In other words, a healthy narcissist may face failure but will not take it out on others and destroy their self image. They are more secure and can maintain healthy relationships within the organization. Whereas a DN Manager has to protect their self esteem by attacking other peoples values. They have poor relationships with others because they are disrespectful and their depression and anger are obvious red flags for others to stay away. The healthy narcissist may enjoy power to a degree but it won’t be the end all be all. For DN Managers, that’s all they think...