Title: Narcissism in Management Education
Author(s): Bergman JZ, Westerman JW, Daly JP
Source: Academy Of Management Learning & Education Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Pages: 119-131 Published: March 2010
Abstract: Narcissism levels in U.S. college students have steadily risen over the past 25 years (Twenge, J. M., Konrath, S., Foster, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Bushman, B. J. 2008. Egos inflating over time: A crosstemporal meta-analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality, 76(4): 875–901.), and these increases may be even more pronounced among business students in comparison with those in other disciplines (e.g., Robak, R., Chiffriller, S., & Zappone, M. 2007. College students' motivations for money and subjective well-being. Psychological Reports, 100(1): 147–156.). This increase in narcissism has implications for both student classroom behavior and the manner in which we, as faculty, effectively teach and manage our classrooms. We explore the personality trait of narcissism, its potential manifestations in the classroom, and offer suggestions for management educators in dealing with more narcissistic students.
CONCLUSION
F. Scott Fitzgerald's epigraph at the outset of this
essay challenges us to reach outside of ourselves
and focus on using our abilities to help others. A
key tenet of management theory is imparting to
students how to effectively and productively work
with other individuals and groups to accomplish
organizational goals. With the rising levels of narcissism
in the United States, this may be an increasingly
difficult skill for management educators
to successfully develop in students. It is
clearly important that narcissism is associated
with substantially negative behaviors of particular
importance to employing organizations, including
white-collar crime, aggression and assault, substance
abuse, risky decision making, rapidly depleting
common resources, and distorted judgments
of one's abilities. Further, as discussed
earlier, narcissistic managers are likely to build
toxic, unproductive work environments.
Altogether, the rising tide of narcissism presents
significant problems for organizations, their productivity,
and long-term viability. The question remains
as to what role management education can
play in alleviating this growing problem. We have
suggested that university professors, whose position
garners student esteem and represents expert
power, may have an enhanced ability to influence
narcissistic tendencies of students. A range of
modest approaches that may be used in management
education includes developing student skills
on giving and receiving constructive feedback;
providing objective, reliable, and frequent reinforcements
in class in the form of oral feedback
and grading; working on student teamwork skills
and using peer feedback approaches; and using
role playing, case studies, internships, and service
learning to develop sensitivity and multiple perspectives
on an issue. We also suggest that university
and business school administrators might
play a role in stemming the increasing culture of
narcissism in business colleges and management
education by educating faculty and students about
narcissism, providing faculty with smaller class
sizes to allow increased faculty interaction with
students, reexamining the use of student satisfaction
ratings in faculty evaluations, and providing
enhanced resources for external outreach including
study abroad opportunities and internships.
Finally, the importance of this issue is likely to
continue increasing, as cross-cultural studies are
beginning to indicate a comparable prevalence of
narcissism in non-Western cultures (Ronningstam, E. F. 2005.
Identifying and understanding the narcissistic personality. New York:
Oxford University Press.).
Best regards,
Charles Wankel
St. John's University, New York
MG-ED-DV List Director
http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~wankelc
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