Narcissism and Performance in a Management Education Teamwork Project

Based on the extant literature, we integrate Self-Enhancement theory and Social Exchange theory to hypothesize that individual-level maladaptive subclinical narcissism will be negatively related to peer performance ratings and that team-level maladaptive subclinical narcissism will be negatively related to both team-level task performance ratings and team-level organizational citizenship behaviors directed at individuals (OCB-I; Williams & Anderson, 1991). Longitudinal data were collected from 89 undergraduate students enrolled in Introductory Organizational Behavior courses. Student levels of maladaptive subclinical narcissism were measured during the first two weeks of the semester. OCB-I evaluations (Williams & Anderson, 1991) were used to assess the prevalence of OCB-Is within work groups across the lifespan of the team project. Peer performance ratings were measured using an instructor-designed rubric. Final grades for each team were obtained in order to assess task performance. Results suggest that (a) team-level Exhibitionism/Entitlement influences task performance, (b) team-level Exhibitionism/Entitlement influences changes in OCB-Is over time, and (c) individual-level Exhibitionism/Entitlement influences peer performance ratings