The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Leadership and Narcissism

Leadership is becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial issue for organizations facing change in a complex and volatile environment. This leads to a need for an understanding of the extensive leadership literature. However, it is notable that this literature is primarily focused on 'good' leadership. Until relatively recently it has ignored 'bad' or 'dark-side' leadership. Yet recent research in the field of change has provided evidence that such 'negative' leadership impacts adversely on change implementation. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to review the literature on 'bad' leadership and to explore the extent to which leader narcissism provides an explanation of 'bad' leadership behaviors. Building from this review the paper presents recommendations for future research.