IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v200y2025ics0148296325004874.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How CEO narcissism, organizational identification, and performance feedback shape middle managers’ strategic behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Xiaoxuan
  • Yang, Miles M.
  • Wang, Yue
  • Tang, Yanzhao

Abstract

Grounded in strategic leadership and organizational identification theories, this study investigates the mechanisms through which CEO narcissism influences middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior. We propose a moderated mediation model in which CEO narcissism negatively affects middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior by diminishing their organizational identification. Furthermore, we examine how performance feedback moderates this mediated relationship. We conducted two experimental studies involving 70 practitioners (Study 1) and 156 middle managers (Study 2) to empirically support the proposed model. The findings reveal that CEO narcissism undermines middle managers’ organizational identification, reducing their capacity for divergent strategic behavior. However, the negative relationship between CEO narcissism and organizational identification is weak when an organization’s performance feedback is positive and strong when it is negative. This study contributes to the literature on CEO personality and middle managers’ strategic behavior by highlighting the complex interplay of leadership traits, organizational dynamics, and feedback mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Xiaoxuan & Yang, Miles M. & Wang, Yue & Tang, Yanzhao, 2025. "How CEO narcissism, organizational identification, and performance feedback shape middle managers’ strategic behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004874
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115664
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325004874
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115664?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004874. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.