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Executive hubris: the case of a bank CEO

Author

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  • Niamh M. Brennan
  • John P. Conroy

Abstract

Purpose - Can personality traits of chief executive officers (CEOs) be detected at a distance? Following newspaper speculation that the banking crisis of 2008 was partly caused by CEO hubris, this paper seeks to analyse the CEO letters to shareholders of a single bank over ten years for evidence of CEO personality traits, including narcissism (a contributor to hubris), hubris, overconfidence and CEO‐attribution. Following predictions that hubris increases the longer individuals occupy positions of power, the research aims to examine whether hubristic characteristics intensify over time. Design/methodology/approach - This paper takes concepts of hubris from the clinical psychology literature and applies them to discourses in CEO letters to shareholders in annual reports. The research comprises a longitudinal study of the discretionary narrative disclosures in the CEO letters to shareholders in eight annual reports, benchmarked against disclosures in the CEO letters to shareholders of the previous and subsequent CEOs of the same organisation. Findings - The results point to evidence of narcissism and hubris in the personality of the bank CEO. Over half the sentences analysed were found to contain narcissistic‐speak. In 45 per cent of narcissistic‐speak sentences, there were three of more symptoms of hubris – what Owen and Davison describe as extreme hubristic behaviour. In relation to CEO overconfidence, only seven sentences (2 per cent) contained bad news. More than half of the good news was attributed to the CEO and all the bad news was attributed externally. The research thus finds evidence of hubris in the CEO letters to shareholders, which became more pronounced the longer the CEO served. Research limitations/implications - The analysis of CEO discourse is highly subjective, and difficult to replicate. Originality/value - The primary contribution of this research is the adaptation of the 14 clinical symptoms of hubris from clinical psychology to the analysis of narratives in CEO letters to shareholders in annual reports to reveal signs of CEO hubris.

Suggested Citation

  • Niamh M. Brennan & John P. Conroy, 2013. "Executive hubris: the case of a bank CEO," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(2), pages 172-195, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:26:y:2013:i:2:p:172-195
    DOI: 10.1108/09513571311303701
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    Cited by:

    1. Yubin Qian & Ya Sun, 2021. "The Correlation Between Annual Reports’ Narratives and Business Performance: A Retrospective Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    2. Patrick Hertrampf & Thomas M. Brunner-Kirchmair & Martin R. W. Hiebl & Arnd Wiedemann, 2025. "The Relationship Between CEO Characteristics and Banks’ Risk-Taking: Review and Research Directions [Die Beziehung zwischen CEO-Charakteristika und der Risikobereitschaft von Banken: Literaturüberb," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 127-178, March.
    3. Amernic, Joel & Craig, Russell, 2017. "CEO speeches and safety culture: British Petroleum before the Deepwater Horizon disaster," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 61-80.
    4. Joel Amernic & Russell Craig, 2013. "Leadership Discourse, Culture, and Corporate Ethics: CEO-speak at News Corporation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 379-394, December.
    5. Eyal Eckhaus & Zachary Sheaffer, 2018. "Managerial hubris detection: the case of Enron," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(4), pages 304-325, November.
    6. Liu, Pu & Nguyen, Hazel T., 2020. "CEO characteristics and tone at the top inconsistency," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    7. Yubin Qian & Ya Sun, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of literature on narrative discourse in corporate annual reports (1990–2019)," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 429-446, April.
    8. White, Joshua V. & Harms, P.D. & Borgholthaus, Cameron J. & Tuggle, Christopher S., 2023. "I’m not the executive that I used to be: Understanding causes and consequences of personality change in the upper echelons," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Yu Chen & Xiaoyan Chu & Jung Chul Park & Jared S. Soileau, 2022. "CEO religious university affiliation and financial reporting quality," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 417-468, March.
    10. Almaghrabi, Khadija S. & Slack, Richard & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis & Tsoligkas, Fanis, 2024. "Capitalised development costs and future cash flows: The effect of CEO overconfidence and board gender diversity," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6).
    11. Thomas Kiptanui TARUS, 2020. "Does Corporate Governance Mechanisms Matter in Explaining Risk Management? Evidence from Non-Financial Kenyan Listed Firms," Journal of Economics and Financial Analysis, Tripal Publishing House, vol. 4(1), pages 79-97.
    12. Galit Klein & Eyal Eckhaus, 2017. "Sensemaking and sensegiving as predicting organizational crisis," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 225-244, August.
    13. Lisa Warenski, 2024. "Organizational Good Epistemic Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 485-500, October.
    14. Ali Ataullah & Andrew Vivian & Bin Xu, 2018. "Optimistic Disclosure Tone and Conservative Debt Policy," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 54(4), pages 445-484, December.
    15. Dunne, Neil J. & Brennan, Niamh M. & Kirwan, Collette E., 2023. "How the Big Four maintain and defend logic equilibrium at concurrent performances," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Runesson, Emmeli & Samani, Niuosha, 2023. "Goodwill or “No-will”: Hubris in the tone at the top," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1).
    17. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    18. Frerich Buchholz & Kerstin Lopatta & Karen Maas, 2020. "The Deliberate Engagement of Narcissistic CEOs in Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 663-686, December.
    19. Moreno, Alonso & Jones, Michael John, 2022. "Impression management in corporate annual reports during the global financial crisis," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 503-517.
    20. George Ferns & Kenneth Amaeshi & Aliette Lambert, 2019. "Drilling their Own Graves: How the European Oil and Gas Supermajors Avoid Sustainability Tensions Through Mythmaking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 201-231, August.
    21. Vita Akstinaite & Graham Robinson & Eugene Sadler-Smith, 2020. "Linguistic Markers of CEO Hubris," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 687-705, December.
    22. Russell Craig & Joel Amernic, 2018. "Are there Language Markers of Hubris in CEO Letters to Shareholders?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(4), pages 973-986, June.

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