IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v167y2023ics0148296323005118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

I’m not the executive that I used to be: Understanding causes and consequences of personality change in the upper echelons

Author

Listed:
  • White, Joshua V.
  • Harms, P.D.
  • Borgholthaus, Cameron J.
  • Tuggle, Christopher S.

Abstract

Even as studies concerning the importance of executive personality traits continue to proliferate, there remains a need to integrate the burgeoning literature surrounding Upper Echelons Theory (UET) with mounting psychological evidence that adult personalities change over time. Current models of executive personality largely stop short of modeling the capacity and consequence of leader personality change, threatening the validity and usefulness of UET research more broadly. We argue that some UET personality literature conflates personality change with other cognitive phenomena and, by so doing, falls victim to the ‘jingle’ fallacy. To clarify and expand the conversation concerning executive personality change, we detail what is known about adult personality change and suggest opportunities for bridging the gap between UET and other disciplines. We discuss possible drivers of executive personality change, possible firm-level outcomes, and insight into how executive personality change will advance UET research. We also outline methodologies to capture the phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:167:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323005118
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323005118
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114152?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel K. Mroczek & Avron Spiro, 2003. "Modeling Intraindividual Change in Personality Traits: Findings From the Normative Aging Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(3), pages 153-165.
    2. Rosellina Ferraro & Baba Shiv & James R. Bettman, 2005. "Let Us Eat and Drink, for Tomorrow We Shall Die: Effects of Mortality Salience and Self-Esteem on Self-Regulation in Consumer Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 65-75, June.
    3. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    4. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    5. Timothy J. Quigley & Donald C. Hambrick, 2015. "Has the “CEO effect” increased in recent decades? A new explanation for the great rise in America's attention to corporate leaders," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 821-830, June.
    6. Timothy J. Quigley & Scott D. Graffin, 2017. "Reaffirming the CEO effect is significant and much larger than chance: A comment on Fitza (2014)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 793-801, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Ferris, Stephen P. & Jayaraman, Narayanan & Sabherwal, Sanjiv, 2013. "CEO Overconfidence and International Merger and Acquisition Activity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 137-164, February.
    9. Christiane Nieß & Hannes Zacher, 2015. "Openness to Experience as a Predictor and Outcome of Upward Job Changes into Managerial and Professional Positions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    10. Joseph S. Harrison & Gary R. Thurgood & Steven Boivie & Michael D. Pfarrer, 2019. "Measuring CEO personality: Developing, validating, and testing a linguistic tool," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1316-1330, August.
    11. Abhinav Gupta & Forrest Briscoe & Donald C. Hambrick, 2017. "Red, blue, and purple firms: Organizational political ideology and corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1018-1040, May.
    12. Steven Boivie & Michael C. Withers & Scott D. Graffin & Kevin G. Corley, 2021. "Corporate directors' implicit theories of the roles and duties of boards," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(9), pages 1662-1695, September.
    13. David H. Zhu & Guoli Chen, 2015. "Narcissism, director selection, and risk-taking spending," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(13), pages 2075-2098, December.
    14. William J. Wales & Pankaj C. Patel & G. T. Lumpkin, 2013. "In Pursuit of Greatness: CEO Narcissism, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Firm Performance Variance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(6), pages 1041-1069, September.
    15. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    16. Oleg V. Petrenko & Federico Aime & Jason Ridge & Aaron Hill, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility or CEO narcissism? CSR motivations and organizational performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 262-279, February.
    17. Guilhem Bascle, 2008. "Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research," Post-Print hal-00576795, HAL.
    18. Adam J. Wowak & Michael J. Mannor & Mathias Arrfelt & Gerry McNamara, 2016. "Earthquake or glacier? How CEO charisma manifests in firm strategy over time," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 586-603, March.
    19. Mirko H. Benischke & Geoffrey P. Martin & Lotte Glaser, 2019. "CEO equity risk bearing and strategic risk taking: The moderating effect of CEO personality," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 153-177, January.
    20. Guoli Chen & Craig Crossland & Sterling Huang, 2020. "That Could Have Been Me: Director Deaths, CEO Mortality Salience, and Corporate Prosocial Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 3142-3161, July.
    21. Charles Ham & Nicholas Seybert & Sean Wang, 2018. "Narcissism is a bad sign: CEO signature size, investment, and performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 234-264, March.
    22. Jule Specht & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2011. "Stability and Change of Personality across the Life Course: The Impact of Age and Major Life Events on Mean-Level and Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 377, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    23. Alberto Galasso & Timothy S. Simcoe, 2011. "CEO Overconfidence and Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(8), pages 1469-1484, August.
    24. 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.
    25. Palmer, Carolin & Niemand, Thomas & Stöckmann, Christoph & Kraus, Sascha & Kailer, Norbert, 2019. "The interplay of entrepreneurial orientation and psychological traits in explaining firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 183-194.
    26. Yi Tang & Daniel Z. Mack & Guoli Chen, 2018. "The differential effects of CEO narcissism and hubris on corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 1370-1387, May.
    27. Cronqvist, Henrik & Yu, Frank, 2017. "Shaped by their daughters: Executives, female socialization, and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 543-562.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Galina Shirokova & Nailya Galieva & Joshua V. White & Diana Doktorova, 2024. "Narcissism, workaholism, family support and new venture performance: a moderated mediation model," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 379-419, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johannes Brunzel, 2021. "Overconfidence and narcissism among the upper echelons: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 585-623, July.
    2. Hamid Boustanifar & Edward J. Zajac & Flladina Zilja, 2022. "Taking chances? The effect of CEO risk propensity on firms’ risky internationalization decisions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(2), pages 302-325, March.
    3. Han, Yu & Chi, Wei & Zhou, Jinyi, 2022. "Prosocial imprint: CEO childhood famine experience and corporate philanthropic donation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1604-1618.
    4. Fung, Hung-Gay & Qiao, Penghua & Yau, Jot & Zeng, Yuping, 2020. "Leader narcissism and outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from Chinese firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    5. Zhu, Minghao & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2021. "Diversify or concentrate: The impact of customer concentration on corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    6. Aabo, Tom & Pantzalis, Christos & Park, Jung Chul & Trigeorgis, Lenos & Wulff, Jesper N., 2024. "CEO personality traits, strategic flexibility, and firm dynamics," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Byun, Kyung-Ah (Kay) & Al-Shammari, Marwan, 2021. "When narcissistic CEOs meet power: Effects of CEO narcissism and power on the likelihood of product recalls in consumer-packaged goods," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 45-60.
    8. Christian J. Resick & Sucheta Nadkarni & Jenny Chu & Jianhong Chen & Wan‐Chien Lien & Jaclyn A. Margolis & Ping Shao, 2023. "I Did It My Way: CEO Core Self‐Evaluations and the Environmental Contingencies on Firm Risk‐Taking Strategies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1236-1272, July.
    9. Al-Shammari, Marwan & Rasheed, Abdul & Al-Shammari, Hussam A., 2019. "CEO narcissism and corporate social responsibility: Does CEO narcissism affect CSR focus?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 106-117.
    10. Johannes Brunzel, 2023. "Linguistic cues of chief executive officer personality and its effect on performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 215-243, January.
    11. Greiner, Michael & Kim, Jaemin & Cordon Thor, Jennifer, 2023. "Narcissistic CEOs and their corporate political activity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Shan Xu & Panyi Ma, 2022. "CEOs’ Poverty Experience and Corporate Social Responsibility: Are CEOs Who Have Experienced Poverty More Generous?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 747-776, October.
    13. Zixia Cao & Kehan Xu, 2022. "CEO narcissism, brand acquisition and disposal, and stock returns," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 777-799, July.
    14. Qing Wan & Xiaoke Cheng & Kam C. Chan & Shenghao Gao, 2021. "Born to innovate? The birth‐order effect of CEOs on corporate innovation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1846-1888, October.
    15. Yungu Kang & David H. Zhu & Yan Anthea Zhang, 2021. "Being extraordinary: How CEOS' uncommon names explain strategic distinctiveness," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 462-488, February.
    16. Lin, Fengyi & Lin, Sheng-Wei & Fang, Wen-Chang, 2022. "Impact of CEO narcissism and hubris on corporate sustainability and firm performance," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    17. Zhang, Zhihong & Wang, Pin & Xu, Huichao, 2020. "Executives’ preference for integrity and product quality: Evidence from the Chinese food industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 374-385.
    18. Ben Abdesslem, Rim & Chkir, Imed & Dabbou, Halim, 2022. "Is managerial ability a moderator? The effect of credit risk and liquidity risk on the likelihood of bank default," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Jennifer Kunz & Lara Sonnenholzner, 2023. "Managerial overconfidence: promoter of or obstacle to organizational resilience?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 67-128, January.
    20. Hans-Jörg Winkler & Verena Rieger & Andreas Engelen, 2020. "Does the CMO’s personality matter for web traffic? Evidence from technology-based new ventures," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 308-330, March.

    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:167:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323005118. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.