Female Corporate Narcissism and Its Association with Female Corporate Psychopathy

Terms such as ‘corporate leader’, ‘entrepreneur’, and ‘CEO’ conjures up images of a self-centred, assertive, insensitive, and power-driven businessman. These traits comprise of narcissism which has been increasingly applied to describe the destructive behaviours of CEO’s. This increase in public attention has coincided with an increase in research on narcissism within organisational settings, due to the harm it poses to staff well-being and the integrity of the organisation. Hampering this research, however, is the gendered narrative to conceptualise and assess narcissism – an inherently masculine persona – in leadership and managerial roles. The literature on female narcissism in the workplace has been comparatively silent, despite marked gender differences in the presentation of this personality construct. This chapter sets these issues in a gendered context by outlining the descriptive features of female narcissism and how it manifests in interpersonal contexts, followed by a discussion of how female narcissism overlap conceptually and empirically with female psychopathy. The chapter ends with highlighting the theoretical and practical implications of female corporate narcissism, its association with female corporate psychopathy, and its impact on organisational outcomes.