Narcissistic CEOs and Organizations: The Case of CEO Michael O’Leary and Ryanair

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Narcissistic CEOs and Organizations:

The Case of CEO Michael O’Leary and Ryanair

by

Winny Baiyansan

University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business

Research Paper for Pre-MSc IB&M (EBS014A10)

June 2020

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ABSTRACT

The aim of this research paper is to give an insight of narcissism in organizational context and thereby using Ryanair and Michael O´Leary as a case. Ryanair is well known as a low budget airline that had quite some success, however this success is not reflected in the employee satisfaction. The dissatisfaction of the employees is expressed in the amount of strikes that took place in the recent years, indicating that narcissism could be the cause of this clash between employees and the organization. For analyzing narcissism in Michael O’Leary the 9 symptoms for identifying narcissistic personality disorder, described in DSM-IV, are used. Furthermore, the 11 criteria’s for identifying organizational narcissism described by Godkin and Allcorn are used for analyzing narcissism in Ryanair. The preliminary result suggest that Michael O’Leary and Ryanair are both narcissistic, however the research plan have yet to be conducted to gain statistical results.

Key words: Michael O’Leary, Ryanair, Narcissistic CEO, Narcissistic Organization. Research theme: Narcissistic CEOs and Organizations

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1. Introduction and Central Research Question

1.1 Initial Motive

The image of great leaders comes from two aspects; great vision and ability to attract followers. Great vision of a narcissistic leader can be explained by not rolling with the style of foreseeing the future and acting on it, but instead creating it. The second component is the ability to attract followers by for example giving incredible motivational speeches that makes the audience enthusiastic (Maccoby, 2000). In 2007 a study conducted by Chatterjee & Hambrick (2007) showed a positive relation between CEO narcissism and indicators of grandiosity and strategic dynamism. Most of the narcissistic CEOs tend to make decisions that are bold and visible. Due to this style of decision making, the company performance tends to be more extreme and irregular, with bigger wins and bigger losses, compared to the less narcissistic CEOs. It is relevant for business to recognize the narcissistic CEO and to analyse the impact that the CEO has on the company in order to prevent a potential downward spiral of the company. To create a better understanding of this theme, this research paper focuses on three topics: a narcissistic CEO, a narcissistic organization and the relationship between the two. This topic shall be integrated in a case study regarding Michael O’Leary and Ryanair. The aim of the study case is to analyse whether Michael O’Leary is a narcissistic CEO and whether Ryanair is a narcissistic organization.

1.2 Problem Description and Analysis

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opportunities to explore their capabilities, it is unlikely that they will be staying long. The individual greediness for power and prestige of the narcissistic manager impacts the decisions made for the company. These decisions will rather contribute to the narcissistic manager´s glory instead of the company´s best interest.

Michael O´Leary and Ryanair are chosen for the case study of this research paper. The reason for choosing Ryanair is because, in 2015 Parmar (2015) published a list of 160 most and least empathetic businesses with Ryanair at spot 155. Indicating that Ryanair is one of the least empathetic businesses according to this research. In literature it is frequently stated that lack of

empathy is one of the elements of narcissism (Clements & Washbush, 1999; Higgs, 2009;

Maccoby, 2000) and therefore Ryanair is picked. Additional reason for choosing Ryanair has to do with its CEO, Michael O´Leary. He seems to have some degree of grandiose narcissism, which is descripted as someone that is high in self-esteem, overconfidence, dominant and attention seeking (Campbell, Hofmann, Campbell, & Marchisio, 2011). Further analysis for this claim has yet to be conducted, but several events indicate substantiation for the claim.

In a recent interview with CNBC International TV taken in November last year, he says confidently that Norwegian Airways will go bust by a matter of time and that their competitor is selling an aircraft that would not even pay the fuel bill for a week (CNBC International TV, 2019). By saying this he clearly tries to belittle Norwegian Airways and show his dominance and confidence. Besides that he has been criticized earlier this year for commenting about single traveling men with a Muslim persuasion, that he sees as a treat in a form of terrorism (Ellery, Ford, & Thomson, 2020). The comment that he made grabbed a lot of media attention and that characterizes his method for attention seeking.

1.3 Central Research Question

Besides the expectation of narcissism in Ryanair and Michael O’Leary, there has not been evidence so far. Whether Michael O’Leary is a narcissistic CEO and Ryanair is a narcissistic organization, would be clear with answering the following central research question:

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1.4 Research Questions

In order to answer the central research question, two sets of research questions should be answered. The first set of research questions consists of the theory questions, that will be answered by using scientific literature. The second set of research questions are the case specific questions about Michael O’Leary and Ryanair, these questions will be answered by using multiple types of literature. The answers to the theory questions are used as the basis for the answers to the case questions and serve as a reference framework, where criteria, descriptions and symptoms are described.

Theory questions:

1. What is narcissism?

2. What are the characteristics or symptoms, and types of narcissism? 3. What is a narcissistic leader?

4. What is a narcissistic organization?

5. How does a narcissistic leader influence the organization?

6. What are the (short-term and long-term) effects of this influence: on other parties, on strategy and performance?

7. How can a narcissistic leader and narcissistic organization be identified, diagnosed and measured?

Case questions:

8.1 Is Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, a narcissistic leader? 8.2 Is Ryanair a narcissistic organization?

1.5 Method

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2. Literature review

This chapter describes multiple aspects of narcissism including narcissism in leaders and organizational narcissism. The case study will be built up on the provided information about narcissism.

2.1 Definition of Narcissism

The definition of narcissism, given by the American Psychiatric Association (as cited in Raskin, Novacek, & Hogan, 1991), “is a pattern of grandiosity used to bolster and enhance a fragile sense of esteem”. Freud (1914) divided the manifestation of narcissism in components of self-admiration, self-aggrandizement and seeing others as an extreme. Other researchers such as Campbell et al., (2011) describe narcissism as an individual difference with the presence of grandiosity, self-love and inflated self-views.

2.2 Characteristics and Types of Narcissism

Narcissism is described in both personality literature and in clinical literature. As in social-personality literature, narcissism is described as a social-personality trait (Foster & Campbell, 2007) and in clinical literature narcissism is described as a personality disorder indicated with NPD, which someone can be diagnosed with when a person has 5 of the 9 symptoms listed in

DSM-IV (Campbell et al., 2011). The 9 symptoms of narcissism, linked to the personality disorder, listed in DSM-IV are (as cited in American Psychiatric Association , 2000):

“1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance.

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love. 3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).

4. Requires excessive admiration. 5. Has a sense of entitlement. 6. Is interpersonally exploitative.

7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others. 8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.

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For narcissism as a trait, Emmons, Rosenwulf, Morf and Campbell et all., (as cited in Higgs, 2009, p. 171) noted “A series of studies, building on the concept of narcissism as a trait provided evidence to indicate that narcissism is positively related to: self-esteem; biased self-enhancement; mood swings (particularly following criticism); high levels of anger and aggression in response to negative feedback; perception of little room for self-improvement; high levels of over-conﬁdence in own abilities; and tendencies to high levels of self- assessment.” This pattern of characteristics is described as subclinical narcissism (Campbell et al., 2011), which this paper will be focussing on.

There are different types of narcissism, such as grandiose and vulnerable. Grandiose narcissism is emitted in attention seeking, overconfident, extraverted, high in self-esteem and charming but also aggresive, lacking empathy and unwilling to take criticism (Campbell et al., 2011). Vulnerable narcissism is emitted in low self-esteem, depressed, anxious, the idea that the world is unfair and high in psychological entitlement (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003). Other types of narcissism are

productive and unproductive narcissism. Productive narcissism can be seen as the good type of

narcissism that can be used to improve the organization, due to the present of innovation, visions, driveness and desire for power and glory. However productive narcissism can transform in unproductive narcissism if self-knowlegde and restraining anchors are absent (Maccoby, 2000). Complementary to the subject of narcissism it is relevant to take in consideration that narcissism is present in different levels, rather than having narcissism or not having narcissism (Levy, 2012).

2.3 Definition of Narcissistic Leader

Rosenthal & Pittinsky (2006) defined narcissistic leadership as: “Narcissistic leadership occurs when leaders´ actions are principally motivated by their own egomaniacal needs and beliefs, superseding the needs and interests of the constituents and institutions they lead.” This definition defines what narcissistic leadership is, without directly engaging narcissism as a personality trait. A non-narcissistic leader could also impose this leadership style and in contrast a narcissistic leader can also lead non-narcissistically. But what is then a narcissistic leader?

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to attract followers. But a narcissistic leader is also someone that is sensitive to criticism, a poor listener, lacking in empathy and has a distaste for mentoring (Maccoby, 2000). Other than this pattern of characteristics, narcissistic leaders have a great impact on the company performances due to the organizational power that they have (Higgs, 2009). Besides that, the environment and the performance of the company can shape the type of narcissistic leader (Stein, 2013). The literature provides two types of narcissistic leaders: constructive and reactive narcissistic leaders, with constructive generally seen as healthy narcissism that takes advice from others and shares persuaded greatness. In contrast, reactive narcissistic leaders are constantly seeking for power, status, prestige and superiority. Disagreement and criticism are not wanted; therefore, they often surround themselves with ‘yea-sayers’ (De Vries, 2004).

2.4 Definition of Narcissistic Organization

All organizations have identities like peoples, that are unique and crafted out of environmental and internal pressures. An organization’s identity reflects the core values and beliefs, and can be expressed in multiple ways (e.g. behavior, procedures, policies) (Duchon & Burns, 2008). An narcissistic organization is an organization that sustains grandiose images, denies problems, attacks its environment that is a threat to the organizations pride, interrupts organizational learning (Godkin & Allcorn, 2009) and a organization without a real awareness of its own market position, which employs denial, feels entitled to cover up a damaged sense of identity and imposes self-aggrandizement (Duchon & Burns, 2008).

The characteristics of an organization with arrogant narcissism as described by Godkin & Allcorn (as cited in Godkin & Allcorn, 2009, p. 45) are:

“(1) Exceptional pride is held for the organization, its accomplishments and great hope is held for future successes. Leaders see few limitations regarding what may be accomplished and are not inhibited as to how to accomplish goals.

(2) Feelings of exceptional entitlement support exploitiveness of others, customers and the public interest.

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(4) There is a history of ﬁrings and demotions and of non-supporters and resistors being banished to internal organizational Siberias. Resistance is a threat and will not be tolerated.

(5) Management by intimidation is common.

(6) Fear suppresses accurate reality testing and creativity.

(7) Filtered information ﬂows alter organizational reality and magical thinking is present. Operating problems it may be seemingly thought will pass without taking action to resolve them. It is too dangerous to confront management behavior that contributes to problem generation and perpetuation.

(8) Others are frequently blamed and scapegoated.

(9) The sense of mood within the organization is unpredictable where one day a great success is celebrated and a week later there exists despair over not achieving the smallest of goals.

(10) Many in the organization are alienated from the organization and its leadership group preferring to hide out in their foxholes (ofﬁces and cubicles).

(11) In and out group dynamics are polarized and there is considerable evidence of distressing and destructive internal competition and open warfare.”

2.5 The Influence of a Narcissistic Leader on the Organization

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2.6 Short-term and Long-term Influence of Narcissistic Leader on the Organization

The strategy chosen by the narcissistic leader will differ from other leaders, they are in search of novel and dramatic when assessing alternative strategies. Preferences are dynamic and grandiosity strategies, which leads to not only fluctuating performances but also extreme performances like big wins and big losses (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). Next to the strategic effects, a narcissistic leader will also affect the organizational internal dynamics. In terms of HR-effects, a narcissistic manager could create harmful effects for employees and business units. These harmful effects can be caused by for example thwarting developmental opportunities for employees and allowing unethical behavior, which disturbs the long-term performance of a business unit (Lubit, 2002). Narcissistic leaders are set to exploit others and resources more than the non narcissistic competitors. In a competitive environment, narcissism is linked to individual gain and at the same time those who are competing against them will suffer. Narcissistic leaders can help an organization to achieve successful performance in the short-term (Campbell, Bush, Brunell, & Shelton, 2005). However, Benson and Hogan (as cited in Higgs, 2009, p. 169) “argue that ‘bad’ leadership can result in short-term performance success but will inevitably lead to long-term problems and dysfunctional performance”. Narcissistic leaders have a negative influence on the performance effects in the longer run, because they fail to create the right climate to achieve sustainable performance in the medium- to long-term due to damages in the organizational climate (Higgs, 2009).

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2.7 Identifying, Diagnosing and Measuring Narcissistic Leader and Organization

To deal with the problems of a narcissistic leader it is important for organizations to identify the narcissistic leader. There are significant warning signs that can indicate a narcissistic leader e.g. devaluing and exploiting others and trying to take all credit for success (Lubit, 2002). Objective variables are appropriate to use in order to assess the narcissistic personality dimension (Rijsenbilt, 2011). To measure a narcissistic leader, Rijsenbilt (2011) developed a tool with 5 determinants including 15 quantitative variables. However, the best way to identify a narcissistic leader is to have the narcissistic leader evaluated by the former employees (Lubit, 2002) a measurement tool to use for this evaluation is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), which is a measure to identify the 9 symptoms listed in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association , 2000; Motter, 2009). The components of the NPI can be found in APPENDIX A: Components of the NPI

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APPENDIX B: Items on the ONS

2.8 Case Information

This paragraph assesses whether Michael O’Leary is a narcissistic CEO and Ryanair a narcissistic organization, using the information from the literature review. The 9 symptoms listed in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association , 2000) will be used as criteria’s for the assessment of Michael O’Leary and the 11 criteria’s composed by Godkin & Allcorn (2009) will be used for the assessment of Ryanair.

2.8.1 The Case of Michael O’Leary

The assessment of Michael O’Leary will follow a specific order, which is line with the order of the 9 symptoms listed in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association , 2000), see 2.2 Characteristics and Types of NarcissismThe present symptoms, seen as characteristics, are described below according to its own characteristic number.

1.Self-importance. A statement by the man himself (as cited in Hogan, 2013): “People either see

me as Jesus, Superman or an odious little shit. I think I'm Jesus.” and “I should get the Nobel peace prize – screw Bono”. These statements that he made cleary show that he has a grandiose sense of self-imporatance, indicating the presence of characteristic 1. See APPENDIX C: Quotes and Statements Made by Michael O’Leary for more comments and statements that Michael O’Leary has made.

2: fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or idial love. This characteristic is

reflected by the way he expresses himself to the outside world, like standing in front of British Airlines with a huge banner and showing of a cheque of 14 million dollar for estimated taxes he had to pay (Cooper, 2018).

3: Special and unique. The presence of this characteristic is displayed in two ways. First, the way

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5: Self-entitlement. Clark (2005) shows that Michael O´Leary has the fifth characteristic of

narcissism. In his article he mentioned that O´Leary bought a taxi license for his car, in order to create different rules for himself in traffic. Showing that having money and paying taxes makes him believe that he can do anything that he wants, indicating that he has a sense of entitlement.

6: Interpersonally exploitative. Just like saving time, Michael O’Leary also likes to save money.

He is known for inventing cost-saving methods to the utmost, this includes exploiting pilots and cabin crew (Lowbridge, 2017). The best evidence to show the presence of this characteristic is the event whereby Michael O’Leary is sued in the U.S. for building profit on worker exploitation (Stempel, 2018).

7: Lack of empathy. Michael O’Leary lacks very much in empathy and this is very noticeable. The

strikes from the pilots were an counterattack to Michael O’Leary’s unwillingness to empathize and compromise with the pilots (Davies R. , 2018; Topham, 2019). Instead of empathizing he said that he would rather cuts off his hands than to recognize trade unions for pilots and cabin crew (Farrell & Davies, 2018).

9: Arrogance behavior. He is a very outspoken and foul-mouthed person, that is antagonistic, fiery

and belligerent to staff, unions, customers and competitors (Carayol, 2004). Furthermore, this characteristic is reflected by the statements that he has made in the recent years (as cited in Hogan, 2013): "You're not getting a refund so fuck off. We don't want to hear your sob stories. What part of 'no refund' don't you understand?" and "Do we carry rich people on our flights? Yes, I flew on one this morning and I'm very rich.".

2.8.1 The Case of Ryanair

The assessment of Ryanair will follow a specific order, which is line with the order of the 11 criteria’s of a narcissistic organization composed by Godkin & Allcorn (2009), see 2.4 Definition of Narcissistic Organization. The present characteristics are described below according to its own characteristic number.

2: Entitlement support exploitiveness of others. The cabin crew and pilots get exploited in different

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(Lowbridge, 2017). Ryanair takes advantages of the market conditions for pilots, whom are required to make certain amount of flying hours (EASA, 2019) and most of the newly-qualified pilots did not have a choice after the recession of 2008 and joined Ryanair (Lowbridge, 2017). The complaint filed against Ryanair for concealing employees exploitation (Stempel, 2018), provides even more evidence that characteristic 2 is present.

3: Envy and rage. Increasing numbers of constant strikes in the recent years is an answer to the

ongoing dispute between Ryanair and unions. Instead of compromising and showing affection, Ryanair choose to shift airplanes from Ireland to Poland (Farrell & Davies, 2018), this action reflects Ryanair’s attitude when its pride is threatened and how the organization is dealing with criticism and obstacles.

4: Resistance. This fourth characteristic is clearly present at Ryanair. A good example is the

ongoing dispute between Ryanair and its employees resulting in financial losses, endless strikes and most important job losses. Resistance from the employees is not accepted nor unpunished (Farrell & Davies, 2018; Topham, 2019; Topham, 2019).

5: Management by intimidation. Managers are expected to deliver constantly and otherwise

verbally abused if is did not meet expectations. The verbal abuse sometimes resulted in managers sitting in tears at meetings (Christoffer, 2019). Management by intimidation is also something that crew member are suffering from, they are constantly threatened with consequences if they do not achieve the set sales targets (Davies R. , 2017).

6: Fear. Ryanair is a company that does acknowledge the obstacles that the company is facing

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8: Blamed and scapegoated. Ryanair is known for blaming and scapegoating others. In 2019

Ryanair asked the pilots to take unpaid leave or transfer to a foreign base. While the pilots union is complaining about this terrible approach and claimed that the dispute is a result of Ryanair’s cost-saving measures, Ryanair is blaming it all on the delayed delivery of Boeing 737 Max airplanes (Topham, 2019).

11: Distressing and destructive internal competition. This eleventh characteristic is present,

according to an article written by Crouch (2015). In this article an ex-employee, which worked as a pilot for Ryanair, explained how distressing the competition was. Pilots were ordered to compete against each other on fuel usage and the ex-employee called Ryanair’s style ‘management by fear’.

2.9 Preliminary Answer for the Central Research Question

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3. Hypotheses

The findings suggest that Michael O’Leary possess 7 out of 9 characteristics for narcissism. Therefor the hypotheses to test whether Michael O’Leary has narcissism are:

Hypothesis 1

H1: Michael O’Leary …

a) is characterized by a lack of empathy.

b) behavior is characterized by being haughty and arrogant. c) is characterized by being interpersonally exploitative. d) is characterized by a sense of entitlement.

e) is characterized by grandiose sense of self-importance. f) is preoccupation with fantasies of being brilliant. g) is characterized by being interpersonally exploitative. H0: Michael O’Leary does not exhibit these characteristics.

The findings suggest that Ryanair possess 7 out of 11 symptoms for organizational narcissism. The hypotheses to test whether Ryanair is a narcissistic organization are:

Hypothesis 2 H1: Ryanair …

a) is characterized by feeling entitled to exploit others.

b) is characterized by envy and rage when pursuit of goal is threatened. c) is characterized by not tolerating and fighting resistance.

d) is characterized by common management by intimidation.

e) is characterized by fear suppressing accurate reality testing and creativity. f) is characterized by blaming and scapegoating others.

g) is characterized by having distressing and destructive internal competition and open warfare.

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4. Research Plan

The hypotheses in chapter 3 are formulated based on the findings so far. A research plan is written in order to test these hypotheses. The research plan described in this chapter is developed under the assumption that both the Michael O’Leary and Ryanair are willing to fully corporate in this research. This also includes paying for the research, in which the data collection will be done by a market research company.

4.1 Sample and Population

The population for testing all hypotheses consists of all the employees of Ryanair, which is around 18640 people (Mazareanu, 2020). See APPENDIX D: Ryanair’s Numbers of Employees per Category in 2019 for the employee proportion between the category of functions. The sample from the population can be selected though stratified random sampling. This means that the population gets divided in homogeneous subgroup before the sample will be selected, in this case these subgroups can be made based on category of function. By using this sampling method it is assured that the sample does not only represent the population but also the smaller minority groups (Trochim, 2020). However the most representative sample is a sample concerning the whole population. In this research the whole population will be taken for sampling, which leads to having a census. The advantages for using total population sampling is that the data is more representative and complete (Keller, 2012).

4.2 Measurement and Measures

4.2.1 Selecting the Survey Method

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questioned in groups. Household drop-off is a survey method whereby the questionnaire is handed to the respondents at its home of business.

The type of questionnaire that is most suitable for this research is a mail survey. This type of survey allows the researcher to the reach a wide number of people, which for this research is very convenient keeping in mind the size of the population and the spread of personnel over the world. Furthermore, this method allow the respondent to answer the questions in own convenience (Trochim, 2020).

4.2.2 Contents of the Survey

The survey consists of two sets of questions, one set to gather information on variables for testing whether Michael O’Leary is narcissistic and the other set for gathering information on variables to test whether Ryanair is narcissistic. In order to use the measurement NPI, the questionnaire must correspond with the components of NPI, which are shown in APPENDIX A: Components of the NPI. The statements must be adjusted to the case of Michael O’Leary. An statement example could be “Michael O’Leary likes to be in the centre of attention/ Michael O’Leary does not like to be in the centre of attention” and “Michael O’Leary shows off whenever he gets a chance/ Michael O’Leary tries not to show off”. Second part of the questionnaire must contain statements that cover the items of the ONS, which are shown in APPENDIX B: Items on the ONS. Through this, the measurement Organizational Narcissism Scale (ONS) of Hamedoğlu & Potas (2012) can be used in conducting the research. An example of a statement could be “there is nothing we, as Ryanair, can not do” and “Ryanair is a leader in its category”.

4.2.3 Collecting Data

By using the mail survey over a house drop-off survey and group administered questionnaire, it can be ensured that the feedback is anonymous. This is important because it preserves the accuracy and reliability of the feedback and ensures that employees are willing to respond (Lubit, 2002). The response will be gathered through a structered response format. This type of format helps the researcher summarize and accumulate the responses efficiently (Trochim, 2020).

4.3 Research Design

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4.3.1 Validity

Trochim (2020) described two types of validity: internal validity and construct validity. Internal validity is important for studies where a causal relationship has to be explained. However this research is not aiming to test inferences, which focus on causal relationships. What is important for this research is the construct validity. The construct validity explains whether the information that is gathered is the information that is needed (Trochim, 2020). Translating it to this research it would mean that the information that is gathered is really the information needed to test whether Michael O’Leary is a narcissistic CEO and Ryanair a narcissistic organization. Both NPI and ONS are high in this type of validity (Motter, 2009; Hamedoğlu & Potas, 2012) and therefor suitable to use.

4.3.2 Selecting the Design

The whole population is used for the data collection, this omits the selection of subgroups. The most suitable research design for this research is non-experimental research design. In this type of research design, the whole population is given the same survey without intervention and without information given about the end use of the data (Trochim, 2020). See table 1 for an extensive description of the research design and table 2 for the research steps.

TABLE 1 Research Design Type of information collected Who is asked for information How is the information collected Where is the information collected When is the information collected

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TABLE 2

Chronological research order Research order

1. Create the questionnaire in English and include the statements that reflect the components of NPI and ONS.

2. Send the questionnaire to every employee of Ryanair via email. 3. Collect the response of the employees and process it into data.

4. Analyze the data in SPSS according to the instruction of the measurement tools.

5. Define whether Michael O´Leary and Ryanair are narcissistic by comparing the scores.

4.4 Analysis

4.4.1 Descriptive Statistics

After collecting the data from the employees, the data can be presented in a histogram to illustrate the distribution of the answers this is called descriptive statistics. Descriptive data is used to provide a summary of the data rather than giving a conclusion (Keller, 2012). The summary consists of information such as the frequency, mean, median, maximum and minimum (Trochim, 2020). The data would provide information such as: how many people think that “Michael O’Leary

shows off whenever he gets a chance” rather than “Michael O’Leary tries not to show off” and how

many employees think that “there is nothing we, as Ryanair, can not do”. 4.4.2 Inferential Statistics

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5. Analysis, discussion

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6. Conclusions and Recommendations

6.1 Conclusions

The preliminary findings show enough evidence to conclude that Michael O’Leary is a narcissistic CEO and Ryanair a narcissistic organization. The degree of narcissism found in Michael O’Leary is higher than Ryanair, but for both high degree of narcissism is found. These conclusions have been formulated through answering the research questions and the conclusions are also answering the Central Research Question. During this research 7 of the 9 symptoms of narcissism listed in DSM-IV were found in Michael O’Leary and 7 of the 11 characteristics of a narcissistic organization, formulated by Godkin and Allcorn (2009), were found in Ryanair. The qualitative research, that have yet to be conducted, will show whether the conclusion can be supported.

6.2 Recommendations

It is recommended for organizations that are experiencing narcissism to take action to decrease narcissism. This is important because narcissism does not only lead to damage in the organizational climate (Higgs, 2009) but it also lead to extreme performances like big wins and big losses (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). This research offers insights to organizations and researchers that come in contact with or are presented with the subject of CEO narcissism and organizational narcissism. This research shows what narcissism is and how it can be identified within a CEO or organization. In order to make reliable management recommendations it is necessary to execution the research plan to gain sufficient information about the presence and the degree of narcissism. It is doubtful to say whether the recommendations will be followed through by the management, but it can help to recognize the presence of narcissism. If the management is not willing to implement the measures then it is recommended for employees to take actions. Lubit (2002) gives suggestions about coping with a narcissistic bosses in order to help decrease problematic situation. A few examples of these recommendations are avoiding gossiping with narcissistic managers, because this makes you vulnerable, and documenting your work in order to defend yourself if in a circumstance were your work ability is being questioned.

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quantitative variables that reflects the components of Emmons, following the research method of Rijsenbilt (2011).

6.3 Reflection

This research has several strengths such as the coherence between the theoretical concepts part and the case study part, which leads to a more focused analysis of the case. The strengths of qualitative research lies in the use of the existing measurement NPI, which is a good method to use, because it has according to Terry (as cited in Motter, 2009, p. 8): “strong construct validity”. Same goes for the use of existing measurement ONS, which is a valid and reliable scale (Hamedoğlu & Potas, 2012).

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APPENDIX A: Components of the NPI

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APPENDIX B: Items on the ONS

Retrieved from: Hamedoğlu & Potas (2012)

Other companies are no match for us.

Our company is a source of inspiration for all other organizations Our company is a leader in its category.

Other companies should take us as an example. Those who dislike us are blind.

At meetings and in other situations our company is the focus of ON. We are very successful.

Our company is the center of attention. We have the best staff.

One day, everyone will be talking about our successes. We start new things.

Everyone likes hearing our story. We are a very picky company. A book should be written about us. There is no one who doesn’t know us. I like it when other people praise us.

We make a difference at meetings and activities. We should definitely take part in activities. When I introduce myself I also say where I work? I would say that I am proud of where I work. We know how valuable we are.

We have an atmosphere that affects people. Our company has a very nice work environment. There is nothing we can't succeed in.

Our company has its own, unique, very nice image. It is impossible to ignore our success.

We never give up before succeeding. There is nothing we can't do.

Not being taken into account by our peers makes us angry. We are always aware of what we are doing.

We put our successes on display in a striking manner. We organize unbelievably nice festivities.

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APPENDIX C: Quotes and Statements Made by Michael O’Leary

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2013/nov/08/michael-o-leary-33-daftest-quotes on May 26, 2020

1 "Germans will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get low fares."

2 "The French have never produced a great philosopher. Great wine maybe, but no great philosophers."

3 "If drink sales are falling off, we get the pilots to engineer a bit of turbulence. That usually spikes sales."

4 On passengers who forget to print their boarding passes: "We think they should pay €60 for being so stupid."

5 "Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastion of sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong. We already bombard you with as many in-flight

announcements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who looks like sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things."

6 "Ryanair brings lots of different cultures to the beaches of Spain, Greece and Italy, where they couple and copulate in the interests of pan-European peace."

7 "One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future. Pay-per-pee. If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet, I'd carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver." 8 "Do we carry rich people on our flights? Yes, I flew on one this morning and I'm very rich." 9 To a Ryanair employee who dared to join the Twitter Q&A: "Get back to work you slacker or you're fired."

10 Opening a press conference to announce Ryanair's annual results: "I'm here with Howard Millar and Michael Cawley, our two deputy chief executives. But they're presently making love in the gentleman's toilets, such is their excitement at today's results."

11 On why his bride arrived 35 minutes late for their wedding: "She's coming here with Aer Lingus."

12 "You're not getting a refund so fuck off. We don't want to hear your sob stories. What part of 'no refund' don't you understand?"

13 "Screw the travel agents. Take the fuckers out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?"

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15 "The most influential person in Europe in the last 20 to 30 years has been Margaret Thatcher. Without her we'd all be living in some French bloody unemployed republic."

16 "We want to annoy the fuckers whenever we can. The best thing you can do with

environmentalists is shoot them. These headbangers want to make air travel the preserve of the rich. They are luddites marching us back to the 18th century. If preserving the environment means stopping poor people flying so the rich can fly, then screw it."

17 On the British Airways/Iberia merger: "It reminds me of two drunks leaning on each other." 18 "MBA students come out with: 'My staff is my most important asset.' Bullshit. Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy bastards who needs a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it."

19 His response to the first questioner, a woman, during a live Twitter Q&A: "Nice pic. Phwoaaarr! MOL"

20 "All flights are fuelled with Leprechaun wee and my bullshit!"

21 "If global warming meant temperatures rose by one or two degrees, France would become a desert, which would be no bad thing. The Scots would grow wine and make buffalo mozzarella." 22 "I'm Europe's most underpaid and underappreciated boss. I'm paid about 20 times more than the average Ryanair employee and I think the gap should be wider."

23 On transatlantic Ryanair flights: "In economy, no frills. In business class, it'll all be free – including the blow jobs."

24 On Bertie Ahern: "I'm disrespectful towards authority. I think the prime minister of Ireland is a gobshite"

25 "The airline industry is full of bullshitters, liars and drunks. We excel at all three in Ireland." 26 "The airline business is it is mostly run by a bunch of spineless nincompoops who actually don't want to stand up to the environmentalists and call them the lying wankers that they are." 27 "People either see me as Jesus, Superman or an odious little shit. I think I'm Jesus. A prophet in his own time.

28 "Ryanair's biggest achievement? Bringing low fares to Europe and still lowering 'em. Biggest failure? Hiring me."

29 On a bomb scare in Scotland: "The police force were outstanding in their field. But all they did was stand in their field. They kept passengers on board while they played with a suspect package for two and three quarter hours. Extraordinary."

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31 "Nobody wants to sit beside a really fat bastard on board. We have been frankly astonished at the number of customers who not only want to tax fat people but torture them."

32 "I don't give a shit if no one likes me. I'm not a cloud bunny or an aerosexual. I don't like aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who populate the airline industry."

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