Narcissistic CEOs and Narcissistic Organizations: The Case of Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet

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Narcissistic CEOs and Narcissistic Organizations:

The Case of Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet

By

Marthijn Voerman

University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business

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

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to find out whether Oliver Samwer is a narcissistic CEO, and whether Rocket Internet is a narcissistic organization. In order to create a thorough foundation, theoretical information regarding narcissism has been assessed, as well as secondary sources related to Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet. Based on sources available for desk research indicators have been found for both the CEO and the organization being narcissistic. Based on the theoretical part a research plan has been developed, which can be used to investigate more thoroughly whether the CEO and the organization can be diagnosed with narcissism.

Key words: narcissism, organizational behaviour, narcissistic organizations, narcissistic leaders, Rocket Internet, Oliver Samwer.

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1. INTRODUCTION AND CENTRAL RESEARCH QUESTION

1.1 Initial Motive

Rocket Internet was founded in 2007 by Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer and has since grown to one of the largest IT-companies in Germany, employing over 30.000 employees and operating in over 100 countries. It had a €6.5 bln IPO in October 2014 (The Economist, 2014). The company’s focus is to copy existing, successful business models in every possible market except the USA and China. Its mission is becoming the world’s largest internet platform outside the USA and China, and revolutionizing the shopping industry (Rocket Internet, 2015). Its strategy, combined with the aggressive approach of the company’s CEO, Oliver Samwer, allowed the company to attain significant market shares in many countries. However, this also led to Rocket Internet becoming the „common enemy“ in the online industry, especially in Sillicon Valley where disruptive innovation is appreciated rather than copying existing business models (The Economist, 2014). Samwer defends his strategy with the words: “In the internet industry, there are Einsteins and there are Bob the Builders. I’m a Bob the Builder.” (The Economist, 2014).

Besides the positive sounds of rapid growth, revolutionizing the shopping industry and (incremental) innovation there is also a dark side of the company and its management. It has been in the news several times for being accused of unethical behaviour, such as creating false profiles on competitors’ platforms damaging the image of these platforms, stealing client data from competitors, intimidating employees, and closing shady deals that turn out to be extremely beneficial for Rocket Internet at the expense of the other party (Kaczmarek, 2014).

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In order to assess whether narcissism is present within the company and its management, the following central research question has been formulated:

Is Oliver Samwer a narcissistic CEO, and is Rocket Internet a narcissistic organization?

Extensive knowledge about narcissism will form the foundation for answering the Central Research Question. Therefore eight Research Questions have been formulated which deal with the theory about naricssism.

1. What is narcisssism?

2. What are the types of narcissism? 3. What are the symptoms of narcissism? 4. What is a narcissistic leader?

5. What is a narcissistic organization?

6. How does a narcissistic leader influence the organization, its strategy, performance and external parties?

7. What are the short- and long-term effects of having a narcissistic CEO? 8. How can a narcissistic CEO and organization be identified and diagnosed? Once a solid theoretical foundation has been created, the case of Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet will be investigated by answering the following two case questions:

9. Is Oliver Samwer a narcissistic leader?

10. Is Rocket Internet a narcissistic organization? 1.2 Methodology

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section contains the literature review, which is subdivided into two parts: theory and case. In the first part the literature regarding narcissism, narcissistic CEOs and organisations will be reviewed in order to gain a thorough understanding of the topic. In latter part this understanding will be used to analyse Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet on the basis of secondary information.

2.1 Theory Questions

2.1.1 Narcissism. Narcissism is a relatively stable individual difference consisting of grandiosity, self-love and inflated self-views. It is useful to think of narcissism as containing three components: the self, interpersonal relationships and self-regulatory strategies. First, the narcissistic self is characterized by positivity, “specialness” and uniqueness, vanity, a sense of entitlement and a desire for power and esteem. Second, narcissistic relationships contain low levels of empathy and emotional intimacy. In their place, there are (often numerous) shallow relationships that can range from exciting and engaging to manipulative and exploitative. Third, there are narcissistic strategies for maintaining inflated self-views. For example, narcissists seek out opportunities for attention and admiration, brag, steal credit from others, and play games in relationship. When narcissists are successful at this, they feel good—they report high self-esteem and positive life satisfaction. When they are unsuccessful, they show aggression and sometimes anxiety and depression (Campbell et al., 2011). Psychiatric literature considers narcissism a personality disorder. The guide used to assess and diagnose narcissism can be found in the next paragraph.

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1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).

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 highstatus people (or institutions). 4. Requires excessive admiration.

5. Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations. 6. Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or

her own ends.

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. 9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes. (APA, 2012)

2.1.3 Types of Narcissism. The term narcissism can be found both in the social-personality literature and the clinical psychology and psychiatric literature. The first refers to narcissism as a trait that is normally distributed in the population and for which there is no qualitative cut-off (taxon) for elevated narcissism (Foster & Campbell, 2007). Here narcissism is considered a person’s characteristic, which is related to variables like self-esteem, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

According to Miller, Gentile, Wilson, & Campbell (2013) there are at least two dimensions of narcissism: grandiose and vulnerable. Grandiose narcissism includes traits such as grandiosity, aggression and dominance. Vulnerable narcsissism on the other hand is characterized by a defensive and insecure grandiosity that obscures feelings of inadequacy, incompetence and negativity. The over-confident and dominant CEO can be classified as a grandiose narcissist. The narcissist who seeks psychotherapy on the other hand, is likely to be a vulnerable narcissist. This paper will focus on grandiose narcissism.

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principally motivated by their own egomaniacal needs and beliefs, supserseding the needs and interests of the constituents and institutions they lead. Their inflated self-view and need for attention drives narcissistic leaders to spectacular, possibly disrupting decisions rather than stable and incremental ones. As a result of these extreme decisions, the firm’s performance will also be extreme (either positively or negatively) (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). Their desire for attention leads to high dynamism and varying decision-making. The main way is through acquisitions. Another reason for these acquisitions might be that the narcissistic leader is convinced that he can run the acquired company better than his predesessor (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007).

It can be expected that narcissists succeed in positions in which charisma and extraversion are important (e.g. sales) or self-absorption and grandiosity (e.g. science) (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). Narcissists emerge and often flourish in chaotic times, when a new order has to be established (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). Campbell et al. (2011) have shown that narcissists can indeed be highly successful in chaotic situations and emerging organizations. However, when the company enters the enduring stage, having a narcissistic leader can have negative consequences. When it comes to the industry, they might be more effective in dynamic industries (e.g. software) as opposed to stabile industries (e.g. steel and paper). However, no evidence on this has been found (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007).

2.1.5 The Narcissistic Organization. Duchon and Burns (2008) assume that every organization is narcissistic: they all seek for favourable publicity, ingore unfavourable events from time to time, and make bad decisions they do not want to be held responsible for. However, narcissistic organizations can be divided into three categories: high self-esteem narcissism, low self-esteem narcissism and healthy narcissism. The first is typically blind for its own weaknesses, displays its superiority with fancy headquarters on prime locations, considers himself entitled to success, denies facts about itself and comes up with plausible alternatives for these facts. In this type of organization the management is often surrounded by yes-men, agreeing with the board’s visions and grandiose plans.

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a sense of unworthyness, which leads to strong underestimation within the organization. Organizations with low self-esteem do not face their problems, but rather avoid them and paralyze instead of making necessary decisions. When times are bad, scapegoating tends to occur: e.g. management blames their employees for poor execution of a plan, instead of reconsidering if the plan was good in the first place. Between these two extremes, we find healthy narcissism. Healthy organizations face their problems, rely on data and facts rather than on visions and dreams, and accept short-term setbacks since they are confident about their long-term success. (Duchon & Burns, 2008). In narcissistic organizations feeling moral is more important than the morality of its actions (Duchon & Drake, 2009). Ironically, narcissistic organizations frequently set up ethics programmes in order to improve self-image and fence of future accusations of unethical behavior (Duchon & Drake, 2009).

For the diagnosis of organizational narcissism, Godkin and Allcorn (2009) have defined 11 criteria based on the criteria for DSM-IV, from which seven must be present for diagnosis:

1) Exceptional pride for the organization and its accomplishments, and great hopes for the future, without considering possible limitations.

2) Exploitiveness of others based on feelings of exceptional entitlement.

3) When the pursuit of goals and pride is threatened, envy and rage arise. Management is willing to spend limitless time and energy to win the battle. 4) No-men are being sent to Siberias.

5) Management by intimidation is common. 6) Fear suppresses reality testing and creativity.

7) Filtered information flows alter organizational reality, which leads to magical thinking. Employees consider it dangerous to confront management with problems the organization is facing.

8) Others are frequently blamed and scapegoated. 9) The mood within the organization fluctuates strongly.

10) Employees alienate themselves by preferring to stay in their offices and cubicles.

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2.1.6 The Influence of a Narcissistic Leader on the Organization. Having a narcissistic CEO can have a profound impact on the organization. Narcisisstic leaders have a desire for attention, prestige and power, and will use their influence to create an environment in which this desire will be nurtured. One way to do so is by gathering yes-men, who do not confront the CEO by opposing his plans. A narcissistic leader also tends to make important decisions by himself. When these decisions turn out to have negative consequences, he does not take responsibility for the consequences, but blames scapegoats instead. This behaviour, along with his fear for being outperformed by succesfull subordinates, can chase the bright-minded employees away from the organization.

Besides affecting the organization, a narcissistic CEO can also influence an organization’s strategy. Narcissists tend to have frequently changing interests, which in the case of a CEO can result in continuously changing strategies, leading to a volatile company policy (Lubit, 2002). Adding to this volatility is the narcissistic CEO’s constant need for affirmation, forcing him to make bold moves that put him into the spotlights. Moreover, a narcissistic leader is confident of his own skills and knowledge, and sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants to hear (Maccoby, 2000). This leads to a biased risk-assessment, which might make highly risky probabilities very attractive in the CEO’s eyes (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007).

This in turn results in highly volatile performance, which can either be very good or very bad (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007).

2.1.7 The Short- and Long-term Effects of the Influence on the Organization. On the short-term a narcissistic leader might be the right person to develop an organization, however the qualities required to form a group may be different from those required to maintain it (Hogan et al., 1994, p. 499).

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inability to face problems objectively. It is more likely that they will look for scapegoats, or simply ignore the reality, than a narcissistic CEO dealing with problems he created himself.

2.1.8 How to Identify, Diagnose and Measure a Narcissistic CEO and Organization. The American Psychiatric Association has developed a manual, which can be used to identify whether a person has an NPD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS) is the standard classification method of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States (APA, 2012). The criteria for the fourth edition, DSM-IV, can be found in paragraph 2.1.2; Symptoms of narcissism. Five of these nine criteria must be met in order to diagnose NPD. In this research the Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire will be used (NPQ). The NPQ is based on- and used to identify the nine characteristics of narcissism defined in the DSM guide. The NPQ is used to test subclinical narcissism, i.e. somebody who scores high on the NPQ does not necessarily suffer from a NPD (Motter, 2009). For diagnosing organizational narcissism, Godkin and Allcorn (2009) have developed a list with eleven criteria, from which seven must be met in order to diagnose organizational narcissism. For this list, please have a look at paragraph 2.1.5. For measuring organizational narcissism the Organisational Narcissism Scale (ONS) developed by Hamedoglu & Potas (2012) can be used. This is a questionnaire that assesses five sub-dimensions of narcissism: leadership and authority, anticipation of recognition, grandiosity, self-admiration and vanity and exhibitionism.

In the following section the theoretical knowledge acquired in this section will be applied to the case of Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet, using information collected from secondary sources.

2.2 Case Questions

2.2.1 Oliver Samwer: a Narcissistic Leader? In this paragraph the nine criteria from the DSM-IV guide will be used to assess whether Oliver Samwer is a narcissistic leader based on secondary literature.

Fantasies of unlimited success, power

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the world of shopping, employing 150.000 employees, and having €1 billion on his bank account. The first indicates his desire to change the world, the second his hunger for power, and the third his hunger for wealth (ZDF, 2014). From this information we could conclude that Samwer has fantasies of unlimited success, power and wealth. Sense of self-importance and specialness, leading to arrogant behaviour

In order to reach these goals, Samwer needs Rocket Internet to become a successful company. He considers himself essential and undispensable for his company’s success, and therefore takes all the big decisions by himself. This does not only count for Rocket Internet itself, but also for its portfolio companies. He has a feeling of specialness, self-importance and superiority over everybody else within the organization, except for his two brothers (Golem, 2014). This is confirmed by Samwer’s habit of micromanaging all kinds of processes: he can walk into every department every time of the day, and ask for detailed updates, followed by direct and sometimes even aggressive criticism (Gründerszene, 2014). A quote that has often been repeated by Samwer confirms his feeling of being special: “I am the most aggressive man in the internet scene” (Netzwertig, 2014). This feeling of specialness and superiority has also resulted in arrogant behaviour. The way other people build their companies is by definition wrong, and inferior to his strategies (ZDF, 2014). Exploitative

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view of company-building is the right one. According to Chatterjee and Hambrick (2007) this is typical for a narcissistic leader.

Lack of empathy

Moreover, several cases are known in which he yells at employees for minor mistakes, and sometimes even throws pieces of furniture at them (Gründerszene, 2012). When not making mistakes, these people are usually being completely ignored by him. When making phonecalls with them, he says what he wants to say, and then simply hangs up without waiting for a response. Especially for people who are new to the company, this behaviour can be very intimidating (Kaczmarek, 2014). When employees oppose to his ideas, he threatens them to close every door in the industry, which he as actually done in some cases (Kaczmarek, 2012). Internally employees refer to him with the nickname „the Dark Lord“ (Gründerszene, 2012). Need for excessive admiration

It is interesting to see that although Samwer considers himself to be special and superior, he does not seem to have a need for excessive admiration. In fact, he hardly ever gives interviews, and has only given one interview in front of a camera in his entire life.

Sense of entitlement

Oliver Samwer comes from a rich family from Cologne, but does not feel entitled at all to be rich or successful. He claims the only way to achieve this is by working hard and giving everything you have, nobody can be entitled to it based on his roots (ZDF, 2014).

Envious

Based on the secondary literatre, no indicators have been found for Samwer being envious at others. When it comes to Samwer feeling that others envy him, he mentions that people from the “old” offline world envy him, but most of them don’t realize that yet (ZDF, 2014).

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Exceptional pride for the organization and its future

The employees of Rocket Internet are known for being pride of being part of the organization, which they claim to be the most aggressive and hardest-working company in the business (ZDF, 2014).

Exploitativeness based on feelings of entitlement

Within Rocket Internet the morality of the actions is not as important as the output. Several cases are known in which Rocket Internet stole competitors’ client data, created fake profiles on competitors’ websites to damage their image, and directly approach their clients (ZDF, 2014). Many narcissistic companies have an ethics policy in place, and so does Rocket Internet. On its website, it claimed that it donated 6000 books to the African foundation 1Child1Book, which in return stated that it only received 700 books. Another foundation which was proudly menetioned on Rocket Internet’s website was ACE, which had never even heard of Rocket Internet. Soon after this became public, ACE was deleted from the website (ZDF, 2014). As with many narcissistic firms, this ethics policy is just a farce to keep up appearences. No-men are being sent to Siberia

Within Rocket Internet there is no place for so-called no-men. Those who do not agree to Samwer’s plans, do not even get the chance to go to Siberia, but simply have to leave the organization. A frequently heard threat is that Samwer would close every door in the industry when his employees would not follow his orders, which he has done in some cases (Gründerszene, 2012).

Management by intimidation

Oliver Samwer is known for intimidating his employees when their results do not meet his expectations. Several cases are known in which he started yelling at them, or even threw pieces of furniture at his staff. He also tends to fully ignore those who are not important to him, which can be very intimidating for newcomers. His behaviour is being copied by those who are close to him, who in their turn affect the organizational layer below (Kaczmarek, 2014). As mentioned earlier, those who do not agree with his plans risk being fired on the spot.

Fear surpresses reality testing and creativity

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can have the brightest ideas, but when they do not match Samwer’s plans they end up in the dustbin (Gründerszene, 2012).

Magical thinking caused by filtered information flows

Magical thinking does occur within Rocket Internet. However, this is not because people are afraid to share bad news; failure is part of the company-building strategy of Samwer. However, disagreement is absolutely unacceptable: the so-called no-men have to leave the company. As a result, there are no critical voices regarding Samwer’s plans which leads to a biased decision-making process.

Scapegoating

Another characteristic of narcissistic organizations, which can be found within Rocket Internet is scapegoating. Those plans that turn out to be successful come to the account of Samwer, whereas others supposedly cause the failures. This pattern can be found in other layers of the company as well (Gründerszene, 2012).

Strong organizational mood fluctuations

Rocket Internet is specialized in building online companies, and for them failure and killing projects are part of the game. Therefore it is not surprising that the company is not known for having strong organizational mood fluctuations (Kaczmarek, 2014, Gründerszene, 2012).

Employees alienate themselves by hiding in their offices

Another characteristic of a narcissistic organization is employees alienating themselves by hiding in their offices and cubicles. In general this does not happen within Rocket Internet, but this changes when Samwer is walking around. He is known for micromanagement, and could ask any employee from any department at any time of the day for a detailed report. If the quality of this report does not meet his standards, or if the employee simply does a poor job, he can get furious and start yelling or even throwing furniture at the person (Kaczmarek, 2014).

Polarized group dynamics (internal warfare)

Even though intimidation and scapegoating appear within Rocket Internet, this does not seem to lead to polarized group dynamics within the company. There is no secondary source that confirms any such situation.

Feelings of envy and rage when pursuit of goals and pride are threatened

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willing to invest large amounts of money and, especially, time either for their aggressive strategies, or for their charming strategies in order to change the tide (Kaczmarek, 2014, Gründerszene, 2012).

2.2.3. Preliminary Answers to the Case Questions. In this paragraph the two case questions will be answered. These answers are merely preliminary, since they are based on secondary research.

1. Is Oliver Samwer a narcissistic leader?

When looking at the nine criteria for NPD from the DSM-IV guide, we can conclude that six out of nine are displayed by Samwer: having a sense of self-importance, having fantasies of unlimited power and success, having a feeling of being special, being exploitative, having a lack of empathy and showing arrogant behaviour. The remaining three traits are not displayed by Samwer. Since one can be diagnosed with NPD when displaying five out of nine criteria, based on the secondary research we can assume that Samwer has a NPD.

2. Is Rocket Internet a narcissistic organization?

When looking at the eleven criteria defined by Godkin and Allcorn, based on secondary sources we can ascribe eight to Rocket Internet: excessive pride, exploitativeness, sending no-men to Siberia, management by intimidation, surpressed reality testing and creativity, magical thinking, scapegoating and envy and rage when feeling threatened. No indications have been found for the remaining three criteria.

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3. HYPOTHESES

In this part the hypotheses will be formulated, which will help assessing whether Oliver Samwer is a narcissistic CEO, and whether Rocket Internet is a narcissistic organization. Note: for all the hypotheses, the H0 hypothesis is: X does not exhibit this

characteristic.

In order to test whether Oliver Samwer is a narcissistic person, the criteria from DSM-IV will be used:

Hypothesis 1:

H1: Oliver Samwer has a grandiose sense of self-importance

Hypothesis 2:

H1: Oliver Samwer is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success or power

Hypothesis 3:

H1: Oliver Samwer believes in having a special and unique status

Hypothesis 4:

H1: Oliver Samwer requires excessive admiration

Hypothesis 5:

H1: Oliver Samwer has an unreasonable sense and expectation of entitlement

Hypothesis 6:

H1: Oliver Samwer practies interpersonal exploitativeness

Hypothesis 7:

H1: Oliver Samwer has a lack of empathy

Hypothesis 8:

H1: Oliver Samwer is envious

Hypothesis 9:

H1: Oliver Samwer has an arrogant attitude

Hypothesis 10:

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In order to test whether Rocket Internet is a narcissistic organization, the eleven criteria defined by Godkin and Allcorn (2009) will be assessed.

Hypothesis 13:

H1: Rocket Internet’s employees have exceptional pride for the company and its

accomplishments, and hold high hopes for the future. Hypothesis 14:

H1: Rocket Internet exploits others based on entitlement.

Hypothesis 15:

H1: When Rocket Internet’s goals and pride are threatened, the company resonds with

envy and rage and spends lots of time and energy to win the battle. Hypothesis 16:

H1: No-men are being sent to Siberias.

Hypothesis 17:

H1: Management by intimidation is common within Rocket Internet.

Hypothesis 18:

H1: Fear suppresses reality testing and creativity.

Hypothesis 19:

H1: Filtered information flows alter organizational reality, which leads to magical

thinking. Hypothesis 20:

H1: Scapegoating is common within Rocket Internet.

Hypothesis 21:

H1: The mood within Rocket Internet fluctuates strongly.

Hypothesis 22:

H1: Employees alienate themselves by hiding in their offices and cubicles.

Hypothesis 23:

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4. RESEARCH PLAN

4.1. Sample

Including the portfolio companies Rocket Internet has over 30.000 employees. However, the company itself has only 1.586 employees. The direct employees form the population for this research. Since the population is relatively small, the type of sample used in the research will be a census. By doing so, 100% representativeness is guaranteed. Since the population is equal to the sample, all the employees from Rocket Internet will be included in the sample frame.

4.2 Measurement and Measures

CEO

In order to assess whether Oliver Samwer is a narcissistic CEO the Narcissistic Personality Questionairre (NPQ) will be used (Motter, 2009). This questionnaire contains 73 questions, based on the nine criteria from DSM-IV-TR. Each of the nine criteria represents a factor, containing the following number of questions:

TABLE 1

NPQ: questions per category

Criteria Number of questions

Self Importance 12

Fantasies of power 11

Excessive admiration 10

Unreasonable expectations 10

Uses others for own goals 8

Lacks empathy 7

Believe others are envious 6

Haughty attitude 7

Total 73

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TABLE 2

NPQ questionnaire analysis Is Oliver Samwer a narcissistic CEO?

Threshold for diagnosing NPD = 0.5

(use t-test to assess whether outcome is significant) 5 or more Criteria ascribed? => Ascribe extreme narcissism = 1 4 or less Criteria ascribed? => Do not ascribe extreme narcissism = 0

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9

Mean of Q1 – Qn > 0.5? Ascribe Cx

Mean of Q1 – Qn < 0.5? Do not ascribe Cx

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 And so on… Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 And so on… Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 And so on… Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 And so on… Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 And so on… Organization

In order to assess whether Rocket Internet is a narcissistic organization, the Organizational Narcissism Scale (ONS) is to be filled out by the employees of the company. This questionnaire consists of 34 questions, covering five sub-dimensions, which are derived from the narcissistic personality scale from Raskin and Terry:

TABLE 3

ONS: questions per category

Dimension Number of questions

Leadership and authority 12

Anticipation of recognition 7

Grandiosity 5

Self Admiration and vanity 6

Exhibitionism 4

Total 34

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the research. When a respondent answers more than halve of the questions linked to a Dimension with yes, he indirectly ascribes this dimension to the organization. In order to measure this, the mean of his answers within this Dimension has to be significantly higher than 0.5. In order to ascribe extreme narcissism to the organization, three or more Dimensions have to be present. This will be measured per respondent; ascribing a Dimension has a score of 1, not ascribing has a score of 0. When the cumulative score is equal or higher than three, this respondent ascribed extreme narcissism to the organization.

Again, ascribing narcissism has a score of 1, whereas not ascribing has a score of 0. In order to diagnose Rocket Internet an extremely narcissistic organization, more than 50% of the respondents has to ascribe it. In order to measure this, the mean of the number of respondents ascribing extreme narcissism will be calculated; when this is significantly higher than 0.5, extreme narcissism within the organization can be diagnosed. A t-test will be used to test whether it is significant. This process has been visualized in the graph below.

TABLE 4

ONS questionnaire analysis

Is Rocket Internet a narcissistic organization? Threshold for diagnosing extreme narcissism = 0.5 (use t-test to assess whether outcome is significant)

3 or more Dimensions ascribed? => Ascribe extreme narcissism = 1 2 or less Dimensions ascribed? => Do not ascribe extreme narcissism = 0

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

Mean of Q1 – Qn > 0.5? Ascribe Dx

Mean of Q1 – Qn < 0.5? Do not ascribe Dx

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4.3 Design

This research will have a non-experiment design, with one single measurement

element: the questionnaire. For both the CEO and the Organization, the notation looks as follows:

S O

S stands for the sample, and O for the measurement, i.e. the questionnaire. 4.4 Analysis

General

The type of measurement that will be used in this research is survey research, using two questionnaires, the ONS and NPQ respectively. The level of measurement is nominal, since the only possible answers are yes and no.

In order to assess the inter-rater reliability, the correlation between the respondents’ answers will be calculated. When this correlation is very low, this means that the different respondents assess the same phenomena on very different ways, which decreases the reliability of the research.

Data collection (Added)

The two questionnaires mentioned above are to be presented to the employees in two ways: one hard-copy version in their pigeonholes, and one digital version via e-mail. Since the questionnaires contain confidential information, an envelope will come with them, in which they can be collected without colleagues reading each others’ answers. A collection deadline should be set on which the executing company collects the quesionnaires.

Data preparation

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Descriptive statistics

Next, SPSS will be used in order to create an overview of the descriptive statistics. These will be calculated for all the questions for both questionnaires.

Inferential statistics

The third and final stage contains the inferential statistics. Here the answers to the questionnaires will be used to find an answer as to whether Samwer is a narcissistic CEO and Rocket Internet a narcissistic organization.

Per criterion several questions have been answered. Questions with a mean that is significantly higher than 0.5 will be labelled with 1, whereas those with a mean lower than 0.5 will be labelled 0. When 50% or more of the questions per criterion are labelled 1, this criterion can be ascribed to the research object.

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5. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

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6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Relevance of Conclusions

Based on the literature review, the preliminary conclusion is that both the CEO and the organization are narcissistic. The CEO has been tested using the NPQ, whereas for the organization the ONS has been used. In order to confirm this, the research plan presented in this paper is to be executed.

6.2 Grounded Conclusions

Although the sources on which the preliminary conclusions are based are secondary, they are all either based on (former) employees’ experiences, or interviews with Samwer himself. Considering the relatively large number of indicators for narcissism, as well as the origin of the sources, the conclusions can be considered fairly grounded.

6.3 Recommendations

In order to assess whether Samwer can be diagnosed with NPD, it is highly recommended to test him personally. Both in the theoretical and the practical part of this research the information is secondary, which means it can be biased by the authors of the articles personal opinion, as well as those of the respondents to the questionnaires.

For future research it is also recommended to create a questionnaire to measure organizational narcissism based on the criteria defined by Godkin and Allcorn. These criteria cover more aspects than the existing ONS questionnaire. 6.4 Limitations

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hypotheses related to organizational narcissism. Therefore some hypotheses will remain unanswered.

6.5 Reflection

Thanks to the large number of secondary sources available on the behaviour of Oliver Samwer and the atmosphere within Rocket Internet it was possible to get a solid indication for the CEO and the organization being narcissistic. This indication can be confirmed by carrying out the ONS and NPQ questionnaires. However, although in the case of the CEO the outcome of the questionnaire will have significantly more value than that of the literature review, it is still secondary information. In order to truly assess whether Samwer is narcissistic, he should be tested in person.

Nevertheless this research will give a good view of the organization and the CEO being narcissistic or not. This will be valuable information for (potential) shareholders, since this type of company tends to have a highly volatile performance. For some investors this might be interesting, allowing speculating on high returns. For other investors it might be a reason not to invest in the company.

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Campbell, W.K., Brunell, A.B. & Finkel, E.J. 2006. Narcissism, interpersonal self-regulation, and romantic relationships: an agency model approach. New York: Guilford.

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Campbell, W. K., Hoffman, B. J., Campbell, S. M., & Marchisio, G. 2011. Narcissism in organizational contexts. Human Resource Management Review, 21: 268-284. Chatterjee, A. & Hambrick, D. C. 2007. It’s All about Me: Narcissistic Chief Executive Officers and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3): 351-386.

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DIGITAL REFERENCES

Cowan, M. 2012. Inside the Clone Factory: the Story of Germany’s Samwer Brothers, Wired, http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/04/features/inside-the-clone-factory, 18-3-205

Die Welt, 2014. DPA Nachrichtenüberblick Wirtschaft, Newsticker,

http://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/sport_nt/nachrichtenueberblick_nt/ article132665120/dpa-Nachrichtenueberblick-Wirtschaft.html, 20-3-2015

Kaczmarek, J. 2014. Die Paten des Internets, Oliver Samwer, der „Execution-Sau“, Golem, http://www.golem.de/news/die-paten-des-internets-oliver-samwer-die-execution-sau-1408-108609-2.html, 20-3-2015

Kaczmarek, J. 2012. 22 Dinge, die Gründer von Oliver Samwer lernen können, Gründerszene, http://www.gruenderszene.de/allgemein/oliver-samwer-learnings, 20-3-2015

Northouse, P.G. 2004. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Rocket Internet, 2015. Rocket Internet: About, https://www.rocket-internet.com/about 20-3-2015

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Weigert, M. 2014. Disruption um jeden Preis: Aufstieg der Aggro-Entrepreneure, Netzwertig, http://netzwertig.com/2014/05/30/disruption-um-jeden-preis-der-aufstieg-der-aggro-entrepreneure/, 21-3-2015.

ZDF, 2014. Die große Samwer Show – die Milliarden Geschäfte der Zalando-boys, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UrcMliLB3s, 19-3-2015

Narcissistic CEOs and Narcissistic Organizations: The Case of Oliver Samwer and Rocket Internet