Narcissistic CEOs and Organizations: The Case of
Elon Musk and Tesla Motors, Inc.
by
Maarten Gerritsen
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
The theme of this research paper is narcissism, with a focus on CEOs and organizations. CEOs and organizations can have narcissistic characteristics that influence the effectiveness of leadership. What are the effects of a narcissistic CEO on a (narcissistic) organization? This study aims on the case of CEO Elon Musk and organization Tesla Motors, Inc. In order to measure the narcissistic characteristics of Elon Musk, the DSM-IV from the American Psychiatric Association (2013) is used. To measure the narcissistic characteristics of Tesla, the criteria of Godkin & Allcorn (2009) is used. Based on the research in the study, the preliminary answers on the research questions are that both CEO Elon Musk and organization Tesla Motors are narcissistic. Since it was not necessary to execute the research plan, these are preliminary conclusions and based on literature reviews.
Key words: Narcissism, CEOs, Organizations, Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, Inc. Research theme: Narcissistic CEOs and Organizations
1. Introduction and problem statement ... 4
1.1 Initial Motive ... 4
1.2 Problem Description and Analysis ... 4
1.3 Research Questions ... 5
1.4 Methodology ... 6
2. Literature Review ... 7
2.1 Theoretical Concepts ... 7
2.1.1. Narcissism ... 7
2.1.2. The Characteristics and Types of Narcissism ... 7
2.1.3. Narcissistic Leader ... 8
2.1.5. Influence of Narcissistic Leaders on Organizations ... 9
2.1.6. The Short- and Long-term Effects ... 10
2.1.7. The Identification, Diagnosis and Measurement of Narcissistic Leaders and Organizations ... 10
2.2 Case Information ... 11
2.2.1. Narcissistic Leaders: The Case of Elon Musk ... 11
2.2.2. Narcissistic Organizations: The Case of Tesla Motors, Inc. ... 13
2.2.3. Preliminary answers to RQs ... 15
3. Hypotheses ... 16
3.1 Hypotheses about Elon Musk ... 16
3.2 Hypotheses about Tesla Motors, Inc. ... 17
4. Research Plan ... 19 4.1 Research Method ... 19 4.2 Data Collection ... 20 4.2.1 Measurement ... 20 4.3 Research design ... 21 4.4 Data analysis ... 22 4.4.1 Descriptive statistics ... 22 4.4.2 Inferential statistics ... 22 5. Analysis, discussion ... 23
6. Conclusions & Recommendations ... 24
6.1 Conclusions ... 24
6.2 Recommendations ... 24
6.3 Reflection ... 24
References ... 26
1. Introduction and problem statement
In this chapter the main subjects will be explained to give a good idea of what this paper entails, what the initial motive is and the problem will be described and analyzed. Besides that, the central and theoretical research questions will be defined.
1.1 Initial Motive
A company’s chief executive officer (CEO) plays a central role within the top executive team and is responsible for the strategy of the company on organizational level. According to Thomas & Simerly, a CEO can be defined as followed: “Like the captain of a ship, the CEO is the organization's substantive and symbolic leader whose roles include the gathering and dissemination of information, decisionmaking and resource allocation” (1994: 960). They mention that it is very likely that the CEO is an element with a high level of significance in the decisionmaking of social policies and programs that are executed by the company. Especially the personality of a CEO can determine the degree of influence.
One of the possible characteristics a CEO can have is narcissism. For effective leadership it could be necessary to have narcissistic characteristics. A few examples of elements that narcissistic leaders show are leadership, arrogance and self-admiration (Higgs, 2009). Although, it could have positive influences, but also create possible threats for the organization. The goal of this research paper is to find out if CEO Elon Musk is a narcissist and his company, Tesla Motors, Inc., is a narcissistic organization. In June 2018, Elon Musk responded to a comment of psychologist John Grohol on Twitter. John Grohol ‘accused’ him of being a narcissist and Elon Musk replied with the following tweet: “If I am a narcissist (which might be true), at least I am a useful one” (Twitter, 2018). Is Elon Musk a narcissist and besides that, a useful one?
1.2 Problem Description and Analysis
successful U.S. car producer with the highest value (Biography, 2019). His work with his companies like Tesla and SpaceX are appreciated by many different organizations. In the ranking lists of Forbes (2019), Elon Musk has been ranked as the 21st of The World’s Most
Powerful People in 2016 and 1st of Most Innovative Leaders in 2019.
Elon Musk shows that his personality has some remarkable characteristics. He always had a very strong opinion and vision on the future. A few examples of futuristic vision of Musk are that he is determined that anyone could travel the space, he is publicly planning to provide life on Mars and he ensures that gasoline cars will be relics, “like steam engines” (CNBC, 2018). In the past years several things came out in the media about Elon Musk, such as: berating analysts of Wall Street, tangling employees and insulting or attacking for example investors, media, researchers on Twitter. Basically, anyone who is questioning his version of reality or vision on the future. According to CNBC (2015), Elon Musk is ‘a classic productive narcissist’, which means that he is a visionary that wants to change the world, is aggressive and competitive, has just a little respect for rules and regulations that others follow and tend to use persons who are on the same level and are serving his purposes.
The goal of this research paper is to come up with more information and evidence about the narcissism of a CEO, the narcissism of an organization and the correlation between both. What are the effects of the narcissistic CEO on the (narcissistic) organization? The focus of this research paper is on the case of CEO Elon Musk and the organization Tesla Motors, Inc.
1.3 Research Questions
To find out of the Elon Musk is a narcissist and Tesla a narcissistic organization, the following central research question is formulated:
Is the CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, a narcissistic leader and Tesla itself a narcissistic organization?
information about the case, CEO Elon Musk and the organization Tesla Motors, by using all kinds of literature, for example: newspapers, scientific papers, journals, etc.
The theory questions are the following: 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 (process)?
6. What are the (short-term and long-term) effects of this influence: on other parties, on strategy, (financial) performance, etc.?
7. How can a narcissistic leader and narcissistic organization be identified, diagnosed and measured?
Specific case questions can be answered, using the theory foundations from the scientific literature and case specific literature. The case questions are:
1. Is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, a narcissistic leader? 2. Is Tesla Motors a narcissistic organization?
1.4 Methodology
2. Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Concepts
In this chapter the different definitions of the theoretical concepts will be explained. Firstly, the definition of narcissism, narcissistic leaders and narcissistic organizations will be given. Secondly, the different characteristics and types of narcissism will be defined. After that, the influences of narcissistic leaders on organizations and the short- and long-term effects will be explained. Lastly, the ways to identify, diagnose and measure narcissistic leaders and organizations will be discussed.
2.1.1. Narcissism
The term “narcissism” was first used by Havelock Ellis in 1898 (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006), which is derived from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a man who fell in love with his own reflection. After Ellis, many other people used and developed the psychological construct. According to the American Psychiatric Association, narcissism is defined as: “A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts” (2014: 669). This definition is from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is a handbook that is used by healthcare professionals and contains descriptions and criteria of multiple mental disorders. They say that someone who shows characteristics of a narcissist is having the “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”.
2.1.2. The Characteristics and Types of Narcissism
Narcissism can have different characteristics and types. The American Psychiatric Association (2014) stated a list in the DSM-IV with nine diagnostic criteria that characterizes a narcissist. Someone can be diagnosed with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder if he or she meets five of the criteria. The nine characteristics and criteria are:
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;
7. Lacks empathy;
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her; 9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
According to Campbell, Hoffman, Campbell & Marchisio (2011) there are different flavors of narcissism, namely: grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism. A grandiose narcissist is: someone who is confident, having a high self-esteem, extraverted, dominant, aggressive and seeking for attention. The other type of narcissism is vulnerable narcissism. A vulnerable narcissist is someone who shows characteristics like: thinking the world is unfair and against him, having a low self-esteem, having a depression and being anxious. Besides the grandiose and vulnerable types of narcissism, Campbell et al. (2011) makes a distinction between clinical and subclinical narcissism. With clinical narcissism, a person is bothered with it and probably seeking for help of psychologists. With subclinical narcissism, a person doesn’t suffer from it, but the people around him or her will.
2.1.3. Narcissistic Leader
The definition of leadership is the process of social influencing of one person on another to get tasks done (Rijsenbilt, 2011). Leaders that are narcissistic, try to inspire others and shape the future of the world (Maccoby, 2004). According to Maccoby, there are two different types of narcissistic leaders, productive and unproductive. The productive narcissistic leader is a creative strategist that sees a meaning in the risky challenges of the change of the world. An unproductive narcissist is someone that lacks self-knowledge, is a nonrealistic dreamer or is having the illusion that only circumstances and enemies can stop them from having success. According to Mintzberg, Simons and Basu (2002), there are different ways to manage, namely: heroic management and engaging management. An example of the difference between both, is about the importance of managers. Heroic management means that managers are and act important. Within engaging management, they are important too, but then to the extent to make others important as well. As they mention in their article: “Heroic management drives a wedge between the leaders sitting atop their pedestals and everyone else”.
2.1.4. Narcissistic Organization
narcissistic organization. Someone can be diagnosed with the “Arrogant Organizational Disorder” if it meets seven out of eleven criteria. These eleven characteristics and criteria are: 1. Exceptional pride is held for the organization
2. Feelings of exceptional entitlement support exploitiveness of others, customers and the public interest.
3. When excessive pride is threatened and the pursuit of goals frustrated envy and rage arise. 4. There is a history of firings and demotions and of non-supporters and resistors.
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. 8. Others are frequently blamed and scapegoated.
9. The sense of mood within the organization is unpredictable.
10. Many in the organization are alienated from the organization and its leadership group. 11. In and out group dynamics are polarized and there is considerable evidence of distressing
and destructive internal competition and open warfare.
According to Duchon & Burns (2008), there are three different types of narcissistic organizations. The high self-esteem narcissistic organization is about loving yourself too much as an organization and being blind for weaknesses. On the other side, a narcissistic organization with a low self-esteem hates itself too much and is blind for strengths. If a narcissistic organization has a good balance between both types, it can be formulated as healthy narcissism. 2.1.5. Influence of Narcissistic Leaders on Organizations
an opportunity to get the biggest “narcissistic supply” (Kernberg, 1975), or to get the biggest amount of attention (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007).
2.1.6. The Short- and Long-term Effects
The narcissism of leaders of organizations can have influences, both short- and long-term. On the short-term, narcissistic leaders can affect the performance of an organization by increasing the number and size of acquisitions made by the company, due to the tendency to hunt for a more grandiose strategy and deliver extreme performances. The bold actions that narcissistic CEOs take are more risky but high-rewarded (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). This can lead to other types of actions, such as aggressive international expansions or large-scaled launches of new services or products. According to Lieberman and Montgomery (1988), the bold action taken by the narcissistic leaders will either lead to huge benefits from first-mover advantages or suffer huge losses from making mistakes with the judgement of the environment.
Narcissistic leaders can deteriorate the long-term business performances by extruding the most talented people, creating a problematic business culture and making reckless decisions. Their focus on own personal goals, devaluation of other people, and problems with working with others can affect the morale of the organization in a bad way (Lubit, 2002). According to Lubit, narcissistic leaders can have a huge impact on managerial level as well. They tend not to care about the well-being of their employees and tolerate narcissistic behavior of other narcissistic managers who take care of the numbers but not of the people. So, on the long-term narcissistic leaders can form a serious problem for the performance and morale of an organization.
2.1.7. The Identification, Diagnosis and Measurement of Narcissistic Leaders and Organizations
Disorder. Furthermore, to measure the narcissism of an organization, the Organizational Narcissism Scale can be used (Hamedoglu & Potas, 2012). This scale measures the following dimensions: leadership & authority, anticipation of recognition, grandiosity, self-admiration & vanity and exhibition.
After the discussion of the theoretical part of this research paper, the case will be taken into consideration. In the next section the theory will be systematically applied to the case of CEO Elon Musk and organization Tesla Motors. There will be looked for evidence of symptoms of a narcissistic CEO and organization.
2.2 Case Information
In this section of the literature review the theoretical concepts about narcissistic leaders and organizations will be applied on the case of CEO Elon Musk and its organization Tesla Motors. Firstly, the narcissistic characteristics and symptoms of the CEO Elon Musk will be identified, diagnosed and measured using the criteria for the Narcissistic Personality Disorder, formulated in the DSM-IV, by the American Psychiatric Association (2014). Secondly, the narcissistic characteristics and symptoms of the organization Tesla Motors will be identified, diagnosed and measured by using the criteria for the Arrogant Organizational Disorder. These criteria are set up by Godkin & Allcorn (2009) and based on DSM-IV.
2.2.1. Narcissistic Leaders: The Case of Elon Musk
In order to conclude if Elon Musk is a narcissistic leader, the criteria for the Narcissistic Personality Disorder will be used. These criteria are formulated by the American Psychiatric Association in the DSM-IV (2014: 669).
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance
Elon Musk is active on Twitter and already having problems with the SEC twice. In 2019, he tweeted "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019", while they actually expected to produce 400.000 cars in 2019. In 2018, he tweeted: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”, which mis leaded the market and shareholders. The thing he tweet are not always true, misleading and causing fuss (Ars Technica, 2019).
There are many things that Elon Musk said during the past years, such as: Mars will be colonized around 2025, humans will have brain-computer interfaces around 2025, urban congestion can be reduced and solved by tunnels or hyperloops and many more (CNN Business, 2019). At a conference in Mexico, September 2016, Elon Musk said that he was having plans to colonize Mars and just needed approximately 40 to 100 years to create a civilization of around one million people in a self-sustaining environment (Vox, 2018).
3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique
In 2018, Musk got interviewed. They discussed his position within Tesla and he told the New York Times that: “If you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now”. He supposed that there is not a candidate that could do it better (The New York Times, 2018). 4. Requires excessive admiration
In 2006, Elon Musk sent angry emails to employees of Tesla when he was not getting enough attention in the press. He felt “incredibly insulted”, after there was a lack of attention. He was so angry that he threatened to fire a senior manager of Tesla if he could not make sure he would get more press attention (Business Insider, 2014).
5. Has a sense of entitlement
Many people do have the feeling that some of the normal rules do not apply to Elon Musk (The Wealth Advisor, 2019). In 2019 he called the British cave diver and rescuer Unsworth, who rescued the young Thai kids from a cave, a “pedo”. Later on, the diver filed a lawsuit against him. Besides that, he puts tweets on Twitter with misleading information to mislead the market about Tesla Motors going private. He got punished by the SEC (The Guardian, 2019).
6. Is interpersonally exploitative
7. Lacks empathy
As mentioned before, he once sent an employee an email after he missed an event to witness the birth of a child. This is an example that shows that he does not have the empathy to recognize or identify feelings and needs of others (Business Insider, 2015).
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
When Elon Musk was young, he bought a $1 million McLaren supercar and had a journalist watching him when he received it (Business Insider, 2019). Besides that, as mentioned before, he was angry about the fact that he did not get enough attention in the press.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
Elon Musk has the feeling that he is superior and it seems that he does not try to hide it. He insulted many people, such as Wall Street analysts, employees, investors, media and researchers (The Guardian, 2018).
2.2.2. Narcissistic Organizations: The Case of Tesla Motors, Inc.
In order to conclude if Tesla Motors is a narcissistic organization, the criteria of the Arrogant Organizational Disorder will be used.
1. Exceptional pride is held for the organization
Richard Ortiz is a production associate in the closure department. He said the following: “I love to wear my gear all over town. I thank Tesla for giving me the opportunity to work here. They give anyone a chance.” (AlterNet, 2017). Besides that, he showed admiration by saying things like: “It’s like you died and went to auto-worker heaven. Everything feels like the future but us.” and “I can’t wait for my granddaughter to one day go to class and say, ‘My grandfather was in there.’” (The Guardian, 2017)
2. Feelings of exceptional entitlement support exploitiveness of others, customers and the public interest.
per hour, while the national average hourly wage for manufacturers in this industry is $29 (AlterNet, 2017).
3. When excessive pride is threatened and the pursuit of goals frustrated envy and rage arise. As mentioned before, Elon Musk sent emails to employees of Tesla when he did not get enough attention in the press. Therefore, he felt “incredibly insulted” and he was that angry that he threatened to fire a manager within Tesla, if he would not make sure that he got enough press attention (Business Insider, 2014). Besides that, all the employees have to put their focus on their work. Elon Musk once sent an employee a disappointing mail after witnessed the birth of his or her child, instead of an event of Tesla.
4. There is a history of firings and demotions of non-supporters and resistors
There are numerous cases where ex-employees claim that they were fired unfairly. There are employees that are fired for excessive medical problems. In 2018, Devon Becerra started working for Tesla in a factory in Nevada. Several months later, she got promoted to supervisor. In July, she found out she was pregnant and informed the management about planning to take maternity leave in February 2019. On 14 December 2018, she received the message that she was fired. A spokesperson of Tesla told her she was fired due to issues with her performance (Guardian, 2019)
5. Management by intimidation is common.
In November 2017, workers were forced by the management to sign an agreement about the consequences if someone spoke in public about Tesla, including wages and working conditions. This was not fair and they got a warning that this agreement violated the employee activity guarantees (Prospect, 2017).
6. Filtered information flows alter organizational reality and magical thinking is present. Tesla had success in increasing the rate of production almost every quarter. In 2017, Tesla produced approximately 25.000 cars in the first three months. They had a goal for 2018, where they had to quintuple that amount. A worker on the battery pack line said the following: “I think one of the major problems is that people at the top are making unrealistic goals.” (The Guardian, 2017)
An employee of Tesla, Gelascu, said that one time there was a problem with a robot and the supervisor came to him screaming: “That’s $18.000, $20.000, $30.000, $50.0000 because you guys can’t get this done!” (The Guardian, 2017). That same employee once had an accident with a part of a car which hit him in the chest and went home. When Galescu returned to work, he got berated for the injury by the supervisor, which said the following: “You caused me to be late going home to my wife” (AlterNet, 2017).
Based on this research, there is no evidence for the following criteria: 1. Fear suppresses accurate reality testing and creativity;
2. The sense of mood within the organization is unpredictable; 3. Many in the organization are alienated from the organization; 4. In and out group dynamics are polarized;
2.2.3. Preliminary answers to RQs
Based on the research on the narcissistic behavior and characteristics of CEO Elon Musk, it can be concluded that he meets all the criteria of DSM-IV to be diagnosed with the NPD. See chapter 2 (especially paragraph 2.1.2.) for a recap of all the criteria. Also, it can be concluded that Elon Musk is a grandiose and sub-clinical narcissist. He has a high self-esteem, is confident and doesn’t seemed bothered about his narcissistic characteristics.
3. Hypotheses
3.1 Hypotheses about Elon Musk
For each hypothesis:
H0: Elon Musk does not exhibit this characteristic.
Hypothesis 1:
H1: Elon Musk has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
Hypothesis 2:
H1: Elon Musk is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or
ideal love. Hypothesis 3:
H1: Elon Musk believes that he or she is special and unique.
Hypothesis 4:
H1: Elon Musk requires excessive admiration.
Hypothesis 5:
H1: Elon Musk has a sense of entitlement.
Hypothesis 6:
H1: Elon Musk is interpersonally exploitative.
Hypothesis 7:
H1: Elon Musk lacks empathy.
Hypothesis 8:
H1: Elon Musk is often envious of others.
Hypothesis 9:
3.2 Hypotheses about Tesla Motors, Inc.
For each hypothesis:
H0: Tesla Motors does not exhibit this characteristic.
Hypothesis 1:
H1: Tesla Motors holds exceptional pride.
Hypothesis 2:
H1: Tesla Motors is having feelings of exceptional entitlement support exploitiveness of
others, customers and the public interest. Hypothesis 3:
H1: Envy and rage arise within Tesla Motors, when excessive pride is threatened and the
pursuit of goals is frustrated. Hypothesis 4:
H1: There is a history of firings and demotions and of non-supporters and resistors within
Tesla Motors. Hypothesis 5:
H1: Management by intimidation is common within Tesla Motors.
Hypothesis 6:
H1: Fear suppresses accurate reality testing and creativity within Tesla Motors.
Hypothesis 7:
H1: Filtered information flows alter organizational reality and magical thinking is present
within Tesla Motors. Hypothesis 8:
H1: Others are frequently blamed and scapegoated within Tesla Motors.
Hypothesis 9:
Hypothesis 10:
H1: Many in the organization of Tesla Motors are alienated from the organization and its
leadership group. Hypothesis 11:
H1: In and out group dynamics are polarized and there is considerable evidence of distressing
4. Research Plan
In this chapter, the research plan will be presented. The plan is designed to enable one to test the hypotheses as stated in chapter 3. This chapter entails information about the research method, the collection of the data and the analysis of the data. The research plan will not be executed within this research paper. This plan is developed with the assumption that both Elon Musk and Tesla Motors fully corporate and will take care of the costs. Lastly, a market research company will take care of the data collection.
4.1 Research Method
The purpose of this research paper is to find out if Elon Musk is a narcissistic CEO and its company Tesla a narcissistic organization. In order to find out if this is the case, a research plan will be presented. There are several research methods to test hypotheses. One of these research methods is sampling.
4.2 Data Collection
As stated above, the idea is to use the research method of sampling to gather the needed information about the CEO and organization of Tesla. This part of the paper contains information about the collection of data, such as the measurement category, the operationalization and the limitation.
4.2.1 Measurement
After determining the method of research, the type of measure has to be defined. There are multiple categories of measurement, such as surveys, scaling and qualitative research. One of the most important areas of measurement within social research is survey research (Trochim & Donnelly, 2001). It can be done by different ways, for example feedback forms, questionnaires or in-depth interviews. In this research paper a survey will be used as the measurement for different variables.
Survey Method Selection
Of course, there are different types of surveys. In order to make a good decision, the advantages and disadvantages have to be mapped. Trochim and Donnelly (2001) formulated a set of issues that need to be taken into consideration by deciding which type of survey to use. These issues are applied to the case of this research paper.
First of all, to conduct this research, the researcher needs to get access to all the employees within Tesla and its departments. We can assume that everyone can read within the organization, since we are not dealing with young children for example, and is able to understand the language, which will be English. The researchers should get access to the list of employees within Tesla, which contains their names, e-mail addresses, departments they are working for and their functions.
Survey Method Decision
The survey method that could fit in this research is the online questionnaire. An online questionnaire is a web-based survey that can be used as a tool to collect data from an audience (ProProfs, 2020). With this method, the researcher can send an e-mail with a link to an online survey to the employees of Tesla. The only disadvantages are that there are less possibilities regarding personal contact and explanations in person. This problem can partly be prevented by having personal contact with some employees to see where parts of content are unclear. Besides that, it can be prevented by giving a broad and clear description of the case.
Survey Content
If the content of the survey needs to be determined, the questions and scaling needs to be discussed. Besides the general questions about the department where the employee is working, the age of the employee, the function, the years that he or she is working at Tesla and if he or she met or worked with CEO Elon Musk, there are questions regarding the CEO as well. These questions can be based on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) list with 40 criteria that measures the characteristics of a narcissist (Raskin & Terry, 1988). In order to get diagnosed with the narcissistic personality disorder, one has to have a score of at least 20 criteria. The questions regarding the organization can be based on the scale to measure organizational narcissism (ONS), developed by Hamedoğlu & Potas (2012). They used the NPI list of Raskin & Terry and applied them to organizations, in order to measure the narcissism. It started with a list of 38 items, then reduced it to 34 items, and in the end created 5 sub-dimensions: grandiosity, self-admiration and vanity, leadership, authority, anticipation of recognition and exhibitionism. An overview of the items included in the NPI and ONS scales, can be found in the Appendix.
The survey questions can be structured by using the Likert Scaling, also known as the “summative” scale. The survey should contain items that can be rated on a 1 to 5 “disagree-agree” scale, to get an outcome that results in two different sides of opinions (Trochim & Donnelly, 2001).
4.3 Research design
The type of design within this research is the non-experimental design. This research correlates variables and cannot manipulate the independent variable. Since the conclusions of a research are only helpful if the data is valid, validity is important. The type of data validity within this research paper is internal validity. There has to be evidence that when a specific variable in the research is changed, the studied variable is affected. Does Elon Musk, with its narcissistic characteristics, influences the narcissism of Tesla Motors.
4.4 Data analysis
4.4.1 Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistic is used to define the basic features of the studied data of quantitative analysis. For the descriptive statistics, three main characteristics will be focused on, namely: the distribution, the central tendency and the dispersion. The distribution says something about the frequency of a value. The central tendency consists of three types: the mean, median and mode. These types give the researcher an estimate of the center of a value distribution. The spread around the central tendency can be referred by the dispersion. The dispersion consists of the range and the standard deviation. The range can easily be determined by subtract the lowest value of the highest value. The standard deviation is the expression of how much a value differs from the mean of the sample (Trochim & Donnelly, 2001).
4.4.2 Inferential statistics
5. Analysis, discussion
6. Conclusions & Recommendations
6.1 Conclusions
The goal of this research paper is to answer the central research question and conclude if there is a correlation between the narcissism of the CEO Elon Musk and the narcissism of the organization Tesla Motors. Based on the qualitative research derived from the literature, conclusions can be made. According to the literature review, conclusions can be made that Elon Musk is a narcissist. He meets all the criteria, formulated by the American Psychiatric Association in the DSM-IV, while someone is diagnosed with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder if he or she meets five of them. He really feels unique and has a grandiose sense of self-importance. Also, he definitely requires excessive admiration. Besides that, it can be concluded that Elon Musk is a grandiose and sub-clinical narcissist. In addition, Tesla can be diagnosed with the Arrogant Organizational Disorder, since it meets seven of the eleven criteria created by Godkin & Allcorn (2009). There are multiple signs that show that there is held exceptional pride for Tesla Motors and if this pride is threatened, rage arises. Besides these signs, there is a history of firings of non-supporters and management by intimidation is common.
6.2 Recommendations
The recommendation of the study is to further investigate and carry out the research plan that is set up. The online survey has to be conducted by approaching the employees of Tesla. If this research plan is fully executed, this could be beneficial and helpful by providing new insight and information about the current and future management style within Tesla. It gives a better understanding of the characteristics of narcissists. The strategy and business culture could be adapted to (some of) these characteristics of CEO Elon Musk.
6.3 Reflection
(ex-)employees). Lastly, to conduct the research plan in a reliable and valid way, the researchers need to get access to the employees of Tesla and avoid things such as sampling bias.
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Appendices
APPENDIX – Criteria list ONS & NPI
Dimension Criteria
Leadership and
Authority 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.
At meetings and in other situations our company is the focus of attention.
Our company is the center of attention. Those who dislike us are blind.
Other organizations should take us as an example. We are very successful.
One day, everyone will be talking about our successes. 25. We start new things.
We have the best staff.
Everyone likes hearing our story. Anticipation of
Recognition
When I introduce myself I also say where I work. I would say that I am proud of where I work. We have an atmosphere that affects people. We know how valuable we are.
Our company has a very nice working environment. Our company has its own, unique, very nice image. There is nothing we can't succeed in.
Grandiosity We are always aware of what we are doing. There is nothing we can't do.
We never give up before succeeding. It is impossible to ignore our success.
Not being taken into account by our peers makes us angry. Self Admiration and
Vanity We should definitely take part in activities. There is no one who doesn't know us.
We make a difference at meetings and activities. We are a very picky company.
I like when other people praise us. A book should be written about us. Exhibition We organize great ceremonies.
We organize unbelievably nice festivities.
