“I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism

This study extends socioanalytic and self-control theory to grandiose narcissism in the vocational career context with a special focus on attained workplace status and career satisfaction. In a sample of N = 406 target–coworker multisource datasets, and target workers with several decades of vocatio...

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Main Authors: Franziska Böhm, Gerhard Blickle
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Acta Psychologica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825002951
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author Franziska Böhm
Gerhard Blickle
author_facet Franziska Böhm
Gerhard Blickle
author_sort Franziska Böhm
collection DOAJ
description This study extends socioanalytic and self-control theory to grandiose narcissism in the vocational career context with a special focus on attained workplace status and career satisfaction. In a sample of N = 406 target–coworker multisource datasets, and target workers with several decades of vocational experience, grandiose narcissism assessed with the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory negatively relates to workplace status, and indirectly to career satisfaction via workplace status, when political skill is low. However, good political skill enables individuals on the higher end of the grandiose narcissism scale to control their antagonistic behavioral tendencies and present their agentic ambitions in a more appropriate manner, mitigating the negative (indirect) association with workplace status and career satisfaction. In sum, we hypothesized and found that with low political skill, grandiose narcissism is negatively associated with career satisfaction via reduced workplace status.
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series Acta Psychologica
spelling doaj-art-2d4f8015f21f45b19febc39e3d39818d2025-08-20T03:49:17ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182025-06-0125610498210.1016/j.actpsy.2025.104982“I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissismFranziska Böhm0Gerhard Blickle1Corresponding author at: University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn, Germany.; Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn, GermanyThis study extends socioanalytic and self-control theory to grandiose narcissism in the vocational career context with a special focus on attained workplace status and career satisfaction. In a sample of N = 406 target–coworker multisource datasets, and target workers with several decades of vocational experience, grandiose narcissism assessed with the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory negatively relates to workplace status, and indirectly to career satisfaction via workplace status, when political skill is low. However, good political skill enables individuals on the higher end of the grandiose narcissism scale to control their antagonistic behavioral tendencies and present their agentic ambitions in a more appropriate manner, mitigating the negative (indirect) association with workplace status and career satisfaction. In sum, we hypothesized and found that with low political skill, grandiose narcissism is negatively associated with career satisfaction via reduced workplace status.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825002951Grandiose narcissismPolitical skillWorkplace statusCareer successSocioanalytic theorySelf-control theory
spellingShingle Franziska Böhm
Gerhard Blickle
“I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
Acta Psychologica
Grandiose narcissism
Political skill
Workplace status
Career success
Socioanalytic theory
Self-control theory
title “I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
title_full “I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
title_fullStr “I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
title_full_unstemmed “I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
title_short “I can't get no satisfaction!” The critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
title_sort i can t get no satisfaction the critical role of political skill for workplace status and career satisfaction in grandiose narcissism
topic Grandiose narcissism
Political skill
Workplace status
Career success
Socioanalytic theory
Self-control theory
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825002951
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