RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT SELF-ESTEEM AND THE NEED FOR SOCIAL APPROVAL AND NARCISSISM IN PERSONS HOLDING MANAGERIAL POSITIONS

Abstract

Self-esteem determines the well-being of an individual; it is related to health and physical conditions, and consequently, it influences a person’s behavior, decision-making and social functioning. It has been the subject of research for many years, and yet no reliable measurement tools have been developed, especially in relation to implicit self-esteem. It is assumed that explicit and implicit self-esteem are different manifestations of attitudes towards oneself and do not have to be compatible with each other (they are poorly correlated; as a rule, the correlation does not exceed 0.25). For people in managerial positions in an organization, self-esteem can be a decisive factor in achievement. In this study, it was, therefore, assumed that managers have a positive relationship between explicit self-esteem and variables implicitly related to self-esteem, that is, the level of the need for social approval and the level of narcissism. The research was carried out in two groups: managers (people at the highest, middle or lower levels in the organizational structure, managing a team of people) and employees who do not play managerial roles (people who perform a scope of duties that do not include responsibility for the results of other people’s work). The results of this study showed that for managers, the relationship between the scale of the need for social approval and narcissism was particularly important for the leadership and self-sufficiency scales; these are the scales that indicate the most desirable aspects of narcissism for managers. This correlation was not found in the control group. The tools for measuring implicit self-esteem were also used to compare the results for both of its aspects.

Keywords

• management and leadership
• explicit and implicit self-esteem
• social approval
• narcissism