While narcissism is commonly regarded as a dark personality trait associated with many negative outcomes, it also carries potential benefits. How to suppress the negative aspects of narcissism and promote its benefits has important implications for both scholars and practitioners. This study proposes two managerial practices (i.e. promotions based on relative performance and empowering leadership) that motivate employees with high narcissism to bring benefits to the workplace. Drawing on expectancy theory, we theorize that narcissism, promotions based on relative performance, and empowering leadership each influence valence, instrumentality, and expectancy, respectively, thereby driving diverse information searching, which indirectly increases radical and incremental creativity. The results of a multi-time and multi-source field study of 462 employees on 88 teams indicate that narcissism is positively associated with diverse information searching when team leaders evaluate promotions based on relative performance and empower narcissistic employees. Moreover, there is an indirect relationship between a three-way interaction (i.e. narcissism × promotions based on relative performance × empowering leadership) and radical and incremental creativity via diverse information searching. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, offering insights into more effective management of employees with high narcissism at work.

中文翻译：

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自恋、晋升标准和授权领导如何通过多样化的信息搜索共同影响创造力：期望视角

虽然自恋通常被认为是一种与许多负面结果相关的黑暗人格特质，但它也有潜在的好处。如何抑制自恋的负面影响并促进其益处对于学者和实践者都具有重要意义。本研究提出了两种管理实践（即基于相对绩效的晋升和授权领导）来激励高度自恋的员工为工作场所带来好处。借鉴期望理论，我们推测自恋、基于相对绩效的晋升和授权领导力分别影响效价、工具性和期望，从而推动多样化的信息搜索，从而间接增加激进和渐进的创造力。对 88 个团队的 462 名员工进行的多时间、多来源的实地研究结果表明，当团队领导者根据相对绩效评估晋升并授权自恋员工时，自恋与多样化的信息搜索呈正相关。此外，三向互动（即自恋×基于相对绩效的晋升×授权领导）与通过多样化信息搜索实现的激进和增量创造力之间存在间接关系。最后，我们讨论了这些发现的理论和实践意义，为更有效地管理工作中高度自恋的员工提供了见解。