The Arab Spring movement shows that people in the Middle East and elsewhere want leaders who are more flexible, coherent and transparent. This collection of essays explores the concept of leadership and proposes ways to learn to be a great leader and avoid the mistakes of the past in this academic work. Edited by 'efika 'ule Erçetin, one of the leading thinkers in Turkey, it offers insights on leadership from numerous contributors. The essays consider the characteristics of exceptional leaders, the traits that prevent leaders from succeeding, predictions about how leadership will change in the future, and inherent differences between leaders and followers. These essays also detail the differences between management and leadership and examine the debate on whether managers can consistently be great leaders. Some say leaders possess innate qualities, but there is also evidence to suggest that anyone can hone their skills to become a successful leader. In coming years, leadership on the political stage and other areas will be more critical than ever. Regardless of whether you are a CEO, middle-level executive, aspiring leader, or student, it is critical to hone your skills through Discussions about Leadership.

DISCUSSIONS ABOUT LEADERSHIP

In Different Fields

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Sefika Sule Erçetin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5549-1

Contents

1. Narcissistic Leaders Sefika Sule Erçetin & Mehmet Ali Hamedolu & Suay Nilhan Açikalin..........................................................................................12. Leadership In Teaching And Management In Classroom Settings Esin Acar....................................................................................................................143. The Leadership Concept In The 21st Century Ahmet Akbaba..................................................................................................................................274. New Leadership Approaches Ihsan Çapçiolu & Mehmet Cem Sahin & Emine Gümüs............................................................................................415. Charismatic Authority And Religious Leadership In The Sociology Of Max Weber Mehmet Cem Sahin & Nuran Erdogruca Korkmaz & Ihsan Çapçioglu......................................736. Leadership And Learning To Learn Melek Demirel...........................................................................................................................................1007. Management Styles Of The Future: Leadership And Teams Hasan Basri Gündüz.......................................................................................................1238. Leadership From The Aspect Of Personality Theories Murat Iskender........................................................................................................................1569. Cultural Leadership Saduman Kapusuzoglu..................................................................................................................................................18410. Women, Leadership And Change Ilknur Maya................................................................................................................................................21111. Fossil Leadership Ünsal Sigri......................................................................................................................................................24112. Leadership And Traditional Leadership Approaches Ihsan Çapçiolu & Emine Gümü & Mehmet Cem Sahin.....................................................................24813. Historical Projection Of The Leadership Concept In The Third Millenium: Fatih Sultan Mehmet And Atatürk As Transformational Leaders Akif Tabak & Mustafa Polat.....................28614. Educational Leadership And The Leader-Teacher Relationship Mehmet Teyfur................................................................................................................30715. New Roles And Duties Of Principals As Leaders In The 21st Century Ömer Faruk Tutkun & Yasemin Aksoyalp.............................................................................32516. The Role Of The School Leaders As Mentor Leaders And Mentorship Curricula Meltem Yalin Uçar........................................................................................35017. Current Leadership Paradigms Nursel Yardibi.............................................................................................................................................374

Chapter One

NARCISSISTIC LEADERS

Sefika Sule Erçetin & Mehmet Ali Hamedoglu & Suay Nilhan Açikalin

What is Narcissism?

Narcissism means "loving yourself" in psychoanalysis. It isn't pathological on its own. Much like simply possessing various desires and experiencing distress about internal experiences, it is a normal psychological condition. Actually healthy narcissism is an obligation for a person to stay alive, work and maintain a strong personality. But, when narcissism encounters obstacles, it can create an erratic or congested kind of love of the self. When love of the self is exaggerated, people are prone to things like "repeated ideas, behaviors and patterns of feeling", which can be summarized as a "narcissistic personality". This kind of people thinks that they are peerless and very important. This makes them feel strong and it causes them to act like they are better than other people.

One of the most basic examples of narcissism is the attitude of a person about his/her appearance. Most people love the form of their own body and face. When we ask people "whether they would prefer to be in the place of another person who is more beautiful or not" most of them say no. It is clear that this is not a matter of aesthetics. (Fromm, 1982, p. 65).

Narcissists are usually known as helpful and kind people because they act like they are. They spend their time admiring themselves instead of understanding the people they help.

Freud's ideas about narcissism are based on the "sexual energy" concept. But, a mechanical "sexual energy" concept does not allow for a proper definition of "narcissism". It can be more effective to refer to narcissism as "spiritual energy". Jung did this. Some aspects of Freud's ideas about sexual libido are accepted. But, though the non-spiritual sexual energy idea of Freud is separate from libido theory it is a similar concept to that of libido. This term includes a spiritual power that has clear density, direction and the visible indicators. This energy, in addition to outside relations, also affects a person's own life. Freud's first idea claims that in addition to the drive of being alive, sexual drive is the only important one. This idea is not widely accepted. Instead, more general spiritual energy concepts are used. The difference between them is not as big as most people want to think in a dogmatic approach (Fromm, 1982, p. 62).

How Can We Understand This Is a Narcissist Person?

Narcissists think that they talk about something really important even they are speaking about minor issues. They do not usually listen what others say, they are not interested in whether they are intelligent. They hide this by asking questions or acting like they are listening. When they are criticized they react in a touchy way. They ignore the validity of criticism, and they react with sadness and anger. In many cases narcissism can be hidden with attitudes like self-deprecation or humbleness. It is a frequent situation for a narcissistic person to use his/her humility to gain admiration. No matter what the different symptoms are, cutting the relationship off from the outside world is a common feature of all types of narcissism (Fromm, 1982, p. 68). Narcissist people create a feeling of inaccessibility with the things and people they interact with. They wear impenetrable armor. One must swear allegiance to them and they react positively to praise (Saydam, 1996, p. 420).

Development of Narcissism

Though people are under the influence of natural and social powers there are many other factors that affect them. They have limited desire, power and freedom for changing and transforming the world. The degree of desire and freedom doesn't matter here. The important thing is that they can't stand absolute passivity. Changing and transforming themselves isn't enough for such people. They want to leave their mark on the world, convert and change it. This need emerges in relation to art and sexuality. All of these are the results of people' desire to focus on an aim and keep trying until reaching that aim. Using self-power on this way is an important ability. People can be considered weak when they can't initiate an action because they suffer from "delicacy, concerns, and feelings of inadequacy". Pain that stems from lack of power is the result of losing balance, trying to acquire the power of starting an action and denying that you are totally powerless. One useful way can be obeying a person or community or becoming identical to them (Fromm, 1982, p. 25-27). Another is being a candidate for changing and converting the world with a powerful personality.

Phenomena of Personal Narcissism

When the literature is examined it can be seen that there are similar findings about the phenomenon of Narcissism. For example in the scale (the Narcissistic Personality Inventory) developed by Raskin and Terry (1998) the indicators of narcissism are given in seven dimensions. In this study narcissism has these sub-scales: "authority, exhibitionism, superiority, arrogance, self-justness, and self-adequacy" (Raskin & Terry, 1988). The narcissistic personality scale used by Emmons (1987) consists of four sub-scales: "leadership/ authority, self-admiration, superiority/arrogance and exploitative/legitimacy" (Tschanz, Morf, & Turner, 1998). In another study, after carrying out a factor analysis, Raskin and Terry's scale with 54 items is used and the ones with low factor load are deducted, which reduce the list to 40 items. In this study, this scale measures three dimensions (power, exhibitionism and being a private person) primarily (Kubarycha, Dearyb, & Austinb, 2004). In this study the phenomena of narcissism that were studied were "power, exhibitionism and being a private person".

Power:

One of a senior manager who works at the company Oracle, while talking about the narcissist BIS of the company whose name is Larry Ellison, says that "The only difference between God and Larry is, God doesn't believe that he is Larry." This situation clearly explains how narcissists behave when they work in a high position. When we think about successful people, we can say that: "their happy and confident appearance, praising themselves and welcoming compliments" are the result of the trust that provide them with success. But the opposite idea of this is also true. This trust, this superiority feeling, this easy rise to prominence is a feature of narcissist people that can also be an element of success. It is possible for a narcissistic person to overcome another modest narcissist who possesses same features. Narcissists can convince others that they are better because they believe they are better. They think that they deserve to be the winner and they experience very little doubt in competitions. When they work as a manager they are less afraid about being unsuccessful and they believe they are the best. In a competitive environment a little bit of narcissism is an advantage (Lelord & Andre, 2005, p. 127).

Narcissistic people live in a paradox. They feel big and powerful, while they live a hidden life of vanity and lack of love. This duality can be observed sometimes and oppresses narcissistic people. This people's insolent personality and hidden hunger signifies a lack of coherent identity.

According to most company managers, the best sellers are the ones who are a bit narcissistic. Narcissism triggers the desire for success "with trust in themselves, careful appearance, and an ability to ignore the situation when they are rejected" and can increase the probability of staying alive in difficult and frustrating environments for many people. Situations that most people consider to be not worth the effort, narcissists try very hard to overcome the problems, and generally they get what they want (Lelord & Andre, 2005, p. 128).

A special type of narcissism that is a cross between wisdom and madness can be seen as a feature of people with great power. Pharaohs of Egypt, Roman Caesars, Hitler, Stalin, and Trujillo had similar features. Those people gained absolute power. They determined almost all aspects (from life to death) they had unlimited power to do whatever they wanted (Fromm, 1982, p. 62).

Exhibitionism:

The following are the general behaviors of narcissists: "They emphasize their success, talk about themselves non-stop, they appear as if they are listening to other people but they always try to win the conversation." When you talk with Narcissists about what you have done, they will interrupt to tell you about their own great successes (whether this is right or not) and you will probably stop talking because you will feel things that the things you are talking about are meaningless and worthless. According to Narcissists, they are the most beautiful or most handsome people in the world. They don't hesitate to show their bodies. Their hair styles and cloths are really important. They always want to be interesting. If you don't compliment them, they will become upset with you.

Special Personality:

This kind of person thinks that they are peerless and important, and this make them feel so powerful that they behave as if they are better than anyone else. The thing that annoys a narcissist the most is being insulted. They act like they don't mind this, but the only thing they think about is killing the person who insulted them.

They live for accepting ideas and serving the people around them. The thing annoys a Narcissist most is contradicting what they say. They never forget that. Even if they look like they are calm and considerate they will wait for the right moment to take vengeance. Narcissists experience a lack of empathy, and they can't understand that other people have their own life. This can make them exploitative about using other people to achieve their own aims. They think that they are the center of the world, and they ignore the needs and interests of the people around them and can easily use these needs as a reason for despising people. Something that is right when they do it can be considered by them to be wrong when someone else does it. Because of this you should know what to accept or reject, if you are together with a narcissist.

Variables of Narcissism

A Natural Need:

Narcissism is a necessary thing for keeping high self-esteem and satisfying vital needs. Because of this narcissistic features are necessary, though they don't need to be strong or numerous. Having no narcissistic features means a life which is passive and dependent other people. This kind of person experiences problems when they engage in a job or talk in a social situation, and their trust and self-esteem can be low.

Feeding:

According to Freud narcissistic people are isolated in terms of their feelings and they feel a lot of insecurity. Perceived threatstrigger violence inside of them; success can make them arrogant.

Though most people think negatively about narcissists (Maccoby, 2002, p. 38) especially if they are leaders, people often feed narcissism unwittingly, and this positive feedback leads to very high levels of narcissism. After a while they think that everything they do and say is right. Narcissistic leaders trust only their own perceptions and insights, so they need someone who can behave like their extension. Narcissistic leaders want to be friends with people who can understand them, and they need co-workers. Don Quixote is a classic example of this situation who constantly avoids disasters only through the help of his servant Sancho Panza (Maccoby, 2002, p. 51).

Two Types of Personal Narcissism

In literature two types of narcissism are defined. They have names like "destructive-restoractive, normal-exaggerated, primary-secondary". Whatever they are called, they are types of narcissism that are necessary and useful for people and can be treated and managed. It is also possible for them to be present do a degree higher than normal, which damages both individuals and the environment. In this study we called them "exaggerated and restoractive" narcissism.

Exaggerated Narcissism:

Exaggerated narcissism tends to occur as a defense, which stems from repeated attempts to prevent humiliations and deprivations especially experienced during childhood. But there is no doubt it varies from person to person. This type of person's ideas, feelings and behaviors change according to the level of their hubris. Some of them have constant difficulties with social relations, and they sometimes have a vague perception about reality (Oda, 1996, p. 471). Narcissistic people admit only positive perceptions about their identity, and they act like they are a kind of gift from God to the world. They are at their best when dealing with topics like intelligence, power etc. They collect successes like "winning a tennis match or being the first person to leave a conference." These kind of people use words like "fantastic, incredible, it will shake the foundation of the world". Most of their sentences start with "I", because they need to introduce themselves before they introduce other people. They believe that other people live to admire them. They can't think that other people are independent people with their own lives. They create worthless ideas about the personal identities of other people by externalizing their own insignificant personality. They experience problems showing sincere feelings like grief, sadness, remorse when they behave badly towards other people or when they lose a friendship. For a narcissistic person, being appropriate is the worst thing (Volkan, 2005, p. 265-267).

Exaggerated narcissists attract attention with egocentric behavior, introversion and exploiting others. They are at the center of everything; there is no one who is more important or valuable than them. They create doubt about their uniqueness and their commitment to love and their interest and admiration for others. This contradiction stems from their extreme commitment to love and admiration and their sense of being the best. The belief of they are unique handicaps their ability to get closer to others, identification with them and empathy with them. The superficiality they have in their relations and feelings blocks their ability to understand others. Other people are born to be their admirer and love them. On the other hand they can't digest love and admiration like normal people (Oda, 1996, p. 471).

Restoractive Narcissism

In addition to belief in their superiority, narcissists have a good idea of where things start and end. They are quite successful at adapting to life. Actually some narcissists who are handsome, powerful and good at affecting other people with the search for success and compliments can acquire leadership status in the fields of education, jobs and society. They are called restoractive narcissists. They usually think that they are excellent, but they act like they are humble. They think that being the best and perceived accordingly in a group is really important. These people tend to work in politics and be political leaders if external conditions are appropriate. The thing implied with "restoractive" is not moral values gaining superiority over each other and the reflection of personality in outside world. Restoractive narcissistic leaders are reliant on the reaction of their followers. Some leaders can maintain that compatibility, while others fail. Though restoractive narcissistic leaders don't go to psychologists, clinical studies carried out on patients have narcissistic personalities have produced lots of example (Volkan, 2005, p. 267). Leaders love themselves and can reflect on their own shining personality. As an extension of their superiority they want to achieve a high functional level. This kind of narcissistic leader can be called a restoractive leader. Restoractive leaders are the ones that can't be affected easily. They are independent people. They have an inventor personality, and they behave with the motivation of becoming famous. Being an expert in the field of their own business, they want to go beyond this and they want to learn all the things which affect the job they do or the products they produce. They don't want to be loved, they desire to be appreciated, and they achieve their aims in an aggressive manner (Maccoby, 2002, p. 43).

The Reflections of Individual Personality in Organizations

The Industrial Revolution in the eighteen and nineteenth century touted the merits of self-regulation, sobriety and living clean. When Frederick Taylor's studies became popular there was such an environment (Morgan, 1998, p. 251). Taylor's life is the best example about how personality can affect an organization. Because it is clear that his scientific management theory is the product of the internal struggle of a neurotic and anxious personality. Whether in children's games or in scientific management systems his efforts toward organizing and taking control of world were actually the effort for organizing and taking control of himself (Morgan, 1998, p. 253). Personality consists of a person' usual behaviors, thinking and feeling patterns, forms of talking and physical gestures. They are the observable and predictable patterns a person uses consciously or unconsciously for maintaining relationships with others and creating a routine, stable existence (Volkan, 2005, p. 267).

(Continues...)

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