Does leader narcissism hinder employees taking charge? An affective events theory perspective

Prior studies have shown that leaders’ personality traits potentially have positive effects on employees’ taking-charge behaviors; however, in this context, the negative influence of leaders’ dark personality traits has largely been neglected in research. On the basis of affective events theory, we proposed a moderated mediation model to explain the impact of leader narcissism on employees’ taking-charge behavior Through a 3-stage leader–follower dyadic research design, we collected 195 responses to a survey. The results indicate that leader narcissism had a significant negative effect on employees’ taking-charge behavior via the mediator of employees’ work engagement, and that leader narcissism decreased employees’ work engagement when employees’ self-reported proactive personality was low. In addition, the indirect effect of employee work engagement on leader narcissism and taking charge was stronger when employees’ self-reported proactive personality was low. Our results have implications for preventing the negative effects of narcissistic leadership and promoting employees’ taking-charge behavior.