Detecting linguistic traces of destructive narcissism at-a-distance in a CEO’s letter to shareholders. (2011)

“Through selective analyses of letters to shareholders the authors explore the potential of this important form of corporate communications to provide linguistic traces of destructive narcissism.

Amernic, J: Joseph L Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Craig, R: School of Accounting and Finance, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Journal of Business Ethics (2011) 101:563–575
DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0738-8

Destructive narcissism is recognized increasingly as a serious impairment to good corporate leadership and ethical conduct. The Chief Executive Officer’s letter to shareholders (an important formal corporate communications medium) has potential to provide linguistic traces of destructive narcissism and insight to aspects of corporate leadership and the ambient ethical culture of a company. We demonstrate this potential through selective analyses of the letters of the Chief Executive Officers of Enron, Starbucks, and General Motors.

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