Executive hubris: the case of a bank CEO. (2013)

“Following speculation that the banking crisis of 2008 was partly caused by CEO hubris, the researchers analysed the letters to shareholders of a single bank’s CEO over ten years.

Niamh M. Brennan, John P. Conroy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 26 Iss: 2 pp. 172 – 195

Following newspaper speculation that the banking crisis of 2008 was partly caused by CEO hubris, the researchers analysed the letters to shareholders of a single bank’s CEO over ten years.

• Over half the sentences analysed were found to contain narcissistic-speak
• In 45% of narcissistic-speak sentences, there were three or more symptoms of hubris – what Owen and Davison describe as extreme hubristic behaviour
• In relation to CEO overconfidence, only seven sentences (2%) contained bad news
• More than half of the good news was attributed to the CEO
• All the bad news was attributed externally.

The results find evidence of narcissism and hubris in the CEO, which became more pronounced the longer the CEO served.

Access the full article here http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17077354