Effects of rectors’ narcissism on academics’ silence and commitment in the context of public universities

Purpose This paper aims to focus on academics’ in four public universities located in Egypt to explore the effect of narcissistic leadership on affective, continuance and normative commitment approaches with and without the mediating effect of academics’ silence. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a convenience sampling in which academics were handed a questionnaire form to fill. In total, the authors distributed 280 forms and collected 214 completed questionnaire forms. A structural equation was used to determine the effect of narcissistic leadership on the organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) of academics. The same measure was later used to assess the mediating role of the academics’ silence on the aforementioned relationship. Findings The authors of this paper found that narcissistic leadership positively associates with academics’ silence. Moreover, their perceptions of the narcissism of their leaders alleviate academics’ emotional attachments (affective commitment) and moral obligations (normative commitment) toward their universities, whereas the same perceptions of the narcissism of their leaders have no effect on their continuance commitment. Finally, the authors discovered a significant role for academics’ silence in mediating the negative relationship between narcissistic leadership and their affective and normative commitments. Originality/value This paper contributes by filling a gap in leadership, HR management and organization literature in the higher education sector, in which empirical studies on the relationship between narcissistic leadership, academics’ silence and organizational commitment have been limited until now.