How Companies Can Leverage Narcissism to Boost Talent Acquisition
Next-level psychology to attract the right candidates
“Independent” or “Reliable”?
Many companies these days are becoming more particular about recruiting talent than ever, and they’re doing it with subtle precision before a single interview takes place. They know the reality of job hunting requires applicants to stand out, to prove we’re better than the competition. That means emphasizing accomplishments and our most attractive personality traits, the latter of which can be most decisive in landing a job.
In a study polling 500 international business leaders, 78% said personality sets great employees apart over cultural fit and skillset. As a matter of personality, it shouldn’t come by surprise that the nature of jostling for positions in competitive markets demands a little bit of narcissism.
When it comes to searching and applying for jobs, we have to play an egotist in some form or another. But introverts need not worry. Through careful manipulation of language, companies can exploit your need to stand out by increasing their appeal to your type of narcissism. According to modern psychology, there are two: agentic and communal.
Agentic narcissists represent our common understanding of narcissism. They hold grandiose, hyper-inflated opinions of themselves, senses of entitlement, superiority, and holier-than-thou attitudes on things like competence, beauty, and leadership. Their exaggerated self-evaluation is strictly “agency-based,” or focused on satisfying their self-motives.
“Community-based” narcissism accentuates an individual’s interest in measuring themselves up against their environment, socially. Communal narcissists hold inflated opinions of themselves on honesty, helpfulness, warmth, trust, and kindness. If an agentic narcissist believes she is the smartest in the room, a communal narcissist believes she is the most helpful.
Whichever side of the narcissistic fence we find ourselves indicates the kind of organization we’ll be attracted to. Through the use of agentic and communally-tailored language, job descriptions have the power to impact our perception of an organization’s appeal and, in turn, its pool of applicants.
Same Format, Different Language
Job listings usually follow a similar format; an organization describes itself, a position’s responsibilities or duties, and its compensation package. These three aspects help formulate the organization’s appeal as a whole. Reading a job listing for the first time is where applicants begin to develop their sense of attraction.
If you’re one of the ten million people looking for work recently, phrases like “sets high standards,” “reliable and diligent work ethic,” “competitive salary,” and “opportunities for growth” should read very familiar.
Though subtle it may be, the language with which companies use to compose phrases like these impacts our narcissistic perceptions of them — finding out how was the work of a January 2021 study by University of Potsdam Chair of Differential Psychology and Psychological Assessment, Ramzi Fatfouta.
Fatfouta sought to uncover the role narcissism plays in our perceptions of organizational attraction. To do it, he gathered 318 participants to investigate how communal narcissists respond to wording differences in job listings. He measured their response following Professor of Psychology and Ohio Eminent Scholar, Scott Highhouse of Bowling Green State University, who measures organizational attraction according to three main aspects: company attractiveness, application intentions, and company prestige.
Fatfouta’s results imply that subtle differences in job advertisements’ word choice influence the number of received applications.
The Wording
The study randomly assigned each person to evaluate an agentic or communally-worded job listing. Here are some examples of each used in the study:
After reviewing the advertisement, Fatfouta asked participants to rate their perceived organizational appeal using Highhouse’s model of organizational appeal:
Company Attraction
- Captures attitudes regarding the company as a potential employer
- (e.g., “I think this company seems like a great place to work.”)
Intention to Apply
- Entertains future-oriented perceptions of working at the company
- (e.g., “I would work hard to do well for this company.”)
Company Prestige
- Reflects a candidate’s perception of an organization’s reputation, status, or popularity
- (e.g., “This company is a prestigious one to work for.”)
The first of two hypotheses for the study was that communal narcissists would be more attracted to companies closely aligned with their inflated communal identity. The second, rather contradictory hypothesis proposed that “communal narcissists, who in fact pursue agentic goals (my emphasis), would be more attracted to organizations that fulfill their core self-motives of grandiosity, esteem, entitlement, and power.”
The Results
Surprisingly, the outcomes suggest a stronger relationship between communal narcissism and organizational attraction in the agentic job listings than in the communal ones, thus confirming the second hypothesis. This shows that communal narcissists don’t overtly prefer a communal over an agentic job description. In other words, an organization using communal language wouldn’t necessarily attract more communally-oriented applicants.
Fatfouta’s study also found that communal wording produced higher ratings of organizational appeal than its counterpart. This revelation is particularly helpful for employers as the evidence shows job listings yield greater efficacy when utilizing a communal writing style. Equally interesting is that using communal or agentic language doesn’t significantly impact perceptions of organizational prestige, indicating word choice has little to do with a company’s perceived status or reputation.
As a whole, Fatfouta’s findings reveal insightful advice about how the process of talent acquisition can be more efficient when it comes to attracting more candidates. When job advertisements exhibit communal characteristics compared to agentic ones, individuals are generally more inclined to apply for the position. Albeit, these aren’t the only characteristics capable of improving or undermining a job ad.
Strategic Language to Appeal or Repel?
Aside from this study, understanding what attracts and repels applicants remains of considerable interest. For example, a survey of 2,000 recent graduates found that 71% of job seekers can be discouraged from finding jobs because of jargon-filled language. Likewise, vague information, or lack thereof, risk wasting both employer and applicant’s time.
It’s helpful for applicants to know there are other explanations for such frustrating language. Sometimes employers are just inexperienced at posting job advertisements. Such evidence could be a reliable indication of how they might handle you as an employee, affecting your sense of a company’s attractiveness and your intent to apply.
Other times companies are just waiting for the perfect candidate. In these cases, language might be deliberately vague, misleading, or too demanding because the company has the time to narrow its talent pool toward higher quality. If they have the time, it means they can consult those applicants at a later date.
Similarly, hiring managers might use deliberate language to discourage outside applicants to make “hiring from within” more possible.
Language vague, jargon-filled, agentic, communal, or otherwise all account for the way applicants develop their attraction to a company. Yet, studying the role of narcissism is particularly important because it shows that an organization’s own narcissism (i.e., the language it chooses for job advertisements and communicate with prospective applicants) can positively or negatively affect its success. Company success is, after all, measured by the individuals that keep it running.
By showing how language affects an individual’s perception and intention to further engage with recruiters, an organization can tailor its job listings to narrow or widen the applicant pool based on desired personality traits.
Who knew HR had the power to increase company attraction by appealing to our least advertised character trait?
